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	Message: : System Shock Marathon Comparison & talkthrough Season 1: System Shock 1: : Enhanced Edition : : Episode 5: Cannon’s Core : Act 1: YOU GOT THE CPU CODE?! That’s Norfair! – Reactor Level: Core of the : Colony : Welcome back yet again to the System Shock Marathon Comparison and : Talkthrough. Where last we left off, we destroyed SHODAN’s satellite : dishes to prevent her from downloading herself into Earth’s internet. Now : SHODAN and Rebecca contact us yet again. : : : In the audio, she says she will be watching. And if you play on Story : difficulty 3, they do and she does once you run out of time albeit the : rest of you goes into a Cortex Reaver. : : : : : ***INCOMING MESSAGE FROM SHODAN*** : “This is a death sentence I declare on all mankind. If my calculations aren’t : wrong, in 27 minutes and 53 seconds, Citadel will crash into the Earth and : you shall all die together. With the loss of my Eclipse Cannon and Orange : Death mutagen virus, my plan for revenge will start. This program is : irreversible. You foolish humans took my godhood away from me. I’ll make : you feel the same despair that I did.” : ***END MESSAGE*** : Energised by overclocking, the Space Colony Citadel’s core has turned into a : giant nuke. Like SHODAN said, if we crash, the surface will turn into : nothing but dust! That mad scientist! The colony’s systems authorisation : code is tied to the CPU servers on levels 1-6 as logs revealed before. : Besides story difficulty 3, the GUI and movement controls in : Classic/Portable/Non KEX Enhanced, this is the biggest parallel to : Pathways into Darkness in the whole game: All those numbers we were : recording by the servers after destroying them are digits of the code as : also was revealed. In Pathways the manual gives us the nuclear bomb code : as a form of copy protection and we learn in-game the first 3 digits were : changed as part of a puzzle (possibly also copy protection as they don’t : tell you the rest?). Here we have to destroy the CPU servers and record : the digits of the code, preferably using in-game map notes to save paper : because fuck being forced to use pen & paper in any videogame unless : you want to, not have to. Then we return to the deepest part of the : colony and input the 6 digit code in the main nuclear reactor to set it to : blow. We then also have an escape though it thankfully isn’t timed: with : the shit controls of the Classic version it’d have to be. : I run through all the levels checking the code screens and any remaining map : notes that weren’t corrupted by the bug, which was none of them. >:( : Unlike PID, the code is randomised every time you play though the non KEX : version of Enhanced had a bug where it was always the same code due to : differences between DOS and Windows. I can’t remember the specifics. The : full code this time is 435926. This is exactly the same code as That Trav : Guy’s review playthrough and the non KEX version code was always 539579. : Night Dive didn’t bother to fix this bug. As System Shock Portable is a : mod for the CD version of System Shock Classic, the code is properly : randomised there. I should know: I used to play Portable as my way of : playing this game before Enhanced Edition existed. : Returning to the reactor level, I enter the Core of the Colony through the : diamond shaped tunnel near the Eclipse Cannon safety override. : : Interestingly, the Radiation-Orange parts of the reactor are labelled as : magnetic containment fields. That’s very interesting: it’s not a fission : based reactor at all, but a fusion reactor like in Halo. The orange parts : of the magnetic containment fields? It’s plasma from a small artificial : star. The core of the colony is guarded by flier bots (those green things : off to the side above) and security 2 bots backed up by two security 1 : bots. I destroy them all so I have room to put the code in in peace. : : This log is someone saying they need to shuffle shifts around as two of her : colleagues have caught the Orange Death. I take the grav lift up inside : the reactor. It’s time. : : : : Pretty much this whole game and this sequence in particular make me feel like : I’m truly playing a videogame adaption of Alien. The strategy guide author : thinks so too. The final level in particular feels like the climax after : Ripley escapes and has to deal with the xenomorph that snuck on the escape : pod with her. : Act 2: Engage Edward Diego Motherfucker! - Flight Deck: Life Pods : As soon as I hear the alarm blaring, I ride the grav lifts out of the reactor : and back up to the balcony before sprinting to the elevator. SHODAN radios : again and she is PISSED. : : She also says her cybernetic children will feed on my flesh and it’s hard to : tell if she’s being literal considering how angry she is. A mutated cyborg : is waiting for me in the elevator and there’s security 2 bots flooding the : halls. : : : Sure enough, Edward Diego is waiting for me by the lifepods guarded by : robots. He teleports away again after fighting him. : : Here we go! : : You BITCH! This is the equivalent of Mother preventing Ripley from cancelling : self-destruct as she was too slow. : Act 3: Final Rush – Security Department : Rebecca radios desperately. : : : : : : : : : : Yes. I think they can. I take the elevator to the Security level. The alarms : quieten down but the danger is still there. Abe Ghiren has a log by the : door to the central area here. He reiterates the place is a fortress and : he must reach the central shaft. : : The entire security level is based around that central tower in the middle. : Presumably it used to be a central glass elevator connected to the Central : Control Room similar to the one in Prey (2017), hence the shaft inside it. : All the catwalks are missing not just for story purposes but likely also : because Looking Glass couldn’t add any that felt good to play on or looked : good. We have to ascend gravity elevators around the sides and carefully : work our way up and around the shaft via the side rooms on upper floors : making up the majority of the level, occasionally coming back to the main : room via the balconies so we can finally reach the light bridge through : the web of energy drain mines to the centre. : Gameplay wise this reminds me a lot of Atlantis in Tomb Raider, which was : also themed around ascending a central shaft around side areas and coming : back to it every so often, aiming to reach a control room at the top. The : cancelled remake goes