Great to see a game almost universally regarded as a classic finally reach a digital download platform. Haven't played it before, I'm afraid. Should I make an effort to play System Shock 1 first, or does this game stand alone well enough?

you can play 2 without having played the first one while it is a sequel the intro explains a lot of things + the main character you play as wasn't part of 1 so you should be fine starting with the second one.

Back when System Shock 2 was released, i tried to play the original but it already felt dated back then.

It certainly doesn't have the creepy atmosphere the sequel has, which imo still is the creepiest game ever made...

There are story connections between the two, but nothing major enough for System Shock 2 to not stand well on its own (and playing System Shock 2 first won't ruin System Shock 1). 

And do get the recent Fan patch & the high res texutre pack: http://www.shtupmod.net/

Originally Posted By markornikov (15 FEB 2013 2:10am)

Back when System Shock 2 was released, i tried to play the original but it already felt dated back then.

It certainly doesn't have the creepy atmosphere the sequel has, which imo still is the creepiest game ever made...

Agreed, i tried the original a few years back, but I really couldn't get a handle of the controls, they were just all over the place!

That reminds me, Tincup posted about this last year. There is a mouselook fan-patch for System Shock 1:

http://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=1719.0

It is far from perfect mind you, as the game's interface was never designed with mouse look in mind, but it might at least be worth a shot to see if you find the game more playable this way. 

oh, that actually looks pretty useful, thanks for that

Ok, thanks folks! Glad to hear SS2 works well as a stand alone game. I'm the sort who almost always has to play a series in order, but I'm willing to make an exception here. For example, no native mouse look in SS1? Ugh. That would be hard for me to get around; it was a big part of why I couldn't bring myself to complete Dark Forces awhile back because of that.

The site for SS2 patches, mods, enhancements etc:

http://www.sshock2.com/

Also, the forum over at TTLG.com  [Through the Looking Glass]  is a good place for info on SS2 as well as the Thief series, Deus Ex and a number of other games.