The article was promoted 18:43, 15 May 2007.
Self-nomination. I rewrote and heavily added to this article, which is currently classified as a good article. Prior to this nomination, the article was subject to a peer review by WikiProject Video games, the suggestions of which I integrated into the article. I find the article to be worthy of featured status, but will endeavor to correct any issues that may be found over the course of this nomination. JimmyBlackwing 00:09, 18 April 2007 (UTC) reply
In 1993, id followed up Wolfenstein with Doom, signaling the age of first-person shooters. Though well-made, Doom and its knock-offs were relatively primitive; they were designed on a single plane, involved little actual environmental interaction, and weren't even really 3D. Building on Underworld, Looking Glass responded with its own "anti-FPS" of sorts, a first-person adventure game called System Shock. Unlike Doom, the player could pick up and throw items, or store them in a massive inventory. Since the game involved real 3D space, the player could look around, climb, duck, jump, and even lean to the side. The flip side of all this control is that the game was confusing as hell to get into. And again, you needed a monster machine to run it. Result: even fewer people really noticed the game.
Van Gogh's sad tale is not unlike that of Looking Glass Studios' System Shock, which is without a doubt one of the most original, playable, and immersive computer games ever created. The trouble is, at the time of its release, no one (myself included) could be bothered to notice. System Shock came and went whilst everyone was busy killing each other in Doom II, and the title slipped off the radars of all but the most ardent gamers. But those lucky few were in for a treat -- they had unexpectedly stumbled upon what was to be the best computer game of 1994. Sure, that's a bit of a bold statement, but read on to find out why System Shock deserves nearly every accolade we can think of, and then some.