The Sentient Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network, known as SHODAN, is the infamous AI villain of revered action RPG System Shock, as well as the game’s illustrious sequel. With a long-awaited remake of System Shock in development by Nightdive Studios, alongside an upcoming live-action TV series, a new generation of gamers and viewers will soon become well acquainted with the creepy custodian of Citadel Station.
While SHODAN is a memorable character, she is certainly not the only evil AI to capture the imagination of video gamers over the years. It is perhaps unsurprising that a medium that exists thanks to computer technology would frequently feature artificial intelligences as major antagonists in its most famous stories.
The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of SHODAN
System Shock was released in 1994 for PC and Mac, developed by LookingGlass Technologies. The game is set aboard a space station in a dystopian cyberpunk vision of the year 2072, where the player must avoid traps and negotiate puzzles en route to defeating the malevolent SHODAN. The title was hailed by critics as an immersive masterpiece, and PC Gamer declared it the 6th best computer game ever released in 1998.
However, the popularity and simplicity of fellow first-person title Doom compared to System Shock’s more complex and challenging gameplay was felt to have held the title back from achieving a stellar commercial performance. Nonetheless, it spawned a sequel in 1999, when Irrational Games partnered with LookingGlass Technologies to craft a more horror-focused experience, set 42 years after the original. A gripping survival horror story about a psychic hive mind diffused by parasitic worms included a memorable return for SHODAN, and the game is regarded as an all-time classic.
System Shock 2 also helped to lay the groundwork for spiritual successor BioShock, which is still regarded as one of the greatest games ever created. Many of System Shock 2’s gameplay elements, like the wrench that acts as your basic melee weapon, or the audio logs that help to advance the game’s narrative, reappeared in Irrational Games’ underwater epic.
Sadly, much like in the System Shock games, SHODAN was eventually consigned to the cyberspace abyss. The closure of LookingGlass left the intellectual property rights for System Shock in legal limbo, meaning that no more games featuring the sinister sentience were developed for over two decades. All this changed when Nightdive was able to acquire the rights, and its System Shock remake is one of the most eagerly anticipated upcoming titles. Although delays have affected the project, fans remain confident that they will soon see SHODAN resurrected, remastered, and ready to wreak havoc.
Gaming’s Most Horrifying AIs
Alongside SHODAN, many other memorable AI miscreants have pleased (and persecuted) gamers over the years. Evil AIs owe a debt to one of the forefathers of computer malevolence, namely Harlan Ellison’s AM, the Allied Mastercomputer, from 1995 point-and-click horror adventure I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream.
The game is based on the 1967 short story of the same name, which is credited with inspiring Terminator’s Skynet, by depicting a computer system that turns against its human creators. AM develops such a deep-rooted hatred for the human race that it entirely wipes them out, aside from the game’s five hapless protagonists, who it intends to torture mercilessly for the rest of eternity. The AI’s intro sequence “hate speech” is one of the most impactful in gaming history, in part because it is voiced by none other than Ellison himself.
Other AIs have made similarly memorable impacts on gamers. The WAU (Warden Unit) in SOMA is notable not because of its voice — it never directly addresses the player — but because of its actions as the overseer of undersea research facility PATHOS-II. Faced with a situation where all of human life has been wiped out by a comet striking the Earth's surface, the system disturbingly interprets its programming as carte blanche to do anything it can to preserve human life. Players of the survival horror game were deeply unsettled by the extent to which the WAU was prepared to go to allow life to be sustained, no matter how twisted, tortured, and perverse it became.
Another unforgettable AI appearance was made by T.O.M. in 2016’s The Turing Test. In Bulkhead Interactive's game, the Technical Operations Machine has drafted protagonist Ava Turing to a Jupiter moon-base, where it needs her human creativity to assist it in solving the puzzles that the renegade crew have constructed around the base’s center. Although the title was criticized for being heavily influenced by the Portal games, it does feature an ingenious twist that makes T.O.M. fully deserving of a place alongside the most insidious synthetic scumbags of his era.
If The Turing Test did take inspiration from Portal, it is with good reason. The science fiction puzzle game’s iconic computer system, GLaDOS, is renowned as one of the most memorable villains of all time for its cake-withholding cynicism, although its likeable nature also made it an incredibly popular character. Voiced by Ellen McLain, GLaDOS is even the subject of a song that appears in the game’s closing credits. “Still Alive” has gone on to be very popular amongst YouTubers, as well as appearing in the Rock Band games.
If Nightdive is able to pull off a successful reboot of the System Shock franchise, or if the rumored System Shock 3 surfaces, gamers will enjoy becoming reacquainted with one of the most disturbing AI villains ever created. But even if SHODAN never resurfaces, history has shown that it won’t be long before another artificially intelligent video game menace is created to terrorize players.
System Shock is in development for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One.