Dev Game Club Beta -- Episode 4

In this fourth beta edition episode of Dev Game Club, we continue to examine System Shock 2, finishing what remains of the game. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Note: Though this is the fourth and final episode about our playing the game, we will have a special guest for episode 5! Having already started spoiling story stuff in Episode 3, we continue to do so here. If you're playing along, you may want to finish the game first and come back to the podcast after you have.

Sections played:
Rickenbacker 1 & 2
The Body of the Many
Where Am I?

Podcast breakdown:
0:35      Intro
1:38      End of playthrough
48:06    Break 1
48:49    Pillars and takeaways
1:11:42 Break 2
1:12:12 Next time, what we're playing, next game

Issues covered: psi combos, puzzle-y nature of sections, ammo starvation, red ninjas, end-game difficulty, egg hunt, audio occlusion, lack of maps through end of game, gravity inversion, Tim's narrow escape, Shodan giveth and Shodan taketh away, persistent projections, sphincter doors and blue veins, god mode, circle-strafing, final character builds, hacking Shodan, save-scumming, economic design, orthogonality of enemy design, balancing and system design, weapon condition, forced choice, world design and level design, map and listening, storytelling and Bioshock

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Sly Cooper, Thief, Cthulhu, Quake series, Halo, Republic Commando, Resident Evil, Far Cry 2, Looking Glass, Irrational Games, Dishonoured, Reed Knight, Doom, Bioshock, Ultima Underworld, Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect series, Starfighter, Freedom Force, SWAT, System Shock 3, Noah Hughes, IO Interactive.

What we've been playing:
Brett: Prune, A Good Snowman is Hard to Build, Dark Souls
Tim: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void

Special Guest for Episode 5: Ken Levine, founder of Irrational Games!

To play for next time:
Check the Twitter account for Hitman 2 information!

@brett_douville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub
DevGameClub@gmail.com