BioShit 2 or more of the same crap made even worse

Bioshock was a mediocre game, failing completely to deliver in an area in which it should have excelled: gameplay. This key competent was missing from the word go and unfortunately, no matter how much love and affection is poured into the narrative and environment, it will still fall flat on its face if it does not play well. Comparisons with System Shock 2 are inevitable given the fact that it was touted as a "spiritual successor" and followed almost precisely the same narrative template, but I don't think this is really what makes Bioshock so downright underwhelming. The lack of engaging and inspired gameplay is compounded by what amounts to a story that does not succeed in its lofty aims and a world that could have been much better executed had it been capitalised on in an efficient way.

There's just no getting around the fact that Bioshock is not nearly as good as it could - or should - have been. A weak effort, for sure.
 
Just preordered Bioshock 2 today, had a great experience with the first and can't wait to play the second one.
 
Kadayi said:
@Saturos

I hear what you are saying. I think that these are the issues that developing for closed system like the 360 forces onto developers as well though. The lack of HD & the disc licensing really puts the screws on developers when it comes to sound, texture & assets. I think if it had been a PC only title things might have been different in that regard.

@Captain M4d

So let me get this right, you've wandered into the conversation called everyone kunts, but you didn't really mean everyone? Also who exactly is boasting? People are discussing a game and offering up their reasons why they like or dislike a game. No ones claiming they could do better, though some of us are feeling the developers might have made a better game if they'd done things differently (IE a missed opportunity). This a gaming forum, for gaming enthusiasts. I'd of said it's exactly the right place to express an opinion, no? :dozey:
Click to expand...
I'm all for differing opinions, but I've found some of the tone in here to be, "If you like said game, you are ignorant and do not understand what makes a good game." It's statements like Barnz saying, "Just give up, go play Crysis. It's a more suitable game for people like you."

I was mistaken in targeting everyone, so I'm sorry to have caught you under that umbrella. I'm done for now.

Resume play.
 
Bioshock is really a retarded brother of SS.

in what way does SS2 look dated, except graphics (which were updated in a fan made mod)?

it has a engaging story, it's tense, very atmospheric, action is decent for such a game, nice design choices (upgrades,...) and i mean just look at the last levels...giant teeth.
it never, never felt like the enemies were just piling up and you had to mow them down.
i remember the hydroponics level...i was so scared i just ran trough it like some panicked rabbit. i actually didn't even noticed what enemies were attacking me.

there's not one thing aside from graphics that is dated in SS2.


i didn't really like the art style of bioshock, also from the very beginning i felt very...hmm, is this Doom 3 or something?

well as for the scare factor i don't think there's anything that rivals Penumbra.
 
As soon as I get a new mouse, I'm going to try to play through Bioshock again and come back here with a more informed, stable opinion. Anyone with me? (I doubt it, but it's worth a try)
 
jverne said:
in what way does SS2 look dated, except graphics (which were updated in a fan made mod)?
Click to expand...

The physics are rigid and awkward. Its combat is clunky and boring. The weapon deterioration system was a pain in the ass. The AI is no longer up to snuff and I question if it was even at the time. The UI is cumbersome. And despite three classes to start with and the game's skill system, deep specialization into specific skills basically ****s you over and you're ultimately better off trying to be a jack of all trades. Loading it up today (if you even can, HA) screams of 1998.

That's not saying it's no longer fun. If people can still enjoy classic Fallout titles today then there's no reason you can't get some kicks out of it. Its atmosphere and audio work still give me goosebumps. But many of its elements have been improved on in the years since its release, even if not all in one package.

Give the game its due praise. Hell, give it a bust in the annals of gaming history. But I personally believe it's absurd to think that any game from ten years ago can score aces across the board by today's standards. SS2 certainly doesn't for me. Granted, I played it long past its prime as abandonware, but I don't think that deranged my perception of it in any capacity. Deus Ex is a game I reinstall and play through almost every year because I love LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE it, but I couldn't honestly expect anybody else today to feel the same if it wasn't something they experienced back in the day.
 
To be perfectly frank, Bioshock 2 registers as a fat zero on my excitement meter as well.
 
