10 Video Game Heroes Who Accidentally Made Villains MORE EVIL

2. The Hacker - System Shock

system shock shodan
Nightdive Studios

Mere minutes into System Shock, the player character makes a choice which we as players, having consumed our fair share of AI-gone-rogue fiction over the years, know beyond any doubt will be a deeply terrible one.

After being caught hacking at the start of the game, the player is brought before executive Edward Diego and tasked with hacking SHODAN - the AI controlling Citadel Station - in exchange for all hacking charges against them being dropped and the promise of being fitted with a nifty neural implant.

Once you hack into SHODAN, Diego asks you to remove the AI's ethical constraints, calling them an "issue."

And gee, who could've possibly foreseen that when the player subsequently emerges from their six-month healing coma, the now-insane SHODAN has taken full control of the station.

More to the point, they've also reprogrammed all of the station's robots and amassed an army of cyborgs to kill you. By the year 2072, this outcome really should've been thunderously obvious, no?

In this post: 
System Shock
 
First Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.