Summer Games Challenge 2017 - Begin when ready!

[Exhuminator]

SS2 on the other hand felt like it still had new areas to progress through up to the end.

Dat Rickenbacker.

[Key-Glyph]

And lo, did Key's quest to become an Avatar of virture finally begin in earnest.

Her tale:

The mysterious gypsy looked into Key's heart and cast her as a Fighter, an exemplar of valor, despite having pegged her as a compassionate Bard not two days ago. The gypsy does not remember this, for Key forgot to save that initial game... but no matter. When our hero opened her eyes upon Britannia this second time she was glad of the change, for she has no talent for fretted stringed instruments and would have aggravated all with the bards' inescapably obligatory lute.

Key immediately set to creeping out the locals in Jhelom by jotting down their names, conversations, and favorite loitering spots upon her hand-sketched map of their town. All were cordial in the presence of Key's kind heart and large axe. Next, Key gazed upon the twin satellites of Tremmel and Falucca until a Moon Gate appeared. She dashed through, discovered Skara Brae, and continued with her unsettling cartography.

After this she watched the moons' phases again, hoping to return to Jhelom, but instead wound up in the Deep Forest of the northwest. It is here that Key got lost. She could observe on her cloth map that the Druid town of Yew was near, but darned if she could see through all those trees -- and it certainly didn't help that she can see in nothing but shades of yellow. Instead of finding Yew, she was set upon by skeletons and orcs, which she dispatched on her way towards her unwitting destination of Britain and Castle Britannia.

One royal pep-talk and thinly-veiled threat from a burly guard later (Key's curiosity about the castle's treasures was purely intellectual, for goodness' sake), our Fighter plans to head east with her new pal Iolo the bard. Yes, Iolo can in fact play a lute, but his high dexterity has meant nothing against the booby-trapped chests he and Key have discovered thus far. Poor Iolo. The pair shall rest before they press on.

Reflections:

So, I'm playing the Apple II version, and I'm loving the experience. Here are some scattered thoughts about it...

The game comes with two disks. One side of one floppy holds your save file, which is fantastic, because I don't have spare blank diskettes (this was something I was legitimately worried about). The other three sides contain different aspects of the game, and every so often I'm asked to flip things around. Somehow this relic behavior is fun and an endearing reminder of times gone by.

I thought it was going to take me forever to memorize the keyboard commands (every letter of the alphabet is a shortcut for something) and old-school menu manipulation (e.g. press Z for stats, then the number corresponding to the party member you want to examine, etc.), but it's more intuitive than I gave credit for. That, and I can feel my brain absorbing the game like a sponge. I was so enthralled by sketching townes, taking notes, flipping through lore books, and consulting the cloth map, that I hadn't realized that four hours had gone by. I was shocked to discover it was 1:30 AM when I stopped for the night.

Something I love about playing this version is the way dialog works. I'm going to hope the console ports do not do this -- if I find out they use an on-screen keyboard I will be horrified -- but when you engage characters in conversation, you get them to expound on topics by picking up key words from their dialog and echoing them back. For example, if you ask someone what they're doing ("JOB") and they say "I'M LOOKING FOR JULIO," typing "JULIO" gets the character to explain more about that... and so on and so forth.

As someone who is obsessed with talking to every NPC multiple times in every RPG she plays, this play style is both validation for my addiction and the crack. Add onto this that I have to dedicate an entire sketchbook page to each town for notes and mapping purposes, not to mention that the game's goal is being a good person and a lot of the NPC's words of wisdom are amounting to their own kind of feel-good therapy... I'm just awash in enjoyment.

We'll see if it stays that way as things get tougher!

[BogusMeatFactory]

Amazing write up key! I loved it! To comment on your thoughts of dialog... OH MAN DO I AGREE!!! There is nothing more fulfilling than typing out a conversation with an npc to further along the conversation. It feels far more fulfilling than clicking a pre made dialog option.

In my endless everquest rantings as of late, that is one of the big draws for me. Quests come from questioning and talking with npcs and watching their routines and seeing what happens and taking notes. It is great.

[Ack]

CFFJR, did you make it at least to the psychic monkeys?

I like both System Shocks, but they're very different games in some regards. Both have strengths and weaknesses. Both are better than Bioshock in every way. Neither are really that hard once you know what you're doing.

[Xeogred]

So little Bioshock love here.

I hope more of you guys give Prey a shot besides Popo and I. I suspect Ex will play it in 2027 or so. I would say gameplay wise it's easily more fun than Bioshock, but I still really love things about Bioshock. I have no knock on 2 though, being able to dual wield plasmids and a gun seriously makes it way better. And Infinite was more longer range combat and more intense, although the plasmids in that one aren't as cool.

I played both SS2 and Prey without dipping into the magic/psych stuff. So I was mainly just like a beefy soldier type with all the engineer/tech abilities. Next time I replay them will be a completely different experience probably.

[dsheinem]

So little Bioshock love here.

Any Bioshock game > either of the System Shock games

[CFFJR]

CFFJR, did you make it at least to the psychic monkeys?

I like both System Shocks, but they're very different games in some regards. Both have strengths and weaknesses. Both are better than Bioshock in every way. Neither are really that hard once you know what you're doing.

Heh, yeah I definitely encountered the monkeys.

I may have tried to play 2 a bit too soon after 1, expecting it to be something it's not.

Completely agree on Bioshock.

Any Bioshock game > either of the System Shock games

Lies.

[MrPopo]

Any Bioshock game > either of the System Shock games

Lies.

He's a well known troll.

[dsheinem]

Any Bioshock game > either of the System Shock games

Lies.

He's a well known troll.

In this case I speak the truth. Bioshock as a whole has better writing, better gameplay, better environments, better music, etc. Bioshock is just a more unique and compelling trio of games than the SS titles. The SS games aren't bad at all- they deserve a heap of praise. But Bioshock is the better series by basically any measure.

And that art direction!

[Segata]

So little Bioshock love here.

Any Bioshock game > either of the System Shock games

No. Infinite is pretty bad. 2 is mediocre. Bioshock is good but has aged a bit. SS2 is still one of the best games ever made.