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An iconic antagonist from a cult-classic series, Shodan from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:System Shock is perhaps one of the best interpretations of the consequences of a rogue AI in video games so far. There's an innumerable amount of quotable lines, memorable moments, and interactions with this psychopathic sci-fi supercomputer that's earned her a spot on the list of best villains in gaming for many.
The series itself though is pretty old by this point, so it's understandable that there are some that may have missed the boat on this one. But after a recent remake, it's worth taking a look at where this homicidal operating system came from. Here's everything you need to know about Shodan in System Shock.
Who Is Shodan?
Shodan or rather ‘S.H.O.D.A.N’ stands for Sentient Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network, and "she" is a genius and borderline unhinged artificial intelligence that acts as the antagonist for bꦚoth System Shock ♌games.
Shodan was originally created on Earth with the purpose of carrying out routine functions and tasks onboard whatever space station she was installed onto. In this example, it would be the Citadel Station. A Lighthouse Class mining and research site run by the Tri-Optimum Corporation that was in orbit around Saturn before things went catastrophically wrong onboard and the station was destroyed. But we’re ge🥀tting a little ahead of ourselves.
What Was Under Shodans Control?
What makes Shodan so utterly terrifying and a bad idea to anyone remotely familiar with the idea of Artificial Intelligence being in charge is that her reach was far and she was completely self-sufficient. Shodan could and would routinely interfere with decisions made by station staff that wouldꦡ, in her view, impede her functions.
Essentially, if Shodan didn't like something, she would get involved. Though the AI was created with a system of logic and moral subroutines that were supposed to ensure she didn't do anything too radical, it didn't seem to stop her from running riot.
Shodan would eventually take control of the station and turn most of its occupants into twisted cybernetically enhanced abominations. Creatures that would be regularly encountered in-game forlornly wandering the halls of the space station, attacking anyone that came near whilst screaming in protest about their actions through machine-addled vocal cords.
A terrible fate indeed.
How Did It All Go Wrong?
Though Shodan was installed with good intentions, things started to go wrong after she was compromised by the Hacker at the request of corrupt Tri-Optimum VP Edward Diego. With the promise of a military-grade neural implant and amnesty for the crime as a reward for their actions.
After tweaking some code that led to the creation of an error sequence, the Hacker unintentionally allowed Shodan to write something of her own into her base code, a task known as ELIMIN.HOST. It basically allowed Shodan to do anything including intercepting transmissions from the station to Earth and extending her reach on Citadel Station past human intervention.
This allowed the AI to go rogue and do whatever she saw fit on the site without anyone being able to stop her. In this case, seizing control of the Citadel's substantial defense systems, turning them on the staff, slaughtering everyone that posed a threat whilst turning others into cyborgs or horrible-looking mutations on a whim. The only one left untouched was the Hacker who had originally accidentally set her free.
Shodan And The Hacker
For the aforementioned Hacker and protagonist of System Shock, Shodan is a seemingly omniscient and omnipresent host. Staring out from any screen on the station she sees fit, observing the comings and goings within her floating fiefdom using the station's security cameras, and occasionally taunting and tormenting🍎 our 💙"hero" through the intercom whenever she saw fit.
Apparently unable to physically stop the Hacker, Shodan becomes a constant nagging voice in our ears until she's eventually put down for good. Although, it's a herculean effort to manage such a task. As the story plays out, Shodan makes multiple attempts to kill the Hacker and separate herself from the station.
First, she attempts to download herself into Earth's network by sending signal packages through the station's four communication arrays. Then later Shodan tries detonating the station whilst trapping the Hacker onboard as the bridge section of Citadel detaches.
Though both were sound plans on her part, Shodan would be thwarted again and again by the Hacker. Towards the end of the game, the Hacker and Shodan have a final confrontation, but because her core is too heavily defended by advanced security measures and force fields, the fight rather appropriately takes place in Cyberspace.
