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Great Game - Too many problems running it

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 109 / 147
Date: September 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I'd have to say, one of the best games in a long time. Great story, great features, weapons, enemies...yada yada yada. The game itself is amazing. UNFORTUNATELY, the game is written so poorly or was rushed or whatever, but it crashes like you wouldn't believe. You can have a fully loaded system, and it still finds a way to crash. I have Windows Vista Ultimate (no, that's not the problem), 2GB of DDR2-6400 RAM, Nvidia 7900GT, Tons of SATA Drives, onboard HD sound...etc. All the latest in DirectX and RealTek audio drivers, and still no luck. It's probably crashed 30 times in the first week of playing the game. Yes, there are people out there who are lucky, but it's rare. Just check out the 2k forums and other blogs/websites, and you'll see pages of complaints. Some people recommend lowering the resolution, some say the sound... nothing works. Imagine having to lower the graphics quality down lower, and the detail lower, to play a PC game in 2007 with PCs that are well-equipped for the current software? Joke and a half. They'd better come out with a patch or fix soon. Very disappointing!

"I Chose... Rapture"

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 134 / 194
Date: August 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Bioshock, without a doubt, is one of the video game events of the year. A first person shooter that is more than just a first person shooter. Not only is this game fun, but the storyline is thought-provoking and philosophical. This is more than just a game. This an interactive storybook of epic proportions.

After being the only survivor of a plane crash in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, your only chance of survival is to seek refuge in the nearby lighthouse. The moment you step inside you're greeted by a banner which states: "No Gods or Kings. Only Man." Going further into the lighthouse you're soon taken to the underwater city of Rapture. A place where religion and morality do not rule the decisions of mankind. Where every man does what he chooses for his own selfish gain. The city is run by a man named Andrew Ryan. When you arrive in the city, however, its quite clear that Andrew Ryan's perfect world wasn't so perfect. The city lies in ruins and chaos runs rampant as a form of genetically mutated people called splicers roam the streets. With the help of a man named Atlas who guides you through the twisted city of Rapture, you'll have to survive long enough to get out.

Throughout your adventure there are plenty of things you can do to advance the story. You'll find radio diaries that give hints to the downfall of Rapture. You'll meet people who will tell you things about Rapture. Some of these things, such as the radio diaries, are optional, but if you don't listen to radio diaries you'll not only miss out on some of the complex and absorbing storyline, but you'll also miss out on some of the game's better features. The voice acting contained within each radio diary is fantastic. You'll learn not only about Rapture, but Andrew Ryan and other characters who play a major role in the story. There are other things that move the story along as well, like running into ghosts who will give you more insight. Some of the mutated denizens give you hints (before you have to do away with them). There's a lot to piece together here. If story and character development are your thing: Bioshock delivers.

As far as gameplay goes, Bioshock is a game that presents some complex things, but it's easy to play overall. Splicers are the most common types of enemies encountered in Rapture. You'll need an arsenal of weapons to take them on. As you progress through the game you'll have splicers that simply attack melee style, others that shoot at you and even some that throw explosives. When you first begin you only have access to a wrench. But along the way you'll pick additional weapons like a pistol, shotgun, machine gun and a few others that you can use to decimate your enemies with.

Despite how difficult things might be, Bioshock doesn't penalize you much should you die. If the worst should happen you'll respawn from a Vita Chamber (basically a checkpoint) with some health and everything you had at the time of your death. The enemy also keeps the same amount of health lost. So even if you die over and over again, you'll eventually be able to kill whatever it is that's giving you trouble. Despite the challenge of the game, the simple fact that you can't die permanently does take away some of the challenge.

The enemy AI is also pretty good. While they never stop attacking once they've found you, they do act the way you expect them to. If they're firing at you and suddenly run out of ammo, they'll run away from you to reload. If they hear your footsteps, they'll investigate. Your adversaries are no dummies in this game.

There are also machines like gun turrets and security cameras around. You can keep out of the way of security cameras easily, but sometimes turrets can be a pain. However, despite how tough gun turrets and rocket launchers can be, the game allows you to short circuit them and hack them. Hacking is a little mini-game in which you must lead a fluid through a series of pipes to the exit. Most of the hacking mini-games aren't hard. Successfully hacking a gun turret or rocket launcher turns them on your enemies.

