Bioshock is...meh?

[Crowser]

*UPDATE*

Just finished it, and it was much better than what I had said on my first post. It never reached the level of "ground breaking" like so many people had said, but it picked up after the twist with Ryan. I pretty much stopped hacking and started shooting the machines which sort of remedies that problem in a sloppy but effective way. However, the final boss was a huge letdown, they turned a great character into just another generic mutant...thing, and the ending was just bad. "CONGRATS YOU WIN, 15 SECOND CLIP, TITLE SCREEN!" ...*Blink*...

Went from a 6.5/10 to an 8/10

 

[suhlEap]

I think Bioshocks story is well above average. Okay sadly the game stories average quality is lacking but still. Atmosphere is good but could have been so much better if the moral choices actually meant anything or would have been conveyed a bit more personal. The protagonist simply is one of those deafmutes that leaves the player to watch a film with 2 different endings.

The gameplay of bioshock is repetetive but, lets say, solid. Use X which is good against enemy Y, rinse repeat.

Anyways, yea I can agree nothing else stands out. Game developers should in my opinion make more difficult games again. And by difficult I don't mean deactivating vita chambers and making enemies take a thousand bullets. I mean more complex game mechanics, but wait I guess that wouldn't sell.

I recommend playing it through nevertheless because the story still gets a bit better.

it is a shame that everything seems so easy nowadays. i've rarely been challenged by a game in a while, and it does kinda feel like it's about time things gotta harder. like Ninja Gaiden.
back to the point at hand, i'm yet to finish playing through bioshock but i still see what all the hype is about. it's an amazing game from so many points of view. each to their own though!

 

[Loge]

I've made quite a few rants about games lack of actual difficulty, here is something I deem universally true:

A game that requires planning to succeed is a lot more fun than a one you run through. There need to be dead ends. (Both systemshocks had quite a few of them in terms of gameplay mechanic --> Use up all your ammo and you won't survive deck 3 OR put cyber modules in meaningful skills or have a really hard time) This alone makes up for the most fun I have in games. Understand the game mechanics --> Use the game mechanics to gradually become better --> Beat the game mechanic by finding out what works best and really feel empowered.

Bioshock barely makes use of this. It's generally an elaborate whack-a-mole with an average cinema film running in the background. Your only two choices are "how do I want to beat, kill, maim grotesque enemies today?" and "Do I like chubby inbred girls with annoying voices enough to not kill them?"

Sure you get stronger during the course of the game but it just "comes natural". You don't have to plan anything and aslong as you got a brain and two hands you will end up godly just because you endured the really distracting graphic flood. (sorry, minimalist here ) That makes for the grinding feeling of todays games really. Also no amount of achievements or statistic can make up for your OWN plan to work out awesome (be it an awesome win or an awesome fail). Games should hand you the tools, not make you a two handed tool. (Dwarf Fortress I luv you!)

 

[Grimm91]

Your only like an eighth of the way through the game. It gets better.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

There are a lot of things wrong with Bioshock. Lots of things that should have been caught in playtesting, if indeed 2K Boston has a sizable department dedicated to that. (I'd list them, but reading the list would risk ruining the experience for anyone who hasn't played it yet. Most people will probably come to the same conclusions anyway.) And yet, I still keep finding myself coming back to it. I never stopped being wowed by the game's environment -- not just high-end graphics, but a level design philosophy that took full advantage of them and showed you what the engine is really capable of. And as I replayed the game, experimenting with different plasmids and weapons, I discovered radically different approaches to gameplay that broke up the monotonous run-and-gun action I had experienced the first time around.

A lot of it is really just a matter of personal taste. If I had to try to review it objectively, which is almost impossible to do, I'd probably have to give it a pretty low score because there are so many things they just plain screwed up on. But I, personally, still enjoyed playing it. *shrug*

 

[Strafe Mcgee]

Just wait till you meet Andrew Ryan... I hope for your sake that no-one's spoilt it.