How does a game released in 1999 play today?

Freaking damn good..

The game in question is System Shock 2 and after finding patches for XP and such I got the game installed, and started playing it.

Now if you have not played System Shock 2, you missed out on what is considered the greatest PC game of all time. A FPS / RPG Hybrid (the first real one) that actually scarred people so bad they stopped playing it. People who are scared of spiders actually complained due to the scary spiders in the game so much that some people made a patch to remove them.

About the game

System Shock 2 starts in 2114, forty-two years after the events in System Shock, with the TriOptimum starship Von Braun serving as its main setting. The Von Braun is on its maiden voyage as the first faster-than-light starship in human history, and is joined by a Unified National Nominate (UNN) military starship, the Rickenbacker, an armed escort for the journey into the unknown.

Five months into the voyage, the player (an unnamed UNN soldier stationed on the Rickenbacker), wakes up in a cryo-tube on the medical deck of the Von Braun, with a new cybernetic interface system, and no memory of the past few weeks. Despite this amnesia, it immediately becomes apparent that both the Von Braun and the adjoining Rickenbacker have been taken over by a mysterious alien force, one that has already killed or absorbed into its ranks the majority of the former crew.

The player is contacted by a survivor, Dr. Janice Polito. She explains the situation, and demands that the player make his way up to her through the occupied ship in order that they may take the next course of action against the unknown invaders. With Polito as a guide, the player sets out, all the while piecing together various clues to discover what has really happened. From the audio logs of slaughtered crewmembers, and occasional transmissions from Polito herself, the true nature of the alien infestation – and its source – is gradually revealed.

Basically that is all you need to know about the game and that it is scary as hell.

How scary? Well playing in my bedroom with the lights out and just the screen to light up my game playing I jumped several times, when a damn monkey broke out of its area, hearing the mutants in the back ground, random things like explosions.. pretty damn freaking scary,  the best music and sound design, even better then games made today.

Now we will never see a System Shock 3 because of legal issues, but Bioshock, coming to PC and 360 is made by the same guys and has been touted as a spiritual sequel.

Here is some game play for SS2
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMZoC9RVrQ0[/youtube]

and BIOSHOCK