BioShock
This game is spilt into two sections. The first part of the game is absolutely amazing and revolutionary. The second part is repetitive and mind-numbingly boring. Unfortunately, the second part is the longer part. Never before had I gone from being so engrossed in a game to wanting to quit playing and never start again. The game is labeled as a FPS/RPG but I have yet to run into any real RPG elements.
The first level begins with a fairly impressive plane crash sequence. Immediately after, it becomes readily apparent that the player’s character is one of the stupidest people on the planet. After his plane crashes and he gets to the safely of a nearby island, does he wait patiently for a rescue? No, he climbs in to a strange sphere he knows nothing about and pulls a level with no idea what will happen. Maybe I could believe this if he was stuck on the island for days and needed to search for food, but not within minutes of the plane going down. Shortly after this impulsive decision, he makes an even dumber one. He finds a giant, glowing vial with a syringe attached to it and without hesitation, injects it into his arm. There were no instruction to do so; no one telling him to do it. I can’t imagine anyone ever thinking that would be even a remotely good idea. It almost feels as if the developers were rushing through the introduction of the game in order to get to the main gameplay faster. While I can respect this decision, it takes me out of the game when I have to watch my own character do such idiotic things.
Once the game gets going and you start getting you biological powers, the choices you have to dispatch your foes are impressive. Do you electrocute him and smash his face in with a wrench while he is stunned? How about snap you fingers and light him on fire. Of course there is always the trusty shotgun to the chest. The problem is that you receive these powers so quickly that by half way through the game, I had already chosen my favorites and the action was getting repetitive. It is also a waste of time to use any of your supplies since you can’t die. That’s right, you never die. If your health runs out, you are warped back to the nearest Vital-Chamber with all your equipment and the enemies you were fighting have just as much health left as when they took you down. This completely took me out of the game. I never felt like I was in danger. It is completely conceivable to complete the game with out firing a shot. Just whack everyone with the wrench until you run out of health, respawn and repeat. Do this for about 10 hours and you will get extremely bored.
Anyone remember the game Pipe Dreams on Windows 3.1? I hope you liked it because the hacking (if you can call it that) is a version of this lame game. You have to organize sections of pipes as fluid flows through them. I’m not really sure what this has to do with hacking, but it is actually fun to do from time to time. Unfortunately, you don’t do it from time to time. You do it every 30 seconds. Robot on the ground? Hack it to join your team. Turret giving you problems? Hack it. Vending machine too expensive? Hack it. Vending machine right next to the one you just hacked too expensive? Hack it. Near the end of the game, you will spend just as much time hacking as you do playing the rest of the game.
Everyone talks about how amazing the story is and I can’t for the life of me figure out why. Here is the premise. Some rich guy named Andrew Ryan wants to make an underwater utopia made up of scientists. These scientists, like they always do, end up turning everyone into zombies. Wow, that’s original. Here’s the story progression during the game. Your friend on the radio tells you to go find a specific person. Hours later you find them and Andrew Ryan kills them. Now you have to go find another person, but when you get there, Ryan kills him. So now you have to go find another person and, here’s a twist, you have to kill them. Wow, this is deep.
Anyone out there played Doom? Not Doom 3, the original Doom. Remember how in every level you had to wander around until you found the red, blue, or yellow keycard? Welcome to BioShock. They try to cover it up by calling the keycards original things like ‘rubber hose’ or ‘metal spring’ but it is still the same gameplay premise that died about 10 years ago. If you weren’t bored of the constant hacking, you will get bored of wandering the levels looking for ‘key’ objects.
By now you may have noticed I haven’t said much about good about the game. It does have some redeeming qualities, but I am trying to counteract all the hype. It’s worth a rental but go buy Deus Ex if you want to see a FPS/RPG done right. This isn’t really worth the money.
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