System Shock 2 "Navy" character details

Electronic Arts and Looking Glass Studios today revealed details about the "Navy" character in the new sci-fi/horror RPG, System Shock 2, which hits stores this week. The Navy character undergoes the most balanced training of all of the game's characters, picking up skills in all types of basic weaponry, computers, and a small smattering of psi skills.

The Navy character possesses great technical skill, and can manipulate weapons by modifying them to have shorter reload times or larger ammo clips. Additionally, as weapons decay and jam over time, Navy characters with a few abilities in repairing or maintaining weapons can greatly extend the life of their weapons, and even themselves.

System Shock 2 also features non-combat skills that the Navy character can learn, such as researching alien organs (which can give advantages in combat) and hacking. Hacking allows a player to do a number of interesting things, like disable security cameras, break into computer-locked rooms, and even lower the cost of certain ammo and items available throughout the ship's replicators.

Hacking a computer, keypad, or replicator brings up a hack screen with the difficulty of the hack identified on screen (which changes, depending on the players' abilities). For a small cost, the player can try to hack these
systems, but failure could result in the item breaking, or even exploding. These tactics are simple to use and understand, and add a great deal to the game. In fact, a player can hack a security system, find slug and laser turrets that are disabled, and then hack those as well. Then, the turret will attack enemies for the player.

About System Shock 2

The evil artificial intelligence SHODAN returns in this sequel to the award-winning System Shock, one of the most critically acclaimed computer games of all time. The game features a rich science fiction action/role-playing game system, with detailed character generation and growth, inventory and equipping, and several groups of special traits unique to each character. System Shock 2 is based on a next-generation version of Looking Glass' proprietary 3D technology, the Dark Engine, which offers 16-bit graphics, colored lighting, and
variable translucency objects. The game?s incredible role-playing game depth is enhanced by a huge assortment of enemies, modifiable weapons, and unique psionic powers. System Shock 2 was co-developed by Looking Glass Studios and Irrational Games, and is co-published by Electronic Arts and Looking Glass Studios.