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elit3deception's BioShock (360)
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| [February 8, 2008 06:03:48 PM]
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GAMEPLAY
Upon playing the game for a second time, I found that the expanse of the graphics (primarily in regards to character and level design) as well as the immersive storyline surpassed by previous amazement even further. I consider myself an avid horror movie fan, and even this game was frightening and rather disturbing to me. I found the storyline disturbing and extremely interesting. As it progressed, I found myself feeling sorry for the inhabits of Rapture who had been overtaken by greed and gluttony.
One aspect of the game that made it unique among the genre was its use of weapon and plasmid upgrades. I found the enemies becoming progressively harder (for example there was a new bomb throwing enemy), and as they became harder I found myself needing more powerful weaponry and plasmids. The game accurately answered this concern by allowing my main character to obtain new upgrades at various dispensers. As opposed to most FPSs where you simply obtain new weapons and rarely use your old ones, Bioshock allowed for multiple types of ammunition for each gun, making them extremely important based on the situation I was in.
Making it even more interesting, my character obtain the currency ("Adam") necessary to purchase upgrades by following the storyline and confronting the "Big Daddy's" (protectors of the demonic little sisters). This idea greatly helped to make me more inclined to continue the game rather than simply get frustrated and quit. Also, this gave me a choice of whether or not I would spend my money or save it for upgrades later. I found this aspect of the game to increase not only the enjoyability but the replayability as well.
DESIGN
One thing I found interesting about the game was the control scheme. At first I found it clunky and hard to aim, causing me to die rather frequently. However, once I got a tolerable control of the movement, I was able to focus more on strategies involving the other buttons. For example, the two back buttons made you shoot (the left = plasmid / the right=guns). I found this particularly important and interesting in that it was a very intuitive control scheme, which isn't often seen in first person shooters. This was also good in that the game often required me to quickly change guns and plasmids depending on the situations, and the control configuration allowed me to quickly change, rather than having to think about it for several minutes while being constantly attacked.
The one drawback I would say, though it is not exclusive to this FPS, was the difficulty of movement. Like I mentioned previously, the control scheme was intuitive and unique as far as weapon and plasmid usage, however, I found the difficulty of actually moving and aiming to be a drawback (though minor) to the overall game. Even though I didn't mind continually playing certain parts of the game as a result of dying, I felt that the movement controls made this almost an inevitability.
In addition, the difficulty to control the character made it difficult to use health and evo packs, particularly during intense battles. I found my necessity to use both hands for controlling the character made it very hard to stop movement in order to press one of the buttons necessary for accessing my med kits. This, in addition to the difficult movement, made me die more frequently than if perhaps there were a more intuitive way to perform these actions.
It goes without saying, however, that these minor drawbacks barely made the game any less enjoyable. They were only minor concerns that I expressed while playing the more difficult segments of this amazing game.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Feb 9th, 2008 at 21:35:28.
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| [February 8, 2008 04:05:51 PM]
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SUMMARY
BioShock is an immersive first person shooter taking place in the past of an alternate reality (around the 1960's). After surviving a plane crash into the ocean near the "abandoned" city of Rapture, the main character, Jack, must survive amongst "Adam" hungry, deranged monsters and Big Daddys (tough mechanical body guards of demonic "little sisters").
GAMEPLAY
When I first picked up Bioshock, I assumed I'd be playing through another formulaic first person shooter that merely involves exploring and killing anything that I see. However, even within the first 10 minutes of play, I was happily surprised to find out my previous assumption was completely wrong.
The game throws you (literally) into the ocean requiring you to swim to the forsaken looking city, Rapture. I thought that was well done in that it made you realize you had no choice but go to the city, which helped create the overall tone of fear and despair early on in the game. The inevitably of your soon to be realized challenges creates a unique environment and really set up the game well for me, putting me in the mood to become immersed in the game.
Once in the city, I was amazed by the unique graphics, whether it was the dynamic lighting effects, or the weapon designs, I found them to be superior to any other first person shooter I have played. The level designs were large and open, creating a unique and extremely believable environment. At the beginning of the game I was taken via a transportation device to what appeared to be the lower city area. I appreciated this in that it gave me a larger view of the area I was about to explore. It gave me a taste of the overall environment of the game, and made me feel as though I was really being thrust into this spooky city.
Another aspect I found unique to this game was the well done voice acting. In many first person shooters, the voice acting is either terrible or non existent. I found this game's narration, guided primarily by Atlas (who initially tells you where to go and what to do) to be not only helpful but very interesting to listen to. As opposed to some games, I found my self stopping what I was doing in the game to listen to Atlas as the story developed. I felt this to be a great plus for the game as well as an aspect that separates it from many of the other FPSs I have played in the past.
This entry has been edited 2 times. It was last edited on Feb 8th, 2008 at 16:31:09.
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elit3deception's BioShock (360)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Wednesday 6 February, 2008
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