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| Bioshock (Xbox 360) Review | |
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| Topic Started: Sunday, 12. October 2008, 21:47 (325 Views) | |
| jalexbrown | Sunday, 12. October 2008, 21:47 Post #1 |
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 After I finished playing Bioshock, I knew immediately that I'd played an amazing game. That feeling after finishing a game where the game just sticks with you, I felt that with Bioshock. It was an incredibly emotional game. The mystery of the world of Rapture sticks with you long after the game ends. And yet, frankly, at first I had a hard time summing what it was that made Bioshock so amazing. It really left me at a loss for words, and I had to postpone writing this review for several days so I could actually figure out what made the game so amazing. For starters the atmosphere in Bioshock is amazing. And by atmosphere I mean more than visuals. Sure, the visuals are amazing (a bit on that in a minute), but the whole game's presentation is just immersive and amazing. I don't think I've ever felt so totally involved in a game before. The world of Rapture is just so intriguing and well conceived that, despite it's obvious sci-fi setting, it seems almost plausible. The world is well developed; it's as if the developers actually mapped out every square inch of Rapture. The problem with all of this is that, while the city of Rapture is presented as being this huge underwater world, you really feel confined to the small corridors and buildings the game lets you into. A breathtaking opening cinematic makes Rapture feel huge, but you'll quickly feel disappointed once you find out you're constrained to the path the developers put you on. With all the attention to detail in the world, it's a shame that they confined you so much. Bioshock is visually a treat. The moody lighting is just so well done, and many of the creepy set pieces will stick with you long after you've passed them up. The models are textures are equally impressive, and I never noticed any major frame rate issues. The game is littered with special effects, and none of them feel cheap or lazy. The way the world interacts with you, and with itself, is also quite amazing. The visual appeal (not to mention gameplay appeal) of being able to send a bolt of lightning at a puddle of water and fry the person standing in it is just so pleasing. Even today I think that Bioshock is a testimony to what the Xbox 360 can do visually when a group of talented developers are really up to the challenge.  The audio never goes wrong, either. Eerie sound effects, spooky music, and amazing voice acting is aplenty in this game. One of the more interesting things about this game's soundtrack (a tip of the hat to Half-Life, perhaps) is the fact that your character never speaks. And, just as in Half-Life, this only ramps up the immersive factor of the game. Putting some generic voice on the hero would really only cheapen then soundtrack. Guns sound satisfying to shoot, and the sound effects when you're shooting fire or lighting are also very satisfying. The whole soundtrack is a tight package used to wrap you up in the game's immersive environment. The gameplay is also well done. The way this game so seamlessly fuses the audio and visuals into the gameplay makes this game easily one of the most satisfying 360 games you can buy. As you go through Bioshock you'll acquire things called plasmids. These plasmids are used to, literally, modify your genetic code. These modifications are used to allow you to do special things like shoot lighting or fire, or give you telekinesis. The plasmids also often times are necessary to complete some of the game's puzzles, although it will mostly be immediately obvious if you need a certain plasmid to progress. The way the plasmids allow you to interact with the environment makes for some of the most fun there is to be had in Bioshock. Shoot some lighting at a puddle at watch anyone in the puddle shock to death; send some fire towards a path of gasoline and watch the whole path burn, taking anyone in or around the path with it. It's really these small details that make the plasmid system so fun and entertaining. Really, though, the shame is that most of the time you'll discover the easiest way to kill an enemy is the most boring. Shocking an enemy will temporarily stun them, and a solid hit with the wrench will take most basic enemies to the ground without problem. Unfortunately, this means that often times you'll throw creativity out the window in favor of discarding the basic enemies faster. It would have been better had the developers put you in more