Bioshock Review

[Killzig]

wrench with all the tonics equipped is a pretty awesome weapon. I leaned heavily on the crossbow/wrench and chameleon tonic. the shotgun served me well through most of the mid game.

If they'd let you deny Fontaine after the Ryan scene and not put that key card in. I would have been happy with that ending. Even if it would have meant half a game.

[Stainless]

Agreed, I would've loved for some alternative way through the game, instead of being rail roaded into talking to that scientist, at least having Fontane using you to get rid of her, etc after Ryan, or Ryan sending you after Fontane instead.

So many missed chances.

[Nicolai]

Picked it up for the xbawks yesterday. Has been tres choutte thus far, plenty of orgasmic gfx to go around.

[popscythe]

If they'd let you deny Fontaine after the Ryan scene and not put that key card in. I would have been happy with that ending. Even if it would have meant half a game.

HEAR HEAR.

Damn, that's a good fucking idea. It should actually start with an alternative ryan scene... For instance if you had enough logs to realize what was going on prior to seeing ryan, you could shake the kindly due to ryans speech and not actually play golf with him. A man chooses, a slave obeys, amirite?

I would have totally, totally loved the rest of the game to then be "spheres are down, make like samus and run the fuck to some emergency shit, then bail.

Goddamn that would have been better.

[Killzig]

easily, fuck tenenbaum and her little zombie children.

[TNP]

Still playing the game, it gets sort of tedious after a while doing the same old shit like hacking and killing bots and splicers. Weapon upgrades are common enough where you don't have to make serious decisions on which weapon to upgrade. Plasmids are cheap enough and you only need a few for the right combo's with all enemies. Example: I use the hologram when fighting big daddies, slam 4 exploding buckshots into his metal ass, use the hologram, reload until he dies. Splicers, I usually freeze in place and then pump them up with anti-personal bullets until they shatter. If I want their loot, I'll just use electricity and shotgun them or use rage and clean up the leftovers.

The highlight of this game: It has pretty graphics and decent, if not unnecessary, upgrade options.

[Killzig]

heh I never used the decoy plasmid until that "omg ur plasmids are haywire" segment. You can avoid a lot of the hacking minigame by researching cameras/bots/turrets which turns those attempts into autohacks. I agree though, they should have done something to mitigate the repetitiveness. The highlight for me was probably the audio diaries and the environment.

[popscythe]

So I just reinstalled SS2 and decided to crack into it super hard for the last 24 hours or so.

Yeah, when I was real excited about bioshock, I was totally summoning up the bastardized, watered down corpse of system shock from my memory, and drooling over it.

Bioshock is a really good movie, which you can like go take a piss at the end of, and not miss anything past Ryan's Wacky Minigolf.

System Shock (2) is a fucking really good video game. It makes me remember how there hasn't been a more complex first person (anything) game made since SS2. The only part of DX that even holds a candle to SS is the improved hacking (more options, camera and turret control with actual options), and Bioshock is like the 1993 remake of invasion of the body snatchers... It has better effects, and the plotline was written by people who had a good idea, and then went to fucking lolipalooza and got advice from 6yo girls about what should be in their game.

So yeah, I very highly advise anyone steal bioshock from the internet, and play the hell out of it. Then, if you find yourself hungry for a video game after that delicious burrito of xbox fried goodness, download system shock 2 with some graphics fixes and such offa demonoid, and enjoy.

Goddamn. My favorite thing about system shock 2 is the fact that it takes no prisoners, you can totally fail at any given point, in character build, or in play. If only the setup wasn't written so there's massive backtracking all over the van braun looking for some goddamn keycard in the dark, it would be *the* video game.

[Mechanurgist]

Yeah, what popsicle said.

Sorry..."what fucking popscythe fucking said is fucking right".

And it looks like people are starting to see right through Bioschlock at last.

And this is one of the funniest reviews I've ever seen.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/article ... n-BioShock

Bioshock is to System Shock 2 what Fallout 3 is to Fallout 2. Slicker and dumber.

[popscythe]

"what fucking popscythe fucking said is fucking right".

You had me at "fucking".

