Review A long-winded rant about BioShock

[DarkUnderlord]

Tags: BioShock; Irrational Games

In the spirit of "there's no point writing a review for a one year old game unless you whinge about everything that's wrong with it", <a href="http://rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=172">here's the long Codex whinge on BioShock</a>:
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<blockquote>... and it doesn't end there. BioShock also uses audio superbly as well. Beyond the audio diaries, the monsters you're fighting often have conversations with each other before they realise you're there. Then when they attack, they're using phrases that relate to the game-world rather. As you walk passed the in-game vending machines, they kick into life and start playing a cheery song. Video screens will display short movies as you walk by on occassion and some rooms even have speakers with audio advertising. As you find and collect Plasmids (the game's "magic spells"), you're shown a short video. Again, it's simple stuff but it makes you want to listen to the world and think about what you're hearing for at least a while before you go ahead and blow the next monster's brains out.</blockquote>
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Sound makes BioShock good. <a href="http://rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=172">Read more here</a>.

 

[OccupatedVoid]

 

[elander_]

Bioshock tries to be too deep for it's own sake and it falls into emotional porno. Save the little girls and pay them an education or use them, bah.

I agree the graphics are the best i seen in any recent game.

 

[devilkingx2]

what i hated about the rant awas that it was the exact probelm with the fans of the elder scrolls series

basically people bitch about features they intetionally abuse, you dont have to shock,whack you just choose to

it aint anyones fault that all you do is one thing over and over again

its a complaint if thats your only option, its a complaint if thats the only one that works, its not a complaint because you think its good and thus only use it and then whine about the lack of variety(which is there your just not using it)

 

[Xor]

basically people bitch about features they intetionally abuse, you dont have to shock,whack you just choose top

Your grammar is so bad that I can barely tell what you're trying to say, but I'm willing to look past that in the spirit of calling you an idiot.

Just because you can refrain from abusing stupid gameplay mechanics doesn't make them any less stupid. Saying "you don't have to abuse them" is missing the point. They shouldn't be there in the first place. System Shock 2 did all of this shit better and that game is more than a decade old at this point.

it aint anyones fault that all you do is one thing over and over again

Yes it is. It's the developer's fault. Who do you think designs the gameplay?

its a complaint if thats your only option, its a complaint if thats the only one that works, its not a complaint because you think its good and thus only use it and then whine about the lack of variety(which is there your just not using it)

Again, I can barely understand this paragraph. Put some fucking effort into your posts.

And Bioshock had what kind of variety? From what I remember, half the plasmids were overpowered as fuck. Intentionally limiting yourself to the weaker ones is stupid. The game itself tells you how to shock/wrench people in the beginning. The developers didn't even care about making the game challenging.

Edit: And to top it off, this was a fucking necro? I thought that article looked familiar.

 

[Mangoose]

devlking, I'd suggest cleaning out your profile before people check out your occupation and interests.

Oh wait, woops.

 

[waywardOne]

LOL. I think I'm sufficiently veteran to call him a newfag.

 

[MuscleSpark]

LOL. I think I'm sufficiently veteran to call him a newfag.

I don't even think it's a case of being new or not. He's just either really dumb or a troll. Or both.

 

[Sceptic]

Holy mother of necromancy batman!

 

[GarfunkeL]

Occupation: 9th grade
Interests: anything with comedy and/or nudity(female) and/or action/violence

!

 

[Xor]

Yeah, I realized I was trolled after I wrote up my post.


Oh well. It's not like I have anything better to do with my time.

 

[Sacculina]

Ah, Bioshock. The last bastion of hope for System Shock 2 fans. I remember its most vocal defenders at TTLG claiming that the dumbed-down gameplay was a good thing; it would draw in the CoD crowd and pave the way for a genuinely faithful spiritual sequel. Then Bioshock 2 happened.

Why does that sound familiar?

Ah, Dragon Age: Origins. The last bastion of hope for Baldur’s Gate fans. I remember its most vocal defenders claiming that the dumbed-down gameplay was a good thing; it would draw in the casual crowd and pave the way for a genuinely faithful spiritual sequel. Then Dragon Age 2 happened.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

what i hated about the rant awas that it was the exact probelm with the fans of the elder scrolls series

basically people bitch about features they intetionally abuse, you dont have to shock,whack you just choose to

it aint anyones fault that all you do is one thing over and over again

its a complaint if thats your only option, its a complaint if thats the only one that works, its not a complaint because you think its good and thus only use it and then whine about the lack of variety(which is there your just not using it)

It was the only one that worked. All the other plasmids methods are clearly subpar by comparison. When you're faced with multiple enemies, using that stupid bees one isn't useful. Not when you can deal with the enemy quickly and efficiently through a shock and whack. You don't know what you're going to face around the next corner so you want to maximise your plasmid use. You're not going to intentionally waste that shit only to turn around the corner and go "damn, wish I hadn't used all that mana throwing bees around".

Along the same principle, you're not going to waste armour piercing ammo on anything other than Big Daddy's because you don't know if there's another Big Daddy or more AP rounds around the next corner. So you want to conserve them as much as possible. After all, you are actually playing this game to get through it and succeed. The last thing you want to do is fuck it up and find that damn, if only you hadn't wasted all your money throwing those stupid plasmids and firing that useless ammo - if only you'd shocked and whacked you could've gotten through this next section. Now you have to restart.

