Ian S Vogel, writer, video game designer and malcontent

System Shock 2

Hub, Spoke and Terror

We’ve sung praises for System Shock 2 time and again and well, we’re not going to stop any time soon. SS2‘s brilliance is especially blinding when you get a chance to peek behind the development curtain, as Eurogamer’s Rick Lane did recently when he spoke to level designer Ian Vogel about the ever-unsettling MedSci deck. I would spend hours with Star Trek blueprints and I would just think about how a game level Read More

System Shock 2

The Shining In Space

It’s one of gaming’s most terrifying introductions. You awake in a cryotube on the medical deck of the spaceship Von Braun. Illegal cybernetics have been implanted into your brain, and your memory has been wiped like a hard-drive. You’re contacted by Dr. Janice Polito, who summarizes the situation. Nearly everyone on the ship is either dead, or infected with a strange organism that mutates them and turns them hostile. There’s Read More