There's more to Bioshock than simply killing your enemy, though. You'll also want to search the dead bodies of those you kill. Usually enemies carry ammo, money, first aid kits, EVE Hypos and some will even drop weapons. You can also search more than dead bodies. You can search any containers scattered throughout the game. Trashcans, cabinets, virtually anything that sits idly by. Sometimes you'll find money, ammo etc.

Aside from searching corpses and containers you can also pilfer any food or drinks that are lying around. Food often restores health, while drinks will restore health yet take away a bit of EVE. Most of the drinks you come across are alcoholic drinks, and if you drink too much alcohol it will register and your vision will actually be impaired and you'll start to stumble around.

In addition to all that searching, there are also vending machines scattered throughout the game where you can buy healing items, drinks, ammo and more. It'll cost you money. Like some of the machines you'll encounter, you can also hack into a vending machine, and you'll want to do so. Doing so lowers the prices on the items and makes more available.

As you go through the game you'll also come across Plasmids. Plasmids give you powers. At first all you get is electricity, but later on you'll be able to command fire or even use telekinesis. There are several plasmids in the game, with their own little benefits. Electricity, for example, will let you activate switches and short circuit machines. You cannot use Plasmids limitlessly, though. Plasmids consume EVE and once you run out of EVE, you can't use Plasmids.

In addition to Plasmids you'll also find tonics which grant you everlasting effects so long as you have it equipped. There are tonics which improve your physical attributes, engineering skills to make hacking easier, and your combat abilities.

Throughout the game you're also given chances to upgrade your weapons. You can also shoot off stronger ammo as you get further, and at some point you'll have to. Some enemies are immune to standard shots but can easily be taken down with armor piercing rounds.

The game doesn't just put most of these things there for your benefit, but actually expects you to use them effectively. For example, if there are a bunch of enemies standing in water, you're encouraged to electrocute the water. If there's an oil spill you're encouraged to set it on fire. You can put together lots of great strategies when it comes to your Plasmids and Weapons. Even better is that you can switch between them on the fly. Your plasmids occupy your left hand and your weapons occupy your right. You can't use them both at the same time but the game allows you to switch between them rapidly enough to the point where it doesn't matter.

Finally, the game allows you to invent and construct items for you to use a long the way. You'll need to find components to invent items, though, and that's easily done through searching all those basic containers.

As far as the game looks it is by far one of the most detailed and beautiful games out there. Everything about the game is given a fantastic look to it. From what your enemies look like to the vast city itself. The walls are detailed, the water is detailed all the flames and vending machines are detailed. Even better, the physics and other mechanics in this game work divinely. For example, if you bump into a trashcan, it falls over. If you're stepping over something, you'll find yourself walking a bit slower and stumbling over it.

There are few differences between the PC and XBOX360 versions. The controls in the PC version are much easier to grasp and switching between plasmids and weapons is also much simpler. The game also runs slightly better on the PC than it does the 360. Some reviewers have noted that the PC version is a pain to install and some people just haven't been able to run it. As of writing this review, I've only suffered one crash and haven't suffered any other major problems.

Bioshock is a stunning game. The long wait was well worth it. Tight controls, lots of variety in the gameplay and an absorbing storyline is what keeps this game afloat and makes it fun. It is without a doubt one of the best games of 2007.

The Good

+Enticing storyline full of philosophy and intrigue
+Fantastic voice acting brings the already fantastic story to life
+Lots of variety in the gameplay
+Great sound effects
+Great music score
+All around beautiful game
+The atmosphere of the game never settles

The Bad

-While it's nice that you don't get penalized or ever have to reload when you die, it brings down the difficulty of this game a bit. However, as I said, it's a good and bad thing

Installs hidden ROOTKIT on your computer...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 129 / 187
Date: August 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The Bioshock DVD installs a hidden rootkit on your system. There is no way to remove it once the installation is complete. The process will run forever and will cloak itself from your task manager.

The game itself only allows you to install the game twice. Ever. You have to have an internet connection and allow the game to "phone home" to get permission to play.

I don't care how good the game is, I'll pass.

DO NOT BUY THIS GAME - Draconian DRM Warning!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 62 / 86
Date: August 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The PC version of Bioshock is the most DRM'd game ever released, no joke. It runs a new version of the Sony Rootkit known as "SecuROM" and will refuse to run if you have any kind of software installed like virtual drive software, AVG virus scan and who knows what else. It even refuses to run if you have Process Explorer running on your PC. That's right, the MICROSOFT product Process Explorer is some kind of evil big bad program that makes Bioshock refuse to run.

