9 Underrated Horror Games You Must Play Before You Die
5. System Shock 2
What it is: Picking up just shy of a century after the original game, Irrational Games' sequel charts the maiden voyage of the Van Braun into unknown space and its subsequent discovery of a distress beacon that should have been left well enough alone. A parasitic species of worms accompanies the distress call's first responders back to their ship and proceeds to infect and mutate all but one (spoilers: that's you) crew member.
It's left to you, nameless soldier, to stop the infection from reaching Earth, even if that means confronting its malevolent creator.
Why it's scary: Credited, as it is, for being the spiritual predecessor to BioShock (Ken Levine worked on both), System Shock 2 was leagues ahead of its time, a forward-thinking design philosophy that gamers apparently weren't ready for at the time, as sales bombed. Today, it's beginning to show its age, but if you ever found yourself deeply unsettled by the latter's dystopian underwater city and its crazed Splicers, System Shock 2 is worth the look, if for nothing else than to meet its iconic villain.
The alternative is to wait for Night Dive Studios to finish up work on its quasi-remake, though who knows when that project will finally reach fruition.