Bioshock

[xXGeckoXx]

Hey I recently ordered bioshock, After taking interest in it due to a late steampunk obsession. I have only heard good things about it and have great expectations (i played the demo and enjoyed that too). The only thing that worries me is that I only hear good things from official reviewers (apart from yatzee of course) and every time this has happened I have come across a "covered-up" fault.

I thought the escapist forums may have a more varied view. So, What was your opinion? Care to share any opinions.

Note: Part of my motivation for this thread was that I wanted to see if by getting opinions from everyone I could get a thread which was in essence a very comprehensive review which would be difficult to achieve in one review alone.

 

[VitalSigns]

Bioshock is one of the best games I have played in my life, an interest in steam-punk will make you appreciate even more, I didn't know what steampunk was when i played it and still thought the art direction was incredible. I don't see how someone can not enjoy this game.

 

[Clashero]

Bioshock was a truly excellent game with a deep and compelling story, great gameplay, and interesting characters. It's only notable flaw to me was the redundancy of the turret hacking system, but otherwise it was a near-perfect.

Exactly this.

Also, OP: Yahtzee liked the game.
If there's any fault with the game, apart from the hacking, is that it may be a bit too easy, being able to come back to life and all that. Also, some people disliked the storyline because the philosophy went over their heads (but honestly, they were mostly the kind of people who heard the word 'capitalism' thrown around in the game but didn't know what it meant)

Also: while Steampunk is good, the best part about the art direction has to do with Art Déco style of the place.

 

[slevin8989]

It's a great game I've replayed it lots of times an it's always fun

 

[MrSnugglesworth]

Amazing game. Turret Hacking was like plumbing and the Morality was barely Morality but other than that Bioshock was a great game.

 

[bue519]

It could have been a bit more original but overall it was still a fun game. I look forward to the multiplayer in the second one.

 

[Avatar Roku]

It was sort of a lesson in how not to do morality [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlOXAtPvMDk], but besides that it was great.

 

[DazZ.]

Wonderful game. The setting is genuinly interesting and the story is worth getting into, your not going to want to play it like Painkiller.

Only quarrells I had were the fact that when you die, you get instantly respawned at the nearest spawning thingy (sorry cant remember the name) and all the enemys you've killed are still dead.

Also the shooting wasn't as satisfying as some games, but hitting things with the wrench feels beefy and plasmids are wonderful toys. Can probally give a 100% chance yourll enjoy it, if you like games that is.

 

[VitalSigns]

How did it take you 20 hours? I think i Beat it in 8 hours then turned up the difficulty and started again.

 

[Kilo24]

All right. Let's see... my impressions...

Thematically, it's very interesting. The Ayn-Rand-inspired chief villain is more unique than most villains that come to mind. Being taunted as being a social parasite was much more interesting than being decried as an insignificant hacker by a rogue AI, or a pathetic wimp who doesn't want power by any of a number of cliche villains. I loved seeing that Objectivist sort of character at the forefront; it makes me hope for deeper philosophy in games than trotting out the same old, same old. And Fort Frolic is delightfully creepy.

The morality system choices are pretty much a joke once you realize there's not really a tradeoff for being moral. It's intended to be balanced in gameplay mechanics, so good or evil is a question of which plus is bigger over what the intended effect was meant to be. I get the feeling that it was forced into being a bigger selling point than Ken Levine (a key designer, I don't quite remember his job title atm) meant for it to be. He originally didn't want separate endings to keep the feel a bit less... morally black-and-white, I suppose, but they got forced in anyway.

Game mechanics are good, though there isn't *too* much challenge outside of Big Daddies. And that challenge vanishes when you realize that there is no penalty for death outside of having to walk back from the nearest spawn point.

You buy and upgrade your character through plasmids which can allow for a bit of diversity between characters, but not that huge of an amount. You always can use whatever weapons you have; only plasmids will differ (and you'll get enough ADAM to eventually blur those boundaries to a good extent.)

