I played through the last 2-3 hours of the game last night after the update and it worked fine all the way through. If only the patch could have fixed the crappy ending...

One of my pet peeves is when people shout "Overrated, Overrated". But damn...this game really is overrated. Finished last night. They're really wasn't any type of gameplay variety that seperated this from the rest of the FPS pack IMO. The art design of the world was fantastic, but besides that nothing really stood out for me.

The one thing that I liked about it is that it had much more of an adventure feel to it that most FPS's which is also why Condemned stood out. I wish more first person games were like that. Overall I don't think it lived up the hype. Great game, but with the lineup we have coming this fall, definitely not game of the year.

Plasmids? Tonics? Weapon Upgrades? AI easily better than most FPS games?

That's exactly what I felt when I played the demo.. excellent art design and atmosphere, but "just another FPS." I'm still interested in playing it though since it is supposed to have stronger adventure undertones to it, but that wasn't really apparent in the demo.

... hacking, moral decisions, searching bodies, etc. Definitely a by the book FPS.

Great:

random encounter generator--Even after you clear an area, once in awhile someone will climb thrugh a ceiling tile and surprise you.

atmosphere--it detailed the world very well. A truly unique and believable city.

weapon variety--lots of fun ways to dispatch someone.

Not so great:

I should have realized it earlier but you spend the WHOLE game IN a dungeon. To me that grates on my nerves after awhile. The art and sets were beautiful but I really dont enjoy being trapped for a whole game.

too many errand boy missions

and...


but in all not a terrible game. It was perhaps a little too hard in the beginning and too easy at the end but if I changed the difficulty it would probably have been nearly impossible for me at the beginning.

No, parasites are people who don't do for themselves and try to sponge off of others in the libertarian-Objectivist philosophy of Andrew Ryan. Basically, anyone who tries to take the fruit of another's labor ("No, says the man in Washington, it belongs to the poor! No, says the man in the Vatican, it belongs to god! No, says the man in Moscow, it belongs to everyone!")

it would have been a perfect aspect of the game. Man stealing power from nature only to find themselves prey to a larger predator.

Andrew Ryan?

I love the game so far and hours go by quickly. I think I'm near the end but have one complain: . Anyone else think this?

That said, by far the best game of the year for me.

I had no desire to play the game, and I didn't play the demo. I had a free rental so I grabbed it. I was immediately sucked in and I was pleasantly surprised with the gameplay, the "Plasmid" concept, weapon assortment, the different pickups, like pep-bars, chips, rubber hoses, glue, etc... I think the only thing I didn't like was the hacking got to be mundane at times. I felt like I had to hack every maching & bot in the game, even if I didn't need to replenish my health or EVE. Even though I was sick of hacking, I couldn't quit doing it, lol. I had to return the game before I got to finish it, but enough people here said the end sucked so I don't feel like I'm missing anything great. If we weren't right around the corner from some great games coming up, I'd probably buy it & try it on hard, but why buy it now & have to deal with it being a paper-weight when Halo 3 comes out in two weeks?

~S2K

I'm now afraid to play because I can't stop after at least three or four hours. I'm wanting to redo a scene or a certain part to often just to try "plasmids" or ways to defeat the baddies. Simply addictive. And yes I'll play again on hard but with Halo3 around thecorner it'll have to be quick.

Kenny J

My biggest complaint with the game is I don't think they delivered on the promise of true choice. When I first read about the game I thought that the Little Sisters were going to be just another part of the eco system (albeit a very IMPORTANT part). I thought we would be able to not even mess with Big Daddy's if we could be sneaky enough. It just seemed almost pointless that they created a character that will not harm you if left alone, but you have no choice but to engage him.

Also, I personally thought the climax came at the midpoint with the twist (which for me was excellent). The story behind Rapture is great. If you start to put all the pieces of the puzzle together it makes for a really good story, you just have to look for it since their all through audio diaries.

Overall, I think the game is flawed masterpiece. If they could somehow improve some of the flaws and maybe add a little more variety... Like someone else mentioned, I was hoping at some point a sea creature would attack, or maybe get trapped and flooded somewhere and had to escape. I don't know, anything to break up the monotony of killing and searching throughout the entire game.

For those that have gotten that far... my favorite section in the whole game was Sander Cohen, followed by the mad doctor. There were also some genuinely creepy parts, my favorite being the first time you encounter the "houdini" splicer. Good stuff.

Dammit.

Just started, and I want to play through this twice, but don't know if I'll get to before H3 comes out.

I really enjoyed the demo, is there any replay value here or is it just one time and done?

Most people will probably play through it twice, and hopefully with downloadable content we'll get more reasons to play again.

Agreed. I played it through twice and would play it again if something new brought me back to it.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=28507


Chris

Bioshock deserves all the accolades it is going to get.

I think that it deserves more credit for being a great shooter than it does just for being a great game. I think it is innovative for the plasmids but what really made it shine for them was the setting. That level of detail is hard to find. The Darkness was a fun game and had a great idea but the city felt flat and way too small for me to be impressed with the surroundings. Bioshock had me forgetting to play the game because I was too busy staring at the game world. Even the story, which was so slow starting out, really took off and impressed me.

That is a solid point about the Darkness. Had it been larger, maybe twice as big and gave you a Harley to ride around on, it could have been awesome. Still a solid game just a bit shy of great.

That's funny, because I said the same about the Darkness as you said about Bioshock. My stepdad and I spent hours roaming around the streets of the Darkness, shooting things, throwing bodies with the darkness claw, watching tv, etc. Both games were made by 2k, so they must know what they are doing over there.

Considering how long the game was in development I just expected more. The city was the major issue I had with the game and there were a few minor ones I think I covered in the thread we had for the game.

I finished it tonight and I totally agree. Very good story for a video game and I really dug the environments and the overall gaming experience. The weapons and plasmids were fun and I enjoyed unlocking the story and hunting and searching everywhere for things.

I also had some great "moments" during the game I will remember.


So far it is my Game of the Year without question. I hate FPS games in general, but I loved this game. To me it was a point and click adventure with lots of action and stands head and shoulders above most single player FPS games.

I haven't loved a FPS since Half Life 2 and this one stacks up very well.