Shock

SS then Shock 2 then Prey.
Don't touch Bioshock.

>>377126814
Here's what you do: You play them all in release order and then you replace Infinite with Prey.

System shock portable/2

Bioshock is just a sequel but stripped down and casualized

Play Deus Ex instead.

>>377126814
I could never get into SS1 because of the weird controls but I definitely recommend SS2. Bioshocks are just a really watered down experience.

>>377127057
get SS1 enhanced edition.

Makes the controls way more tolerable for people used to standard fps controls

SS1, SS2, Bio 1, 2, Preyshock.

SS1 with mouselook mod, SS2 vanilla since it plays exactly like modern games after tweaking keybinds and Bioshock 1.

>>377126814
Why can't you play both?

>>377126814
I assume you mean SS1? Make sure you get the version with mouselook controls. Then play them in release order. SS2 and BioShock 1 are the best of the 5. Just make sure you play those.

>>377127010
This is a respectable suggestion, honestly.

What specifically is wrong with Infinite?

>>377130342
Shit level design
Shit gunplay
Shit world building
No choices
Shit difficulty
Shit story

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>tfw I have 12 hours clocked on SS2 on steam but I never beated it

I like the game for 3 hours I play it non stop but after I close it nothing really drags me back in so after a while I just uninstall it, one day I will beat it

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>>377130342
Removes a lot of the stuff that people loved about the originals in favor of modern shooter conventions (only 2 weapons at a time, very linear level design, regenerating health, only one kind of ammo, no crafting or research, general reduced complexity of mechanics, etc).

The story is well-presented, the animation and characters are good, and the OST is top-notch.

But those don’t save the fact that it is too much movie, not enough game. Also, the plot doesn’t hold up to closer inspection at times.

>>377130342
It has a weird disconnect between its story and gameplay. The story is pretty sentimental, all about a sheltered young girl and a washed-up man haunted by his past. The gameplay is murdering tons of cops and soldiers while eating hot dogs out of trash cans and finding oranges in chocolate boxes. The actual gameplay just feels like it was tacked on because it has the Shock name.

I'd still give it a shot if you can find it on sale. You might find something to like about it.

>>377126814
>>377126895
Don't touch Prey too, OP

>>377126814
Just played SS and SS2 this year. Absolutely recommend. Bioshock is dumbed down garbage.

SS1 is clunky, takes time to get used to. Gameplay also isn't that great in the end, but the exploration and atmosphere are, and it's def worth it.

SS2 is a god-tier game that's still mostly unmatched among FPS/RPGs. Perfect user interface, great survival and upgrade upgrades, intelligent level design, engrossing story, the best audio design I've ever encountered, etc. The only other game that rivals it is the original Deus Ex once you've installed mods (GMDX, not that Revision garbage).

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>>377132235
>Bioshock is dumbed down garbage
I want this meme to die. BioShock 1 is objectively more mechanically complex than either System Shock.

System Shock 1
>variety of ammo to use against enemies of different types
>no passive upgrades
>no weapon upgrades
>no research
>no crafting

Any customization in SS1 was done through inventory management and turning powers on/off.

System Shock 2
>variety of ammo to use against enemies of different types
>16 OS Upgrades (unlockable passives), 10 implants (equipable passives). Total of 26.
>2 upgrades to each weapon, but all of them are just generic gun stat changes (more damage, less recoil, larger magazine, etc)
>research done through putting chemicals in a machine and watching a loading bar. Just gives damage bonuses and allows you to use 3 late-game, very niche items.
>no crafting

BioShock
>variety of ammo to use against enemies of different types
>58 gene tonics (passive upgrades). 31 unique ones if you eliminate upgrades to existing ones.
>2 upgrades to each weapon, some of which change functionality (immunity to your own grenades, changing pump action to semi-auto, ability to recover crossbow bolts)
>research done through Dead-Rising style camera minigame. Unlocks changes to enemy mechanics, like their grenades failing, or the ability to predict their teleports.
>can craft special ammo, gene tonics, and consumables

I love SS1 and SS2. But to say that BioShock is simplified in the RPG department is just silly. The only thing it lacks is inventory management.

