Bioshock is...meh?

[PureFlight]

I gotta agree - Bioshock was relatively unimpressive. My friends raved about it when it came out, and I was psyched to play it...

wompy womp.

The plasmids are cool, but way easier to use guns.
Good variety of guns and ammo, but most were inneffective.
Interesting NPCs, but limited interactions (stupid radio thing).
Big Daddies were the only bosses after Neptune's Bounty pretty much, and if you weren't an idiot you could just stock up on ammo before you fought them. You were never caught off guard, taking a lot of the thrill out of the game.
The level design was too repeptive.
I never felt attached to my character b/c he never does anything notable.
The good/evil thing was too black and white.
Character design was kinda cartoony, so i never felt like the atrocities you see are not that bad.
Lack of good soundtrack.
Needs a longer end cutscene.
Louder, more satisfying sound effects on the golf club during that one scene in the middle of the game...

Bottom Line: It was hard for me to immerse myself in the game and become attached. So i played the game and beat it. And I don't really care if i ever look at it again or not :-(

 

[HazukiHawkins]

Just got this game from my friend, played it today up until the point that Atlas' family dies in the sub and i gotta say...it really is not that great. It is not bad, the story is good and the atmosphere is awesome but nothing else stands out. What am I missing?

Oh and the hacking...it was cool the first few times but GOD now it just breaks the flow when i stop to hack a turret in the middle of a firefight.

There are a few things later on that are quite nice, and perhaps if you used the research camera some more, you'd discover some pleasant surprises you didn't expect? It allows you to instantly auto-hack some of the machines, for instance, which is nice. For the rest, there're always the auto-hack tools... you can only carry five of them anyway and odds are you'll find and make enough to use them semi-frequently.

 

[HazukiHawkins]

I gotta agree - Bioshock was relatively unimpressive. My friends raved about it when it came out, and I was psyched to play it...

wompy womp.

The plasmids are cool, but way easier to use guns.
Good variety of guns and ammo, but most were inneffective.
Interesting NPCs, but limited interactions (stupid radio thing).
Big Daddies were the only bosses after Neptune's Bounty pretty much, and if you weren't an idiot you could just stock up on ammo before you fought them. You were never caught off guard, taking a lot of the thrill out of the game.
The level design was too repeptive.
I never felt attached to my character b/c he never does anything notable.
The good/evil thing was too black and white.
Character design was kinda cartoony, so i never felt like the atrocities you see are not that bad.
Lack of good soundtrack.
Needs a longer end cutscene.
Louder, more satisfying sound effects on the golf club during that one scene in the middle of the game...

Bottom Line: It was hard for me to immerse myself in the game and become attached. So i played the game and beat it. And I don't really care if i ever look at it again or not :-(

Interesting point of view. Allow me to comment and/or counter your points:

The plasmids provide a lot more tactical and environment-affecting options than the guns.
The guns are effective if you use ammo appropriate for your target, especially once upgraded. Also, I believe the "aim" button provides a damage bonus...
Not much to say on the NPCs, except that I agree wholeheartedly with you there.
The Big Daddies... yes, I have to agree there, too. Big, fearsome bosses that the player is at full liberty to kill in the sneakiest way possible, whenever it suits them.
As for the levels, I thought they were pretty varied. The art deco style is prevalent throughout, sure, but that's a conscious design decision... apart from that, there are the contrasts between places like Hephaestus, Arcadia, Neptune's Bounty and Fort Frolic, for instance.
The character never does anything notable?

Spoiler

He crashes a plane full of people into the ocean, infiltrates a huge underwater city, kills its master, an army of genetic freaks, a bunch of diving suit-wearing super soldiers and a number of other notables, saves or kills twenty-one little girls, and finally transforms himself into one of the aforementioned grotesque super-soldier so that he can take out the demi-god who arguably created him and thus win his freedom at last.

It's very black and white, yes... that can be good or bad, but I suppose it does feel rather preachy. There are unforgivable crimes, sure, but one can still do good in the world after committing one.
The characters were indeed a bit oddly presented. Maybe they were roughly based on some '50s or '60s cartoons or similar, like some of the in-universe advertisements of the game more clearly are... but I'm not sure I agree with the decision to do them that way, either.
I don't remember the soundtrack of Bioshock, to be honest, and that can't possibly be a good sign, so I'll agree with you there as well.
The ending was rather good, I thought (the good ending, that is). It could indeed have been longer and/or more satisfying, though.
And yes, I didn't really feel the brutality they obviously meant to convey in that one scene.

Strange, I thought I was going to be defending the game, but I find myself agreeing with a large portion of your points here. Oh well, that's life.

 

[sorry user name taken.]

this thread is ''meh''

 

[JC175]

System Shock 2 was better to be honest,I suggest you play that.

Amen. I enjoyed Bioshock as well, but I understand what you mean, it can get a little repetitive at times. The reason I enjoyed it so much was probably the design - Arcadia Gardens was the perfect level for me in terms of non-liniarity and architecture.

