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Bioshock 2 [split topic]

Started by hoverdonkey, February 09, 2010, 10:34:09 AM

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hoverdonkey

No love or excitement for Bioshock 2? Out today isn't it?

I recently went back to Bioshock. Until you meet the first Big Daddy, it's one of the best game 'experiences' I've had. The atmosphere, tension, feel is 'sheer class'. The little set pieces are great. After that, though, I found it was just a fairly creative shooter. I don't get a boner for setting traps, basically, so it got pretty dull pretty quickly. I never actually finished it.

The thought of being a Big Daddy for the second game sounds cool in a way but when the best bit of the first game (story & setting) is no longer fresh, the fighting bit isn't enough to get me interested.

madhair60

Quote from: hoverdonkey on February 09, 2010, 10:34:09 AM
No love or excitement for Bioshock 2? Out today isn't it?

I've had no interest in Bioshock and have never played it.  Saw a trailer last night for the sequel, and it looked fantastic fun - is it a particularly fast-paced game, or one of those slow plodding efforts?

AsparagusTrevor

Both really.  There's a lot of slower paced bits that build up the story and atmosphere, then there's intense firefights thrown in.

Ignatius_S

Quote from: The Boston Crab on February 09, 2010, 10:40:54 AM
I recently went back to Bioshock. Until you meet the first Big Daddy, it's one of the best game 'experiences' I've had. The atmosphere, tension, feel is 'sheer class'. The little set pieces are great. After that, though, I found it was just a fairly creative shooter...
I'd go along with that - loved the story and atmosphere, but personally thought the shooter element was fairly standard and the last fight awfully disappointing.

samadriel

Quote from: madhair60 on February 09, 2010, 11:14:52 AM
I've had no interest in Bioshock and have never played it.  Saw a trailer last night for the sequel, and it looked fantastic fun - is it a particularly fast-paced game, or one of those slow plodding efforts?
Have you played Doom 3?  It's basically Doom 3 with better visual design (pay no heed to the bollocks in reviews/PR about "RPG elements" and "moral choices", as it has neither in any meaningful way).  I was seduced by the visuals for awhile early on (I gave it a pretty positive writeup here when it first came out), but I didn't foresee just how damned samey it would become, and how little complexity it would develop.  It certainly wasn't made with anything like the Valve team's instinct for breaking up gunfights with environmental challenges -- it's just shoot, shoot, shoot all the way through, and a game can't make up for being a bland, very easy corridor shooter by being pretty.  Back when I was younger, I thought the games magazines' mantra of "graphics before gameplay" was utterly inane (of course you should give the visuals slack if the game is still rewarding!), but nowadays I think a bit of that attitude would do wonders for games writing; you'd perhaps have fewer thickos like Kieron Gillen writing apologias for tedious, unchallenging, repetitive games just because the "immersion" (etc) is so great.  You could make a really immersive filing clerk simulation, but that doesn't mean it'd be worth playing.

It's a bit more exciting if you're bad at FPSes, I guess, that negates the easiness a bit.

Little Hoover

Really excited for Bioshock 2, and I'll be playing it all next week when I go home from uni for reading week. I was sceptical, but from what I've read, while it can't really have the same impact as the original, the story is told much better and actually sustains throughout the whole game, and the "morality system" is far more complex and the multiple endings are a lot better. From what I saw of some of the gameplay, it still looks like it can have incredible atmosphere.

Don't know what to make of Heavy Rain, the opening of Farenheit was incredibly exciting, if only the rest of the game had managed to sustain that complexity, where all your decisions, really do make a difference. As it is, the claims made for the game by David Cage, don't come anywhere near to the final product. And although the story probably won't get as ridculous as farenheit did, I'm probably going to wait a while before I consider buying it.

Canted_Angle

I've been looking forward to it for a while, I haven't been so wrapped up in a game since half-life 2. I'll have to pick it up the next time I walk past Game.

biggytitbo

Is it set in the exact same location as the first one? That's a bit disappointing, because even the first game started to get a bit repetitive after a while.

Slaaaaabs

Quote from: biggytitbo on February 09, 2010, 06:51:02 PM
Is it set in the exact same location as the first one? That's a bit disappointing, because even the first game started to get a bit repetitive after a while.

Different area of the same location and ten years after the first.

The (completely unnecessary) multiplayer is set in the same areas as the first, but before it all went to shit.

Little Hoover

It's been that way for a while, I don't see why having the same location will be such a problem, it's such a unique location, and playing as the prototype big daddy will make quite a difference to the way the game works.

