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Bioshock - Dissenting Opinion

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 14
Date: November 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The game Bioshock has been rated highly by the player community and the game press, but I find that the game has serious shortcomings that really reduce the enjoyment of the game.
It's hard to rank the flaws from serious to less serious, but they add up.
The game is primarily a first person shooter. As such the weapons, challenges and non-player character behavior is important to player enjoyment. In Bioshock, the weaponry starts underpowered, and fails to progress at a rate that keeps up with challenge difficulty, even though the game designers provide sparse and highly scripted "weapons upgrades". The NPC algorithms are primitive, for instance the routing algorithms are highly flawed (NPCs go to odd or impossible places and often get stuck) and the designers use ultra high speed translation by NPCs such as the splicers or "Rosies" exhibit to enhance difficulty. This speed motion often seems unfair and frustrating. At other points in the game, the designers provided "barrier" puzzles that simply consist of lots of NPCs gangin up on the player. It's easy to eventually defeat these puzzles, but not rewarding at all. Contrast Bioshock to Half-life2 where the player is constantly involved in trying to figure out what happened or what the authorities or covenant are up to in order to progress. Bioshock is nowhere near the Half-Life caliber of game play.
Then there is the art work. Bless the artists for putting so much style into this game, but the game seems to be designed for the sake of the art, and I have to say, it is not that impressive. The style is 50s modern or in many cases 50s noveau-deco and although initially entrancing, is highly repetitive and becomes tiresome after several hours of game play. For instance there are only four or five variations of NPC splicers - they all look the same.
Bioshock is set undersea, and the rendering of water and aquatic scenes is supposed to be the big artistic achievement, but frankly the water rendering (as on XBox-360) is not all that impressive. Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls III had much better fluid physics, tranparency, fog and refraction in its rendering of water than Bioshock and it was rendered on a much older engine and technology, XBox circa 2002.
The event that finally put me over the edge (I refrained from throwing my controller through my LCD, but just barely) was the entirely frustrating finall boss battle. I won't reveal the end, but who's idiotic idea was it anyway to refuse players the right to save their game during this battle? Are we trying to prove the level designer is more manly than the players or something.
In short I recommend that prospective players or gift buyers simply skip Bioshock and go to Half-Life2 orange box, a true masterwork in the FPS/Adventure genre.

No "Halo Killer"

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 9 / 21
Date: October 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Before playing Bioshock, I kept reading reviews that said it looked soooo much better than Halo 3, even though Halo had yet to ship. I have to say, I think they're wrong. Bioshock is quite detailed and enjoyable to look at, but has grossly shinny surfaces (dull surfaces being something Halo excels at). Additionally the "sky boxes" for the underwater city pale in comparison to the miles of "real geometry" used in Halo 3. I found the levels to be very detailed and convincing, till I walked up to a window and saw a badly distorted and over-scaled matte used to portray the skyline...

Gameplay is entertaining, but "moral choices" for which the game has been lauded, are little more than tacked on. Other than the different outcomes of the game, there's really very little that these choices will impact. You may receive slightly more Adam one way or the other, but the real choices are how you spend it not how you get it.

Storyline is excellent with twists and turns, though like a Shyamalan movie, are only really good the first time around and are kinda obvious to astute folks. Some plot points seem to appear fairly quickly though the game continues to hit you over the head with them just in case you didn't see them coming.

My one complaint is that the game is simply dark and depressing for the sake of being that way. It is in the "sci-fi horror" genre of course, but the same story could have been told in a compelling way without the horror clichés. It may well have been scarier without all the clichés. I played it with 5.1 headphones to up the ante and the scary parts were still pretty obvious. Swelling music, flashing lights, just plain darkness... The one time the game genuinely scared me was when there was no music, little sound, and a big fairly well lit room...

Overall, it's a fun game with good gameplay, excellent story line, and very detailed scenes.

All the great things being said are true...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: August 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

...except they forgot to note that for anyone reasonably seasoned at playing shooters, the game is pretty easy.

Seriously, this is not an attempt at bragging: if you are a FPS veteran, rent the game first. I usually pace myself when playing games, but Bioshock's amazingly immersive story, world and gameplay had me logging 8 hours a day. I was done with the game once in three days. I had beaten it again in two more. If, afterward, you feel it's amazing enough to warrant purchasing, then at least you'll know in advance what you're getting into. I don't regret my purchase in the slightest, but wanted to throw that warning out there!

RENT this awesome game.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 12
Date: November 14, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game was so much fun. The visuals were stunning. The music and genre felt like an epic 1920's storyline. These new plasmid type weapons that eradicate enemies from your left arm are too cool !!!!!!! Then the game is over. Just as fast as it started and swallowed me into this underwater world, it was over. Well I beat it in 2 days. There is no reason I had to waste $50-60 just to beat it in 2 days. I read an article were the game creator is talking about releasing new plasmids for xbox live download. Would I actually play this game all the way through again just cause I have some new plasmids? NO WAY! I will never put this game in the xbox again. Once I beat a game its done. It is never the same again. It loses its grandeur. It also has no multiplayer so the replay value is absolutely ZERO.

