The first time I didn't make 15 minutes into it because of how player-hostile the control scheme is. This time I tried to force myself to overcome it.

When judging old games it's important to keep in mind their impact upon release, but the truth is, I don't think I would've enjoyed this game even then. I remember myself as a child. I probably had even less tolerance for games I couldn't figure out then than I do now. But the problem with System Shock is not really that it's old or hard to figure out. The problem is that at the end of the day it's just not fun because of the way its mechanics are executed.

It is undoubtedly an ambitious game for its time. The amount of freedom it provides the player is incredible. My question is: what's the point of all this freedom if doing almost anything in this game is a chore?

Yes, I have figured out the controls this time, but it doesn't change the fact that, for example, to pick up an item you need to first click on the object containing it, the item then appears in a little window, then you need to drag and drop it to another little window. This is a thing you'll be doing constantly. Or the fact that the combat is just plain bad. For something that came out a year after Doom, it's just not designed in any engaging way, or you could say not designed at all. Just point your reticle at the enemy and left-click them to death. And constantly switching between different interface elements is a major hassle. For example, if you want to have a map on the screen, you have to have a rearview camera at the same time, which appears in the same window as the inventory and logs, meaning you can't have those things on the screen at the same time. If you're gonna turn the interface into a "graphing calculator" (as someone called it here), you might as well allow us to pick what we want to have on the screen and what we don't.

Anyway, 30 minutes into it I just caught myself thinking: I'm not getting any sense of enjoyment or satisfaction from this. A bit of frustration, but mostly boredom.

Still, it's obviously a very influential game with incredible graphics for its time and innovative gameplay, so I think it deserves its 2 stars. But would I recommend it to anyone in 2025? Definitely no.

It's easy to accuse me of ageism here, but I actually enjoyed Ultima Underworld quite a bit when I tried that, and it's 2 years older and a spiritual predecessor to this.