Dev Game Club Beta -- Episode 2

In this second beta edition of Dev Game Club, we continue to examine System Shock 2, moving through R&D and ultimately into Hydroponics B/C. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Production note: While the audio quality of Ep 2 is essentially the same as Ep 1, as of Ep 3 we've moved to a new method of recording which captures each of us locally and we stitch that together in post. It ends up sounding much better.

Sections played: 
R&D
Cargo Bays
Engineering Control/Engine Core
Hydroponics B/C

Podcast breakdown:
0:36   Intro
1:15     Discussion of SS2 begins (with level persistence)
55:22 Break
55:43 What we're playing/next time

Issues covered: level data persistence, navigation cues or lack thereof, lack of clarity to certain interactions, not focusing the player, health buffs and de-buffs, inversion of RPG skill-ups, using the environment to kill your foes, the world continuing while you interact with inventory and HUD, Brett's biggest scare in games, monkey terror, enemy introductions, emergence and player agency, exploitability of AI, do sleeping robots notice you?, cargo section as stealth, quantum entanglement reconstruction tank expert use

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Half-Life, Doom, Souls series, Outlaws, Far Cry 4, Bioshock, Unreal engine, Dishonoured, Republic Commando, Dead Space, Quake, Deus Ex, Warren Spector, Elder Scrollsseries, Fallout series, Skyrim, Thief, Alien: Isolation, Alien (film series), Super Mario Bros.

What we've been playing:
Brett: Uncharted (PS4 remaster), Tim: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

To play for next time:
Remainder of Hydroponics, through Ops and into the end of Recreation.