4.5/5 ★ – curt924's review of System Shock 2.

Not quite as tight or consistently tense as the first game, but a damn good follow-up and one with a hell of a lot more replayability considering the rather impressive character-building dynamic of this one. The ending of the game is pretty bad, especially considering how great everything is up until that final hour. This is especially insulting when there's an incredible moment just before the lackluster final boss. But if you can ignore a rushed, poorly designed alien environment à la Xen from HL1, you're in for an incredible experience. Music is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awesome, exploration is incredible, and uncovering the events of the Von Braun is almost as exciting as it was for Citadel Station. I'm very excited to go through the game again with a different playstyle and build to see just how much changes, especially since my "military man" build locked me out of half of the game's arsenal. I'm cautious to hop on the 10/10 train considering the issues I have with System Shock 2, but this is also a game that genuinely had me looking forward to playing it at the end of my work day, and it's been a long time since a game gave me that wonderful feeling.