To suggest that I should deliberately use a less effective plasmid or less effective ammunition in order to have fun is asinine. The game shouldn't put you in that situation. I should be having fun with the tools you've designed to be the best for this particular point in the game.

Oh yeah I also, like, covered this in the review:

The downside is that for all the show, BioShock has some pretty disapponting game-play. The very first weapon you pick up is the wrench and the very first Plasmid you acquire is the lightning shock thing. The very next guy you kill you SHOCK with the lightning, which stuns him momentarily and then WHACK with the wrench. As he's stunned, the hit kills him instantly. The alternative is to run about like a jack-ass trying to hit him with your wrench but that only costs you health (not that you really worry about that) and takes up more of your time. Particularly when you're fighting multiple opponents at once, which you often are. Even later in the game when you have more weapons, you realise that you could switch to the pistol, change to the anti-personnel ammo (each weapon has three types of ammo which work better on some monsters), fire 6 shots and (assuming those 6 shots all hit, which is unlikely given how fast those things are running and jumping around the place), take out the Splicer that's attacking you OR you could just go LIGHTNING, WRENCH in about the same amount of time it'd take you to load your gun in the first place. Which would you choose?
[...]
In the end, you use various different Plasmids and weapons not because they work any better (if anything, they actually work worse) but because you got bored of SHOCKing and WHACKing everything.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Nice review.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

You should really learn how to use the apostrophe, DU. The grammar in this review is embarrassing.

 

[Mastermind]

It was the only one that worked. All the other plasmids methods are clearly subpar by comparison.

I must respectfully disagree my good man. I hardly ever used shock other than to open doors past the early stages of the game. Well, that and the occasional instance where I could make use of water to insta-kill shit.

When you're faced with multiple enemies, using that stupid bees one isn't useful. Not when you can deal with the enemy quickly and efficiently through a shock and whack.

Bees plasmid is shit. Stop using it as an example as if the only choices avaliable are shock and fucking bees. Incinerate works well against groups, as does telekinesis if you can toss explosives. Target dummy does more or less the same thing shock does, except it costs less eve and affects multiple enemies simultaneously.

You don't know what you're going to face around the next corner so you want to maximise your plasmid use. You're not going to intentionally waste that shit only to turn around the corner and go "damn, wish I hadn't used all that mana throwing bees around".

All the more reason why you should not frivolously spam an expensive plasmid like electro bolt around.

Along the same principle, you're not going to waste armour piercing ammo on anything other than Big Daddy's because you don't know if there's another Big Daddy or more AP rounds around the next corner. So you want to conserve them as much as possible. After all, you are actually playing this game to get through it and succeed. The last thing you want to do is fuck it up and find that damn, if only you hadn't wasted all your money throwing those stupid plasmids and firing that useless ammo - if only you'd shocked and whacked you could've gotten through this next section. Now you have to restart.

Big daddies are not inherently hostile so there's no reason to save up for them as you can just hit them when you're well supplied. And AP ammo has little other use anyway. Unlike regular enemies where, depending on circumstances, there are plenty of other better plasmids than fucking electro bolt for you to use.

To suggest that I should deliberately use a less effective plasmid or less effective ammunition in order to have fun is asinine. The game shouldn't put you in that situation. I should be having fun with the tools you've designed to be the best for this particular point in the game.

I was having fun with the tools designed to be the best for that particular point in the game. You really should try experimenting with the other weapons and plasmids.

 

[Roguey]

A counterpoint by Jeff Vogel, only because I love this quote so much:

Also, early on, you can get the ability to freeze the enemy you're fighting. Once you have it, all boss fights become completely trivial for the rest of the game. Once, when I was younger, I would have seen this as a flaw. Now I am old and slow and I think games just get too darn hard, so the ability to instantly freeze and obliterate everyone is awesome. In my fantasy world, I don't want to be a loser who is incapable of ever succeeding.

Anyway, the way I remember it, Bioshock stopped the resource starvation once you left the first couple of levels and its biggest issues were the peashooter weapons, sluggish main character movement, how every Big Daddy fight played out the same, and how it runs out of original enemies for you to fight about halfway through (the last enemy type, the Houdini Splicer, shows up on level 5 out of 13) and has to resort to enemies having more health, "your health is shrinking," "your plasmids are on the fritz," and "escort this girl" gimmicks to make things "interesting."

 

[Admiral jimbob]

Is that the key to understanding Vogel

 

[Humanity has risen!]

No, Vogel is actually quite skilled as a designer, and his dungeons full of traps and especially brutal and challenging. It's very easy to get obliterated in a Geneforge dungeon because you became too brazen or made the slightest mistake.

 

[Grunker]

So the key to understanding Vogel is that he does not play his own games?

 

[Sceptic]

So the key to understanding Vogel is that he does not play his own games?

I don't really blame him; if you've spent X months making a game, the last person who will want to play it afterwards is yourself.

However, it seems pretty obvious that he doesn't communicate much with this testers to tell them what he's actually trying to do. And/or he picks testers that are his complete opposite in the challenges they like.