situations where you were encouraged to use the plasmids in a creative manner. Even at that, though, the plasmids are still satisfying enough that this is only a minor gripe. The weapons, on the other hand, lack the satisfaction of the plasmids. Most of the weapons feel sort of underpowered in comparison to the plasmids. For most of the games your weapons will be your secondary means of attack. This does admittedly make the game feel a bit unbalanced at times. The game also incorporates a hacking mini game into the fun. Basically, the hacking mini game consists of flipping and switching tiles to send some ooze from one spot to another. These hacking mini games can range from incredibly easy to maddeningly hard. Hacking is never required to progress, though, so if you start to feel too frustrated with one of the hacks you can proceed without it. Difficulty can be a major concern for some games, and this is one of Bioshock's biggest weaknesses. The game is too easy. The game world is littered with Vita-Chambers, and should you die, you'll respawn in one of these Vita-Chambers. To make matters worse, any damage you've dealt to an enemy prior to death will still be in effect, meaning that you can haphazardly shoot away at enemies until you kill them, and dying will never be a concern. Luckily the Vita-Chambers can be turned off. In either case, even with a difficulty on the easy side it doesn't mess too much with the game's overall quality. The story of Bioshock is one of intrigue. Unfortunately, it's too hard to easily put into words. Thankfully, though, the game does an excellent job pushing you along through the story without having it intrude too much into your fun. An interesting note is that throughout the game you have the opportunity to save or harvest things called Little Sisters. The problem, of course, is that Little Sisters are protected by Big Daddies. After killing the Big Daddy (these are pretty much the hardest things in the entire game to kill), you'll have a moral choice to make. You can either harvest the Little Sister (essentially getting more adam but sacrificing the Little Sister in the process), or you can save her (this will give you less adam, but you'll get the moral satisfaction of knowing that the little girl is alive and no longer possessed). Throughout the course of the game this decision will come up many times, and you'll never be tied to the same decision you made before, so if you decide you want to harvest one Little Sister after saving another, go ahead. This whole moral aspect of the game can be quite interesting at first, but over time it seems to get more in the way. One of my biggest gripes about Bioshock is its total lack of a multiplayer component. Being able to play through parts of the story with a second player would have been awesome, but I suppose co-op was a worthwhile sacrifice to give you that immersive experience. Bioshock wouldn't have lent itself at all to deathmatch multiplayer, though, so I suppose perhaps the lack of a multiplayer component was for the better. Still, in 2008 a FPS game feels unfinished if there isn't any sort of multiplayer included. At the end of the day, Bioshock is just an incredible experience all the way through. The story is a bit short-lived, but you'll never feel cheated by it, either. Bioshock has created one of the most immersive worlds of any video game I've played to date. The whole game just drips with atmosphere unmatched by anything else out there. If you're in the market for a good, worthwhile FPS game, Bioshock should definitely be your top purchase choice. Gameplay: 9.5 Visuals: 10 Audio: 9.5 Fun Factor: 10 Overall: 10 Edited by jalexbrown, Sunday, 12. October 2008, 21:48.
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| moldonhold | Sunday, 12. October 2008, 22:38 Post #2 |
Burger Inspector
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completely agreed. Amazing game but a bit on the easy side. |
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---------------------------------------- Heavy_Metal_Jesus is practically the second coming of Christ. Nobody messes with that guy. | |
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| jalexbrown | Monday, 13. October 2008, 07:40 Post #3 |
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As you can tell from the review, I really enjoyed Bioshock a lot. It's been one of my favorite experiences this gen, actually. A close second for me is Lost Odyssey, just because it takes me back to the old days of Squaresoft RPGs, and those are my favorite games. |
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| Deadlypixels | Monday, 13. October 2008, 08:07 Post #4 |
Fuck with me. Do it.
