Note on System Shock 2:
The game can be very very easy or very very hard at the end if you take or don’t take certain psi powers. This is how I got stuck at the %99 compete mark. Also, you can tweak the respawn and weapons degradations rates, which removed a lot of thr frustration when I played through.
Certain psi powers? Better take all of them. I don’t see how I could have ever completed the end of the game without taking at least invisibility, a tier 5 psi skill. The deal with System Shock 2 is that psi characters are immensely powerful, more so than any other class, if you can get past the first level or two. Guns are pretty much useless in System Shock 2 because of the degradation rate and the high cost of maintaining them.
And you don’t really need them, either - melee is devastating against almost anything, and once you get to level 4 (less than halfway through the game), you get the crystal shard. It is the best FPS melee weapon ever.
Do you remember that laser sword you got in Deus Ex, after which there was no point in using any other weapon? If the Deus Ex sword and System Shock 2’s crystal shard could choose representative real-life avatars to cock-fight for phallo-violent superiority, System Shock 2 would be John Holmes, his pantless legs spread wide apart. He would look exactly like the Colossus at Rhodes interesected at the groin by the obelisk outside of St. Peter’s in Rome. His eyeballs would be held open with Clockwork Orange clamps and an elaborate holographic monocle would constantly project sexy movies on his unblinking retinas. Moreover, a motorized electropump hooked up to his cardiovascular system would vigorously pump a sluree of amphetemines, viagra, testosterone and vuka nkuzi directly into the back of his neck, like Batman’s adversary, Bane. And Deus Ex’s avatar would be Elijah Wood at the exact milisecond with Franka Potente dumped him.
We should get a System Shock 2 co-op game going.
Holmes tragic flaw was passing out occasionally when he got an erection. Not exactly Achilles, but close.