Never one to fall prey to hype, particularly when it comes to gaming, it was with interest that I recently picked up a now half-price Bioshock to see what last years fuss was all about.
Although an original concept and the artwork, general design & soundtrack are superb, I was left disappointed. The levels are very repetitive & on the short side. There's a slight cartoony feel to the game, certainly not present in serious first person adventure shooter classics like Half Life 2, MGS, Silent Hill & Resident Evil, which dilutes any real sense of drama or horror and the perpetual gloom ultimately makes for a slog rather than an interesting journey through the levels.
The transformation into Big Daddy near the conclusion reduces the players view by about a third of the screen, the remainder being just solid black. This is restrictive & reduces the players full visual enjoyment of the finale.
On the plus side, the collectable Plasmids,Tonics & Power-ups are very good & perfectly balanced throughout gameplay making for a real sense of achievement
and occasionally relief when leveling up. Voice acting is excellent and the use of recognizable 40's popular music is inspired.
Bioshock is a refreshing take on the tired fps genre that's littered with War related content but doesn't push the envelope forward enough. Any sequel needs to be edgier, grittier with more varied & longer levels if the developers want it to join the company of classics.
Last years Game of The Year? Certainly not.
6/10
Hey Poor Player's James Davie Takes Us On A Bio-Shocking Deep Dive Into Irrational Games' Nautical Nightmare.
Would you kindly copy a different seminal shooter from 2007?
GF365: "There are some games with extraordinary visuals that impress us to this day. Here are old games with outstanding graphics."
Same as Killzone 2 and 3, uncharted 2 and 3, Infamous 2, Heavy Rain, Resistance 3
I wish this was entirely true, but you might want to load up Killzone 2 and Resistance 3 again.
@jason I watched some gameplay videos of KZ2 and R3 on my full screen. They are on par or succeed graphically to the first person shooters mentioned in the article that also launched on the seventh generation of consoles. Try the same and see what you think
Killzone 3 was super impressive! I could not believe the graphics back then as I was regularly pausing the game to stand in awe looking at the surroundings! Resistance however did not impress me that much. Heavy rain is also another amazing graphically speaking game. It almost felt next gen
I always thought the first 3 Gears of War games looked great and still hold up for today.
They did for their day. I recently played gears judgement with on the 360 and the draw distance was so blurry. The characters up close look great though
Far Cry 2 was awesome. In addition to having demonstrably better physics and AI than later games in the series, it had a lot of design decisions that, criticized at the time, have since been praised in games like BOTW and Dark Souls.
It might not be super amazing by today's standard but I thought Mgs3 looked really good
I thought I was being tough with my 8.8/10 review
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While I disagree with you (especially the specific ratings part) I do think it was really well written, albeit a little short.
although i heartily disagree with you, the review was well written, and though i understand everyone is entitled to their own opinion, mine is that it is a 9.5 =)
I would add "SPOILERS" in your title.
Thanks to ToughNAME & Mintaro for your fair comments - I know what you're saying & I know that to a hell of a lot of gamers Bioshock was hugely enjoyable. It's just that when I compare with the classics of the genre like Half Life 2 etc.. I don't think Bioshock quite measures up in the cutting edge & level variety departments.
Maybe a 7/10 would have been fairer...
i WOULDNT HAVE GIVEN A 6.0 but It's overrated. It's a rental at best. MGS4, Killzone 2, Resistance 2 and many more are gonna spank it this year.