By the way Neil, merging the threads, means the comment on Heavy Rain in my post, no longer makes sense. Of course if you edit the posts then this comment pointing it out will no longer make sense, so fix it, don't fix it, I don't really mind.

AsparagusTrevor

I've played for a couple of hours.  It's pretty good so far. Playing as a Big Daddy does mix things up a bit, and being able to dual wield a plasmid and a weapon is definitely a good addition. The story seems to be unfolding quite well so far too.

It's pretty much the same style, nothing much has visually. In fact it's the exact same engine without any visible improvements from what I can tell, which means it can look slightly dated sometimes. Oh, except the blood spurts have been improved a bit. And the flames. Apart from that, it all looks the same.

It probably won't provide as much enjoyment as the first, since the awe and surprise from the first game is gone and it's familiar ground, but so far it seems a good extension of the storyline.

tarmac

Quote from: samadriel on February 09, 2010, 12:43:09 PM
it's just shoot, shoot, shoot all the way through, and a game can't make up for being a bland, very easy corridor shooter by being pretty.  Back when I was younger, I thought the games magazines' mantra of "graphics before gameplay" was utterly inane (of course you should give the visuals slack if the game is still rewarding!), but nowadays I think a bit of that attitude would do wonders for games writing; you'd perhaps have fewer thickos like Kieron Gillen writing apologias for tedious, unchallenging, repetitive games just because the "immersion" (etc) is so great.  You could make a really immersive filing clerk simulation, but that doesn't mean it'd be worth playing.

It's a bit more exciting if you're bad at FPSes, I guess, that negates the easiness a bit.

I dunno, it depends what you're after in a game.  I prefer being part of a story myself - if it's a particularly gripping plot or setting, I generally find I won't even notice lacklustre game mechanics.  Mind you, that's probably a contradiction to the very essence of a 'game' and blurs the line between 'interactive film'.  Although I am massively wank at all games, which may go some way to explaining this.

Anyway, I'm enjoying BioShock 2 so far, even though, as mentioned, it doesn't seem like a lot has changed - feels more like an expansion pack than a sequel.  The drill is great fun though, and, (minor level 2 spoiler)
Spoiler alert
seeing lovely old Tenenbaum up close and in person was a wonderful treat.
[close]
.[/font][/color]

Jack Shaftoe

Just bought this, as I must have played the first one for a good hundred hours, trying all the levels with various tactics, and seeing if I missed any bits. Not so bothered about the story with the second one, I pretty much just want to get in there and lamp stuff. Can anyone tell me if the Chameleon Plasmid is available in 2? That was one of my favourite things in the first one, sneaking about the Fort Frolic levels, getting the crossbow aimed just right and then killing the flip out of splicers.

bill hicks

The biggest surprise is just how fucking good the multiplayer is. Really interesting stuff. Every character has a back story and audio logs you unlock as you level up to tell their motivations for coming to Rapture and how they are coping with the fall out of the civil war. The plasmids add a huge amount of tactical consideration to the game too, stick with Incinerate for easier kills or switch to a more passive type like Aero Dash or Geyser Trap to give yourself an advantage in positioning and approach for instance.

Also I really love the way the maps have been designed to allow you to control the pace of matches. Lot's of water pools and oil to allow you to channel people through levels, and the ability to hack turrets and vending machines means you can work against the enemy team in ways that aren't just shooting dudes. A team that sytematically hacks vending machines en masse will win a lot of matches because they not only get kills against the team from their explosive traps, but deny the other team ammo and eve refills for instance. A lot of turret hacking allows your team to force the other team to stick to certain areas of the map and flank them more easily.

The research mechanic also adds a lot. Deciding whether to risk stopping to research a dead enemy and potentially allow someone to get the jump on you or watch your back and ignore the tempting corpse lying in the middle of the corridor is excellent.

Also you get to be Barbara, and who wouldn't?, and run around the levels as a '50s housewife in a big flouncy dress with a rolling pin telling people off for being naughty while you shoot them in the face with a crossbow. That is the best thing in multiplayer gaming today right there.

AsparagusTrevor

The more I play, the more I like. It's one of those sequels that improves on everything its predecessor does. Definitely enjoying it a lot.

Little Hoover

Anyone else been playing this then, finished it last night, It's not quite lived up to some of the speculation, the morality is still very much a case of good and evil, although it's implementation works better. But overall it's great, because of a much better structure, the last third of the game is the best rather than the worst part.