Post by Avelon on May 4, 2008 17:02:33 GMT -5
Well, the main reason I've not been frequenting JL for some time now is that various games have sucked me in. I recently got a new computer and I've been catching up on all of the games I always wanted to play but couldn't. Bioshock is a relatively new title on that list, but I could not be happier I skipped to it.
Before I launch into the glories of the game, I should tell you a bit about the setting, in case you don't know. Bioshock takes place in the city of Rapture, in the late 1950's - so expect the 'Mom & Pop' advertisements, 50's music, et cetera.
There's a catch, though - Rapture is located at 63*2ºN/29*55ºW...which is between 400-500 miles west of the southern tip of Iceland. The astute would note that there is no land there. Rapture is built on the bottom of the Atlantic ocean. A visionary built a personal paradise founded on the ideals of a free market to escape from the economic collapses and political repressions of the United States and the Soviet Union. His name was Andrew Ryan. Rapture was a place 'where the artist would not fear the censor, where the great will not be constrained by the small, where the scientist will not be bound by petty morality'.
But when you arrive in Rapture, it's all but destroyed, and there are few if any sane people left. It's up to you to piece together what happened and why.
---
Bioshock is masterfully done. If you've played either Half-Life title, just take the ambiance and sub-theme of horror and suspense. Bioshock is made by its ambiance - in the very first section of the game I spent a good deal of time just looking around my shoulder in a paranoid fashion, jumping at every odd sound, etc. If you go in expecting it to be Halo or something, you WILL be disappointed, because this is not a First-Person Shooter. That's just the GUI for something much, much deeper.
You are thrown into this world that's so alien, yet so familiar - so nostalgic - and from the moment you are, you start learning. There are tape-recorded messages strewn throughout the game that you can pick up and listen to. Some of them have key information that you need to progress, but the vast majority of them are completely optional. You don't have to listen to them if you don't want to.
The theme of horror dissipates as you grow callous and numb towards the horrible things you're seeing - corpses everywhere, and those that are alive look like they shouldn't be. They look like they are at all times in immense pain, and some of the things they say support that theory. Everything is warped and twisted. But you grow numb to it, which is all the more horrifying when you close the game to take a break and recount the events you've just witnessed, and how you didn't feel shocked or even surprised by some really gruesome things.
There is a story to follow, but once you have access to a few areas, you can move freely between them, so if you miss a powerup in the first area, you can always go back and pick it up later. The story, though, is brilliant, and you'll probably find yourself trying to complete your objectives as quickly as possible to advance it.
One thing I must note is that this game elicits strong emotional reactions from me. At one point a tunnel partially collapses and starts to flood. My reaction was 'OHnutsOHnutsOHnutsIHAVETOGETOUTOFHEREOHnuts!'. In most games that would have been 'Whoa! Heh, cool water effect.' Because of the way the game perceives you the player vs. you the character, there are only a few small differences between them. You'll find yourself considering things that were directed at your character as having been directed at you. The game can at times be quite deep.
---
While the medium is 'first person shooter', it is so much more than that. Suffice to say that this is a game you can play using strategy. The physics of the game are some of the best I have ever seen - you can light an object on fire, use telekinesis to hold it in front of you, and torch other things by touching it to them, or melt ice by holding it near - but if you touch it to the ice, it'll go out. You can lay proximity mines on a barrel full of flammable liquid, then launch it at something with Telekinesis and watch as whatever you threw it at is caught in a massive blast and is lit on fire. Every 'Plasmid', your special abilities (Telekinesis, Incinerate, etc.), has several applications, and I feel confident that you will spend a good deal of time just playing with each one as you get it.
---
I could spent all 60,000 characters describing how amazing this game is - the moments here and there that made my eyes widen to anime-like proportions - but instead I'll stop here with one final note: The fold-out cover of this game describes the game with a picture far better than I can with words. It's a picture of a Big Daddy with a bunch of text bubbles around him telling you various ways to destroy, distract, or disable him. There are so many options available to you that work in just about any way you can think, you will likely never run out of strategic combos.