>>377126814
system shock, system shock 2
bioshock, bio2, bio infinite
prey

SS one has NOT aged very well, there is a remake coming in 2018, along with SS3

>>377132495
this. both are great for different resons

>>377132495
I've found my time on /v/ much more enjoyable after I started treating posts that describe games or aspects of games as "shit," "trash" or "garbage" as visual noise to be ignored.

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>>377132495
Fuck off retard

>>377132495
bioshock is trash compared to systemshock

>>377131556
>elizabeth lived her entire life alone
>is cheerful, friendly and extroverted

>>377133546
Sad that leveldesign became shit right after SS1

>>377130897
What else is new Pedro?

>>377126814
Play all of them except Infinite.

>>377132495
Are you ignoring the cybernetic skills in SS2 entirely? Those are the main upgrades, not the O/S upgrades and implants you find. 14 Stat/Tech/Combat skills each with 6 levels, as well as 35 psionic disciplines with 5 tiers each brings the total of upgrade states to 285, not 26 you charlatan.

But number of upgrades means nothing. The point is, Bioshock is a braindead easy game that requires no intelligent thought as to where you spec. You get far too many resources of every type, including ADAM, so character building and resource management do not matter. Weapon degradation is gone, the hacking minigame stops time and is tedious bullshit rather than smartly designed within the existing RPG and resource systems (there's a baseline requirement to even attempt a hack, your chance of success depends on level, there's a tactical element to risking harder hacks, and there's a resource cost each time). Inventory management gone, armor system gone, needing to build your character around a playstyle gone (rather than spec into weapons or sci or hacking, you can do everything competently off the bat and upgrade whatever sounds cool, not what you feel is essential to make your character work). Zero tension in the game overall, and not well designed.

I don't count System Shock 1 in this analysis because it's hardly an RPG. It's basically a 3D Metroid game where you get linear upgrades that allow you to traverse the station better. There's no RPG depth here either, but that's fine because it's a different type of game. Bioshock just took SS2's systems and made a pale imitation of them.

>>377133546
You're not arguing anything he said. Even ignoring that, the Bioshock map isn't linear enough that you can write off the whole game as "garbage"

OP here, I guess I'll start with System Shock and go from there. Since so many people are talking about SS's control scheme is there a way that I can set it up comfortably with a controller? I don't like using mouse+keyboard for games, but I'll do it if a controller isn't viable

>>377134238
Even with the enhanced control schemes I don't see it being viable. Same goes with SS2.

System Shock = fedora
System Shock 2 = God tier
Bioshock = OK tier
Bioshock 2 = Shit
Bioshock Infinite = reddit

that's all you need to know

>>377134238
Game requires a mouse and keyboard. No other way of playing the game exists, unless you emulate mouse behavior with a stick. If this is a huge barrier you may want to just skip SS1 or maybe get a synposis somewhere.

The the mouselook mod (default in the portable version and Enhanced Edition) works is that you press E to center your reticule and aim like a normal FPS, or press E again to release your mouse and click around your screen to shoot/interact/use your user interface (to go through inventory, listen to audio logs, toggle the map and upgrades, etc). If you learn the keybinds you can do most things with hotkeys and just use the free mouse to pick things up and use your inventory, which becomes second nature.

>>377134234
>implying I'm going to waste time arguing with retarded nu-/v/ children

>>377134238
Get xpadder and try I guess. Not sure if it will work well though, those games were designed for m&k

Play everything except Infinite.

>>377126814
From the start but not Infinite

>>377134238
The game requires you to interact with the HUD using your mouse so no it won't be much fun with a controller.

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>>377134681
Well you did post that image so it was clear that you were trying to present an argument retard.

