Even allowing for messing around with bugs I made a lot of progress on System Shock yesterday so this will be a lengthy post.

I started out by following the advice to complete levels 4 & 5 before attempting 6 so I headed back down to level 4 which is the storage level.  There are the usual new collection of critters including these flying mutants.

I stumble upon the healing chamber quickly. This will make life a lot easier.

I find the room full of CPU nodes in no time.  Its well guarded but my lightsabre weapon seems to chew through any of the games enemies in no time. The only trick is getting close enough to use it.

I come across an area where I have to jump between gaps to attempt to get to the far side of this room. Down below is a pit full of mutants ready for me if I fall.

At the far side is a room full of all sorts of goodies including plastique which I’ll be needing later.

Another area has a set of anti-gravity pads only some of them don’t have any effect unless you hit them a long way off the ground. Its a bit of a 3D maze where I have to find the right route after flipping a few levers.

What I’m really looking for it this environmental suit I’ve been hearing about since Level 2. I get a log which did have the combination on to open a storage room with the suit behind it. Unfortunately its garbled and I can only hear the first number.

I find another log which gives me the last number. There may be another somewhere with the middle one but I can live with keying in 10 numbers and just guess instead.

The environmental suit is inside along with a few other goodies.

I finish off exploring the level and find some jump jets which I can use to rocket myself upwards and reach inaccessible areas. I’ve not used these a whole lot but they do come in handy occasionally although at a huge energy cost.

I head for level 5 and get another email from the survivors trying to make there way off the station.

The level is where all the spaceships dock so its full of big docking areas like this one.

Ther is a button puzzle here where these buttons affect the bridge you can faintly see in the background with each button turing some bits on and others off. I don’t manage to complete the bridge but leave it with a single gap I can just jump over.

Shodan has set a trap for me in one corner of the level, although in all honesty its not much more dangerous than most other rooms. I kill off the guards and use the cyberspace node in here.

I unlock a bay door while I’m in cyberspace and pick up a few new bits of software. The cubes that have blue lines around them are protected by ICE which I have to use my drill on. If the drill software isn’t sufficently high version the ICE starts attacking me and since its invulnerable I just have to leave it. No doubt I can come back later.
 

The life pods are on this level but I can’t use them yet. No doubt I’ll be back later.

I finally find the healing chamber near by. Finding these is a key point on any level and it all becomes very easy as soon as I do.

I follow a series of “Grays” on the walls…

and make it to whats left of the people who have been emailing me. The biggest robot yet is guarding the room. I hide round the corner and magpulse it into submission.

I get a new assault rifle for my trouble.

There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot to do on Level 5 after this point so I head back for level 6. This level had 4 groves on it (1 of which has been jettisoned). Shodan is using Beta Grove to grow her mutagen and I need to eject it from the ship. I can’t eject it until I’ve set all the other groves to eject also thanks to a bit of rewiring from Shodan so my first job here is to head to all these groves and flip a switch.

I head into my first grove. They may look green and pleasant but there are loads of mutant plants and the like around to make life difficult for me.

After a lot of exploring I find the switch I need to press.

Its back to level 6 – I find the much needed cryo chamber.

I’ve got a bit more background story. Edward Diego apparently lured all the crew of this level into the dining room and then sold them out to Shodan. I’m unclear as to what his motives are but it appears he either wanted this to happen or is playing along to save his own bacon.

I find another cyberspace area and unlock a storage closet.

The creatures guarding cyberspace keep getting tougher but on the whole its not too difficult as I can just keep trying. The only major problem I have is if I try to deice something and can’t manage it.

I head for another grove and flip another switch.

There is some sort of open air cinema for the executives on this level. Its one of the most dangerous areas on the level now with a lot of cyborgs around.

I find a maintenance access area down in the SE of the level.

This gets me to the CPU node room.

and also further on to an exceptionally well guarded area which is tough enough before I run into this dual lightsabre wielding guy. I resort to using my magpulse and about 10 hits later he’s down.

The master jettison control is here. I try flipping it but I just get a message telling me that I haven’t done all the groves yet.

The last grove remaining is beta grove. This place is toxic and even with my environmental suit I use a lot of the health packs and batteries I’ve been carrying around for the last few levels.

