System Shock 2

Playing the puppet in the game that gave the immersive sim a voice

- Alex Wiltshire

Beginnings can be difficult to trace, but you can find one haunting the claustrophobic gangways, crew billets, and engine rooms of the Von Braun. “Look at you, hacker,” it says. “Apathetic creature of meat and bone. Panting and sweating as you run through my corridors.”

SHODAN had, of course, taunted and goaded players before. This malevolent AI was birthed on the space station Citadel in the first System Shock. But in that game, she was the clear antagonist. In System Shock 2 SHODAN becomes something else. She’s more than just the final boss. She exists in the liminal space between design and story, game, and player, setting up a tense central relationship that the immersive sim would go on to explore for years to come.