>>377133546
SS2's recreation deck was an exceptionally large and complex level, anon. By far the biggest in the series.

These are more representative of SS2 as a whole. Check the map halfway down the page.
http://shodan.wikia.com/wiki/MedSci_Deck
http://shodan.wikia.com/wiki/Hydroponics_Deck
http://shodan.wikia.com/wiki/Command_Deck

Also, BioShock's levels were more dense in terms of content in an open area. But I'll admit that might just be a technology increase.

>>377126895
Don't let /v/irgins meme you into playing Prey, OP.

>>377133546
>that unexplored area in the "North-East" corner.
Disgusting

>>377133546
god damn, i loved ss1 but its level designs were a mess

>>377134467
>>377134639
>>377134681
>>377134915
Thanks for the input (haha, get it?)
I'll just use the mouse and keyboard, I've got no problem with it, I just like controllers better.

>>377134681
>ur dumb
you wasted your time replying to me so I guess you care enough to do something about it

>>377126814
Play System Shock 1, then System Shock 2. Avoid all the Bioshock titles and this new Prey garbage.

>>377134927
Yes, that dumbing down doesn't only refer to RPG elements.

>>377135228
Even those are more complex than most Bioshock levels.

>>377135307
>>377135612
Prey is pretty good. Certainly better than Bioshock.

>>377135228
Level 7 is also not a great representation for Citadel Station, since it was designed to literally be a maze. On a whole, SS1's level design tends to be more complex than later games but that level is especially complex.

>>377133546
I must admit Infinite's levels are a bit too simple, but SS1's ones just look overcomplicated, I mean what's the point of walking around an empty maze? (I didn't play any SS though so maybe I'm wrong) Sometimes less is more, SS2 looks just right in my opinion, but again, I didn't play any SS and I really enjoyed the bioshock series so...

SS1 is quite different from SS2 and Bioshock, I recommend playing the SS games first then lower your expectations and play Bioshock

>>377133689
>>377131556
>>377130342
Ah okay. I'm currently playing SS1, planning to play through all of the 'shock games, including Infinite, only because the 3 Bio games are bundled together.

>>377135307
I pirated it yesterday. Played it for 5 hours.

It's good. It's not SS2/Bioshock good, but it's better than Bioshock 2/Infinite, by far. It tries too hard to be SS2 at times, though.

Also, to OP: Try and find a buddy for SS2. The co-op in that game is one of the most satisfying experiences i've ever had in any game. Pretty sure the GOG version fixed a lot of issues with the networking.

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>>377130568
>Start playing the DLC
>it opens with birds landing on Liz's fingers while she sings like it's a Disney movie
>in a Shock game

>>377134090
>Are you ignoring the cybernetic skills in SS2 entirely? Those are the main upgrades, not the O/S upgrades and implants you find. 14 Stat/Tech/Combat skills each with 6 levels, as well as 35 psionic disciplines with 5 tiers each brings the total of upgrade states to 285, not 26 you charlatan.

Okay, you’re grasping for straws hard here. First of all, you’re just blatantly wrong about part of it. There are 37 psi powers. That’s 37. Not 37 x 5. Those five tiers don’t make them new powers, it just lets you cast them more cheaply. This does not constitute a new power. http://shodan.wikia.com/wiki/Psionic_Disciplines

Secondly, I was talking about passive upgrades and RPG mechanics, not active-use powers like a magic system. If we’re throwing those in there, then Plasmids are fair game as well.

If you’re going to nitpick and claim every single tiny change to efficiency or stat in your character constitutes an “upgrade state”, then include every possible interation of Camera Research bonuses, ADAM/EVE permanent upgrades, and every plasmid upgrade in BioShock counts too.

I was comparing Apples to Apples. You’re throwing organic, fair trade avocados at me and claiming I was deliberately excluding them.

(cont.)

People shitting on SS1 shouldn't be allowed to post on shock threads

>>377136741
Who's shitting on SS1?

