System Shock 2 Speedrun Commentary (2020)

[@Big1Jim]

Hey, just as a quick note to anyone who might be showing up here after the new System Shock release, I am currently routing and speedrunning that game as well; if you want to catch it live, I'll occasionally be streaming on www.twitch.tv/big_jim

[@Big1Jim]

It's been about a year and a half since I made and uploaded this video, just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has left positive comments, it makes me very happy to know I made something that other people can enjoy and appreciate. If I do more serious speedrunning in the future I'll be sure to create more content like this.

[@ogplr5914]

I love it when people help each other out in largely competitive communities like speedrunning :) thank you!

[@NinjaLobsterStudios]

12:28 "Why do you go so slowly?" XD

[@JoonasD6]

Well, to be fair, yes, this is a game.

[@wherethegravelsthin]

Love when speedrunners make content like this to explain the intricacies of the run, something that understandably can’t be done every run or stream or what have you. Thanks for the video.

[@davidwilson2916]

Why does this not have more views? An incredibly interesting and entertaining video, explained clearly and confidently by a real expert. This kind of content is what I live for, so thank you for giving it to me!

[@Gameprojordan]

Very underrated and obscure game nowadays. Even looking up speedruns the videos are 2 years old at their most recent, aswell as only having 10-20 thousand views at the very most. This game peaked in speedrun popularity around 5-10 years ago, where you'll find videos with around 20-80 thousand views

[@kasane1337]

12:28 SHODAN throwing mad shade 💀

[@misterhoudi2824]

Big Jim, i cannot thank you enough for the inspiration of wanting to speedrun this amazing game, I’m almost 80% in finishing it I would assume, but I plan to watch the video on its entirety when I finish the game, and hopefully start my own speedrun. Maybe even discover new strategies. Also, you pfp is cute. :)

[@Big1Jim]

Thank you! I hope you enjoy the rest of the game. If you feel like speedrunning that's cool, but if you get bored or frustrated, don't feel bad either; it's a lot of work. Just glad for more people to play this game.

[@Diskhate]

"This speedrun may be confusing even for people who played the game" Pffft, yeah right dude..i've mastered the game - Watches explanation of how to get out of the tutorial area "...the hell is going on"

[@MrDrManPerson]

just beat system shock 2 for the first time. cool to see a speedrun of it.

[@nothke]

Just did so myself. This speedrun is nuts, I'd spend so many hours on some parts of the game :D

[@ThePseudonoob]

I kinda like the story implications of this speedrun; since you mentioned you didn't trigger the SHODAN reveal in the usual spot, it implies that she doesn't get the chance to reveal herself until much later. Should a total System Shock 2 remake come about (probably from Nightdive, and after they put out their SS1 remake), they should make the game take into account whether the player encounters Polito's body or not for cases like this. "Polito" could continue insisting that the player come to Deck 4 until a certain point, where she gets so pissed that SHODAN does the big reveal.

[@greatguys1]

Great commentary! Explanations were good and made the run easy to follow!

[@michaellk2254]

Never beat ss2 even after 10y. Used to watch M1 way back in the days and always asked myself why I couldn't finish the game. Now I know why. The game is too spooky

[@planet23k]

