It's the latest in Looking Glass's eternally running series of Lost Classics. Prepare for another hyperbolic review that'll, if past experience proves anything, make about eight people buy it.
David Kohl

What System Shock 2 actually is has already become a matter of some controversy in gaming circles. Some look over its sleek lines and graphical polish and say it's a first-person shooter. Others note the complicated interface and character development and state categorically that it's a role-playing game.

There's only one solution to this dilemma before it comes to blows - I've ingested a variety of drugs to induce a split personality for the length of this review. The things I do for money...

FPS: Hello, RPG.
RPG: Hello, FPS. Let's go.
FPS: Right: SS2 uses the standard set of FPS controls: moving with the left hand, leaving the right free to control the mouse.
RPG: Yes, but press tab and an icon-based menu system as complicated and thorough as anything in Baldur's Gate appears.
FPS: There's a variety of increasingly large weapons. The shotgun is called up by pressing 3, as in every shooter ever.
RPG: Yes, but you have to do far more than just shoot things - scavenging, researching and development all come into play. And there are the three character classes too, one of which uses up to 35 psychic powers.
FPS: Like Requiem or Jedi Knight.
RPG: Or, more relevantly, any magic-using character in an RPG.
FPS: You'll never beat this. You spend some of your time shooting people from a first-person perspective.
RPG: You really are taking the piss now, aren't you?
FPS: Sorry.
RPG: Right - let's have a competition. Let's start playing and we'll see how far each of us gets
using only the bare minimum of skills from the other's camp. You first.