Bioshock Review Oh glory of glories :)

[Herbert1405241469 0]

Well, it only took me about $1100, but I finally managed to upgrade my new computer so that I could run Bioshock With my old rig, I only could support Shader Model 2.0, which isn't supported (officially) in Bioshock (yet).Let me just say, the intro gameplay, the first 5 or so minutes, are the coolest and awesome moments I've seen in a video game. With DirectX 10 up and running (in vista, argh, I hate vista, but it's almost a necessary evil if I want to get DX 10), the water you find yourself in the first moments of the game... and the fire... HOLY *&^%&$So far, I'm only about 5-6 hours into the game, since I'm taking my time, that's probably not too far. It's pretty linear when you think about it... I would compare it to the original System Shock / System Shock 2. They guide you from one "section"/level to another as the story progresses, and as you go, you unlock that "level" so you can free roam back to it later, if you so feel the need.The mini-cutscenes are a nice touch. You always stay "in character" ie. you don't see cutscenes from a perspective outside your body. I personally love when they do this in a FPS, because it totally adds to the immersion. The first time you get a plasmid is just great haha.Ok, I've been sort of throwing out a lot of stuff that you all may or may not have read about... Here's the basic plot:You are in an airplane that crashes in the Atlantic. Fire, water. You're screwed... but wait! What's this? A very odd looking... Lighthouse? There's nowhere else to go, you go in it. Atmosphere is great... You eventually walk down and find a little submersible called a "bathysphere." Pull the lever, and away we go.A video projector starts playing describing the purpose of "Rapture." What is Rapture, you might ask? when the panel opens back up, you see Rapture in all it's glory... An entire city underwater."It was not impossible to build Rapture under the sea. It was impossible to build it anywhere else." ~Andrew RyanAndrew Ryan rejected all the laws and rules of the topside world... and pulling a sort of Captain Nemo move (20,000 Leagues under the sea reference) he chose to build his city under the sea, where he would not be bothered by anyone... (sort of like Far Cry's islands? haha) Where scientists can perform experiments that would not be regulated. This of course, didn't last. And though Rapture might have all the appearances of porcelain on the outside, the inside is just as crappy as a clogged toilet... I mean, the whole thing fell apart. People are trapped down there, because Ryan won't let them leave. The place is leaking like a submarine with a screen door in it... And you've arrived just in time to join in the post-action fun that is typical of System Shock games. All the "action" has happened already. Rebellions started and squashed. Mutants running around. Chaos. Well, you're bound to change something, let's just hope it's not yourself.Graphically, the game is awesome. I tried the Shader Model 2.0 patch that some fans made for those gamers without SM3.0 cards, but really, there's no way to play it other than using a kickass video card... The game is stunning. The fog effects, the water, the fire. Top notch. The game doesn't look as realistic with the NPCs though... I know they are supposed to be mutants and whatnot, but they look to be almost like plastic in texture... The women's hair is almost solid, unlike the transparent hair you see in Oblivion, for instance. I guess that's just sort of a pet peeve... Some people were complaining the lack of variety of villains, but just playing, there is enough diversity in looks, via different costumes, and accessories, you don't really feel like you're killing off dozens of clones like in some games. Another glitch with the characters is when they die, sometimes their hands or feet will rock back and forth in a waving motion... A glitch from the ragdoll effect I guess, I hope they get a patch out soon.Big Daddies, and Little Sisters... The highlight of the game, according to all the marketing for the game anyway (they're on the cover of the box for cryin out loud). You have to think up strategies for killing Big Daddies... You can't even effect a Little Sister, until the Big Daddy is dead. Then, you are given the choice. You can press one button on your keyboard to collect a parasite in them, to collect stuff called ADAM, or you can "Rescue" the girl for half the ADAM. Harvesting the parasite kills the girl. It's a moral choice, I guess. As a bonus for not getting as much ADAM, if you rescue the girls, you do get rewarded a bit later in the game. The first Big Daddy I faced was a tough mother. Charges like a bull, stomps the ground, shaking and blurring your vision... It is intense. Later you can get it involved with fights with other NPCS and turrents which will help kill it faster. 1 on 1 is near impossible without dying, which leads me to:Dying in the game has no penalty. Some people were complaining about this. Basically, you get killed, and they revive you in a revival chamber. That's it. You could theoretically run through this game, only using a wrench, and respawning to beat the game... But what's the fun in that. Personally if I die, I just reload my last save. I don't want a death on my conscious when I beat the game haha.NPCs are decently smart. If you set them on fire with water nearby, they'll jump in the water to put themselves out. They know when to retreat to find a health station (that if you hack, will cause them damage )Plasmids are fun. They're the equivalent of magic spells in other games... Some shoot fire, some shoot ice, electricity, telekenesis powers, etc. Your left hand in the game changes accordingly, and is pretty cool graphically. You are only given a certain number of slots though, so you can't have them all available at once, unless you swap one out for another at a special machine.There are basic powerups, that sort of give an RPG element to the game, though you typically have to buy them. Money is a good thing to have down in Rapture... Money and ADAM.... ADAM is collected from Little Sisters, and with it, you can buy things like an extra Plasmid slot, increased health, increased EVE... etc... EVE is basically you Psi power meter. You get EVE hypos to keep your "powers" working, but when you run out of EVE, you can't use them.Sound is very awesome. Atmospheric. Just like System Shock, only better Plot seems pretty solid. I heard it is going to be a great plot, so I'm hoping for a good ending... I believe there are multiple endings, though I don't know about em yet, I don't want em spoiled Plot history is explained second handed, though audio recordings left around Rapture by people... Just like System Shock of course. Voice acting is top notch. Superb.I guess the only bad things I can think of at the moment are all the poor people who can't play it due to the Shader problems. A lot of people are getting crashes and such, but so far, no problems here.That's all I can think of for now, if you have any questions, feel free to ask

[Mordent 0]

On the basis that my poor old laptop is on its last legs, I won't be getting Bioshock myself any time soon. I've seen the trailers and whatnot, though, and I have to say it looks awesome.

