This is a great game. Awesome graphics, good voice acting, etc., etc, but I'm not seeing the "masterpiece" ... maybe I'm way too far from the ending to see it (I'm at the gunsmith's place) - but it's really repetitive (find Elizabeth, shoot people, get Elizabeth, repeat).
Where's the awesome story everyone was talking about?
It's either gonna hook you or it won't.
I loved everything in the beginning, but yeah once I got halfway through I felt the story fell apart. Characters who weren't named Booker, Elizabeth, or Comstock became 1-dimensional and were fodder for bullets. And the ending was contrived garbage.
I'm going to try it again though. The first Bioshock got better and better the more I played it, now it's one of my favorite games. I think I'm just bitter over not getting the game we were promised at E3 2011. This was something entirely different featuring the same setting and characters.
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I'd love to see you in the moonlight with your head thrown back and your body on fire.
While the story itself was unforgettable and undoubtedly fascinating, I thought the gameplay left a lot to be desired. As the OP said, it did feel very repetitive at times. Shoot people, go here, find Elizabeth, shoot people, rescue Elizabeth, all the while searching various containers for the exact same things. I grew tired of pressing the square button in the end, the amount of time spent rummaging through various containers probably took up half the game, and it was pretty much essential for progress too considering how scarce ammo and money is if you don't. I wasn't very impressed with the vigors either, I don't really remember seeing anything particularly new that I hadn't seen done better in other games involving super powers. The skylines were okay but I didn't see the need to use them very often seeing as I tend to prefer grounded combat and feel too exposed in mid air.
The visuals were intriguing at times, mainly because of how bizarre a lot of it was, but personally I thought the now two year-old Skyrim looked better in parts and it had a lot more to render. The two best things about the game that made the experience worth it were the character of Elizabeth, and the plot itself (seemingly laced with delicious anti-religious themes combined with sci-fi, what more could one ask for?), which both definitely made an impression. I think for it to be a masterpiece however, all the elements would have to be excellent and in my opinion, they're not. The gameplay isn't bad, it's just nothing special. I also noticed a lot of the reviews say that as soon as you finish it you'll want to play again, and I must admit, I didn't get that feeling at all. It was a fun adventure but not one I'm likely to revisit any time soon.
"Jesus was a cross dresser." - George Carlin
I fully agree with Kevinology. I actually never played the first two Bioshock games, but this one looked really awesome. And it was,partially.
The story and visuals of the game were superb! And I would definitely replay it again for just that. But when it came to gameplay, helping the Vox and supplying them with weapons, I found that part to be pretty dull as well. Especially since I had to replay that part three times thanks to that damn autosave!
Most of the time I was rushing through the fights, just to see what would happen next, storywise.
But I thought it was just me since I normally don't play shooter games that much. I remember Levine promising a lot of 'choices' like either attacking Songbird or running from it, your choices having effect on your relationship with Elizabeth, or helping people and risking a fight, or simply ignoring them. But none of that was there! I think the game would've been awesome had they put that part in the game.
Yeah, so far, I've made two choices. I'm disappointed.
I fully agree with Kevinology. I actually never played the first two Bioshock games, but this one looked really awesome. And it was,partially.
The story and visuals of the game were superb! And I would definitely replay it again for just that. But when it came to gameplay, helping the Vox and supplying them with weapons, I found that part to be pretty dull as well.
Especially since I had to replay that part three times thanks to that damn autosave!
Most of the time I was rushing through the fights, just to see what would happen next, storywise.
But I thought it was just me since I normally don't play shooter games that much. I remember Levine promising a lot of 'choices' like either attacking Songbird or running from it, your choices having effect on your relationship with Elizabeth, or helping people and risking a fight, or simply ignoring them. But none of that was there! I think the game would've been awesome had they put that part in the game.
I don't know how to quote, so sorry if this post is a bit confusing:
Thanks for your reply, glad to see people sharing the same opinion. As for the part where the autosave failed, it was during the 'Hall of Heroes' part. For some reason it would never save beyond that point. Luckily the internet provided an answer. It had something to do with the time of date on my Xbox 360. I had to set the time right and after that there were no more autosave problems.