Before I launch into the glories of the game, I should tell you a bit about the setting, in case you don't know. Bioshock takes place in the city of Rapture, in the late 1950's - so expect the 'Mom & Pop' advertisements, 50's music, et cetera.
There's a catch, though - Rapture is located at 63*2ºN/29*55ºW...which is between 400-500 miles west of the southern tip of Iceland. The astute would note that there is no land there. Rapture is built on the bottom of the Atlantic ocean. A visionary built a personal paradise founded on the ideals of a free market to escape from the economic collapses and political repressions of the United States and the Soviet Union. His name was Andrew Ryan. Rapture was a place 'where the artist would not fear the censor, where the great will not be constrained by the small, where the scientist will not be bound by petty morality'.
But when you arrive in Rapture, it's all but destroyed, and there are few if any sane people left. It's up to you to piece together what happened and why.
---
Bioshock is masterfully done. If you've played either Half-Life title, just take the ambiance and sub-theme of horror and suspense. Bioshock is made by its ambiance - in the very first section of the game I spent a good deal of time just looking around my shoulder in a paranoid fashion, jumping at every odd sound, etc. If you go in expecting it to be Halo or something, you WILL be disappointed, because this is not a First-Person Shooter. That's just the GUI for something much, much deeper.
You are thrown into this world that's so alien, yet so familiar - so nostalgic - and from the moment you are, you start learning. There are tape-recorded messages strewn throughout the game that you can pick up and listen to. Some of them have key information that you need to progress, but the vast majority of them are completely optional. You don't have to listen to them if you don't want to.
The theme of horror dissipates as you grow callous and numb towards the horrible things you're seeing - corpses everywhere, and those that are alive look like they shouldn't be. They look like they are at all times in immense pain, and some of the things they say support that theory. Everything is warped and twisted. But you grow numb to it, which is all the more horrifying when you close the game to take a break and recount the events you've just witnessed, and how you didn't feel shocked or even surprised by some really gruesome things.
There is a story to follow, but once you have access to a few areas, you can move freely between them, so if you miss a powerup in the first area, you can always go back and pick it up later. The story, though, is brilliant, and you'll probably find yourself trying to complete your objectives as quickly as possible to advance it.
One thing I must note is that this game elicits strong emotional reactions from me. At one point a tunnel partially collapses and starts to flood. My reaction was 'OHnutsOHnutsOHnutsIHAVETOGETOUTOFHEREOHnuts!'. In most games that would have been 'Whoa! Heh, cool water effect.' Because of the way the game perceives you the player vs. you the character, there are only a few small differences between them. You'll find yourself considering things that were directed at your character as having been directed at you. The game can at times be quite deep.
---
While the medium is 'first person shooter', it is so much more than that. Suffice to say that this is a game you can play using strategy. The physics of the game are some of the best I have ever seen - you can light an object on fire, use telekinesis to hold it in front of you, and torch other things by touching it to them, or melt ice by holding it near - but if you touch it to the ice, it'll go out. You can lay proximity mines on a barrel full of flammable liquid, then launch it at something with Telekinesis and watch as whatever you threw it at is caught in a massive blast and is lit on fire. Every 'Plasmid', your special abilities (Telekinesis, Incinerate, etc.), has several applications, and I feel confident that you will spend a good deal of time just playing with each one as you get it.
---
I could spent all 60,000 characters describing how amazing this game is - the moments here and there that made my eyes widen to anime-like proportions - but instead I'll stop here with one final note: The fold-out cover of this game describes the game with a picture far better than I can with words. It's a picture of a Big Daddy with a bunch of text bubbles around him telling you various ways to destroy, distract, or disable him. There are so many options available to you that work in just about any way you can think, you will likely never run out of strategic combos.