I really hate this time of year. It's a time in which the entertainment industry seems to fall into a crash after the holiday rush of videogames and Oscar contender films with the month of January suffering because of it. Thus, there never seems to be anything worth the attention to pull you away from catching up on the films you didn't see last year or the games you're still glued to. With the slow down of media this month, I've decided to go through my list of suggestions for things to review and it seems one thing I?ve put off more than anything else is what has been asked most of me and that is Bioshock.
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Mac
ESRB Rating: M
Developer: Irrational Games
Publisher: 2K Games
Release Date: August 21, 2007
Often hailed as one of the greatest games of all time, Bioshock centres around the story of Rapture, an underwater utopian city founded by Andrew Ryan on the idea that neither man's intellect nor creativity should ever be restricted or held down by those of the normal society. Shortly after Rapture was constructed, all hell broke loose and it now lies in a state of disarray and chaos and it?s up to our faceless and (mostly) silent protagonist to find out just what the fuck happened.
The game starts off with a bang. You immediately find yourself amongst the ruins of a crashed airplane in the ocean. Searching for shelter, you see a lighthouse in the distance. Open the doors and it turns out to be the gateway to the city of rapture. From then on, the game introduces you to a deep mystery involving the destruction of the city, what happened to its citizens and the truth behind your own past. Before I continue, however, I'd like to state that despite the game's following and the fact that most everyone who wants to play it has by now, I will still refrain from any spoilers while discussing the story.
Now, this is honestly going to be a fairly difficult game for me to review for several reasons, which will probably become apparent in the coming paragraphs. That being said, I want to get the good of the game out of the way first. The obvious positives towards the game here lie within its very setting.
To be rather blunt about it, the game is brilliant when it comes to atmosphere. From start to finish, I really felt like I was part of this city, watching the aftermath of a chaotic breakout in a once flourishing city. While not every aspect of the city itself is necessarily perfect, it still manages to keep a feeling of eeriness during the opening levels of the game.
The inhabitants themselves really give you a sense of uneasiness. Some of the most fun I had during the game was watching the enemies wander through the halls of Rapture, rambling to themselves, which is just outright disturbing while the graphics only help to improve this. With a mixture of dark lighting, creepy settings and even cartoony style textures or sound effects, the game succeeds at giving the player a very unique feel.
Along with the nameless hostile inhabitants of Rapture are the more notable citizens you come into contact with throughout the course of the game, or will hear about them via audio diaries scattered throughout levels. The character element is something I enjoyed a lot and is what kept me interested throughout, constantly wanting to know who these people were and just know more in general about them. Most of the communication goes through a radio, so you never really see the characters you communicate with but that does a good job at building more mystery behind them.
Who else thought of Se7en here?
This unfortunately is the extent of the positives I could think of for this game. What was once considered a good thing or a strong suit of the game becomes a weak point, only lessening the overall quality. Flaws presented later in the game only ever weaken the previously mentioned positives. While some things retain a nice feel, many of the main selling points or gimmicks of the game lose their charm very quickly.
To be specific, the aforementioned "good atmosphere" starts off almost perfect. An eerie setting, heavy sense of dread, disturbing enemy encounters and a generally well-set mystery allow the player to be immersed into a chaotic world. However, even after the first few levels, the game loses what once made it scary or even remotely creepy in favour of constant action and gun battles. The sense of helplessness coupled with the feeling of not understanding your surroundings made for a genuinely scary setting, however that is quickly forgotten once the game's balance is tilted in favour of action.
However, even when the game takes a turn for to be more action oriented, it doesn't seem to do a very good job at it. The gameplay is one of the weaker elements in itself as the gunfights are surprisingly average. Nothing in particular stood out to me as being fresh or original during combat, save the addition of the mini boss fights with Big Daddies, which I will admit are the high points of the game and it's one of the few times the game retains its scare factor, despite the characters themselves being pointless to the story.
Aside from the Big Daddies, the normal Splicer enemies never pose much of a threat. They constantly attack at random leaving no real strategy to the player passed "shoot whatever lunges at you." While I can see this adds a sense of chaos to the city of Rapture, it doesn't make for good gameplay. This coupled with the use of Vitachambers end up making the game piss easy. With their addition, the game loses whatever threat or horror element it had as the fear of death no longer exists. You can simply wail on anyone with your weakest weapon, die, come back to life and repeat until the enemy's finally dead.
Because of the combat and the Vitachambers, what would (and should) come off as stressful or intense only ends up being annoying and the entire atmosphere set by the game in the beginning suffers because of it. There were even several times I completely forgot the setting I was in and the feel of a destroyed underwater city was gone. Even basic gameplay becomes painfully tedious as almost every mission consists of fetch quests involving ridiculous amounts of backtracking making the game overall repetitive and dull.
The biggest flaw Bioshock suffers from is being extremely unbalanced. It attempts to be an action oriented philosophical horror mystery type game. At times it succeeds at this, however for the most part, these elements overwhelm each other and collide together, allowing none of them to excel or progress on their own. By the end of the game, Bioshock felt like something that could have done better as a film or even a book. This story doesn?t need interactivity, only immersion and the gameplay ruins a lot of potential shown by this story and setting.