Absinthe said:
The physics are rigid and awkward. Its combat is clunky and boring. The weapon deterioration system was a pain in the ass. The AI is no longer up to snuff and I question if it was even at the time. The UI is cumbersome. And despite three classes to start with and the game's skill system, deep specialization into specific skills basically ****s you over and you're ultimately better off trying to be a jack of all trades. Loading it up today (if you even can, HA) screams of 1998.

That's not saying it's no longer fun. If people can still enjoy classic Fallout titles today then there's no reason you can't get some kicks out of it. Its atmosphere and audio work still give me goosebumps. But many of its elements have been improved on in the years since its release, even if not all in one package.

Give the game its due praise. Hell, give it a bust in the annals of gaming history. But I personally believe it's absurd to think that any game from ten years ago can score aces across the board by today's standards. SS2 certainly doesn't for me. Granted, I played it long past its prime as abandonware, but I don't think that deranged my perception of it in any capacity. Deus Ex is a game I reinstall and play through almost every year because I love LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE it, but I couldn't honestly expect anybody else today to feel the same if it wasn't something they experienced back in the day.
Click to expand...

physics...well, it was one of the first games to ever implement them, telekinesis anyone? sure they weren't HL2 style but the game didn't really revolved around them.
a side note here...actually i was pretty disappointed by the simplicity of HL2 physics puzzles. considering what i've been able to do with the engine in hammer i found them pretty lacking in the game. (i made an engine with internal combustion, also a catapult and a trebuchet)

combat was fine...it should be a bit clunky to not appear so FPSish.
the degradation issue, meh, maybe if could be tweaked a bit but it added to the experience.
just like sea said...you hoped to get some new equipment, ammo,... before the next monster. it was tense.
AI? i find almost no AI improvement in today's games considering all the computing power that is available. ok, Crysis is an exception. but your run of the mill FPS is as dumb on a QUAD Core 3Ghz than it was on a Pentium 2 300Mhz. This is the the part modern games should be ashamed the most, there has been so little improvement it's not even funny anymore.

Today's standards are a steaming pile of shit.
 
Samon said:
Well whoopdedoo for you.
Click to expand...

You really are a cynical bastard aren't you? :)

:imu: "Can't wait to play this game, it looks good!"
:bonce: "Well, GOOD FOR YOU MISTER "I'M HAPPY WITH MYSELF". ENJOY YOUR RAINBOW-SUNSHINE FAIRYTALE WORLD, WHILE I GO COMPLAIN ABOUT THE WEATHER. You can't fool me, you ****."
 
sea said:
Good AI is extremely hard to make, and not usually due to limited computing power, but due to time, effort, money, etc. required. Making the AI simply follow the player without geting stuck on scenery and looking like a total robot while doing so is an immensely hard task
Click to expand...

Agreed. But that's what software engineers/developers are for. And that's what makes the difference between "putting some maps/models/textures together using a tool" and "doing some programming work".
 
Maybe it's somewhat about expectations. I liked Bioshock just fine, but I paid $5 for it and like somewhat slower moving FPS's. If people were expecting a game superior to SS2 and paid $60 and read all the reviews before hand they maybe had a different take on it.

I thought the story was very unique and although it had holes and we could all see the Fontaine thing coming, I still liked it's uniqueness and I enjoyed the plasmids element of it alot. I mean come on, who doesn't like burning someone and THEN shooting them, or freezing them and beating them to death, or whipping bees at someone to distract them so you can crossbow them, or setting an invisible trap to hurl someone through the air. Electricuting them in bunches was hillarious.

The parts that I hated about the game haven't really been mentioned: hacking and entering codes, not enough variety of enemies, nothing drivable or "rides", going back over the same territory time and time again, and the final boss fight.

Liked: - plasmids overall- Fort Frolic- killing big daddies- setting of an underwater city- chucking grenades back at nitro's, setting bees on enemies, the bunny poem, most of the voice acting (I'm sure Steinman is the same voice as Jack Lupino in the original Max Payne)

For me it was one of the better $5 games I've bought, but to each his own.
 
There's a lot of wordy arguments in here, back-and-forth namecalling, comparisons to SS, and complaints about story and gameplay.

