Excited for this. I know the big narrative twist already, but never mind.
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Wow, Bioshock is fantastic. It gives the sensation of being overwhelmed by this bizarre, horrific city you've been plunged into - loads of visual effects, towering architecture and scripted moments of disaster - but doesn't actually overwhelm you with mechanics etc. Everything's been tutorialised really nicely and I'm already having fun with the RPG-lite stuff - using your plasmids in various ways, hacking security to friendly mode, exploring big non-linear multi-room spaces, crawling through air vents (although I'm annoyed I had to give up my fire plasmid before I realised there was another iced-over door I could have explored. Hopefully I'll get more slots and be able to come back). The presentation's great as well, from the art deco design to the unnerving enemies and the friendly-hacked drones that bob and buzz around you like something Alyx Vance might hack together out of a car engine and a ventilation fan.
Really the only thing I can complain about is that no matter how low I put the volume on everything else, I still can't hear Atlas' instructions if anything else is going on. A lot of games seem to have this issue, I've found. I always have to put music volume down to at most 40%. Even the old Lucasarts adventures did it.
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Wow, the difficulty ramped right up as soon as the first Big Daddy appears! I don't know if there are any clever techniques for downing those guys, but it took me ages, especially with the stun move the first one was using. I finally used a combo of electro plasmid, machine gun, and running away. Thankfully the game has now introduced Adam so I've been able to open up a ton of plasmid slots. (I'm being nice to the Little Sisters - apart from geeing the Daddies on in fights, they haven't done anything to harm me.) Actually, that reminds me, I saw an area below me with a Little Sister in it and forgot to go back to it. I'm not sure I can remember where it is now, maybe near the interrogation room...
It's still great fun, though, and the vita chambers let you brute force your way through if you're really struggling. Really the only thing that's hampering my enjoyment is that things often get too hectic for me to plan cool uses of my plasmids, set up traps etc.
(I try to reload rather than vita chamber when I can because it pisses me off to lose all my Eve and health (if I died before losing it all because I didn't manage to heal), but when you get a Big Daddy plus ten splicers and a couple of turrets it becomes necessary to Brute Vita!)
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Well, I'm still working my way through this, though I haven't spent tons of time on it. I was feeling a little under-powered for how far through the game I feel, but then I checked a walkthrough and it seems I'm only about a third of the way in. Mainly, I'm looking forward to opening up a ton more slots to put all my current plasmids in, especially the hacking ones to make that less risky. It's a shame that the Little Sisters are the only way to get Adam, they don't occur that often. Also, I'm sure I took one Big Daddy down who had an LS with him but then once I'd killed him she was nowhere to be found. At least BDs are a bit easier to take down now, as long as I don't get cornered.
I keep forgetting to take photos, but it's fun trying to get live shots before the splicer's ripping your face off. Houdinis are especially tricky.
The good thing about Big Daddies is that if they don't have a Lil Sis with them you can leave them alone and they just pad past you. I followed one around for a bit and he wandered over to a vent hole and started banging on it to try and call a LS to no avail. It was really cool.
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I've been away from this for a little while. It's like a heavy drama film where I know once I'm in it I'll love it, but it's hard to get in the mood sometimes.
This game is too damn long!
I've now had the Would You Kindly revelation and gone through the Little Sisters room.
The revelation with Ryan was fantastic, the only issue really was that I didn't know who Fontaine was, due to a combination of audio sometimes getting drowned out and a lot of exposition being done by boring audio logs. When this game is showing, it's wonderful; when it's telling, not so much.
I think the reasons the game is starting to feel like it's dragging are:
It's promised me Ryan a few times now, and once I finally get to him he's replaced.
The stuff discussed earlier about the game not really allowing me to set traps etc
The fact that it's so stingy with upgrades. Empowering me a lot more with stuff like hacking, combat and supplies would freshen up the mechanics a bit. Instead, Fontaine actually just reduced my max health!
Also, like someone else said, all the enemies get increased health at the same time!
Thankfully, I've now cured myself and got everything back. I'm now in the bit where your equipped plasmid keeps changing and you can't flip it back, which is actually quite interesting. Seems from walkthroughs like I don't have too long left now, just a couple more sections then the end boss. I've got a lot less thorough now in checking every inch of the maps, so hopefully I can just steam through. I'm also hoping the next batch of antidote will super-power me finally.
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Well, I've become a Big Daddy now, which is cool, though it took a lot of scavenger hunting. I've got a Little Sister waiting to go to the next level with me, but a warning came up that I need to harvest more Adam before moving on. I don't know how much, or whether I'm supposed to use it at the Gatherer's Gardens to level up before I move on, and it's a pain in the tits trying to find a Big Daddy in this level. I've found one, but I'm already sick of wandering around looking for stuff in this place. I'm kind of tempted to just move on and if I hit a dead end so be it. I'm going to take a break now anyway as the game has exhausted me; when I come back maybe I'll do a thorough search and get the other two sisters then just level up my health and eve max levels before heading forward.
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I found one more LS to harvest but am still getting a "it will be very difficult to survive without more Adam" warning. I can't find this other fucking Daddy. One more try then I'm just going to see how far I can get without it. I still don't know what I'm supposed to be doing with the Adam. What if I'd gathered it all then spent it before leaving the level?
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Okay, so turns out I didn't have to do anything special with the Adam, they were just warning me the endgame was coming up. I got my max levels up and got through it pretty much fine - a couple of little sisters were taken down though :'(
Although it was cool to be a Big Daddy with a Little Sister running around with you and calling you Mr Bubbles, it actually didn't make any mechanical difference except for reduced damage. So the end of the game went: scavenger hunt, escort mission, boss fight. As everyone says, it really does turn into filler after Ryan dies. Really though, it felt like there were bits of filler throughout. This game totally could have been about half the length. But in general, just so much cool stuff going on and the art design was great all the way through.
Rating: Green.
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