I still have yet to complete this game as it scares the poop out of me at every turn. I think the furthest I got was to the second (third?) ship. Then I had to shut it down.

Is the guy playing in that screen shot wandering around with three different sets of armor?

This is a good one all the way through. The last level is especially memorable and well worth the frights necessary to get there.

Looks to me like two sets of armor and a Hazard Suit.

I remember playing this game for the first time. It was quite scary, but I think that I found Undying to be generally creepier, at least until the end.

Those damn nurses, though. Talk about hiding-under-the-furniture.

I cannot WAIT for Bioshock.

Underwater is never as scary as space. Evidence: The Abyss versus Alien.

This game is so amazingly great. I tried to co-op it with a friend over New Year's Eve 2000 and we got to where you first meet the Cyber Assassins (that creeped the hell out of both of us.) A few days later, his hard disk failed and he lost his saved games (the patch in co-op required a separate set of saved games on each system so if you lost one, you couldn't resume your session.) We never picked it up again until about 3 months ago when we realized it ran under XP. We beat it in about two nights but had to cheat when fighting The Many because a bug was triggered that made several very difficult monsters constantly respawn that aren't supposed to respawn at all. It was still a blast though and despite having an eight year-old engine, it still creeps me out with one of the best sound designs of all time. If anyone wants to co-op it again at some point, let me know and I'm there. There's also a couple of neat resources for the game:

System Shock Rebirth - An awesome package that replaces a lot of the models and textures with new high-res versions. My friend and I played with this and it was great.
ShockEd Central - Offers both the game's level editor and more importantly, a bunch of fan-made missions and campaigns, many of which are large and very well made. My friend and I hope to try a few of these soon.

If you haven't played this, do it.

Yes?

What a shame so many of you didn't finish this masterpiece. There's a voice recording near the end of the game that ranks as my favorite voice-acting bit ever. It's was also nice to see a satisfying conclusion in the game in a day and age when most games leave you hanging at the end for a sequel. As I sit here fondly remembering this game the game, I may have to reinstall it soon and try to finish it as a psi power expert.

Great game. I love all the voice acting, but I've never had the courage to finish it

I tried going through as a Psi-Ops character a few months back. If I recall correctly, some of the psi skills are of questionable utility. I found it very difficult to use any of the "buff" skills to much effect. Just juggling three or four at a time was quite a challenge in and of itself. I ended up sticking mostly to the fireball attacks.

I like the idea of a Psi-Ops character on paper, but playing as one seems a little more difficult. Plus, I was constantly running out of psi-hypos.

I think next time I'll just go through with the standard shoot-everything-that-moves approach. Probably not as fun overall, but I imagine it's a little less frightening that way.

Wasn't there a thread left hanging for a sequel?

I love this article that really gets into what makes the SS2' villain shine.

I played the game for the first time a year ago. Terrifying at times but probably the best time I've ever had in a first person perspective. Amazing atmosphere, gameplay, etc. I still have to beat it. I'm very far but every time I go back to the computer it's at I choose not to. The sense of dread for my avatar is extreme.

I was never able to finish since I chose my skills badly, had low ammunition and armor for the last fight. I crawled/walked/ran up through the last hallway and always died.

Now, is that bad character design on your part, or bad game design on theirs?

Infinite monster respawn: almost always a game-killer for me. SS2 and Undying had it.

Maybe that co-op patch is the way to go. Vrikk? What you say?

L-look at you hacker..

Damn you all, now I want to find my copy and play through it again.

Or spend some time modding Doom3/HL2 for some shock-y goodness. Mmmmmm. HDR Shock..

"Rachel, kids, im sorry."
That was the saddest one. and in engineering no less. the hardest part in the whole game to me.
"she was changed... in the most unnatural way. ...That son of a bitch. That son of a bitch. He will not get away with it."
Hope i got it right, its been a while. most games dont make me make care (Halo and UnreaL2, I am looking at you!) but SS2 did bigtime. hearing that womans log about nurse bloom got me angry, not scared anymore. those chimps at hydroponics had no effing chance. fireballs or pointed sticks. And the midwives too.
This was the best game i played (not like i played so many, but still).

tips, well stick to one upgrade path. psi is the most powerful if used correctly, for me. speed is of the essence.