Hello man! Thank you a LOT for this video, this have let me understand your run better. It's still too crazy for me to try out, but I suppose I could ask some questions and leave some ideas... here we go: 1) 1:20 | Wasn't the long GravShaft jump at Earth boosted vertically if you jumped at just the right time? I remember it from an old version (not NewDark...), but I'm unsure if it's possible to pull it off in newer ones. Tried, didn't work. 2) 2:11 (actually earlier, ~1:52 onwards) | Can you combine gaining multiple abilities from different training paths? (for example, 6x Year 2.2 for max Research and 3x Year 2.3 for max Endurance) 3) 6:35 | (IDEA) | You can reset your height almost immediately in Engineering - mantleclimb the LEFT side of the desk found right after you descend to this level (exactly the one that's on the screen at that timestamp). This will probably make some areas easier: no need to backtrack to the ladder on this level (btw, in the current method you need to use crouch to detach from it, jumping naturally won't work) and no need to jump around the 2xToxin-A's room on Hydro (and probably a few other smaller examples, like taking items/throwing switches/etc.) - BUT then again it might make some areas more complicated (where smaller form is preferred?) - or even impossible..? unsure. You're the one with experience, man! : ) I thought of trying this run, but it's too crazy overall. (I'm guessing using teleport markers with mantle and then crouch could be problematic? Just guessing though. Maybe it's not that bad.). 4) 6:46 | I suppose you mean the "Center View" keybind. Very useful, indeed :D 6) 8:41 | How tough is bypassing the engineering/engine core door by using the "wrench" method you described? (% of success?) 7) 9:15 | You didn't sequence break engine core (by typing in the code provided later by SHODAN) since it wasn't needed, I understand.. btw, would it break anything game-wise or would be just a loss of time? Probably only the latter? 8) 9:36 | There's this map of Hydro. The regulator in the lower part (near "1" digit) is actually placed "horizontally" not "vertically" on the map. Just a small drawing difference, sorry for nitpicking. 9) 10:18 | You grab the research software there, but you mention it near the O/S upgrade software machine (10:16), when you're upgrading.. the walk speed : ) Didn't catch that the first time watching. 10) 15:06 | Newer versions make that segment more problematic, as there's a big beam blocking this 'passage'. 11) (general) | I suppose you know that, but you can Research with a speed of 2 without anything else - just plug in the LabAssistant™, start researching and de-plug it. Assuming you don't have any other boost (research soft of any version, which you already acquired), it will work and actually faster than WITH the implant plugged in. However, you've got the Research Soft v1, which obsoletes this. 12) (general) | I suppose you could probably duplicate more Speed Boosters™ :D for usage on some small areas (Rick 3, for example), but it wouldn't make a big difference, probably. 13) (general) | Would it be possible to gain more Cyber Modules (twelve more would suffice to reach Heavy 5) to gain more attack power in the very end? All in all I think the biggest cost was permanently acquiring (saw no Undo there) Psi-Duplicate that costs a lot, but I suppose it's impractical to cut that cost (nor any other, for that matter). All in all that would kill SHODAN in... 4 shots instead of 5, so almost no difference? Or am I wrong? (this is just an approximation) Again, thank you for making your epic runs and this great commentary! I do hope you'll find some time and motivation to push it a bit further sometime. Good luck with anything you do! : )

[@Big1Jim]

Thanks for the questions. 1) I'm not aware of this and have never noticed such an effect in all of my attempts so I assume it doesn't work on newdark 2) This doesn't work because it only works with a change level trigger. The earlier years only teleport you within the same map. 3) The problem with this is that to do the floor clip at the start of recreation deck, you have to be in this state. There are no other surfaces that allow you to clip into the ground and bypass the entire deck. 4) Yeah, that's what I meant 6) I think if you get good at it, it's reliable. The only issue is that with the limited practice I did with it, I couldn't get it once. This is likely because it's slightly complicated and I just don't know exactly how it works though. 7) All this does is open up another part of command deck. It would be worth doing if it gave cyber modules, but it doesn't. 10) Yeah, this is what I meant in my opening notes about the new version having some issues with the speedrun. The benefit of the newer version is that you can use toxin grenades (the green ones) to kill shodan very quickly. 11) I did some testing with this, the issue is that it's still faster to quickly grab the software than mess around with that. 12) Using a speed booster on rick3 would save maybe a second, yeah. I suppose if you have an extra you could use it there. 13) I did a lot of testing with different ways to kill shodan (using all weapons, different skill amounts, different grenades, sharpshooter perk or not) and how it's done in this route is the fastest I could come up with.

[@planet23k]

@@Big1Jim Thank you for such a comprehensive answer, man! And kudos for trying all these things/combinations out! : ) BTW, is there anything else better/worse in newer Steam versions that differs from the 2.4 GOG version?