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Bioshock was fucking awesome, nice review. |
 "You thinkin life's all about smokin weed and ice. You don't wanna be my age and can't read and write, beggin different women for a place to sleep at night" -- Nas | |
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| jalexbrown | Monday, 13. October 2008, 08:10 Post #5 |
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Thanks. These reviews take a lot of time. I'd say I spend an hour and a half on this particular review including editing and proofreading. It's nice to see people enjoy them. |
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| Foxhound_Fox | Monday, 13. October 2008, 17:08 Post #6 |
Assassino
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You will find that I have a very cynical and pessimistic view on BioShock. I suggest playing System Shock 2 and see how they stack up against each other... also remember to look for all the things that BioShock carbon copied straight from SS2. |
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| moldonhold | Monday, 13. October 2008, 17:14 Post #7 |
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Burger Inspector
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But isn't Bioshock supposed to be a "spiritual successor" to SS2? |
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---------------------------------------- Heavy_Metal_Jesus is practically the second coming of Christ. Nobody messes with that guy. | |
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| jalexbrown | Monday, 13. October 2008, 19:00 Post #8 |
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System Shock 2 is, in fact, a great game (I've played it as much as my PCs limited compatibility would allow). However, to detract from the appeal of Bioshock based on rather or not some of its elements have been done before is simply shitty. If you're going to knock on Bioshock because it borrows elements from System Shock 2, then you better never post a good review about a game that came out after the mid-90s, because all elements in today's games are borrowed. |
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| Foxhound_Fox | Monday, 13. October 2008, 19:24 Post #9 |
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Assassino
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I spent months after the release of BioShock getting into debates about the content taken from System Shock 2... the story was pretty much a carbon copy but with all the main actors' names changed. Contact fatshodan on PCGames on GS if you want to have a good debate about BioShock. I'm not saying it's a bad game but I have a hard time saying it's "good" when all it does is copy pretty much all it's elements from System Shock 2, dumb them all down for the mainstream crowd and make it a shallow, repetitive and mostly uninteresting experience. When I reached Neptune's Bounty when I was first playing it, I was beginning to question myself: "I am supposed to like this game, it's the best thing since sliced bread! Why am I not liking it? It's just like System Shock 2, isn't it?" There is a big difference between copying elements and reusing them in creative new ways. BioShock doesn't do anything creative... it just give you a bunch of guns, makes you trip over ammo and uses a steampunk art-deco style to create a "unique" atmosphere. Like I said, very cynical. |
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| jalexbrown | Monday, 13. October 2008, 19:36 Post #10 |
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Okay...so Bioshock was a spiritual remake of System Shock 2...what's wrong with that? |
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| Foxhound_Fox | Monday, 13. October 2008, 22:21 Post #11 |
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Assassino
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Instead of attempting to make a competent successor with new elements, they just took the old, put a new coat of paint on it, simplified it to give it a larger potential audience, threw in some Atlas Shrugged for good measure and brought together a pretty mediocre shooter overall with nothing really compelling about it that puts it ahead of all the other shooters to come out this generation aside from it's setting and art style. On the surface BioShock is a great looking game but gets really shallow and tedious when you start to play through all the levels. Admittedly, Sander Cohen was the only redeeming part of the game for me personally, I was disappointed that his part of the game was over so quickly. That was truly up to the standards of System Shock 2. It's as if Cohen was channeling Shodan even though they wanted Ryan to instead. Much of my cynicism towards BioShock comes from the hype driven by Ken Levine, the creator. He promised us (those following the whole BioShock development cycle) a game that would rival System Shock 2, have a "morally driven" story line and "deep" role-playing elements. All we got was a basic corridor shooter, with a black-and-white story "choice" and "role-playing elements" that make Halo look like a better RPG (bunch of selectable tonics that only a handful of were even useful). I dislike BioShock because it disappointed me excessively... I was expecting System Shock 3 (without the actual IP) but got a fancier Halo. It showed me that following hype was a bad thing if I were to enjoy a game at it's face value... which from that point on I've always taken hype of all kinds, developer hype especially, with a truck-load of salt. |
