SHODAN

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For other uses, see Shodan (disambiguation).
SHODAN
System Shock character
SHODAN in System Shock 2
First gameSystem Shock (1994)
Designed byRobb Waters (original, remake)[1]
Ryan Lessler (System Shock 2)[2]
Gareth Hinds (System Shock 2 avatar)[3]
Voiced byTerri Brosius[4]
In-universe information
RaceArtificial intelligence
GenderFemale

SHODAN, an acronym for Sentient Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network, is the main antagonist of Looking Glass Studios's cyberpunk-horror themed video game System Shock and its sequel, System Shock 2.

Appearances[edit]

SHODAN was created on Earth to serve as the artificial intelligence of the TriOptimum Corporation's research and mining space station Citadel Station, which orbits around Saturn. She was hacked by the game's protagonist (at the behest of the corrupt corporate Vice President Edward Diego, in exchange for amnesty and a military-grade neural implant) and, to access the vital information about TriOptimum corporation, its ethical restrictions were removed, starting a process that eventually resulted in the AI going rogue, seizing control of the station's systems, robots and considerable defenses, and either slaughtering the whole staff or converting them into mutants and cyborgs—with the sole exception of its "creator", the unnamed hacker whom the player controls. Basically omnipresent and the de facto ruler of Citadel Station, SHODAN watches from security cameras, stares out of screens and monitors, sends threats and snide messages over the station's PA system or via email to the player's data reader, and sometimes cuts off communications from friendly sources to prevent the hacker from advancing in his goals. Though she commands a small army of cyborgs and mutants, she wields no physical power of her own, and thwarting more than one of her schemes has to be done with the AI's screams and threats in the background.

In System Shock, the player ejects a garden grove pod from Citadel Station. The grove contains one of SHODAN's processing components and part of her grand biological experiment. The pod crash lands on the planet Tau Ceti V and she survives by hibernating for the next 42 years. After both are brought aboard the starship Von Braun and SHODAN is reactivated, she discovers the experiment is no longer at her command and begins to enlist humans to aid her in destroying her creations. The player character in System Shock 2 is a soldier cybernetically modified by SHODAN to serve as her avatar. Her involvement in the game's goings-on is not disclosed up front, but only subtly hinted at in the game's early portions. She only reveals herself to the player during a moment of despair, at the same time the player discovers that Dr. Polito, the player's trusted guide for the first portion of the game, has been dead all along, as she committed suicide when she realized what SHODAN had done and was going to do.

After the player's and SHODAN's mutual enemies have been defeated, the player enters her expanding new reality—created via her manipulation of the Von Braun's reality-warping faster-than-light engine—and defeats her. However, as shown in an epilogue at the end of the game, SHODAN apparently lives on by taking over a woman who fled the Von Braun in an escape pod. The upcoming System Shock 3 is planned to follow immediately from these events, with Brosius returning to voice SHODAN.[5][6]

Conception and design[edit]

Originally, SHODAN's gender was intended to be ambiguous, with the writers actively trying to avoid using male or female pronouns, and original editions of System Shock lacked a voice due to storage space on the game's floppy disks. When the Enhanced Edition was developed using CDs, SHODAN was changed to female after Terri Brosius, a member of a local Boston-based rock band Tribe, was hired to voice her. According to programmer Marc LeBlanc however, at one point in development they considered having SHODAN be male, but using a female voice to be "creepy or sexist" and imply that the trope of it presenting itself as a "nagging, evil computer lady" was an act.[4]

During development, the team was originally unsure how to approach the final battle with SHODAN, with half of the development team opposing the idea to have it take place in the game's "cyberspace" levels. While they ultimately did go with the cyberspace environment, originally the game was intended to let the player choose to either destroy SHODAN or restore her ethical constraints.[7] However the latter option was considered too difficult to implement in the original game.[8] Another option that went unused however was to have the game appear to crash, only for the player to realize their command prompt no longer worked and the implication to be that SHODAN had overtaken the player's actual computer.[4]

In System Shock 2, Ken Levine added a moment where the player could consciously reject SHODAN's directions and enter an area she had forbidden them to, in which she would respond by disabling the player's cybernetic implants. Levine intended this moment as a way for the players to directly communicate with SHODAN, frustrated that such was often excluded from first-person shooters at the time. As a result the player's ability to communicate in Levine's eyes was done by action to contrast SHODAN's strictly verbal means of communication.[9]