>>377135905
Exploration? it was kinda the point of SS1 to figure out what was going on and how to progress. I think the only level that wasn't very fun in SS1 was the one with hallways and the jelly enemies that kept respawning, I just ran through that shit.

Also this picture >>377133546
is on point, the level design of Bioshock is clearly dumbed down.

I guess it's not okay when Infinite does it but it's okay when Bioshock does it, this is what I took from Infinite dumbing down Bioshock and getting flak but people allowing Bioshock to dumb things down from SS2. Maybe they never played SS2, I'll give them that.

>>377136619
Why the fuck would you only include passive O/S upgrades and the implants? Plus, all 14 of the other skills are passive upgrades too. Just not worth mentioning?

Camera Research bonuses obviously should not apply because those aren't something you choose to spec into. Probably should exclude any plasmids you pick up off the ground too. But fine, include whatever you want from Bioshock, the point is that none of the numbers matter, it's what the systems do. In Bioshock they let you dick around with whatever powers and weapons you want, and you can still breeze through the game even on the hardest difficulty. You fuck up your character build on SS2's Impossible, and you're fucked. That's RPG depth, not how many skill trees there are.

>>377136741
They shouldn't be allowed to post on /v/ at all. This is an 18+ board.

who else excited for system shock remake?

>>377137235
>the only level that wasn't very fun in SS1 was the one with hallways and the jelly enemies that kept respawning
Yeah level 3 isn't very enjoyable. Luckily it's the smallest level in the game and the first time around you can just run straight to the elevator.

>>377137961
I'm waiting for more details before I decide how I feel about it. But I want it to be good.

>>377137961
I try not to get excited for games any more, but I hope it turns out well and I remain cautiously optimistic.

System Shock 2 and Prey.

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>tfw no shodan gf

>>377127057
Same here, took me three tries to get rolling. The game is a ton of fun once you get the controls down, especially once you figure out how to lean around corners effectively.
I've been a diehard ss2 fan for years and I'm starting to think ss1 might actually be even better, worth a try.

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>>377137961
I just beat the original so I'm not all that excited about essentially replaying it.

>>377130342
It's not actually a Shock game, you're not making a build or conserving your ammo so you can survive big encounters, it's a slightly more open than usual corridor shooter with powers

>>377137961
I have a friend who wants to get into the series but he says he wants to wait for the remake.

>>377137961
Not at all, I know it's a very /v/ thing to do to be a pessimist, but they're gonna fuck it up, I feel it in my balls

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>>377134090
>>377137538
In order:

> You get far too many resources of every type, including ADAM, so character building and resource management do not matter
Partially true. On harder difficulties, ammo is certainly tight. But there are far too many hypos and medkits. I prefer to play with the medkit key unbound for this reason.
However, compared to SS2, this is not a complaint. It absolutely throws resources at you too. I played on Very Hard and was always having to empty my inventory because of how much stuff I got.
It’s all about whether or not your play conservatively and gather/loot, not a complaint about design.

>Weapon degradation is gone
Well, most people thought it was a bad system in the first place. But as someone who loved that about SS2, I’ll agree with you here.

>All that stuff about hacking
I’ve never heard anyone actually try to defend the trainwreck of SS2’s hacking. A pure RNG, resource-based hacking mechanic is abysmal. Plain and simple. BioShock’s minigamegame was actually fun. Case closed imo.
Also, it can actually be impossible. You can’t do every one without upgrades. You have to choose engineering tonics to remove obstacles and make some of them passable, which is an organic way of instituting a stat-gate, rather than an arbitrary number. See pic related.
Also, the machines harm you or even trigger alarms if you fail, which stops you from spamming attempts. Health is a resource.

>Inventory Management Gone
True. And that was SS2’s biggest advantage over BioShock. Which I addressed in my initial post.