Summary: This is probably the coolest game you will play this year. Save your money and rent it.

Proof that solid graphics and moodiness can sell an average-at-best shooter.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 16
Date: December 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The only thing shocking about Bioshock is the undue praise it gets.
What is essentially an FPS with a passable array of weaponry and mildly useful superpowers is coated with very dark and moody, yet colorful graphics... then seasoned with a light dusting of bargain brand macabre story... and voila! You have Bioshock.
There was a lot left for wanting in this game.

The control was a little loose and switching from powers to weaponry could have been smoother. It feels very much like a PC game meant to be played with more precise and flexible controls. Enemies dart around very quickly, and unless you're the Flash on the analog sticks, you're going to endure a little frustration. A sharp FPS experience is easily marred when burdened by console controllers if no corrective measures are taken to tone it down half a notch. At the least more customizable analog options could have been included, such as acceleration, which makes a huge difference. When it comes to FPS, poor control options like that are a bad decision.

The graphics and physics were nice, although I'm a little tired of games intentionally being excessively dark in order to convey that angsty, brooding atmosphere. There was a lot of neon, which I suppose contrasts with the inky blackness to provide light and shadow and impress all the eye-candy addicts. For me, the style was a swing and a miss. I've seen better atmosphere and artistry in a plethora of other FPS games. That old 50s style imagery that reminded me very much of Fallout, but is not intended to be campy in the least. It is intended to reflect the era in which Rapture evolved, but again a swing and a miss for me.

Plasmid powers are a nice gimmick, but aren't as useful to gameplay as I thought they would be. There are 9 powers (some with different levels), but since many are weaker or not as useful as others, you end up using 2 or 3 the majority of the game. Most are simply attack abilities anyways, which are easily replaced with a big gun. Combine this all with sometimes outrageous EVE (plasmid fuel) power usage. Psi Ops did the "plasmid" thing a long time ago and did it better.
You can always turn to your weapons.

Weapons. 6. Only 6. For an FPS these days, that is pathetic. You can upgrade them, but they are for the most part the same weapon. Sad. I might as well go back to those plasmid powers... at least they are prettier.

Hacking. OK, so Bioshock is very obviously trying to be the next System Shock. Unfortunately hacking in Bioshock is simply a game of Pipe Dreams. If you don't like that, you can buy insta-hack items, which use up some useless cash and make hacking kind of a moot point. Another swing and a miss...

Inventions. A nice little time waster. Having to find machines scattered around where you can do it is annoying. This is no Dark Cloud or any other game where inventing/combining items is exciting and fruitful.
Tonics were a great part of the game and allowed the most customizability to your gameplay experience. This was singlehandedly the best thing Bioshock had to offer.
Research added a bit of spice to gameplay as well. Studying your enemies and getting to know more about them in order to more effectively deal with them was great. Unfortunately most of the time this resulted in just a damage bonus, but in the case of teleporting enemies, where you were suddenly able to see where they were moving, this mechanic added to the experience in a more satisfying way. I would have liked to have seen better enemy variety though. Most were just the same enemy type with a different weapon.

Now mash all of this together and cover it with a story of evil and mayhem and ... blah blah. I didn't buy into it. At all. Since the main character offers nothing in terms of reactions, I felt no connection to him, the story or the game. It all just felt lifeless. It is also mainly delivered through radio chatter, which is so impersonal and boring.

You can replay it to see the ending you missed (there are only 2), but aside from a few yes/no type choices, the gameplay will be the exact same. To me, that's not replayability... that's reiteration, which is not the same. No online is a crazy omission as well. With any FPS on the PC or next-gen consoles, gamers expect multiplayer. When it comes to games like Bioshock with very poor replayability, it becomes essential. However, most people seem content to pay top dollar for this kind of oversight. In the end, Bioshock will be overhyped and overadulated for a few months and then wink out of the gaming consciousness forever. Until then, you can enjoy what I consider a banal exercise in FPS wannabe-ism for 10-20 hours.

Not a fan...very disappointing

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 26 / 99
Date: August 31, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Wow, so apparently this game is a "perfect 10" based upon some game aficionados. I had high hopes when I purchased this game 3 days ago...already I'm bored with it. As a fan of FPS, I thought a "perfect 10" game would have me coming back for more. Not with this game. The game play was short, 1 dimensional, and lacking a multiplayer that would rival Halo2. I'm sorry, but for a FPS game (not games like Oblivion, which in my opinion is a far superior game) to NOT have a multiplayer or have serious flaws with their multiplayer (ala Gears of War) is a HUGE factor is rating the game. Since Bioshock doesn't have multiplayer, I took it down 2 stars.