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| jalexbrown | Tuesday, 14. October 2008, 07:57 Post #12 |
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I mean...fair enough, everyone is entitled to their opinion. Perhaps you're just a more hardcore FPS fan than I am, where I'm kind of a casual FPS fan. I wrote my review based on how good Bioshock was to me, personally. The basic problem with reviews in general is that a reviewer can only write a review of a game as it pertains to their tastes and level of dedication to given genre. Personally, I can't draw many parallels between Bioshock and Halo; Halo, in my opinion, is an overrated, generic FPS. At least Bioshock had atomosphere to its advantage; Halo didn't even have that much working for it. What did Halo have going for it? A decent consone FPS control scheme. That's it. To me Halo is an overrated piece of shit (although, to be fair, the first Halo wasn't all that bad). Porting Halo to PC was a terrible idea, because it lost its only redeeming quality (good console FPS control sceheme) in the process. So, yeah...to me Bioshock is nothing like Halo. |
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| Foxhound_Fox | Tuesday, 14. October 2008, 15:37 Post #13 |
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Unfortunately for BioShock, all it had was it's atmosphere. Under the surface it was nothing but a run-n-gun corridor shooter where you tripped over ammo at every turn and when you couldn't find ammo, you would be given enough money to buy all that you needed. They are comparable, they both use a similar process in presenting their narratives, Halo being less inclined to being sophisticated and "artsy-fartsy" about it. They are both practically the same game in terms of shooting gameplay... aside from perhaps the crossbow in BioShock. Things need shooting and you are given weapons to shoot them with. The same goes for most shooters but Halo and BioShock tend to do it in a very shallow and accessible way. |
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Wednesday, 15. October 2008, 14:18 Post #14 |
Bastard Klingons!
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I might post my Bioshock review here soon. You already know that I liked your review on this Alex, so thumbs up on the good work. |
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| Foxhound_Fox | Wednesday, 15. October 2008, 21:01 Post #15 |
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@Loopy: I also have to agree that this is a great review. My views of the game are irrelevant, I just felt like I needed to express them at least once here on the Board and unfortunately this was the only chance so far I've had. I have to say, with the exception of Deadly who seems to like using one-sentence paragraphs (j/k :P), that everyone on here is a fantastic reviewer and shows how games are to be properly reviewed... not summarized and nit-picked like they are on Gamespot. |
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| jalexbrown | Wednesday, 15. October 2008, 21:30 Post #16 |
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Foxhound_Fox...thanks for complimenting the review. I'd fallen under the impression that since you didn't share my views you somehow felt my review was of lower quality. I take pride in my reviews, and I never like negative criticism unless I'm being offered some sort of way to do better in the future. |
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| Foxhound_Fox | Wednesday, 15. October 2008, 22:10 Post #17 |
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I never meant criticism of your review, only of the game and Ken Levine's promises that left me incredibly disappointed. If you couldn't tell enough already, I am *extremely* cynical about BioShock. |
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| Deadlypixels | Thursday, 16. October 2008, 02:41 Post #18 |
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Fuck with me. Do it.
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So wait, are you joking about how I'm a shit reviewer or are you joking about how I use one-sentence paragraphs? Sorry, I'm a little dumb, I'm afraid that the joke has gone over my head and you are now unfortunately going to have to explain it to my dumbass. Edited by Deadlypixels, Thursday, 16. October 2008, 02:41.
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"You thinkin life's all about smokin weed and ice. You don't wanna be my age and can't read and write, beggin different women for a place to sleep at night" -- Nas | |
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Thursday, 16. October 2008, 09:48 Post #19 |
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Bastard Klingons!
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Yeah, that is what the internet is for, self exposure. Which is why community reviews and articles are always great to check out. Not only does it give realistic and unbiased views, but it lets people say whatever they want and inform in ways they couldn't before. It would be nice to make articles about entire games (franchises), for the site, that everyone can view. |
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| Foxhound_Fox | Friday, 17. October 2008, 01:23 Post #20 |
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@Deadly: Half serious and half not serious. One-sentence paragraphs are hard on the eyes even if they still convey a message well. Just learn to not hit return so often... 
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