THE TOP 10 NON-ADVENTURE GAMES OF ALL TIME – Welcome to Just Adventure + – Articles — Part 4

by Agustin Cordes 1 January 2005

Articles

THE TOP 10 NON-ADVENTURE GAMES OF ALL TIME

Article by Agustín Cordes and Michal Necasek

October 3, 2003

2. System Shock – Origin, 1994

System Shock - Origin, 1994 Imagine yourself trapped inside a huge space station with most of its crew turned into mutants not happy with your presence, robots gone crazy and somewhere in cyberspace, the master computer Shodan, now self-aware, wanting to take over the world. That’s System Shock – a perfect blend of light-hearted RPG and furious 3D shooter. The complex – and slightly cumbersome – interface allowed the player to crawl, lean while hiding behind a wall and shoot the enemies (and thus adding some strategy to the combat), throw objects, install and configure cybernetic modules and more. It was a landmark achievement in many ways – to this day System Shock features the most impressive level design ever seen. One of the areas that even its sequel couldn’t surpass. Winding corridors and claustrophobic corners in big levels. Also, Shodan stands out as one of the most memorable villains the gaming world has ever seen – a megalomaniacal, vile computer that makes HAL 9000 look like a TI-59 calculator. A special mention goes to the awesome and varied techno-music soundtrack. Those who thought of this as a mere Doom clone missed an important chapter of gaming history.