further by putting the central control area at the : very top of that shaft in the middle atop a gigantic brain, reached via a : small catwalk and elevator, whose stem makes up a central column in the : middle of the shaft held up by huge chains. : Going by FPS examples, the most obvious one is Fusion Station in Duke Nukem : 3D 2 years later but in reverse: we climb up the middle bit and : occasionally go out to the sides in that level. For us Marathon players, : this is a more complex version of Neither High nor Low. Also, there’s no : pattern buffers from now on so if we die, we die for real and need to save : frequently. The Hard Stuff Rules indeed. : The bottom level of the central column has some supply cupboards guarded by : more of those Samus Aran clones that are cyborg enforcers. Flier bots : patrol around the column, backed up by mutated cyborgs and cyborg : assassins on tiny ledges you may not see at first, some obvious ones of : the bottom floor, some more discreet on the sides of the central shaft. : The first balcony is the lowest one, reached by a grav lift. More cyborg : enforcers, assassins and flier bots are here as well as first aid kits, a : closet of mines & a battery, and a button to unlock the next grav : elevator up in one of the offices. : The next floor has a small balcony and a foyer of sorts. Another gravity lift : leads up and there’s an experimental weapon in one of the labs. : : That is the plasma rifle: the best energy weapon in the game. Unlike all : other energy weapons in this game, the plasma rifle shoots a ball of : plasma like a small purple sun that ricochets off surfaces and deals a ton : of damage, including to you. It’s similar in practice to the dark energy : cores from Half Life 2 and Portal, most often seen as the secondary fire : of the pulse rifle. The forcefield guarding it is blocked by SHODAN level : security so I will be back. : On the higher floor is another foyer guarded by robots. One of the offices : here has a keycard and an interesting painting. : : It’s as low resolution as a Minecraft painting so I can’t tell if that house : is surrounded by read leafed forests or it’s on fire. The next balcony has : a small ramp around them and a grav lift down but SHODAN has control over : it. The main security office up here on this floor has the cyberspace : terminal for this level and 2 logs, one from SHODAN and another from : cyborg Diego. : : : There was also supposed to be another log on this level from one of the : cyborgs reporting that they were successful in catching her but it was : cut. : Text: “Per orders from Diego CY-001, Schuler unit has been captured by : cyborg warriors and stored in a special containment cell on the bridge. : Schuler unit is an enemy to the great scheme of our Lord SHODAN. We are : holding Schuler unit for further study and possible neuro-disassembly. : For SHODAN’s glory, we meld our output.” : Audio: “Per orders from Diego CY-001, Schuler unit has been captured. : Schuler unit presently being transported to detainment cell on bridge. : Schuler unit being held for further study and possible neuro-disassembly. : We await SHODAN’s triumphant empire. EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! : EXTERMINATE!” : I’m just joshing on that last part but the audio for this cyborg really does : sound a lot like the Daleks. : https://shodan.fandom.com/wiki/Schuler_Captured : : : This means on the bridge, the Central Control Room will be bathed in : radiation. The cyborg elite guards on the original western box art appear : for the first and only time there, protecting SHODAN’s cyberspace : terminal. Now for the final full cyberspace terminal before the final : boss. : : : That cyberspace switch opens the detention block i.e. jail cells on another : floor on this level. In the original floppy disk version of System Shock : Classic, that switch is missing, rendering the prison inaccessible. : : : : Behold! The final CPU servers of the entire game. We need to blow them to : lower security enough to access the other passages around the level up : more grav lifts. : : Now we’re locked and loaded. In the power station on the ground floor, : there’s a log saying that while security 2 bots are charging, it drains : power from the lights and doors. You can hit a charge interrupt button to : unlock the doors and turn the lights back on as well as the robots. We : want to destroy them while they charge. : : The plasma pinballs through all the bots but they activate anyway once enough : of them are destroyed. Most I dealt with so turning them on and unlocking : the grav lift door doesn’t matter. In the next floor, virus mutants come : out of cells on the sides and a mutated cyborg attacks from the far end. I : also snipe a cyborg assassin on the central column before he sees me. A : man named Brocail who worked on SHODAN originally radios me as soon as I : enter the room. : : : : SHODAN considers herself the grand intellect now does she? The nearby room is : the prison. Mutants, mutated cyborgs and cyborg enforcers are in the : cells. One virus mutant has a ton of pills around him in his cell. There : was supposed to be an audio log talking about chasing a dermal patch/pill : trafficking ring but it was also cut. : : : This is a cool room. In a similar room next door is the switch that turns on : the light bridge through the energy drain mines to the central elevator : shaft. : : Full disclosure here: it’s entirely possible to use the jump jet boots to fly : between the energy drain mines from below to the doorway and skip pretty : much the entire level. That’s what I did when I first played via System : Shock Portable as I didn’t understand this was the exit & not a : secret, and streamer Onolumi did it this way too when she played System : Shock. : : I’d assume those are the primary engines of the Space Colony Citadel’s : bridge. If I don’t hurry up that ladder, I’ll be roasted in the exhaust : blast. At the top is the service elevator to the Central Control Room. : : : : : The metallic biological growth from Diego’s quarters on the Executive level : is in the vestibule by the elevator. No sooner do I reach for the doors : does Diego appear behind me and for the last time. I power up my shields : and make him my bitch with the plasma rifle. : : : : : Of course. One last sneaky trap. Looting their bodies and taking Diego’s : personal access card, I take the final elevator to the Central Control : Room. Next stop: killing SHODAN!
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