Impressive shadow and lighting effects add atmosphere and even affect gameplay, finding a light source is critical to survival in the early stages of the game.Īt the time the only objective in FPS games, and even now in most cases, is to find the exit to the next level. The engine also allows for some very impressive effects like faking room over rooms, transparent force bridges and security monitors that update in real time. The result is some very detailed environments with a sense of place and purpose to each room in Citadel Station. The engine supports sloped surfaces, unlike Doom, and also supports polygonal models in the environment. You can also lean around corners and duck under obstructions, again not impressive now but very novel ideas at the time.
Items and grenades can be thrown and the player can jump and even scale the sides of obstructions maybe not impressive now but a very big deal back then. This allows the player far more interaction with the environment than most FPS games, where the only interaction is usually with the end of a gun. It’s not as robust as today’s physics engines but back in 1994 this was groundbreaking stuff. Movement of the player and objects are governed by a physics engine. While it can’t match the large open spaces or the sheer number of enemies thrown at you by Doom, in many ways it’s a far more sophisticated engine. System Shock is based on a modified Ultima Underworld engine.
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