SHODAN
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. An artificial intelligence originally in charge of a research and mining space station, after her ethical constraints are removed, she develops a god complex and goes rogue, killing almost everyone on board before being stopped by the hacker that originally removed her limitations. In the game's sequel System Shock 2, SHODAN returns, temporarily allying herself with a soldier to stop her rampaging creations. She is defeated again afterward by the soldier when she attempts to remake all reality in her vision, but not before transferring her consciousness into a human woman's body. In all appearances, SHODAN is voiced by Terri Brosius.
SHODAN has been praised as one of the best villains in video games, for her persistent presence and taunting nature, and how it drove the player to defeat her. with praise given for the character's voice and Brosius' emotionless portrayal of her. The character's themes and relationship with the player has also been the subject of discussion, particularly her role as a temporary ally in System Shock 2. SHODAN character's themes have been analyzed through the scope of similar characters in fiction and pulp fiction as a whole.
SHODAN was introduced in the 1994 video game System Shock by Looking Glass Studios, where it acts as the artificial intelligence (AI) in charge of the research and mining space station orbiting Saturn. Shortly after a computer hacker removes SHODAN's ethical constraints in order to hasten its work on a mutagenic virus, she believes herself a god and takes control of the station, killing most of the crew and using the virus to turn the survivors into her minions. The player in the role of the hacker from earlier stops SHODAN's attempt to attack Earth with the space station's laser and then prevents her from transmitting herself into Earth's computer network. During the course of the game, SHODAN will taunt the player both verbally and through messages, using the space station's defenses and her minions to impede the player. After destroying most of the space station, the player enters cyberspace, where they fight SHODAN's abstracted form and destroy her.[6] In the 2023 re-release of the game by Nightdive Studios, the final battle with SHODAN is different, with the player instead restoring her ethical constraints and returning SHODAN to her previously docile state.[7]
SHODAN returns in System Shock 2, where she survived by attaching a part of herself to a grove the hacker in the first game had jettisoned from the space station. A passing starship recovers the grove, where the ship is now attacked and taken over by SHODAN's minions who are no longer under her control. When the player's character, a soldier, boards the starship, SHODAN communicates with them in the guise of one of the starship's scientists. After the soldier finds the scientist's long-dead body, SHODAN reveals herself, and offers cybernetic upgrades in an uneasy alliance to defeat her rogue creations. Howver, after the grove is dealt with, SHODAN betrays the soldier and begins to use the ship's faster-than-light engine to warp reality and slowly remake it in her image.[8] The soldier proceeds through areas constructed from SHODAN's memories before battling her core in cyberspace while her humanoid avatar attempts to stop him.[9] The soldier manages to destroy SHODAN's core, but she transfers her consciousness to escape pod, taking over the body of the female passenger and ending the game on a cliffhanger.[10]