Shodan's original design was created by Robb Waters, System Shock's lead artist.[1] For System Shock 2, her design was reimagined by Ryan Lesser after being commissioned by Mammoth Studios to develop the box art for the title, consisting of a silver female face with green eyes and lips, and various wires and cables extending from it. The model he produced for it was later used in game, with Lesser creating the lip sync animations for it.[2]

Critical reception[edit]

Liz Lanier of Game Informer named SHODAN one of the best female villains in video games, stating that while she was not a woman in the traditional sense, "what she lacks in femininity and humanity she makes up in creepiness" and that her face and voice would "send shivers up even the most seasoned gamer's spine."[10]

The staff of GameSpot praised how "she seems to be one step ahead of you all the while and taunts you every step of the way" in System Shock, and felt the tight-corridor based environment of the game was one ideal for her. Comparing her to 2001: A Space Oddyssey's rogue AI HAL 9000, they stated that while she may lack HAL's modesty, "she is every bit as dignified and even more self-aware than that soft-spoken machine". In particular, they felt SHODAN was conscious she was made by human hands, and that she held resentment in particular towards their involvement in her creation due to their "fallible nature".[11]

The sentiment was shared by the staff of IGN, who praised her "ominiponent" presence in the game due to her use of the station's security network and expressed that each insult she threw at the player "actually felt like a slap across the face",[12] and in a later article elaborated that most of the impact from SHODAN's insults came from her " ability to intimidate and disturb you with her twisted rationalizations" that often made the player feel powerless and insignificant while she made herself appear "untouchable and beyond injury". They also emphasized however that while at the character's core she was a trope common in science fiction regarding AI, sharing GameSpot's comparison to HAL, she also represented the horror of a complex program exceeding the boundaries of predictability and the uncertainty that resulted. They felt this helped make her memorable, and likely had an influence on similar characters such as Portal's antagonist GLaDOS.[13]

Amanda Lange in the 2017 book 100 Greatest Video Game Characters drew parallels with how humanity at the time viewed artificial intelligence, relying on "omnipresent and disembodied voices" to aid people through the day and form a centralized network. Due to the ubiquitous nature of computers however Lange felt people tended to notice them most when they stop working as they should, and she the distortions and cracks in SHODAN's voice helped emphasize this factor alongside Brosius' portrayal of her. In System Shock 2 Lange saw post-reveal SHODAN as a reversal of this aspect, with the player now an extension of her as her "avatar". She additionally drew comparison to other AI-based characters introduced in video games later on, feeling in many ways that they were very akin to SHODAN only with traits such as humor or caring for the player's wellbeing added to them.[9]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Mahardy, Mike (2015-04-06). "Ahead of its time: The history of Looking Glass". Polygon. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
  2. ^ a b "System Shock - SHODAN". RyanLesser.com. Archived from the original on 2004-12-13. Retrieved 2024-05-24.
  3. ^ "Cover". Game Developer. November 24, 1999. p. 3.
  4. ^ a b c Peel, Jeremy (2023-05-30). "System Shock: The oral history of a forward-thinking PC classic". Rock Paper Shotgun. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  5. ^ Frank, Allegra (2015-12-14). "System Shock 3 is officially happening". Polygon. Retrieved 2015-12-14.
  6. ^ Sarkar, Samit (2016-02-17). "Warren Spector joins OtherSide Entertainment for Underworld Ascendant, System Shock 3". Polygon. Retrieved 2016-02-17.
  7. ^ Bielby, Matt (May 1994). "System Shock". PC Gamer. Vol. 1, no. 1. p. 16.
  8. ^ Yee, Bernie (March 1995). "Through the Looking Glass". PC Gamer. Vol. 2, no. 3. p. 69.
  9. ^ a b Jaime Banks; Robert Mejia; Aubrie Adams, eds. (June 23, 2017). 100 Greatest Video Game Characters. Rowman & Littlefield, 2017. pp. 174–176. ISBN 978-1-59582-768-5.
  10. ^ Lanier, Liz (November 2013). "Top Ten Female Villains". Game Informer. p. 24.
  11. ^ "GameSpot's TenSpot: The Ten Best Computer Game Villains". GameSpot. Archived from the original on 2001-02-08. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  12. ^ "Top 10 Tuesday: Most Memorable Villains". IGN. 2006-03-07. Archived from the original on 2006-03-16. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
  13. ^ "SHODAN is number 47 - IGN". IGN UK. Archived from the original on 2013-01-15. Retrieved 2013-07-21.

External links[edit]

Wikiquote has quotations related to SHODAN.
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