Ok so this games isn't exactly new, I get that. I am an extremely late adopter because when it was released I was a PC gamer. It was originally released in 2007 on the PS3. They revamped the graphics and what not and re-released it in 2016 to much fanfare. Since I very rarely ever buy any games and rely on the Playstation Plus membership to "give" me games for free, I only recently played it.
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I have to say that at the end of it all, I have a mixed opinion and I'll start with the cons because I am a generally negative person when it comes to FPS games.
CONS
WTF map!
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Now I'm gonna say this not really having any idea how they could have improved it but more often than not when I would open the map for some sort of help I would end up closing it pretty quickly without having really learned anything. I can't say there was ever an instance where I found it helpful and as a consequence end up following the arrow to guide me where I need to go.
Later in the game when you don't actually get the arrow for help, the quest tells you to go so such and such area and you open the map to get some idea where such and such area might be only to discover there is nothing on the map that is named that. You end up wandering around for ages searching for some small sign on the wall or ground to finish the mission. Lame!
Repetitive AI
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There just isn't a great deal of strategy that happens in most encounters. I have found that by dropping the "dummy target" and just sitting in a corner and blasting away, i can quite easily overpower any enemy other than the Big Daddies.
The only real variety is that some of the enemies called splicers attack from the ceiling and this is more full of crap than it is challenging. Once they land you can one shot kill most of them. It just ends up being repetitive.
Gameplay is almost completely linear
There are some elements of metroidvania such as returning to a previous location in order to melt some ice to gain access to a previously inaccessible area, but these are very few and occur really early in the game. Once you have all the "base" Plasmids (the magic skills) this no longer happens. Therefore, you are just plodding on from mission to mission.
Very contained environment
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Most of the areas in Bioshock are extremely cramped and therefore mobility isn't much of a factor in this... not that i've found any real way to avoid damage by dodging or anything. I don't really feel as though that is a factor because you can't move quick enough anyway for the most part. With rare exceptions it feels as though your best bet is to equip your best weapon and simply back into a corner and blast away. This doesn't feel terribly strategic to me.
Hacking happens too often
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It's a fun little minigame that you develop a skill for pretty quickly.... but then you need to do it like 200 times throughout the game if you want full completion. It is optional for the most part because there is only 1 instance that I can remember where you are required to do it to proceed but you have the option to do it so often that instead of getting the benefit of a successful hack I found myself just destroying the turrets or security cameras instead of going through the "hacks."
It would have been a lot more fun if they had made it less frequent. Also, many of the rewards at the end of a hack are of very little value and when you get it you say to yourself "is that is?" This was most common during the quite difficult hacks of safes and you get it open to discover that the reward was some common as shit ammo that you see all over the place anyway.
Strange random respawns without reason
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I don't mind a respawn or addition of enemies that were previously not in the room I just walked through, but when there is no rhyme or reason for why this room that I just cleared now is filled with baddies again, it just kind of becomes trivial, especially when you consider point number the second point I made above about the AI being repetitive.
The most frustrating situations involve where I cleared a room, walked through it to the room on the other side to retrieve something in that room, immediately walk back out into the room that I was literally in 30 seconds ago, and now there are 2 machine gun turrets that I guess the turret technician set up in a super speedy manner while I was rummaging round the file cabinets in the doctor's office for half a minute. It's just busywork and doesn't need to be there. If you want me to face more enemies, have a reason for it like a door opening or a security something or other was triggered.... but don't just have stuff magically appear with no reason. It's silly!
So that is my rant about Bioshock remastered. I have good things to say about it as well, but I will save that for another post since this one is already nearly 1000 words long.
I'm not going to complain too much because I paid $3 for the monthly membership and this is one of 4 games I received as part of that subscription.
What did you think about this game? Do you agree with me, disagree? I'm eager to hear it either way!
Just came here from your "Positives" article, and I liked what I read here... I think Linear gameplay has its place especially if the game wants to create a certain atmosphere. If the game is too open, developers will have to work extra hard to ensure the balance of pacing and atmosphere. (Why a lot of Open World games have pacing problems)
I didn't play Bioshock so I'm not sure if it applies, and you played it so your opinion should be more realistic than mine.
you have a good point there about linear vs. open world. Open World games have to do a lot of things right such as have a very useful map too, which is something Bioshock failed badly at - at least in the first one.
I'm amazed with how game maps improved since the PS1 era!
I appreciate your creativity, @gooddream
@tipu curate
A huge hug from @amico! 🤗
!trdo
Can't say I ever played this game. Half Life is still my most favorite first person shooter ever. It was so game changing when it came out. It was a bit linear, but it was all good fun and I played that thing over and over about a million times. I look forward to reading what you liked about this game!
half life was a tremendous game... and ahead of its time for sure. It is unfortunate that Valve seems to be pretty dedicated to not making another one :(
yeah, I played Halflife 2 for a little bit, but I couldn't get into it the way I did the first one.
I think the same was true for me. It was a long time ago so I'm not sure about that :)
I believe not making another one is better than making one that fails badly. Of course, I'll prefer getting a new Half-Life that is amazing if possible.
My trust with developers/publishers to make great things decreases everyday.
we have seen quite a few let downs from major, trusted studios in the past few years haven't we?
Sadly, we have...
What can really tempt and draw me in games is when the gameplay is tempting to me. Sometimes what push me to play some games at first is the gameplay if it the graphics is 3d then off we are to go
Sounds annoying! Hopefully the sequels are better. Would you test them out or did this game kill it for you?
well i have one more that was included in the pack but i'll probably put it on hold and go play something else for a while. I think there are 3 of them but I haven't really looked into it a great deal.