 

[blankedboy]

BioShock is definitely meh. Although it's a horror game, there's nothing else to it. It's just repetitive ideas (which are good ones because they were ripped off decent games i.e. Half-Life i.e. Rachet and Clank) and over-done graphics. Who needs good graphics? Play TMUnited and Sauerbraten. Impressive. Look at BioShock. Over-done, try-hard. If you have the game, trade it in. If you don't have it, don't get it, unless you hate the Trackmania and Cube Engine games, in which case I don't really care about you.

 

[timmytom1]

I found it quite annoying as well. I mean it's nice, but it just screams "I AM ART!" too much.

Have you played the path?

 

[Sevre]

If you had a choice between Bioshock and Half-Life 2........which would you pick?

 

[More Fun To Compute]

If you had a choice between Bioshock and Half-Life 2........which would you pick?

I would pick Half-Life 2 as it controls better and has more interesting design. Easy. Ask me if I would rather play Half-Life or Quake and I would give an answer that would make more people angry.

I'm not actually angry at anyone in particular, but I find it equally astonishing and frustrating how people can look at games and game developers that really STRIVE and collectively shrug when the immensity of the endeavor in creating such a title is eclipsing the edge of just how far games have come.

I don't appreciate effort as much as results. If someone knocked out a game in a lazy afternoon that I enjoyed more than Bioshock then I'll prefer that one and I am happy saying so.

 

[Worr Monger]

Just got this game from my friend, played it today up until the point that Atlas' family dies in the sub and i gotta say...it really is not that great. It is not bad, the story is good and the atmosphere is awesome but nothing else stands out. What am I missing?

Oh and the hacking...it was cool the first few times but GOD now it just breaks the flow when i stop to hack a turret in the middle of a firefight.

Problem is... that's as far as you've gone, there's more to the story.

My brother bitches about it also being "meh"... yet he's somehow excited about Bioshock 2, though I can't seem to get him to explain why. The weapons, atmosphere and story are amazing in Bioshock... whether you shall accept that or not.

If you had a choice between Bioshock and Half-Life 2........which would you pick?

I would pick Bioshock... I think Half Life 2's story stinks. Gameplay is good, but Bioshock covers it all.

 

[dragonflygirl]

The way they game is designed i believe is well thought out, Also the plot twist when you met sander Cohen was brilliant, u would never see it coming. Not one of my best games i have played, it is worth playing for its underwater city beauty, they only thing that kept my playing was the story and plot twists, the game play itself it nothing new but can be repetative at times, when u i have to take a photo then kill the guys.

I would say the story line would make a good film if done properly

So " would you kindy " play the game until you met Cohen then u can say if it is crap or not.


P.s i want i mr Bubbles doll

 

[johnman]

To be honest, I thought this too. It didn't feel particularly brilliant to me, so I didn't really get into it. Ok, it looked nice and original, but the gameplay was abit 'meh' and shallow.

Same here. Fort Frollic was the best part of the game by far. But once the big twist happens half way though, it becomes a slog to the end.

 

[ninja-voodoo]

i have to agree. The big daddies were the only notable original idea(the rest blaitantly ripped from system shock). The combat system is adequate at best, I found myself relying on the wrench because its the only way to gaurantee hits, and of course a rediculous amount of revitochambers.
didnt live up to hype

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I found it quite annoying as well. I mean it's nice, but it just screams "I AM ART!" too much.

Have you played the path?

As you'll see in the review, many times.
Big difference imho. While The Path tells a story within the game, Bioshock tries to tell it despite the game. You have no chance of avoiding what the Wolf does so it doesn't frustrate you as much as one of the Big Daddies nailing you to a wall.

 

[SmithyTheDrummerBoy]

I have to completely and bluntly disagree with any negativity concerning Bioshock. Personally, I believe the Bioshock was like a sadistic, interesting, varied, horrific, funny, action packed and ultimately well written book which I loved to play and i can't wait for the second.

Perhaps Bioshock is just not for you but just don't break the flow of the game, keep playing and then you will see why everyone else likes it! And if you don't like this game but you like the era then get Fallout 3. Infact just get Fallout anyway.

Always here to help,

SmithytheDrummerBoy

 

[HunterC8]

Surely it's a bad sign if you have to play through endless repetitive rubbish to get to a point where the game gets interesting? To all of you telling the guy to play through to these climactic parts of the story, what about the sections of the game that bored you to tears? In my opinion, that devalues the game more than the exciting parts accredit it.

 

[EvilMaggot]

im playing it through for my first time now... i think its genius i like it good shooter and the upgradeable weapons is awesome and you can see what got attached is nice ... well back to BioShock later ^^

 

[Flying Dagger]

the ONLY thing wrong with the game was the damned respawn tanks.
the game was scary as hell - right up to the point where you realise you can't lose.

it didn't even need them - it had quick load/save!!

i loved the game, whilst not enough to find out the other ending (i'm fairly lazy), i enjoyed all the story parts, there could have been more work on the weapon upgrades, and a lot of the plasmids were crap, but all you need is a mod to make all big daddies aggressive, no bacta tanks, twice the amount of life and eve, and you have a serious survival horror game.

i have to say the story was fairly linear,

Spoiler

with that girl helping you regardless of the fact i'd been eating her children... that was slightly odd

but the twist(s) were good.

 

[Koko56]

I did not really like the game too much - it just did not feel right.