 

For anyone out there who has the game (some mild language in it, just a friendly warning ), check out this comic. It amuses me, especially due to the in-joke.

[Jeigh1405241495 0]

Bioshock is officially in strong contention in my mind for the best game of all time.I originally assumed I wouldn't buy it now. My system cannot run it with DX10 features and whatnot, hell it can only run it on medium settings smoothly. That said, I had planned to wait for my next computer. I tried to demo for fun to see how it ran and the sheer beauty that it produced while running smooth as silk (even though it was nowhere near the best visual quality) sold me immediately. Further, the gameplay just felt "right" from the moment I jumped into the demo. I didn't even finish the demo before uninstalling it and going to purchase a retail copy.As soon as I installed and started playing the full version it was amazing. While I haven't finished the game yet I've put in many hours but am trying to take my time to soak up the fun The story is amazing, the characters rich, the elements of gameplay are great and they keeping adding more as you go to keep gameplay fresh, and more importantly the sheer immersiveness of the environment is undeniably amazing. The game is art in videogame form. From the actual game environment itself, to the interface, to in-game machines that simply "Feel" like they could be from this alternative early 1960's world.From the onion-like way you continually learn more about the world and uncover new gameplay elements to the sheer gorgeousness of the world and the fluid way the various mechanics flow together, there is nothing I would want to change about the game except for me to have a better computer to run it on. I know this sounds fanboyish but frankly I don't care, they accomplished there goal perfectly on this one.

[ethergeek 0]

We'll see about that when Halo 3 comes out. I'd say that right now, bioshock is one of the most realistic-feeling, entertaining games on the 360 right now...it has the feel to it that doom 3 did...you feel like you're there.

[Herbert1405241469 0]

Just finished the game (for the first time )I'll keep the spoilers down as much as I can...The final boss battle was well done, though after the increasing difficulty of the game, it was actually not as hard as I thought it would be. (I was playing medium difficulty).The ending I got didn't have that little funny kick to it like System Shock 2 did haha.(For those who want to see the ending to System Shock 2, it's up on YouTube.)Bioshock's story seems pretty solid. There was 1 audio diary that I know of that I absolutely could not figure out how to get. I could see it under some stairs, but for the life of me, I could not get to it... That irks me, but luckily someone posted the text to the logs in gamefaqs.com section for Bioshock. (Looking that up, I can see I missed more than a few audio logs, *sigh*)I am assuming there are alternate endings, because the one I got was the "Happy ending" from not killing the little girls... I can only assume what the other one will be.The final cutscene was satisfying, though I do have a lot of questions in my mind that I didn't get answered. I wish I knew what happened to some of the citizens, such as Diane McClintock (who is one of the first audio logs you find, and whose logs you find throughout the game). Some citizens you find out via picking their last recordings off their bodies. A nice touch, because you see them lying there dead, then you listen to the audio recording, and it's sort of a "... oooh. Ouch. That sucks." sort of reaction.Some tips and info:-Towards the end of the game you get to dress up like a Big Daddy -I had more than enough ADAM at the end of the game, since I didn't pick every plasmid and upgrade, but I could still fight effectively.-Hacking is near impossible in the later levels, so stock up on autohacks, and have a lot of cash to buy them out. (I opted for health upgrades and such rather than the hacking ones, so maybe hacking isn't impossible, but you fight more than you need to hack.)-You don't really need to go back to explore, though the option is there... So as far as Freeplay, it's there, but you never really utilize it, since you're always moving forward. So make sure to fully explore each level and save/harvest all the Little Sisters as you enter each level.-You'll get a camera later in the game, make sure to take lots of photos to gain research and bonuses. Don't worry about film so much, there's plenty as you play on.-Apparently there are 3 endings... but 2 of them are virtually the same. 1 ending is if you save all the sisters, 1 ending is harvesting all the sisters, and the third is if you both save and harvest some. All of these are on Youtube, and aren't very long... so if you just want to see the alternate ending (after you get one of the endings) go ahead, because unless you want to play the game, the ending itself isn't worth another 15-20 or so hours of gameplay.I hope they come up with an editor for the fans, because I'd really like to see a mod that "fixes up" Rapture to what it looked like before everything went to hell... It's a beautiful game engine... I can just imagine a System Shock 2 remake for it I wish there was more to do after beating it. The bits where you have to find things a la scavenger hunt are sort of annoying... The game's audio logs and announcements over the PA speakers kept talking about parasites, and the Little Sisters use parasites to harvest, and I was honestly thinking it was going to end like System Shock 2 on the Rickenbacher with The Body of the Many taking control of the city... but alas, there was no such turn.Ah, A.I. I actually found the A.I. a bit lacking, because all they do is charge you... There's no real tactics other than charge you, and run away if they're hurt. It sucks, because later in the levels, a guy can be on fire and electrocuted, and it doesn't phase him at all... You just have to keep pumping him.One of the unbalancing plasmids of the game renders the player invisible if he stands still. As this is really handy against security bots, it almost makes things too easy at times. I would have much preferred a Thief-style sneaking system, where you could walk (Yes wtf you can't walk in the PC version ) and sneak. The tips in the loading screens say you can hide in the shadows, but that never really helped me.Overall, I say it is a great game. Graphically awesome, audio supremely awesome. AI, so-so. And story awesome (though somewhat predictable at times).