On top of that you are only allowed TWO installs total. 2K claims that if you uninstall the game it will allow you to reinstall somewhere else, but the system is currently bugged. After you install two times the game will refuse to register and you have to take pics of your CD and manual and mail them in.

I'm sure Bioshock is a great game, but DRM is making the PC release a disaster. Even the editors at PC Gamer are having a hard time getting the game working with all the restrictions. If you want to play Bioshock for PC you have to jump through all kinds of hoops and are severly limited as to what you can do with the game you purchased. Therefore I am giving Bioshock a one star rating.

Problems

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 19 / 21
Date: November 09, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I rarely write reviews but thought I should let potential buyers know about my issues. First the game would not download an automatic update that is required to run the game for the first time. The error told be to remove the copied Bioshock disk and insert the original. That's a tough job when you are using the origninal. It then told me to check the DMA settings. I could not find those in Windows Vista and don't know if Vista even uses those settings. I restarted and put the disk in the other DVD drive and the instlation started again. This time I could not unlock the game with the number that came with the game because it was not in their data base. Their game their # and not in thier data base. Wow! What's next. Guess I should have quit while I was ahead but I didn't. Tenacity.

Had to email tech support and they responded promptly wihth some new unlock code that worked! Well I thought all is well now...but alas it was not.

I played the game for about 10 minutes exited it and went back to work. Never install a game on a computer you really need for your business!

I tried to print and found out that all 3 of my printers had been deleted! So I decided enough is enough. I did a restore from before I loaded the game and the printer drivers came back. Great! Oh, not so quick.

Game cannot even install

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 37 / 57
Date: August 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This review has nothing to do with the game content, as I have not been able to even load the game. The low rating is my complaint against 2k and the "install" procedure. I spent fifteen minutes waiting for the game to load itself onto my PC. The game then attempted to auto-update itself. Since the 2k servers are down, and have been for hours, the game failed to update. As a result it totally removed itself completely from my hard drive without notice. What sort of nonsense is this? I buy an expensive game and it can't even install itself? The 2k web sites are down. Fine. That should be irrelevant to the install process. In the future I will boycott any game that requires that it contact the company before it can even install itself.

Fun game but annoying as hell to install properly

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 44 / 72
Date: August 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The game is fun but only if you are able to get it to install properly. My PC hangs after trying to install and run this. It took me a day to get the activation working after trying to contact 2k/securom. I have heard reports of other gamers with similar problems because of the rootkit/securom affecting their system. The game looks great but all this BS they put around it to prevent legit users from playing it is really a shame. I hope they can learn from their mistakes (and Sony's a few years earlier) and fix it. Until then it's going back to amazon.

Very Cool Game, but one with some serious DRM issues

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 37 / 58
Date: August 29, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Take a look around at Tom's Hardware Guide as well as the company's game forum. They are in the middle of a very large DRM screw-up that is locking alot of customers out of their games. I'm not saying don't buy the game, it's a kick-butt game, but make sure you go check things out so you understand what is going on and can avoid the problems these people are having.

Kids, just say no to DRM and Sony rootkits

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 28 / 40
Date: September 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Wow, Sony just can't seem to get enough of the rootkits. CD, USB, and BioShock (SecuROM). For anyone who installed the game or demo (yes, even the demo has the exact same draconian drm/rootkit combo) get a rootkit revealer and clean up your system. Even with all this DRM, I bet a hack will still come out. If so, the pirated version of BioShock will be the best one. Go figure?

Pile of festering consolitus

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 16 / 19
Date: December 14, 2007
Author: Amazon User

To claim that this game is the "spiritual successor" to System Shock is akin to claiming that Doom is the spiritual successor to Ultima Underworld.

The gameplay suffers from so much consolitus, from the low quality blurry graphics, to the console style arcade action, you might wonder why they brought this console game to the PC in the first place. Yes, yes, they try to claim it was "co developed" for both, but those of us with intelligence understand that it's a console game shlocked onto the PC with all the giant kiddy buttons taking up the screen and the lame controls.

This game does not feel like System Shock or System Shock 2. It feels like low quality consolitus.

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