Oh right I see, I never had that problem, the autosaves previous to the final mission were rather forgiving, it just became a bit cruel at the end. Oh, and if you wanna know how to quote, this is what you type:
[ quote ] whatever sentence or paragraph you want [ / quote ]
Except without the spaces. It's similar to typing in italics or in bold, i.e. for italics it would be [ i ] and [ / i ] before and after the word, or [ b ] and then [ / b ] for bold. You can also change the colour of your text, just type the name of the colour you want in the same fashion i.e. [ purple ] random text [ / purple ] etc.
If you get stuck, there's a link on the left side of your IMDb message board profile just underneath your biography that reads "markup enabled", if you click on that it will take you to the page that lists the codes for emoticons, colours, italics etc. Hope that helps.
"Jesus was a cross dresser." - George Carlin
"Come on. I mean you could have a choice as to whether or not to be a dick and steal from the poor in Shantytown, or steal anything, but aside from occasionally getting the cops on your ass there were no significant moral consequences for it and it didn't seem to alter your relationship, demeanour, or any of the events in the story. If choices were there, I missed them"
I slaughtered entire streets of civilians just to get a reaction from Elizabeth, but nothing. In fact she threw me stuff to help me do it. Which I thought was strange for a girl who freaked out not to long ago about killing the BAD GUYS but was fine with me killing civilians.
I slaughtered entire streets of civilians just to get a reaction from Elizabeth, but nothing. In fact she threw me stuff to help me do it. Which I thought was strange for a girl who freaked out not to long ago about killing the BAD GUYS but was fine with me killing civilians.
SPOILERS AHEAD...
Okay, I've played this game twice (one good and one as evil as possible), and I'm on a third round on 1999 mode. So, obviously, I think it's a pretty good game. I absolutely felt the urge to play again, if nothing else than try to figured out the nuances of how it fit with the ending, and if different play-styles changed anything.
Now, here's the thing. Playing 1999 mode has much better gameplay imo, and is the way the game 'should' be played. But I don't know, maybe it's because 1999 mode slows you down, or because it's the 3rd time around, but the curtain seems to have fallen down with Elizabeth. I'm just not that impressed with her AI anymore. I think I was just flying through the game too fast on medium mode to notice it. She's less of a companion character and more like a mobile piggy bank that has some interesting cutscenes.
I am disappointed that her interaction with you is the EXACT same now matter how you play. NO objections to killing everyone you possibly can, stealing, etc.? The only thing that seems to bother her besides the scripted stuff is pointing a gun at her. Mass murder? No probs.
Also, yes, there are certain points of the game that drag. Specifically the part where you're in the market area and going after Elizabeth's mom to the point where you kill her. It just kind of drags for me. Every other area is fine.
At first I didn't like the ending because it was confusing. I wanted an ending that took the mystery and brought it to a point of crystal clarity. An "ah hah!" moment. But the more I thought about it and tried to understand it the more I appreciate it.
I liked the ending right off the bat, and I'm glad it wasn't an "ah-hah!" moment because I enjoy complicated endings that make you think as opposed to blatant Sixth Sense-style twists with montages that spoon-feed the audience/gamer, so I definitely appreciated this one. I also loved the haunting, wonderfully atmospheric sequence with Elizabeth as an old woman in a modern day New York overlooking the burning skyscrapers, having apparently brought about the apocalypse, telling Booker to warn her younger self. Oh, and the unexpected, brilliant reference and trip to the submerged city from the previous games.
I think one of the things that bothered me about the parts of the story that dragged on were the Vox Populi sequences, although they offered some insight into tears and their affect on the world, the rest all felt somewhat pointless. I didn't fully understand the motivations, why was Booker so willing to help out the Vox in exchange for the airship when he could've simply found Elizabeth and then taken it back by force in the first place? He's comfortable killing hordes of the Vox's enemies to get a shipment of weapons from the dangerous slums of Columbia but reluctant to kill or incapacitate their leader to take back a ship he'd already procured? That's another instance where an element of choice would've been welcome, go through with the exchange or simply kill the leader and her bodyguards, and take back the ship. It just reeked of filler, as though they wanted a reason to involve the Vox and drag the game out a bit longer, as well as a reason for you to explore, so they created a contrived plot point like that which didn't seem to make any sense. If they'd have come up with something better, where perhaps the Vox had something extra to offer Booker in exchange for him risking his life, I would've been a little more comfortable with the diversion. Or even if they'd developed Fitzroy enough for me to care about her cause, but they didn't. As it happens, I was thrust into the middle of a war I didn't particularly care about, involving characters that didn't matter to me, for reasons which weren't justifiable. Perhaps that was actually intentional, but it didn't do anything but take away from the experience in my opinion.