Now I'm not going to say Bioshock is without it's flaws, because there's a fair few of them to be spoken of, and some of them really detracted from the game.

But when I look back on Bioshock to evaluate it, you know what I think of? I think of this one time when I lured a splicer into my cyclone trap 2, and for whatever reason the game glitched and threw the poor bastard OUT of Rapture. He hit the glass ceiling...and went right through it. Into the vast depths of the ocean. To the sounds of myself and my friend behind me watching saying, "Did that just happen? Holy shit did that just happen?!"

That's what I think of when I think of Bioshock. So while I'm not at all hyped for Bioshock 2, and I won't go out of my way to praise Bioshock, damn the naysayers, parts of that game were fun. I threw a man out of a goddamned underwater city with a miniature cyclone.
 
To be fair that sounds quite awesome. I smiled as I read that :)
 
sea said:
Oh. See, mostly I just think of why they have vending machines selling unlimited amounts of ammo at the most inappropriate of places (like, say, the energy plant for the whole city), or why the game changes from survival horror to first-person Doom clone about 30% of the way through, or why the ending is terrible. But yeah, I guess there's some cool stuff.
Click to expand...
That's partially what ruined it for me. They should've kept the more suspenseful tone from the start of the game. It's partially because how the story played out though. It turned from a scenario where the character was lost and confused in a strange place filled with psychos to a, "hunt that crazy bastard down ASAP before he blows the whole city up" revenge story.

The vending machine thing though was for gameplay reasons. Plenty of other games have vendors, first-aid kits, 7/11s, water fountains etc. in highly illogical places but chances are you still play these games anyways ammirite? Without them, it would've made the game much more difficult and then there would just be a bunch of whinos complaining about the game's difficulty.
 
Saturos said:
bunch of whinos complaining about the game's difficulty.
Click to expand...

bioshockg.png
 
I'm not sure I understand the gripes with the vita-chambers.

If you used one, you still technically died. You failed. The only difference is that you didn't need to spam your F7 quickload key to put yourself back in the game. I don't see how they made the game easier. Sure, you could respawn/wrench for as long as you wanted, but you'd still be sucking.
 
it's for console kiddies
 
IMHO Bioshock should have ended as soon as you killed Andrew Ryan. I thought the game was great up until the point where you hunt down Fontaine, everything after Ryan felt like it dragged on and on for no good reason.

Plus, if it had ended there a sequel would have actually made sense.

No buy for me.
 
Rico said:
IMHO Bioshock should have ended as soon as you killed Andrew Ryan. I thought the game was great up until the point where you hunt down Fontaine, everything after Ryan felt like it dragged on and on for no good reason.

Plus, if it had ended there a sequel would have actually made sense.

No buy for me.
Click to expand...
I completely disagree for some pretty obvious reasons. Not least the fact that doing this would make the game even more uselessly small, but mainly because 'the ending is bad' shouldn't lead anyone to the conclusion 'the ending should have been removed entirely'. They could, you know, have made the ending better :p
 
kupocake said:
I completely disagree for some pretty obvious reasons. Not least the fact that doing this would make the game even more uselessly small, but mainly because 'the ending is bad' shouldn't lead anyone to the conclusion 'the ending should have been removed entirely'. They could, you know, have made the ending better :p
Click to expand...

By having the ending be Andrew Ryan.
That would have made the ending better.
 
^ Exactly.

It was very anticlimactic to keep going after that part of the game.That's where the game went downhill for me
 
I actually found the little sister escort fun, probably because Proving Grounds was the only remarkable location after Hephaestus. Then again, I didn't have any problems with it.
 
Bioshock 1 had an interesting storyline and it was well-told (admittedly with lessons unashamedly learned from games like HL), but the combat seemed awkward and poorly thought-out. It just wasn't any fun in that department. Enemies were boring, the whole hacking thing felt kinda cheap, I found myself liking the storyline more and finding the combat a chore to get over with so I could get back to the plot.

As for Bioshock 2, two of my roommates are big fanboys of the first one, so I'm sure I'll hear about how cool it is from them (hence, I have no reason to buy it).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top