The characters are shown as interesting and mysterious yet are never explained enough to really reveal much or make me care about them. It all felt rushed and shortened, as if the characters had long stories behind them yet all we get out of the game are the cliff's notes. The story is thus weakened by the lack of development with the characters, resulting in a rather bland, straightforward and highly predictable story masked behind a fancy setting and a few gimmicky gameplay elements. Even the gameplay itself ends up being cliche and just many things I've seen before and seen done better.
Bioshock is a game I wanted to enjoy, but by the end of it, I just couldn't bring myself to do so. It had a whole lot of potential but was weighed down by too many obvious flaws in both story and gameplay making the outcome a disappointing attempt. It's not the worst game ever, but it certainly isn't the greatest. There are a lot of things that work but far too many that don't and thus, it only amounts to what I view as something with high potential but ultimately, a lacking experience.
Remember, that I am now taking requests for reviews, so any suggestions for future reviews or lists you may have, please let me know via PM or in the replies to this review.
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Mac
ESRB Rating: M
Developer: Irrational Games
Publisher: 2K Games
Release Date: August 21, 2007
Often hailed as one of the greatest games of all time, Bioshock centres around the story of Rapture, an underwater utopian city founded by Andrew Ryan on the idea that neither man's intellect nor creativity should ever be restricted or held down by those of the normal society. Shortly after Rapture was constructed, all hell broke loose and it now lies in a state of disarray and chaos and it?s up to our faceless and (mostly) silent protagonist to find out just what the fuck happened.
The game starts off with a bang. You immediately find yourself amongst the ruins of a crashed airplane in the ocean. Searching for shelter, you see a lighthouse in the distance. Open the doors and it turns out to be the gateway to the city of rapture. From then on, the game introduces you to a deep mystery involving the destruction of the city, what happened to its citizens and the truth behind your own past. Before I continue, however, I'd like to state that despite the game's following and the fact that most everyone who wants to play it has by now, I will still refrain from any spoilers while discussing the story.
To be rather blunt about it, the game is brilliant when it comes to atmosphere. From start to finish, I really felt like I was part of this city, watching the aftermath of a chaotic breakout in a once flourishing city. While not every aspect of the city itself is necessarily perfect, it still manages to keep a feeling of eeriness during the opening levels of the game.
The inhabitants themselves really give you a sense of uneasiness. Some of the most fun I had during the game was watching the enemies wander through the halls of Rapture, rambling to themselves, which is just outright disturbing while the graphics only help to improve this. With a mixture of dark lighting, creepy settings and even cartoony style textures or sound effects, the game succeeds at giving the player a very unique feel.
Along with the nameless hostile inhabitants of Rapture are the more notable citizens you come into contact with throughout the course of the game, or will hear about them via audio diaries scattered throughout levels. The character element is something I enjoyed a lot and is what kept me interested throughout, constantly wanting to know who these people were and just know more in general about them. Most of the communication goes through a radio, so you never really see the characters you communicate with but that does a good job at building more mystery behind them.
Who else thought of Se7en here?
This unfortunately is the extent of the positives I could think of for this game. What was once considered a good thing or a strong suit of the game becomes a weak point, only lessening the overall quality. Flaws presented later in the game only ever weaken the previously mentioned positives. While some things retain a nice feel, many of the main selling points or gimmicks of the game lose their charm very quickly.
To be specific, the aforementioned "good atmosphere" starts off almost perfect. An eerie setting, heavy sense of dread, disturbing enemy encounters and a generally well-set mystery allow the player to be immersed into a chaotic world. However, even after the first few levels, the game loses what once made it scary or even remotely creepy in favour of constant action and gun battles. The sense of helplessness coupled with the feeling of not understanding your surroundings made for a genuinely scary setting, however that is quickly forgotten once the game's balance is tilted in favour of action.
However, even when the game takes a turn for to be more action oriented, it doesn't seem to do a very good job at it. The gameplay is one of the weaker elements in itself as the gunfights are surprisingly average. Nothing in particular stood out to me as being fresh or original during combat, save the addition of the mini boss fights with Big Daddies, which I will admit are the high points of the game and it's one of the few times the game retains its scare factor, despite the characters themselves being pointless to the story.
[img_inline width=350]http://img.kyon.pl/static/img/remiq.net_5699.jpg[/img_inline]
PedoBear now has competition!
The Big Daddies serve as the guardians for the Little Sisters, which hold the precious element of Adam, used by the citizens of Rapture for different Plasmids. The Plasmids are what gives the player a variety of powers from shooting fire or electricity from your hands to sending a swarm of bees out at your enemies. Now, on paper this sounds like a great addition to gameplay to keep things fresh and original but when paired in the heat of battle, it's difficult to switch between your gun and whatever plasmid you have selected. This results in what ends up being just an average shooter. PedoBear now has competition!