"Jesus was a cross dresser." - George Carlin
I thought the gameplay left a lot to be desired. As the OP said, it did feel very repetitive at times. Shoot people, go here, find Elizabeth, shoot people, rescue Elizabeth, all the while searching various containers for the exact same things. I grew tired of pressing the square button in the end, the amount of time spent rummaging through various containers probably took up half the game, and it was pretty much essential for progress too considering how scarce ammo and money is if you don't.
I played the second one, but I was under the impression that combat had been altered considerably with the inclusion of Elizabeth and Vigors as well as skylines (which I ended up not being interested in), but it's really not that different at all. I also hated the fact that you could only carry two weapons at once, that ammo was scarce, and that salts ran out very fast unless you sacrificed health and shield infusions to level them up (which for me wasn't an option considering the game's difficulty at times). All in all, the game doesn't make you feel very powerful, certainly not compared to other games with much more robust power systems.
I don't recall much of a stealth system either, I normally don't choose that option anyway but it would've been nice to be able to sneak-kill everyone rather than more or less being forced into full-scale battles every time. The cops always knew where you were if you stole something even if you were alone in a room, and I tried crouching to see if that helped detection but enemies usually know where you are all the time. They really missed an opportunity with the combat in my opinion, they could've even had Elizabeth help with stealth elements by perhaps using tears as distractions or something, or included vigors that made you invisible for a short time. It just doesn't stack up gameplay wise against any of the bigger guns or even the new IPs such as Dishonoured. I think if people buy this game they should do so for the story and characters alone, don't expect anything revolutionary gameplay wise and don't believe the hype either. Superb story, great characters, but unfortunately everything else was average at best.
"Jesus was a cross dresser." - George Carlin
Just finished the game, and the ending was amazing. Like you said, superb story, great characters ... but the gameplay was repetitive, and at some times way too hard.
Wouldn't give it a 9.5/10 like IGN gave it. More like a 7.5/10.
Far Cry 3 is still my favorite game.
IGN's score was another reason why I bought the game, but they overrated it in my opinion, as did most critics. I agree with you about the difficulty as well, because the gameplay didn't leave you a lot of options, it made the combat seem harder even when it wasn't, if you catch my drift. You pretty much have no choice but to level up your shield because if you don't, you will be viciously raped and the "Handymen" (I think that's what they were called) were frustrating at times and overpowered.
During the asylum portion of the game which was actually quite enjoyable, ammo was nigh impossible to find and salts were scarce (and I was already low on both upon entering, but didn't care as I expected to be able to pick up more) so I found myself desperately trying to melee my way out of being ambushed by those creepy minions. It wasn't exactly super hard, because thankfully they were weaker enemies than most others which compensated a lot but it became boring, and brought down an otherwise entertaining portion of the story.
"Jesus was a cross dresser." - George Carlin
I'm playing 1999 and that's even worse. I just beat Lady Comstock for the first time and that was TOUGH. Luckily I bought the DLC so I had 5 infusions very quickly in and some decent gear. I ended up maxing out salts and posesssion and charge upgrades. Maxxed out hand cannon and sniper rifle (hopefully I can scrounge enough money to put some upgrades on shotgun).
Using full melee gear and fully upgraded charge you hit bosses HARD. Possession is also great for picking off normal dudes. It's homing, you barely have to aim, and its a guaranteed one shot one kill.
If you look at some of the early videos of the game, you can tell they had a 'do-over' moment. The final game scarcely resembles the game I saw 2 years ago. Elizabeth was very powerful and would set up powerful attacks that you finished.
I think somebody decided that her being powerful would diminish your sense of accomplishment. I know for a fact that this is the reason she doesn't use guns. To be honest, I kind of wish they kept this more equal dynamic. It would have made having a multiplayer co-op mode make more sense, which I really, REALLY wanted.