[Stainless]

heh I never used the decoy plasmid until that "omg ur plasmids are haywire" segment. You can avoid a lot of the hacking minigame by researching cameras/bots/turrets which turns those attempts into autohacks. I agree though, they should have done something to mitigate the repetitiveness. The highlight for me was probably the audio diaries and the environment.

I really liked the environment and setting. I don't usually care too much about art direction in games, but it's one of those things in Bioshock that I really like.

The audio diaries I found disappointed in. Where as in System Shock 2 (and 1) you get so many different stories about different things from the martial law to the cyborg maiden creations. In Bioshock you get something like a mini arc every level, and since there's some half a dozen diaries a level it doesn't pan out too expansively like shock did.

[MR Snake]

heh I never used the decoy plasmid until that "omg ur plasmids are haywire" segment. You can avoid a lot of the hacking minigame by researching cameras/bots/turrets which turns those attempts into autohacks. I agree though, they should have done something to mitigate the repetitiveness. The highlight for me was probably the audio diaries and the environment.

I really liked the environment and setting. I don't usually care too much about art direction in games, but it's one of those things in Bioshock that I really like.

The audio diaries I found disappointed in. Where as in System Shock 2 (and 1) you get so many different stories about different things from the martial law to the cyborg maiden creations. In Bioshock you get something like a mini arc every level, and since there's some half a dozen diaries a level it doesn't pan out too expansively like shock did.

I have to say.. I agree with Anal bum cover on that one.

[Killzig]

The audio diaries I found disappointed in. Where as in System Shock 2 (and 1) you get so many different stories about different things from the martial law to the cyborg maiden creations. In Bioshock you get something like a mini arc every level, and since there's some half a dozen diaries a level it doesn't pan out too expansively like shock did.

on the diaries of the level specific characters, yes, you're right. They were mostly just there to add color to the levels. The McClintock and Sullivan (not sure about those names almost 2 weeks later) that gave you the whole story of the civil war from Ryan & Fontaine's sides were the ones that really got me into it. Honestly, without those I probably would have quit somewhere about an hour after the Ryan encounter. An RPG set in the onset of Rapture's decline would be fantastic.

[jetbaby]

I've only played maybe two or three hours but it's pretty cool. Art and architecture and music and whatnot are amazing. When you are in the bubble and see Rapture I just about pissed myself.

[S4ur0n27]

well, just installing the game from an iso is a fucking pain; i'll have deserved the game.

[Stainless]

The McClintock and Sullivan (not sure about those names almost 2 weeks later) that gave you the whole story of the civil war from Ryan & Fontaine's sides were the ones that really got me into it.

I really liked the plumber-turned-councilman ones (can't recall the name). The character alone was really well done. He just had one of those realistic characters that's so rare in a video game, and the things that said/behaved feel in line with what you'd expect him to do.

I didn't like the McClintock ones that much, as you'd hear from her at the start, get through 3/4 of the game before hearing from her again, so she just lacked the kind of impact that Sullivan had.

[popscythe]

didn't like the McClintock ones that much

Not to mention that due to demo spam I got to hear "here's to diane mcclintock, silliest girl in rapture..." like 28 times, now I hate the bitch.

[Koki]

Finally finished, two full days, that'd be like, 21 hours total I think? I probably won't say anything new here but my eyes are fucking burning and I don't want to read all your shit, so here's the rundown: Like SS2, just consolized a tad and too fucking easy. Well actually it's not utterly easy, for example I had serious trouble hitting things in a firefight, but on the other hand hacking is free, or you can use autohack tool(which are plenty - WTF), or even simply pay for it. Because money is absolutely no problem, even though I was playing a "hacker", I used this option quite often just because I had nothing to do with all the money. There are tons of "hidden" items which make you rich too. Even though there is over nine billion plasmids an other shit, the fact that you can swap them around(For free too) makes the character types too soft and is generally lame. Meh, what else? Bosses? Fuck you. I'm tired. And you don't give a fuck anyway. Choke on a dick

[popscythe]

Hey, input!

Thanks buddy. I'll go ahead and stick that in the "in box".

[St. Toxic]

Game wasn't interesting enough to see through to the end. Looked smashing, I'll admit to that, but felt like SS2 with parts ripped out, + Pipedream.