The most annoying aspect of this game is when you play it on hard level. It takes a thousand shots to kill a regular enemy. It takes a million shots to kill a Big Daddy. This normally wouldn't be a problem, if it was easy to accumulate ammo. Unfortunately for a FPS game, you spend the entire time searching dead bodies and crates looking for ammo or money to buy ammo instead of actually enjoying the shooting aspect of everything. Some will chalk to this up to "amazing game play features" but its retarded. Its a FPS game, not a role playing game. What a waste of time.

The same can be said for the powers that you use. You basically get to use your "adam" powers twice before you've drained it, THEN you gotta scrounge around even more to find "eve" (which refills your adam powers) or money to buy eve. Another huge waste of time.

BioShock would have been astute to have the Eve recharge on its own, so you can enjoy using your powers instead of rarely using them so you don't accidentally waste them.

Also, I played the game on hard and beat it quite easily. I found the Big Daddy's to be a lot harder than the final battle with Fontaine (the boss). He was so easy that it was laughable. What a lackluster ending.

I wanted to enjoy this game, but for the aforementioned reasons, I was more frustrated than pleased. Be warned, this game is a RENTAL. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY BUYING IT!!! You will grow tired of it in a hurry.

Publishers of HALO 3 should delay it's release until 2008

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: August 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is just my opinion, but it's going to be hard for the gaming industry big shots (and us little guys) to NOT name BIOSHOCK, the "Game-of-the-Year" for 2007. What can HALO 3 possibly offer that Bioshock hasn't already delivered?

The first thing that the Halo-3 fan boys will scream out is, "Bioshock has NO multi-player, and Halo 3 does." Well, let me say something to all you game companies out there, "Please, spend more time on your single-player modes in your games." I don't think that in the almost 30 years of playing console and PC games, I've ever bought one solely on the basis that the game was multi-player. Besides, I've learned that I really don't like playing games where players "camp" in spots just to frag you as you've re-spawned. On-line FPS games are loaded with these pathetic players. Give me a GREAT single player game, and I'm satisfied.

I've already finished Bioshock on normal difficulty and I must say that even though I was kind of let-down about the length of the game, I loved every minute of it. I've played games where I couldn't wait to finish once I knew I was getting close. I wanted Bioshock to go on forever. IMHO, the best graphics so far on any console game. (Even though i haven't purchased a PS3 yet...so I don't know if there's something better on that system.) From it's presentation, to it's story, to the lush environments, and it's many ways to dispose of your enemies, I haven't been this impressed with every aspect of a game on any system in a long-long time.

Seeing that I'm a nut for nostalgia, I'm looking forward to a sequel...possibly a spaceship wreck on a distant planet with a 1970's look.

When all is said and done, 2K has released an instant classic. The publishers of HALO 3 should hold out and release their game sometime early next year. I seriously think that BIOSHOCK will steal the "Game-of-the-Year" honors in 2007. Besides, any game that can make the song, "Beyond The Sea" sound so eerie, has my vote.

The Obligatory 5 Stars.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: August 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Nothing new here. The game is awesome (blah blah blah). I probably won't say anything that hasn't already been said before. Graphics definitely rival those of Gears of War, and that's saying a lot. It's not your typical FPS. There is a lot going on in this game, almost too much to take in all at once. You just about have to play the thing over and over so that you don't miss out on the beauty. Considering that I've been brought back to life in that darn Vita Chamber for the 1000th time, I'm starting to get a good handle on some of the little details. I bought the player's guide and it's helping a little, but I think you may need to play through cold so that you can really feel the tension and adrenaline of being in an "alien" environment. I must say that my blood pressure goes up (meaning I get excited) every time I engage a Big Daddy. That doesn't happen when I'm playing Gears of War. If you own a 360, you really must own Bioshock. Like Gears, it will go down in history as being innovative and instrumental in keeping the FPS genre alive for many years to come.

These five star reviewers are not on crack, it's that good

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: August 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you have an Xbox 360 you need BioShock, Gears of War and the upcoming Halo 3. These three are must buys for the majority of people. After reading all the amazing (nearly perfect) reviews on gaming sites I just had to see what all the fuss was about. This was a $55.00 gamble that paid off. BioShock is worth every cent and has a massive replay value for this kind of game. The graphics are Gears of War calibur and the story is one of the best I have ever experienced in a video game.

Do yourself a favor and look to the top right of the screen. See the Buy now with 1-Click button? Use it!

Awesome

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: September 04, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Simply put, this game is really what the video gaming industry needed for a long time. This game pushes the FPS genre out of the traditional mold, and does very creative things that few games have tried before. The writers molded the story to the game extremely well, and in my opinion very few games can match this immersion.

If you've been waiting for a stellar game for the 360, or have been waiting for a game worth the investment of the system, this may be it. This game, easily, will be a Game of the Year contender; if not Game of the Year winner.

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