Before Portal introduced us to everyone's favorite female AI overlord, System Shock 2 tackled the topic in a much darker way. BioShock creator Ken Levine cut his teeth on post-apocalyptic horror with this iconic title. The game was developed by Irrational Games and Looking Glass Studios and originally released in 1999, and has become a classic for its masterful storytelling and pulse-pounding moments of dread.
After the closure of Looking Glass Studios, the future of the game became uncertain. But on June 26, 2025, System Shock 2 was remastered and re-released by Nightdive Studios. And now, for a limited time, you can own System Shock 2: 25th Anniversary Remaster completely for free until Thursday, October 8 through the Epic Games store.
System Shock 2 is a first-person, tense psychological horror game. The title has finite resources and a tense environment, to the point that it's often called a survival shooter.
It throws the player onto the FTL spaceship, the Bon Braun. You awaken from cryo sleep to discover that something has gone horribly wrong. The rest of your crew is long dead, and their presence on the ship has been replaced by horrible mutants and...
