Long before Grand Theft Auto established the video game sandbox, before "emergent gameplay" was an industrywide buzzword, upstart developer Irrational Games married first-person action akin to that of Doom and Half-Life with rich, open-ended character development and a masterfully crafted, horror-tinged storyline to create System Shock 2.
System Shock fans should be optimistic we feel the very inclusion of "Shock" in the new game's title is an indication that Irrational's heart is in the right place with this one. Luckily, Irrational has soldiered on it's now working on BioShock, a "spiritual successor" to the System Shock series that will further the concept of emergent gameplay in a different setting. The behemoth publisher has so far shown no interest in reviving the franchise itself or relinquishing its rights to a more willing third party. The future of the franchise is now in what seems like permanent limbo, since Electronic Arts controls the System Shock name at this time. Unfortunately, none of those news items relate to the announcement of System Shock 3. And finally, amazingly, the venerable is still in operation, providing news updates on every conceivable topic related to System Shock that's still active, even six years after the last game's release. Then there's ShockEd, the only available level editor for System Shock 2, which some fans have used to create unofficial extra missions and modifications for the original game (many of which are archived on the same site). Even Irrational itself tweaked the game's design after release, allowing players to control such gameworld variables as the monsters' respawn rates to better fit their playing styles. Homebrew projects such as System Shock Rebirth and SHTUP (Shock Texture Upgrade Project) seek to replace the original game's character models and texture maps (respectively) with better, more-detailed ones. Such is fans' devotion to System Shock 2 that, in the continuing absence of a sequel, the most ardent devotees of the action role-playing-game classic have worked to preserve its legacy by keeping its presentation as close to modern standards as the game's now-antiquated engine will allow.
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