Getting The Most Out of Your System Shock 2 Experience

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Today I learned that people who purchased System Shock 2 over GoG might not be getting everything they paid for. I know some of you may be thinking that your copies work fine but it's not how well your game is running; it's what the site promised you when you bought the game. As somebody who's manually patched and modified System Shock 2 from a disc install I'd like to point out a great error with the digital release and the means to fix it as well as how to get your digital versions mod ready.

I'll start with the co-op feature advertised on the GoG page:

According to the site, System Shock 2 comes with a multiplayer co-op, which is true but it does not come with this version of the game. The 2.4 final patch was designed majorly for optimization purposes and wide screen support. It's a very good patch but it appears that GoG's release comes with a broken multiplayer feature. Now I haven't done any research as to if the site has done a fixed re-release but I do know that the initial buyers are holding on to an incomplete game.

For those who own a digital copy of System Shock 2 without a multiplayer option on your main menu you should go here.

http://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=4141.0

The modders at Strange Bedfellows have done an awesome job at keeping the game alive with fixes and modding tools which helped me years ago when I first played the game. This is a reworking of the SS2tool which comes with your current patch, as well as some release notes on how to modify widescreen support and a multiplayer fix for the GoG version. By the time you've finished repatching your game, your main menu will have a nice little multiplayer option.

Now this wouldn't be an article about getting the most out of your game without modding tools, but sadly the current versions of SS2 are incompatible with the current mod manager on the site. That means you get to manually mod your game! 

http://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=106.0

http://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=4447.0

The second link is a list of mods which for the most part, do not conflict with each other.

Finally if you want to play online you'll need to find some friends with Hamachi, Tuungle, Evolve, or any other virtual lan and make sure you're all running the same mods.

Dangerlocker, Doctor Chef, Ghoul, and myself are using Evolve for private lans. We haven't tried System Shock 2 on it but there are plenty of people who are looking for players. You're welcomed to add me, Revrevs, for Swat 4 or System Shock 2.

https://www.evolvehq.com/games/1237

So that's it! Have fun with one of the best PC titles to come out in the 90s. Don't forget to save between bulkheads and if all else fails rocket jump!