Oh, I'm so glad you posted about System Shock 2 :) I'll be honest, I turned the monster spawning off with the patch. It just didn't make any sense to me - this is an enclosed environment with a limited number of people in it; there shouldn't be an infinte number of anyone coming from anywhere. I also turned the weapon degradation way down. I think the thing that bugs me about "limited resources + infinite respawning" is the fact that this design means I'll probably die through no fault of my own, and nothing turns me off more than that. Having to leave enemies alive behind me (especially when I know I'm probably going to have to backtrack) also annoys me - I tend to have an "everything dies" policy when I play games like this (which made Thief and Thief II very interesting experiences for me). But I don't think that's invalid - if I really WERE in that situation, I'd want to make sure everything that could possibly kill me was stone cold dead before moving on. Of course, I loved the game overall; I've beaten it three or four times now. I even (blush) wrote up an incredibly geeky comparison of the character creation and advancement systems in System Shock 2 and Deus Ex; if you wish to read it, it's here: http://home.austin.rr.com/salters/03-01-2002.htm