Aside from the Big Daddies, the normal Splicer enemies never pose much of a threat. They constantly attack at random leaving no real strategy to the player passed "shoot whatever lunges at you." While I can see this adds a sense of chaos to the city of Rapture, it doesn't make for good gameplay. This coupled with the use of Vitachambers end up making the game piss easy. With their addition, the game loses whatever threat or horror element it had as the fear of death no longer exists. You can simply wail on anyone with your weakest weapon, die, come back to life and repeat until the enemy's finally dead.
Because of the combat and the Vitachambers, what would (and should) come off as stressful or intense only ends up being annoying and the entire atmosphere set by the game in the beginning suffers because of it. There were even several times I completely forgot the setting I was in and the feel of a destroyed underwater city was gone. Even basic gameplay becomes painfully tedious as almost every mission consists of fetch quests involving ridiculous amounts of backtracking making the game overall repetitive and dull.
What does this remind me of... Oh yeah! [http://media.kotaku.com.au/mt/fallout%20pipboy.jpg]
The biggest flaw Bioshock suffers from is being extremely unbalanced. It attempts to be an action oriented philosophical horror mystery type game. At times it succeeds at this, however for the most part, these elements overwhelm each other and collide together, allowing none of them to excel or progress on their own. By the end of the game, Bioshock felt like something that could have done better as a film or even a book. This story doesn?t need interactivity, only immersion and the gameplay ruins a lot of potential shown by this story and setting.
The characters are shown as interesting and mysterious yet are never explained enough to really reveal much or make me care about them. It all felt rushed and shortened, as if the characters had long stories behind them yet all we get out of the game are the cliff's notes. The story is thus weakened by the lack of development with the characters, resulting in a rather bland, straightforward and highly predictable story masked behind a fancy setting and a few gimmicky gameplay elements. Even the gameplay itself ends up being cliche and just many things I've seen before and seen done better.
Bioshock is a game I wanted to enjoy, but by the end of it, I just couldn't bring myself to do so. It had a whole lot of potential but was weighed down by too many obvious flaws in both story and gameplay making the outcome a disappointing attempt. It's not the worst game ever, but it certainly isn't the greatest. There are a lot of things that work but far too many that don't and thus, it only amounts to what I view as something with high potential but ultimately, a lacking experience.
[HEADING=1]2 out of 5[/HEADING]
Movies:
Best Movies of the Decade [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.164045-Best-Films-of-the-Decade-Warning-Extremely-Long-Review]
Inception [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.215806-JK-Reviews-Inception]
Oldboy [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.236848-JK-Reviews-Oldboy]
Thirst [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.238393-JK-Reviews-Thirst]
Noroi [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.258713-JK-Reviews-Noroi]
Games:
Bayonetta [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.169030-JK-Reviews-Bayonetta-Warning-May-Contain-Spoilers]
Game of the Year [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.163760-Celebration-for-My-5000th-post-Game-of-the-Year-awards]
God of War III [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.182952-JK-Reviews-God-of-War-III]
NieR [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.203204-JK-Reviews-NIER]
Castlevania: Lament of Innocence [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.206361-JK-Reviews-Castlevania-Lament-of-Innocence]
Maximo: Ghosts To Glory [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.212014-JK-Reviews-Maximo-Ghosts-To-Glory]
Kingdom Hearts [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.229506-As-Per-Request-JK-Reviews-Kingdom-Hearts]
Kingdom Hearts II [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.230725-As-Per-Request-JK-Reviews-Kingdom-Hearts-II]
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.248762-JK-Reviews-Assassins-Creed-Brotherhood]
Top 12 Games of 2010 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.252471-JKs-Top-12-Best-Games-of-2010]
Music:
Equilibrium's ReKreatur [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.204108-JK-Reviews-Equilibrium-ReKreatur]
Best Movies of the Decade [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.164045-Best-Films-of-the-Decade-Warning-Extremely-Long-Review]
Inception [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.215806-JK-Reviews-Inception]
Oldboy [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.236848-JK-Reviews-Oldboy]
Thirst [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.238393-JK-Reviews-Thirst]
Noroi [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.258713-JK-Reviews-Noroi]
Games:
Bayonetta [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.169030-JK-Reviews-Bayonetta-Warning-May-Contain-Spoilers]
Game of the Year [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.163760-Celebration-for-My-5000th-post-Game-of-the-Year-awards]
God of War III [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.182952-JK-Reviews-God-of-War-III]
NieR [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.203204-JK-Reviews-NIER]
Castlevania: Lament of Innocence [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.206361-JK-Reviews-Castlevania-Lament-of-Innocence]
Maximo: Ghosts To Glory [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.212014-JK-Reviews-Maximo-Ghosts-To-Glory]
Kingdom Hearts [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.229506-As-Per-Request-JK-Reviews-Kingdom-Hearts]
Kingdom Hearts II [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.230725-As-Per-Request-JK-Reviews-Kingdom-Hearts-II]
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.248762-JK-Reviews-Assassins-Creed-Brotherhood]
Top 12 Games of 2010 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.252471-JKs-Top-12-Best-Games-of-2010]
Music:
Equilibrium's ReKreatur [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.204108-JK-Reviews-Equilibrium-ReKreatur]
Remember, that I am now taking requests for reviews, so any suggestions for future reviews or lists you may have, please let me know via PM or in the replies to this review.