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>>377126814
PREY 2017 ! god its beautiful
if you want old school fuckery start with ss1 it aged like shit though exept story

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>>377134090
>>377137538

> needing to build your character around a playstyle gone (rather than spec into weapons or sci or hacking, you can do everything competently off the bat and upgrade whatever sounds cool, not what you feel is essential to make your character work).
Untrue. You have to make permanent ADAM investments for certain playstyles. Even getting the absolute maximum amount of ADAM in the game, you can’t afford everything. You DO have to make compromises in your build. If you could equip every tonic and plasmid at once, you’d have a point. But you’ve got a max 6 slots each. Which, by the way, you have to spend ADAM to unlock.

> Bioshock they let you dick around with whatever powers and weapons you want, and you can still breeze through the game even on the hardest difficulty.
Overexaggeration, but you’re right about difficulty. Play on hardest difficulty, disable Vitachambers, and unbind medkits. Then it becomes much, much harder than SS2 on Very Hard.

> You fuck up your character build on SS2's Impossible, and you're fucked. That's RPG depth, not how many skill trees there are.
This is just a weird way to justify poor balance. Every playstyle should be viable given a proper skillset. Saying that you can be locked out of success by allocating points unwisely is certainly realistic, but also poor game design.

> I don't count System Shock 1 in this analysis because it's hardly an RPG.
So you’re willing to hold BioShock, a game from a different series, to the same standards as SS2, but not a game from the same series? Seems like your hatred for BioShock is Irrational

> that's fine because it's a different type of game
And so is BioShock. Yet somehow you act like it’s a remake of SS2.

>>377137235
Let me reformulate, what's the point of exploration if everything looks the same? It just makes levels drag on forever and it's not that creative: If there's stuff to be found, hide them in smart places, creative ones, a big maze with the same assets all along is just boring. Again, I'm just telling from the layout as I didn't play SS, but I doubt a game of this time could have levels as big as those and keep them diverse and interesting.

SS2's levels look like just the right size and complexity.

>>377138831
by part of your definition Bioshock games aren't shock games either, you can get pretty much everything, there aren't builds in Bioshock really, and same goes for System Shock 1 really

OP there's a lot of shitposting about Prey on this board but it genuinely feels like a spritual sequel to SS2.

I was sceptic and decided to buy it anyway but as it stands i'm loving it about 14/15 hours in so far.

It is a better successor to the shock series than Bioshock ever was. That's not to say the first bioshock was shit just that prey is for better and worse more faithful.

Prey actually does a better job of making the world seem believable and more lived in than the others due to the smaller scale of the game world. It actually feels like the transtar station could exist in real life

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>>377138513

>>377139806
You can at the very least fake a build using tonics.
Sure you can throw in a bunch of random shit and you'll get through the game just fine, but the game gives you the option of putting in all the wrench buffs, plus the research buffs, plus the tonic that makes your melee effective Winter Blast and now you've got Wrench Waifu 2.0.

I forgot Infinite had gear when I wrote that, but gear is hidden in that game where it's more a case of putting on whatever you can find than actually making something out of it. Most of the time you're not even using the vigors because the shooting is too good in that game so why waste salt when you can just land a headshot and instantly kill a dude.

>>377140460
not to mention all of the tonic powers are the same.

Press Button to Projectile, Hold button for Trap.

>>377139737
But they don't look the same.
>I'm just telling from the layout as I didn't play SS
Try it then, the game is like a dungeon crawler in space. The feeling of being lost sometimes is part of the experience. Even though you're never clueless really because you got a map, and the levels aren't that huge, but they have this dungeon-esque structure to them.

>>377126814
play system shock 1 and 2, ignore all the bioshock games as they are casual trash

>>377140460
Still offers more customization than SS1.

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>>377139568
>Prey 2017
hahahahahahha

>>377126895
Why wouldn't he touch Bioshock it's a good game, it's fun, just don't touch Bioshock Infinite

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>>377139568

>>377138819
>regenerations: FUCKING 17
>difficulty index 18 instead of at least 30, preferably 36

nigga you a fucking casual, replay it with all difficulties on 4 you bitch

Started playibg SS2 last night. On hard just got to mant.
Got hacking 2 repair 2
stats 4 end cyb 2 else in 1.
Chose the 30%melee dmg upgrade.

