What the hell was with all the hype for
Bioshock? Having finally sat down and played through this game, I was incredibly underwhelmed.
To sum it up, it was a ho-hum shooter with an above average storyline and setting. The art style and atmosphere were both great, but certainly don't make up for the unoriginal (even monotonous) gameplay.
Plasmids were dumb. Case in point: Telekinesis. I counted two situations where you had use this ability, and they both came within 20 minutes of finding the power up. Pretty lame considering that you get Telekinesis almost right off the bat, and it's useless throughout most of the game. The only plasmid attack really worth a damn was Lightning, and *maybe* Cyclone Trap in one or two places.
The other semi-rpg elements were shallow and boring. The upgrades never really made me feel that much more powerful. I enjoyed the Camera and taking pictures of enemies for bonuses; but since there are only 7 or 8 different types of enemies in the game, that didn't last long.
As I said before, the story and setting were definitely above average, although the much-touted "morality" aspect of the game was a joke. Either you kill the Little Sisters or you don't. End of story.
Also, what was supposed to be some big critique of Objectivism turned out to be very disappointing. I went in looking forward to the game's take/rational on a failed Utopian society right out of Atlas Shrugged, but instead discovered that Ken Levine doesn't have a very strong grasp on what Objectivism is. This is obvious right off the bat in Andrew Ryan's initial welcoming voice recording when he refers to morality as "petty".
Anyway, if you haven't played this game yet, you aren't missing much. I didn't hate Bioshock, I just feel like all of the hype surrounding it was/is completely unwarranted.
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I would disagree with the final statement. If you've yet to play Bioshock, forget anything you've heard about it and just play it expecting nothing but a video game.
And I beat half-life only using the pistol, whats your point? The plasmids are there, if you don't want to use them you don't have to, but why would you want to deprive yourself of that?
It looks like the problem is with you and not the game.
There was NO choice you made that had a single effect on ANYTHING significant save for an FMV at the end and the powers were mad over-powered.
Sure, the atmosphere that was created was basically palpable but it didn't deserve nearly as much hooplah as it received.
You decide how you play. You decide on your configuration of plasmids. Telekinesis could be used to rech high placed object, trow explosive barrels to clear a path, return projectiles.
Each plasmid increased your play options. It's nott he game's fault you were un-inventive.
Scrixx hates fun confirmed.
(I was unimpressed too -- I didn't hate it, but I felt like I was going through the motions the whole time.)
I can bet you most of the people defending the game played it once, liked it, but will probably never touch it again.
"Telekinesis. I counted two situations where you had use this ability, and they both came within 20 minutes of finding the power up. Pretty lame considering that you get Telekinesis almost right off the bat, and it's useless throughout most of the game."
part of the point of the game is weren't forced to use any plasmid, but could use many for each situation. telekinesis was a great powerful plasmid. throwing things at enemies was a great way to kill enemies and save ammo. also loading up a corpse with mines and tossing it at a big daddy is a great way to knock off half its health. all the plasmids have uses if you CHOOSE to use them.
I highly recommend it to anyone.
Where was this when the game came out?
*yawn*
"I can bet you most of the people defending the game played it once, liked it, but will probably never touch it again."
Bio Shock was one of the only games in the past few years I actually play through more than once. I've played through it 4 times, and just started a 5th play through over the weekend.
Believe me. I was there.
Nice atmosphere, great design, awesome setting. The story probably gets better (all these other people cant be totally wrong) but the first 10 min certainly didnt make me want to suffer through the gameplay. Maybe someday ill trudge through on easy... in any case i hope they tighten the handling up for the next game.
Id like to add that - in the first part of the game (what ive played) it practically forces you to zap n' whack everything. While its certainly true that you can play how you want, the game teaches you very quickly what the most effective strategy is.
Apart from the setting, the story and the plasmids, there isn't much special about the game. In the end it is just a shooter.
It's a really great shooter though.
It was a highly accessible and captivating experience, that will sadly remain unappreciated by many "Hardcore" players because it didn't have weapon deterioration and those ever tiresome stat points.