As for enemies, you have minibosses in the form of Big Daddies, splicers of a few different breeds (~5 or so, though they are pretty distinctive from eachother), steampunk turrets, flying drones and a crappy end boss who really doesn't fit with the rest of the game. I found the limited amount of splicers to be annoying, but not greatly so. Quite a few other games do worse with diversity.

It is a pretty good game IMO. Its most significant problem is the respawn mechanic which removes so much tension. I'm probably in a minority of people who prefer it to System Shock 2.

 

[Internet Kraken]

Bioshock was a truly excellent game with a deep and compelling story, great gameplay, and interesting characters. It's only notable flaw to me was the redundancy of the turret hacking system, but otherwise it was a near-perfect.

Pretty much this.

However, it's way to fucking easy. If you use vita chambers to game has no challenge. That's why I don't use vita chambers, but even on Hard it's not that difficult. It probably has to do with the plasmids I have equipped. With my current set up the wrench is actually an incredibly deadly weapon.

The hardest part was fighting Big Daddies, but even they got easy once I discovered that electric gel destroys them. They can't even fight back. Once you hit them with the gel, you win.

 

[shwnbob]

The only real big flaw I can think of is the morality thing it's just to black and white.

 

[VitalSigns]

Bioshock was a truly excellent game with a deep and compelling story, great gameplay, and interesting characters. It's only notable flaw to me was the redundancy of the turret hacking system, but otherwise it was a near-perfect.

Pretty much this.

However, it's way to fucking easy. If you use vita chambers to game has no challenge. That's why I don't use vita chambers, but even on Hard it's not that difficult. It probably has to do with the plasmids I have equipped. With my current set up the wrench is actually an incredibly deadly weapon.

The hardest part was fighting Big Daddies, but even they got easy once I discovered that electric gel destroys them. They can't even fight back. Once you hit them with the gel, you win.

you know you can turn Vita chambers off

EDIT**** HAHA Bad reading on my part!!! sorry

But yeah i always play with them off.

 

[Jandau]

The only thing I really disliked about the game was that the only actual choice I got to make was wether or not to molest small children. Not much of a choice...

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

BioShock is a pretty good game, the actual gameplay is fun when you get to the better plasmids and use more specialized ammo. It's brilliantly atmospheric and the story is decent, it's obvious that tremendously more time was spent on setting at the expense of plot. Some things often feel more like a grind than fun such as hacking and occasionally combat (Big Daddy fights lose their thrill after a few times). The end is extremely unsatisfying and the "moral choice" is a joke.

 

[necromanzer52]

The lack of much of a story or many interesting characters was almost a gamebreaker for me.
But the gameplay is really fun,the plasmids are brilliant,the hacking gets extremly boring extremly quickly.
One very annoying thing is that the game is mostly just a bunch of huge side quests.

 

[ItsAChiaotzu]

Bioshock was a truly excellent game with a deep and compelling story, great gameplay, and interesting characters. It's only notable flaw to me was the redundancy of the turret hacking system, but otherwise it was a near-perfect.

Pretty much this.

However, it's way to fucking easy. If you use vita chambers to game has no challenge. That's why I don't use vita chambers, but even on Hard it's not that difficult. It probably has to do with the plasmids I have equipped. With my current set up the wrench is actually an incredibly deadly weapon.

The hardest part was fighting Big Daddies, but even they got easy once I discovered that electric gel destroys them. They can't even fight back. Once you hit them with the gel, you win.

You have to use like a whole tank of the stuff to kill one, explosive bucks work just as well.


OT: Get it Get it Get it Get it, In fact, I should play that game. Soon.

 

[philzibit]

It was a fun game, but since the new ones coming out later this year, i would have said rent it. I mean I loved the game, but there isn't that much replay value in it, unless you turn the vita chambers off and play it on hard (if your an achievement whore like me).

But since you probably bought it for budget price, it's still a good buy. Good game play, still looks nice 2 years later, awesome soundtrack that really helps with the immersion, and interesting weapons.