Bioshock was a fantastic game that came out in 2007 to rave reviews across the board- to me it's the only game I've played that really pulled off the RPG/FPS hybrid flawlessly, leading to a game that not only relied on your shooting skills, but careful choices in grinding and upgrades. It got heaps of praise for its Ayn Rand-influenced storyline and immersive environment- Rapture, an art-deco utopia gone wrong located at the bottom of the ocean. The whole thing was just really fun, and to bring up the argument Stan mentioned in his Ico post, it's a major player in the "games as art" debate. My expectations were originally high for its sequel, 2010's Bioshock 2, but they were tempered as news came out of delays and members of 2K Marin abandoning the game for other projects. The resulting game ended up being still very good, but unfortunately just "more Bioshock". Bioshock 2 plays in relatively the same way with some small improvements- plasmids, the game's form of magic, can be dual-wielded with guns and other weapons, greatly improving the oft-forgotten spells from the first game; the introduction of the Big Sister added a nice element of tension to the usual grinding; and everything felt much more streamlined, allowing for me to fully explore some aspects of the first game I overlooked (remote hacking, researching enemies to gain an advantage, etc.). The story was good for FPSes, but really had nothing on the original Bioshock. But, well, that's a predecessor that's hard to top. I have a feeling that a complete change of setting will do wonders for the series, as the next sequel (prequel? spiritual successor?), Bioshock Infinite, abandons the underground world of Rapture entirely and takes place in a city floating in the sky. I won't get to it for a long time, but my hopes are high again.September 12, 2011
Bioshock 2
Bioshock was a fantastic game that came out in 2007 to rave reviews across the board- to me it's the only game I've played that really pulled off the RPG/FPS hybrid flawlessly, leading to a game that not only relied on your shooting skills, but careful choices in grinding and upgrades. It got heaps of praise for its Ayn Rand-influenced storyline and immersive environment- Rapture, an art-deco utopia gone wrong located at the bottom of the ocean. The whole thing was just really fun, and to bring up the argument Stan mentioned in his Ico post, it's a major player in the "games as art" debate. My expectations were originally high for its sequel, 2010's Bioshock 2, but they were tempered as news came out of delays and members of 2K Marin abandoning the game for other projects. The resulting game ended up being still very good, but unfortunately just "more Bioshock". Bioshock 2 plays in relatively the same way with some small improvements- plasmids, the game's form of magic, can be dual-wielded with guns and other weapons, greatly improving the oft-forgotten spells from the first game; the introduction of the Big Sister added a nice element of tension to the usual grinding; and everything felt much more streamlined, allowing for me to fully explore some aspects of the first game I overlooked (remote hacking, researching enemies to gain an advantage, etc.). The story was good for FPSes, but really had nothing on the original Bioshock. But, well, that's a predecessor that's hard to top. I have a feeling that a complete change of setting will do wonders for the series, as the next sequel (prequel? spiritual successor?), Bioshock Infinite, abandons the underground world of Rapture entirely and takes place in a city floating in the sky. I won't get to it for a long time, but my hopes are high again.
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Yeah, I think I already said it in my review (a year and a half ago), but BioShock 2 was an improvement over BioShock in every aspect of gameplay, but the story just wasn't there this time around. Still very fun, but not the instant classic the first game was.
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