Irrational Games was given the difficult task of creating a worthy successor to the cult-classic original, and the new development company has responded by delivering a game that both retains the best attributes of its predecessor and provides a fresh experience in its own right. Yet it was precisely because of its creative design that it is now commonly, belatedly, regarded as one of the best computer games ever made. In fact, System Shock was a game that defied pigeonhole classification because it borrowed elements and themes from a variety of genres.
Other players dismissed it as a derivative first-person role-playing game that arrived on retail shelves just after a parade of Wizardries and Might and Magics. Some erroneously discounted it as a Doom clone, even though it was actually the offspring of a line of games that preceded any of id Software's first-person shooters. But when it first released in 1994, gamers overlooked Looking Glass's groundbreaking game despite favorable reviews. Contrary to popular gaming lore, the original System Shock was not a commercial failure and sold over 170,000 copies over time.