Also, Yojimbo, I recognize that slam. I thought I was special. T-T
But I didnt find it dissapointing, the enviroment was great and inmersion in the game too, the enemies were kind of the sames ones all along the way (thats not good), and your plasmid opinion is not that great. History wise, it has a dissapointing ending, thats it.
When I finished playing bioshock I kept a silence, if we praise the game so much it has to be because the quality of videogames we get is average to our standards.
A game for hardcore doesnt have to got stats and incredible huge and innapropiate inventories. I agree that ss2 failed in some things, but from having an inventory to have no inventry at all it makes me think that the game is lazy just because it got to be on a console.
I have nothing against console, I understand that a developer wants to atract more people to their product.
But still, it makes me wonder, maybe standards are low because most of the videogame comunity, including the reviewers do their job on consoles and forget about the mighty mouse and keyboard.
You could not be more wrong. I've already played it twice and I'm in the middle of my 3rd playthrough right now.
Personally, I thought the game was really good and replay it every now and then to try different things. But hey this is coming from a guy who kept his copy of Halo 3 which is kinda not cool 'round these parts.
I am curious to hear form the OP what recent games he thinks offer better "gameplay" since that (and the fact that he felt it didn't warrant the hype) is his main gripe.
You're a year later and a buck short.
Playing Bioshock on a PC does not feel right. I thought it might have been my system, but after tabbing out and loading Half Life 2, it ran smooth as silk. So I loaded another game, and it ran fine too. It's not a problem with the hardware, I'm getting 50+fps at all times, but the controls, just, ugh. The plasmids are cool. Overpowered, but nothing that hasn't been seen before, really. You've got electricity that works well on enemies in water, yes, innovative, and telekinesis which works like Valve's Gravity Gun. Ho hum.
So if the controls are shit, the story is interesting (although I wouldn't go so far as to call it good) and the morality aspect is as deep as as a frying pan, and the new powers are cool, and the game is made painfully easy via Vita-Chambers (which can be turned off, thankfully, wouldn't want the X-Box kiddies to cry when they fail) what's left to enjoy? Moving isn't great. The story isn't great (but expecting it to be better than a Bioware RPG was probably a bit much). The morality just...isn't. The weapons aren't fun.
There are better shooters, there are better stories, there are better weapons with better controls. Bioshock does everything somewhat better than average, and if all you can say in praise of it is that is does everything without sucking too hard, then does it really deserve to have its cock sucked so gratuitously?
Bioshock is just crap and everybody who liked it is a fucking moron and who only likes shallow gameplay and boring obectivist themes, who bought in to absolutely NOTHING but hype.
Exactly
Perfect
Great
I will hate it so I can make a blog too.
1.) This is the first time I've been able to play through the game. I originally bought it for my PC at the midnight launch, but my graphics card wasn't up to snuff. I finally got my hands on an Xbox 360 last week, the 360 version of Bioshock with it.
2.) It's funny how 99% of people on this site will hate you if they disagree with you, instead of saying "here is why I disagree"
3.) The hype is really what killed this game for me, which was the point of this post. Without all of the buildup to how OMFG AWESOME this game was I wouldn't have gone in expecting to be blown away.
4.) Metroid Prime 3 was *much* more enjoyable, for those of you who want a comparison. Having not yet played COD4 (just bought it today), my opinion is that Mass Effect was the best game of 2007.
Stripping away the hype, did you like the game? Did you enjoy your own experience or were you just thinking about trying to achieve the experience that other people told you they had? Is that the game's fault?
However, when I saw that same scene on the X-box 360, her mouth isn't moving, none of the spider's spikes go through the metal, and everything feels a little bit less engaging.
I found the FPS elements to be a tad bit lacking, like they needed to do a bit more testing to make sure everything is used equally, but I found myself only running out of ammo in one gun and pulling out a crappier gun. Too much ammo, too. I never felt like I was really going to run out or was in any real danger.
I feel you.