[@phlegmflemington3004]

@@Big1Jim How many toxin nades did it take you to kill Shodan? I remember it averaged to around 4 frags or 5 toxin nades to kill Shodan at heavy 4 with unmodded nade launcher

[@FortyTheorem]

I like to imagine, that I am married to Jim and we lay getting ready to sleep, and he starts explaining strats.

[@NollyRS]

return large jimothy

[@dat1niceguy304]

Great speedrun and commentary

[@miraakthuri]

cool to see u made your vid in 4:3 can watch it in fullscreen without black bars^^

[@Valet2]

you're using a 21 years old crt because you cannot afford a modern lcd or oled. that's all.

[@ashknight6696]

thank you so much for this!!

[@GOVAUS1]

Impressed AF.

[@EldestSugar918]

Amazingly explained, very entertaining video!

[@monojira]

Thank you for this

[@hosseinaskaree]

Good job mate, great commentary

[@bboy32167]

best horror game of all time

[@EchoNoctua]

14:36 - I'm having a hard time getting this clip to work. Can you elaborate on how this is done? I try to use relocation around the same time you do, but using relocate again has me standing up and unable to clip. :( If you don't mind, please. :)

[@vtancredi1717]

Love the commentary, well done sir!

[@miscthings1]

thanks for making commentary. always nice to hear explanations

[@legocreator768]

is there a place that documents out of bounds in dark engine games? why does the level appear fullbright and weird, never seen that in other out of bounds areas in games.

[@hervorm]

great video!

[@limekayo5222]

i found the game to scary

[@ballixman6587]

So did I, but there is much less suspense once you leave the Med/Sci deck in my opinion.

[@dogebad]

for some reason i can never pull off that skip before the rickenbacker where you clip through the tram station door. any tips to make it work consistently?

[@spartan117ak]

why did you need to drag that one hybrid through the coolant tubes if there was a hybrid waiting for you by the rad door?

[@Big1Jim]

Maybe I didn't mention it in the video but it specifically has to be a shotgun wielding hybrid, the pipe hybrids will jostle the players camera when hit but does not cause any physical movement

[@cwvachet4825]

"Why do you move so slowly" lol

[@munfurai8083]

I know this is an older video of yours, but for future videos, I hope you up the mic volume, bit hard to hear you.

[@jacksoned4773]

Glad you still speedrun man

[@IElrekkaI]

forgive me, maybe i just missed it, but i noticed you completely skip deck 4, is that a thing you can just do, or is that a byproduct of some of the glitching youre doing?

[@jr-xn2pm]

Deck 4 is only needed to open the door on deck 5, but with relocation glitch every door just gets bypassed. The only triggers that the player is really forced to complete are the ones that are required for level loading, e.g. hydroponics deck.

[@davep8221]

~ 12:30-ish: SHODAN: why do you go so slowly? [Hacker: WTF? SHODEs, have you not been paying attention?] SHODAN: do you think this is some kind of game? [Hacker: Yeah. Most of these exploits don't work IRL.] (Sorry, just saw this was a dupe.)

[@sickwaffle]

Protagonist of SS2 is not a hacker

[@-roejogan-]

I played an afternoon to get to hydroponics lol it took you less than ten minutes

[@cherboka4856]

14:15 How did your hitbox become normal again?

[@Jusbale]

System Shock 2 speedrun AKA psionic dwarf running really fast in space

[@beemersp]

Big Jim the Big G

[@zefie6040]

Streamer when is lowdoors?

[@monkgaming651]

the amount of maps you can skip and the max speed you can get in the base game is stupid lol

[@SneakyCanuck1]

POO POO PEE PEE

[@cettura]

But this is not the 2020 version of system shock. In my game I cant pass this fence here 15:05. Its blocked

[@rfau2be]

Right. But still you can force this pipe. Jump on the box(you can hack it too), use agility or speed booster and jump again toward this pipe, then go up or/and jump - it works :)