Having a blast so far. Only used pistol and shotty for the turrets and big rovot b4 maint

>>377141338
and it's still a worse game than SS1

>>377126814
don't listen those guys , play bioshock

play whatever you want
>>377130342
FUCKING EVERYTHING
EVERY DAMN THING

>>377126814
SS2

SS1 was quite the experiment but you gotta be prepared to play it these days
Bioshock is boring and mechanically bland

SS2 is in the sweetspot between good gameplay and interesting storytelling

>>377141340
It is quite gud and easily the best Looking Glass style game out of the post 2005 crop. Compared to SS2, it's less survival horror focused on resource management, and more about open-ended exploration of an interconnected world. RPG elements and atmosphere are weaker than SS2, but level-design is as good or better, and the space station in Prey is a much better realized and believable setting overall. Combat and enemy design is better in Prey as well, though that's a necessity given that it abandons the survival horror elements and has no excuse left to be a clunky wrench-melee game. Both games are well-written and make excellent use of audiologs, and while Prey lacks the memorable antagonists of SS2, it does a better job of fleshing out its side characters. There's no Shodan-reveal twist in Prey surprisingly - there's one after the credits, but it's more like a bit of cute meta-commentary rather than anything substantial.

Where Prey definitely drops the ball is the audio - music is often ill-fitting, scary sounds play for no apparent reason, and the mixing is incredibly bad for such a high-budget game. Volume levels of dialogue and sound effects don't reflect the source's distance from the player at all, and it's impossible to track enemies based on sound alone.

Overall though, I'd say it's worth playing, has some annoying signs of consolization, but also a lot of nice attention to detail and it actually improves upon SS2 in various ways, much unlike Bioshock which was straight up dumbing down with a nice coat of paint on top.

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>>377141506
I get really paranoid about running out of supplies in games like this so I purposefully killed myself everytime I took too much damage so as to not waste first aid kits/medi patches and used energy weapons exclusively up until level 8.

>>377126814
I personally did not like Bioshock, but am a big fan of System Shock 2 even though I tried System Shock 2 after I tried Bioshock.
The atmosphere is great.

>>377141891
im just giving you shit man, beating system shock puts you above 95% of the people on this board even if you died a lot and set the difficulties low

you really should try playing it with everything maxed, or drop the mission difficulty a bit if you dont want the 7 hour timer

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>>377141810
i don't know why you typed all that, i don't care about your console port shooter with a weapon wheel and i will never buy it, let alone play it, because i still own original copies of system shock 1 and 2.

>>377141141
I'll give them a shot someday then, at least the second one if I can't get the first one to run, there's always problems with old pc games on today's computers.

>>377126895
Don't touch Bioshock Infinite

FTFY

>>377134614
>9gag, the post

>>377142296
>there's always problems with old pc games on today's computers
Not been the way for me I guess, Win 7 still has its way with many old games. I heard Win 10 may show issues with old games, because many games had community fixes for Win 7 while I don't think the same effort went for Win 10 give the resistance of many to adopt it.

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>>377136119
Bioshock 2 > Bioshock 1

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>>377126814
All of them in order bar Infinite. SS1 is my favorite, but its also very different compared to the rest. SS1 is pretty much a metroidvania, and one of the best ones I've played too. SHODAN being a shit-talking Mother Brain was fun.

Executive Level best level
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOkOCAm-v0U

>>377142131
The respawns on level 3 were already painful on combat 3.
I really don't want to see them on combat 4.

>>377143007
>gif
>still image
Why?

>>377143007
SS1 and SS2 have such good music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-3u9vO9UUE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bL7I_eWryI

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>>377143007
>>377143368
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XXZ9IpZoxk