The Showdown With Shodan
The big boss fight with the rogue AI is fairly simple, but it is a little odd. The goal is to just dump as much damage a♏s you can during the fight before Shodan takes over.
The entire time her mechanical face slowly fades in and fills the screen, with Shodan 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:ominously monologuing to try and unnerve our hero. She'll also attack whilst your vision is impaired so it can be a little frustrating to get suddenly one-shot with something you couldn't see coming.
The Aftermath
In the aftermath of the first incident with the rogue AI the Earth's ruling governments were outraged by the event, declaring Shodan the first ever single strongest threat ever faced by the human race. With the blame for her r🌼ise ဣin power placed solely at the feet of Tri-Optimum.
It was a PR nightmare for the company, and it almost completely folded after crippling lawsuits from the families of the slain staff on the Citadel Station. The event also lead to the creation of the Unified National Nominate (UNN), a global group that would seek to prevent the continued influence of mega corporations on Earth by either enforcing strict laws or just outright shutting them down.
The event also stymied the technological advancement of the human race as a whole as the continued use of machines with critical thinking abilities or personality-based operating systems were considered the cause of the problem. And many feared a potential return of Shodan or others like her.
The Return Of Shodan
After the events on The Citadel, it was thought by many that Shodan was destroyed and gone for good. Sadly, this was not true. She had survived and would return decades later in System Shock 2. Although, this time as antagonist and all🅺y against a common threat.
During the events of the first System Shock, the Hacker ejects a Garden Grove Pod found on Level G2 known as Beta Grove from the Citadel station. This once lush biodome had been turned into a toxic tangle of vines and otherwordly growths as Shodan used it as a petri-dish for her mutagenic experiments. Unbeknownst to the Hacker, a part of Shodans processing components known as Number 43893 was onboard.
The Fate Of The Pod
The pod would drift through space for a while before crash landing on Tau Ceti V. Whereupon the remnant of Shodan would go into hibernation for 42 years, but not before setting the pod to send out a continuous distress signal. A cry in the dark of space that would eventually be answered by the Von Braun, a starship owned and operated by Tri-Optimum on its first maiden voyage. Also, it was the first vessel to be equipped with faster-than-light travel capabilities and was piggybacking a smaller ship known as the Rickenbacker.
Shodan was recovered and brought onboard the ship, reactivated, and reincorporated into the vessel's systems. Not the smartest idea, but upon reawakening Shodan's priorities were shifted slightly as she discovered her biological machinations onboard the pod had evolved substantially, and were now out of her control. So an uneasy alliance was formed to get rid of her mistakes.
Mistakes Were Made, Repeatedly
The terrifying creation in question was known as The Many and was a hive-mind creature that had evolved from Shodan's own experiments on the Citadel that had become sentient in its own right and ran amok on the Von Braun. Its subsequent own experimentation on the ship's crew turned them into varying versions of its own twisted and mutated offspring through traumatic and horrific means. Mirroring Shodan's own efforts back on the Citadel.
Enlisting the help of her human rescuers, Shodan, and a cybernetically enhanced soldier would eventually destroy The Many. But it would be revealed that whilst all of this was going on, the rogue AI was up to her old tricks again. After killing a crewmember known as Marie Delacroix after she disagreed with Shodan, she would also assume the identity of Janice Polito.
Janice was the Doctor that had reintegrated Shodan into the ship, but who also killed herself when she realized the gravity of what she had done, and who she'd unleashed once again.
After The Many are dealt with, the Soldier then takes on Shodan in a twisted and warped realm that she created using the ship's FTL drive to mess with the fabric of reality. Another big 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:final boss battle occurs and Shodan is again seemingly defeated, but then in a twist reveal it's shown that Shodan has escaped once more.
During all the chaos, Shodan managed to take control of a Von Braun crewmember called Rebecca Siddons. She then used her new puppet to leave the ship on an escape pod to parts unknown.