[Oblivion437]

You all know of it, some of you have played it, fewer still have played System Shock, a handful know the various SHODAN references between the 2, and to all but at most 3 or 4 people will the following fact NOT be news: The first door with a code is 45100, this is in reference to the first healing suite in System Shock, the code to leave was 451. Both games stand as still ahead of their place in time. For example, stacked against UT and Quake 3, SS2 was the only game at the time with RPG elements, a solid atmosphere, and a decent plot. The graphics were inhibited by the engine (A souped up version of Dark engine), but the mood and incredible depth of the game is unsurpassable, even Deus Ex can be said to have fallen under the Boot of superiority. The original System Shock, is even further ahead of its time. It came out in a rather quiet entry as an early project for the then-fledgling now-defunct Looking Glass Studios. In the year of Doom 2, it's reviews glossed over the RPG elements, the plot, the atmosphere, and everything else, and brushed it off as a Doom clone (Duke Nukem also received this unfortunate misconception, despite your opinion of the series, you must agree, Duke was never a clone of Doom, nor was Mech Warrior, which also got this ugly little label from this bunch of Id-fanboy Jack-tards we were forced to call critics) and essentially reviewed it for less than the box cover. About the average fate of any FPS that had to compete with Doom directly. I feel that the price of admission is worth it. SS and SS2 are great games. SS2 is new enough that it will only benefit from a new computer, SS will still be new enough for you HL Lowest Common Denominator folks, running your Intel Celeron 366Mhz computers with ATI Rage IIC 4MB and 64MB RAM. I should know, I'm writing this on one. Trust me, it might take a day or two of shopping around, but if you find them, you're in for a treat. Scarier than Half Life, harder than AvP, and with a deeper plot and RPG focus than Deus Ex. I'd explain it, but a solid review does it better. Let's just say, it's astounding in it's ingenuity of implementation, with few hitches in interface overlay, considering the sheer complexity of an RPG integrated directly, and complimentarily, to an FPS. These two games have different reasonings behind their common, ill fate.
System Shock 1, for all its innovation, including the technological superiority over Doom, with technology soon to be essential to Id's next cash cow, Quake, such as texture-mapping and polygonal objects, was denounced by critics, and unfortunately, this game went out cold, dying from lack of support. It was more of a hardcore game in the end.
System Shock 2, on the other hand, was a critical success, but total failure commercially, and it's not clear why, I can't dig it up. Everyone knew it was good, so why didn't it work out? It didn't introduce so much new, in terms of new technology, just new mechanics, and pretty much rethinking squeezing every bit of power out of an engine. Remember, this came out around the same time as Thief: The Dark Project. Both games commercially failed, leaving it to their hardcore audiences. Quite sad.
What can we learn from a great series like System Shock?
Don't innovate.
That's right, don't innovate. Just turn out the usual derivative garbage that people know they want to see, but critisize all the time. It's an easy sell, it doesn't hurt anyone, and it can't be a bad idea to just offer a few new whistles and bells, rather than a whole new package, with all new contents. System Shock has proven a theory that genius is a feared thing. But, you say, GTA3, it innovated, and it sold big! We still have room for innovation!
No, you don't.
If you try something new, it has to be in a familiar context. If you try something familiar, it has to be in a new context, not both. The SS/SS2 environment (context), cramped, cybernetic environments, pure horror to the core, technological evil, and an enemy that can be said HATES you, not just shoots at you, with emotions even perceived, and the RPG elements, and intellectual question about the weight of man over machine, and a plot that you take in like a good book (new idea), all combined to one hell of a game, but at the same time, one hard sell. It seems innovation is a slow process, so when the industry is at a sweepingly different state from what it was, it took so long to get there, it doesn't really make a difference.