Once again I have decided to put my reviewing hat on, this time with a game a bit more complex than a side-scrolling beat em up. This time for all of those who can't read a title I shall be reviewing Bioshock.
I had heard a fair bit about Bioshock before playing it. Comments like 'OMG Bioshock, Bioshock, Bioshock...' and 'ZOMFG B105h0ck r s0 1337!!1!11' against things like 'But it's so scarrrry'. I'm writing this review to say all of those comments are bullshit. Sure for the first half hour or so you might shit bricks, but after that it's only method of being scary is to turn all the lights off and have an army of splicers sent after you or have some menacing shadows lucking around. So as long as you can load you shotgun and jab yourself in the arm fast enough to defend yourself you'll be fine.
Another problem with Bioshock is the difficulty curve, or the lack of one. I was playing on the medium difficulty and I found that ammo and health boxes are everywhere, so dying seems to be near impossible unless coming against a Big Daddy. And when you do die, you will respawn at the last vita-chamber you passed. There is no penalty or cost for using them and everything you did still actually happened. Meaning if you want to kill something big and menacing, all you really need to do is get it as close as you can to a vita-chamber and start shooting it. If you do die you respawn and continue from where you were. All these things make the game quite easy, and this doesn't help the scariness of it all either.
The plot in Bioshock is actually quite well done, but a bit predictable in parts. You play as the voiceless, faceless prick Jack, who asked to do assorted jobs by nearly everyone he meets and doesn't kill. The plot twists and turns with each new character, but stays easy to follow and it managed to keep me interested enough to play the game through to the end.
Hacking, or pluming as I prefer to call it is incredibly easy. As long as you can flip the tiles fast enough there is no real challenge to it. Except for the times when it isn't possible to hack it, causing you to either lose health or have an alarm set off. You can hack almost anything as well as long as you can manage to zap it. Turrets, cameras and security bots are all conveniently placed so if you do hack them, the splicers will constantly set them off and get killed for it. You can hack nearly all the vending machines, health stations and safes as well, giving you even more health and ammo.
Another thing is how much the character likes to stab himself in the arm. The first thing he does after getting down to rapture is stab himself in the arm with a strange chemical, making him have what would appear to be a very electrical orgasm. After that however stabbing himself comes naturally. Whenever he finds a new plasmid or tonic it goes straight into his arm, and whenever he runs out of eve it's another jab to the wrist.
The powers the plasmids they gave you are quite useful and critical to the game play. The first is an Electro Bolt, allowing you to shoot lightning from your hands, and is used for zapping machines, people, water that people are standing in or door switches. A few other plasmids include Incinerate, allowing you to thaw ice to get to new areas and burn things, Winter blast, allowing you to freeze things, and Insect Swarm, allowing to shoot bees from your hands to attack your enemies.
All in all Bioshock is a pretty good game, with some brilliant ideas and concepts, however it isn't all that its cut up to be. It's not about to become a god, nor is it going to make you shit enough bricks to build 17 houses, 4 mansions, and remake the twin towers.
I had heard a fair bit about Bioshock before playing it. Comments like 'OMG Bioshock, Bioshock, Bioshock...' and 'ZOMFG B105h0ck r s0 1337!!1!11' against things like 'But it's so scarrrry'. I'm writing this review to say all of those comments are bullshit. Sure for the first half hour or so you might shit bricks, but after that it's only method of being scary is to turn all the lights off and have an army of splicers sent after you or have some menacing shadows lucking around. So as long as you can load you shotgun and jab yourself in the arm fast enough to defend yourself you'll be fine.
Another problem with Bioshock is the difficulty curve, or the lack of one. I was playing on the medium difficulty and I found that ammo and health boxes are everywhere, so dying seems to be near impossible unless coming against a Big Daddy. And when you do die, you will respawn at the last vita-chamber you passed. There is no penalty or cost for using them and everything you did still actually happened. Meaning if you want to kill something big and menacing, all you really need to do is get it as close as you can to a vita-chamber and start shooting it. If you do die you respawn and continue from where you were. All these things make the game quite easy, and this doesn't help the scariness of it all either.
The plot in Bioshock is actually quite well done, but a bit predictable in parts. You play as the voiceless, faceless prick Jack, who asked to do assorted jobs by nearly everyone he meets and doesn't kill. The plot twists and turns with each new character, but stays easy to follow and it managed to keep me interested enough to play the game through to the end.
Hacking, or pluming as I prefer to call it is incredibly easy. As long as you can flip the tiles fast enough there is no real challenge to it. Except for the times when it isn't possible to hack it, causing you to either lose health or have an alarm set off. You can hack almost anything as well as long as you can manage to zap it. Turrets, cameras and security bots are all conveniently placed so if you do hack them, the splicers will constantly set them off and get killed for it. You can hack nearly all the vending machines, health stations and safes as well, giving you even more health and ammo.
Another thing is how much the character likes to stab himself in the arm. The first thing he does after getting down to rapture is stab himself in the arm with a strange chemical, making him have what would appear to be a very electrical orgasm. After that however stabbing himself comes naturally. Whenever he finds a new plasmid or tonic it goes straight into his arm, and whenever he runs out of eve it's another jab to the wrist.
The powers the plasmids they gave you are quite useful and critical to the game play. The first is an Electro Bolt, allowing you to shoot lightning from your hands, and is used for zapping machines, people, water that people are standing in or door switches. A few other plasmids include Incinerate, allowing you to thaw ice to get to new areas and burn things, Winter blast, allowing you to freeze things, and Insect Swarm, allowing to shoot bees from your hands to attack your enemies.
All in all Bioshock is a pretty good game, with some brilliant ideas and concepts, however it isn't all that its cut up to be. It's not about to become a god, nor is it going to make you shit enough bricks to build 17 houses, 4 mansions, and remake the twin towers.
