For: System Shock (Doctor Who)

System Shock is an action role-playing game developed by Looking Glass Technologies and published by Origin Systems. Released in 1994, the game is set aboard the fictional Citadel Station in a cyberpunk vision of 2072. Assuming the role of a nameless hacker, the player attempts to hinder the plans of a malevolent artificial intelligence.

Unlike other first-person games of the time, System Shock features true 3D environments, allowing the player to look up and down, climb, duck, jump, and lean to the side. Critics praised System Shock and hailed the game as a major innovation in its genre. It was later placed on multiple hall of fame lists. Despite its technological feats and critical acceptance, System Shock was outsold by its contemporaries. A sequel, System Shock 2, was released by Looking Glass Studios and off-shoot developer Irrational Games in 1999.

Plot

Before the beginning of the game, the protagonist—a nameless hacker—is caught attempting to remotely access files concerning Citadel Station, a space station owned by the fictional TriOptimum Corporation. The hacker is taken to Citadel Station and brought before Edward Diego, a TriOptimum executive. Diego offers to drop all charges against the hacker in exchange for a confidential hacking of SHODAN, the artificial intelligence that controls the station. To entice cooperation, Diego promises the hacker a valuable military grade neural implant.

After hacking SHODAN, removing the AI's ethical constraints, and handing control over to Diego, the protagonist undergoes a surgery that fits him with the promised neural interface. Following the operation, the hacker is put into a six-month controlled healing coma. The game begins as the protagonist awakens from his coma, finding that SHODAN has commandeered the station. All robots aboard have been reprogrammed for hostility, and the crew have been either transformed into cyborgs, mutated, or killed.

Next, SHODAN begins an attempt to download itself into Earth's computer networks. Following Rebecca's advice, the hacker destroys the four antennae used by SHODAN to prevent the download's fulfillment. Soon after, Rebecca contacts the hacker, revealing that she has convinced TriOptimum to authorize the station's destruction—and giving him details on how to destroy it. After obtaining the necessary codes, the hacker begins the station's self-destruction sequence, and escapes to the life pods.

There, the hacker finds Diego, transformed into a powerful cyborg by SHODAN to guard the pods. The hacker quickly dispatches him and attempts to disembark. However, SHODAN prevents the pod from launching in an attempt to force the player to remain on the station while the bridge—containing SHODAN—is jettisoned to a safe distance. Rebecca tells the hacker that he can still survive if he reaches the bridge; SHODAN then intercepts and jams the transmission. The hacker is still able to find his way to the bridge as it is released from the main station, which soon detonates. The hacker is then contacted by a technician who managed to circumvent SHODAN's jamming signal. The technician informs the hacker that the only path to defeating SHODAN lies in cyberspace, due to powerful physical shields protecting the computers. Using a terminal near SHODAN's mainframe, the hacker enters cyberspace and destroys SHODAN. After his rescue, the hacker is offered a job at TriOptimum, but declines in favor of continuing his life as a hacker.