The button I need to press is actually right by the entrance. I don’t find it until after I’ve cleared out all the camera’s and got into the secure area on the grove. All the 3 groves have this sort of area which is inaccessible until all the cameras are down.

It’s back to the master control switch only nothing happens….. I’m supposed to get a message about a relay failure at this point. I spend ages trying stuff out and getting nowhere, then resorting to looking at a walkthrough to see whats supposed to happen. I then search the web to see if anyone has ever had the same problem. I don’t find anyone although there are a few people around who have run into other gamebreakers and some much later in the game.

I would have had to play the game through from the start again but Natreg comes to the rescue with a savegame from near the start of Level 6. I don’t bother going for the secure areas of the groves this time around but just dash through as quick as possible. I’m back where I was in no more than about 20 mins – without this savegame I expect I’d have had to spend most of the day replaying.

I’m glad to say that this time everything goes as it should and I get the message when I flick the switch. I have to head down to level 3 and fix a relay before using the switch again. The maintenance doors are now unlocked on this level.

There is a relay analyser in the NW. What I have to do is run round finding relays all of which have a 3 digit number. I then come back here, type the number in and it tells me if its faulty. I literally have to examine every single relay before I find the right one. I don’t know if this is by design or if its bad luck. The analyser tells me to fix it with an interface demodulator (whatever one of those is).

I find a pile of them in the middle room and pick one up.

I use this on the relay – it works so its back to level 6 again.

This time the switch works.

I head back to beta grove to pull the jettison switch but Shodan is attempting to stop me with a hoard of mutants.

I scythe my way through and pull the switch…

The offending grove is flung out into space.

Shodan has yet another backup plan and is now attempting to download herself into Earths computers. I need to head for Level 7 and blow up the 4 trasmitters to stop this. I need to get plastique from the storage level to do this.

I head back for storage. I notice the area with the big gaps now has intermittent bridges. I don’t know where these came from so I guess Natreg found a switch that I didn’t. They don’t help much anyway and I resort to jumping. I grab 4 lots of plastique at the other side.

I enter level 7 and get an email from Shodan giving me a fond farewell.

This level is pretty dangerous and I resort to using some of my powerups that I’ve been ignoring up until now such as my berserk. It has a serious effect on my vision.

I explore half the map before I find a healing chamber with a nearby healing bed. I have to keep away from this as its mined but I can get near enough to use it.

The CPU nodes are in a highly radioactive area. I dash through this as quick as I can without worrying about taking out all the cyborgs.

This has to be the biggest level so far. I spend ages finding my first transmitter. I have to open the panel on the back of it and then use the plastique.

Shodan invites me to stay a while by setting up a barrier as soon as I do this. I get killed but I’m ok having already found this levels cryo chamber.

I work my way through the 4 transmitters. Another problem solved – now I need to destroy the station. I’m told I need the station code to do this and will have to type this into the reactor down on level R. I need to look for Willard Richie on this level to get the code.

I spend a while searching around at this point. At the end of this corridor is a pile of debris with a cunningly hidden level 3 environment suit which will come in handy.

I find Richie’s remains and a log. I need to get the code from the CPU rooms somehow.

Out of curiosity I have a quick look at level 8 but the door in is locked so I can’t get anywhere.

So I head for the first CPU room on level 6. There is a screen in here with a number. I now need to try to find the numbers from floors 1-5. This would be easier if I could remember where the rooms were and I spent about 15 minutes wandering around level 5. This seemed a good point to stop as now I’ve written this up and have screenshots with little maps in the corner for most of the node rooms. Finding them all should be a lot easier today.

Going through all those levels again is a bit of a chore – it forces you to track down all the nodes but I’ve already done that and if I’d known about this number earlier I could have gotten it first time around. Having said that, this isn’t my save game and I’ve no idea if the number is always the same so it may not have made any difference.

I can’t believe I’ve run into another game breaking bug. This would have been at least the 3rd Origin game I’d had to replay most of if it wasn’t for Natreg. As it is I’m still enjoying it but this might not have been the case otherwise. Provided I don’t run into any more problems I’m optimistic about finishing this up tonight but I’ve still got 2 full levels to do after I finish getting codes and blowing up the reactor.