What are you, the game of the year police?

Finished this last night on hard (and saving all little sisters).

While I have to say it was an awesome game, and one of the best in awhile (then again I only just got a new computer last week to actually run anything new with ultra pretty graphics settings).
It most certainly WASN'T "game of X year" material.

Visually: Absolutely aweswome in DX10

Story: Without any spoilers lets just say story is cliche and not told very well (I also collected every diary playback and followed them)/

Ambience: Could have been alot 'scarier', decent 'horror' themes though with roof crawling splicers etc. (bioshock states scary horror/violence themes on the box =P).
Doom 'blackscreen' 3 was 'scarier' than this.
F.E.A.R was probably scarier than this (which, uhm, wasnt!).
Removal of Vita Chambers and lightening up toughness ALOT of enemies (and perhaps throwing more of instead) would be good.

On a +ve, Spoiler:
in the medical pavillion when you pickup the shotgun and you're in a spotlight of an otherwise pitch black room and dozens of splicers are jumping out at you was done really really well!
With more scripted events like that it could have been truly awesome.

Gameplay: 'respawning' enemies (or 'reappearing') got very old. VERY VERY quickly (for example - Arcadia, if you were lost/looking around you'd be burning up ammunition very fast)...

Plasmids on the other hand - fun as hell! Proxy mine on the roof, cyclone trap and send them flying into it... or cyclone trap then freeze them in mid air =]
Incincerate, Cyclone Trap, Heat Seeking RPG. or of course... the ApocoTrashcan - Proxy mine it up, telekinesis - Launch at something like a Big Daddy and watch the fireworks.

Another negative, towards the end of the game, even a fully upgraded machine gun becomes for the most part, utterly useless - a basic 'splicer' requiring somewhere in the order of around 50 bullets at point blank, starting with headshots (I had invisibility camo and waited for them to get real close a number of times), that left you with the option of using harder hitting materials which were in short supply for 'reappearing' enemies which made Hard... well... stupid rather then "hard".

Big Daddies, similar problem however I found them to be alot easier towards the end of the game with more plasmids and more importantly, more useable environment to use against them with your plasmids and traps etc.
And secondly, that when the f***ers re-appeared you dont have to fight them anyway.

Ending: Total load of crap, multiple endinds in the game yes - Both go for about 1 minute, if that.
Final Boss battle, even on 'hard' was an absolute push-over, easier than basic splicers or even big daddies you fight armies of before you get to him. (I won't spoil who it is).
Wrapping up of the story is weak and really points out for those who didn't follow the diaries, just how weak and cliche the story was anyway.

Lack of multiplayer - a damn shame, I think a deathmatch would rock with plasmids and telekinesis etc. =]

That's just a few things, and just as many things that were good about it.
Loved the game, not bitter that I paid for it at all. But certainly isn't worth worshipping as 'best of' a year in any category except graphics really.

last edited by Loki at 09:13:48 03/Sep/07

Another negative, towards the end of the game, even a fully upgraded machine gun becomes for the most part, utterly useless - a basic 'splicer' requiring somewhere in the order of around 50 bullets at point blank, starting with headshots (I had invisibility camo and waited for them to get real close a number of times), that left you with the option of using harder hitting materials which were in short supply for 'reappearing' enemies which made Hard... well... stupid rather then "hard".

l2 research and headshot

I finished it on both easy and hard and found it enjoyable on both play through's. Hard Is defiantly hard at the start as you have no weapon upgrades on research, but towards the end it became way too easy.

Personally, I like the respawning enemies, I think it'd get pretty boring pretty fast if there wasn't always splicers around to kill. And its done really well imo, its not like games like Call of Duty where 20 nazis come out of the same little house, it really feels like these guys are living in the world. I've never thought to myself while playing it "Oh great, another lame game where enemies keep respawning" because it just feels like they SHOULD be there to me.

I also don't think its meant to be a scary horror game. In none of the interviews I've watched has anyone said they're trying to make a horror game, they're more trying to make this creepy dystopia with an atmosphere of unease that just gets under your skin and creeps you out, and I think they achieved that pretty well.

So yeah, its definitely a contender for game of the year for me, its one of the best games I've enjoyed for quite a while. I love the story, love the gameplay, love the world they've created. But each to their own, it'd be a boring world if we all enjoyed the same things and had the same opinions :)

Can't believe you liked the story khel?!

The story ate a bowl of cocks really. The environment/World/History/Setting of the story i.e. the CITY was good, I liked listening to the diaries of peoples lives in the city and how it all came to be/what happened.

BUT the story of the main character/why they were there was just utter s***, painful, lame and pretty much on par with s***ness that was the endings.
Which really ruined it, you have an awesome setting, but a lame reason to be there (the main character).
s***, a lame ass "you're just some hobo trying to survive an apoclypse type event" would have been better than what they had.

--
A 'more' lively city would have been cool (story set closer to it all occuring perhaps), more scenes of survivors getting chomped up by splicers like at the start. Or you accidently cause a huge crowd of survivors hiding in a large ballroom/sub-section type thing to get stormed by a mass of splicers that pour through a now open/busted/whatever bulkhead and run along the ceiling & walls etc. Those at the front trying to push past through to the back but nobody has anywhere to go heh, I dunno perhaps hardware wouldn't be able to handle that much detail going on at once.
But it certainly would have been cool rather than just stumbling across staggered enemies mindlessly wandering patrolling.

Like I said, the med. pavillion spotlight + dark room + shotgun scripted event was pure awesome, that was pretty much the only time in the whole game I thought was REALLY well done. oh and fighting/discovering Steinman shortly after (think that was the doc's name), that was also well done.
It just seemed to get more and more rushed/less involved as the game dragged on.

Awesome game, one of the best in awhile. But still way more hyped up than it should be, other than graphically which were impressive.


last edited by Loki at 13:40:18 03/Sep/07

Can't believe you liked the story khel?!

The story ate a bowl of cocks really. The environment/World/History/Setting of the story i.e. the CITY was good, I liked listening to the diaries of peoples lives in the city and how it all came to be/what happened.

Well when I say "the story" I'm including all the diaries and the history of the world and how it got to be the way it was. I haven't even played it far enough to know the reason, lame or otherwise, why you're there. I wouldn't even care if theres no reason at all, I just love the world they've made.

I certainly like the way the world is presented. I too haven't played much. Such little time to invest in gaming :(

I've just past the bit with the lights and shotgun that Loki was talking about. So far the best thing that gave me the creeps was when I was farting around a container in a small dead ended room and I turned around and there was a splicer just standing right behind me. No weapons raised, arms by its side, just standing there. I swear if gaming was more tactile I would have felt it breathing down my neck. I'm sure it was there for a little bit just waiting for me to turn around. Asif the sudden surge of adrenalin would make its next meal quite sweet and tasty. It took me a second to realize that I should kill it...

BOOM, headshot with shotgun. I'm also playing on Hard.

I don't like the hacking much.. pipes? wtf were they thinking?

hehe, i had the same experience tollazor, turned around, one right behind me, scared the absolute s*** out of me. but i was also making a point of cranking the surround sound and playing in a pitch black room.

And what kinda of utopia has ammo vending machines??

My kind of Utopia.

pure gold. laughed my ass off

as for big daddy's and rosies. i found the best and easily most pain free way of killing them. crossbow, trap bolts. set 4 trap bolts between you and it, fire the 5th at the big daddy and take cover. he'll charge you and when he hit's the last trap, he's dead

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/1394-Zero-Punctuation-BioShock