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Definitely would recommend.NOTE: It has been a while since I have played this game, so you're better off reading some IGN review. PROS: Great gameplay, highly original storyline.CONS: Not enough menu control when selecting and arranging your powers and hotkey setup.FINAL VERDICT: Definitely worth the money.SUMMARY: Loads of fun, really intriguing gameplay system, lots to do and see in the game. Also, I have not played BioShock 2, so I can't compare.
(And no, I don't work in or anywhere near the gaming industry). Truly brilliant art design, with sound and voice-over work to match. For those who love a great story-line-driven, single-player experience, you can't do better than this. Evocative, engaging and thought-provoking, all at the same time. I don't mind saying it left my throat a bit dry at the end.
You learn a lot about the background of the game and even the day-to-day life of the residents of this world.Finally, I like how the game just throws you into action with very little explanation. The world you're in is full of moral dilemmas and commentary (sometimes subtle, sometimes very blunt).The diaries that you pick up are my favorite touch. No 20-minute explanatory cut-scenes. This game is great not only because of the fun that comes with any well-done first-person shooter, but also because of the atmosphere. You're in a dark city under the ocean which is falling apart in front of your eyes. You're on a plane and the plane crashes, and you end up going into the city of Rapture.
The gore, the splattered blood, the maniacal screams, your plasmid super-powers, it's all cartoonish and over-the-top.Bioshock occasionally takes itself seriously and invites you to critique Rapture's foundational philosophies, but it's all so obvious and simplistic. The awesome-looking Big Daddies are cool, too. I'm grateful for it because it's set some worthwhile benchmarks for the industry in terms of art direction and originality, but once the lustre wore off, I found much of the game to be frustrating, unpleasant and repetitive. In reality though, Bioshock revels in the depravity of its world, and little separates your character from the lunatics you kill. Therefore, fighting them is always your choice, and usually feels like a high-stakes gamble.The novelty of Rapture wears off though, and eventually the cluttered enclosures become claustrophobic and the golden art deco style just feels gaudy. It essentially asks you: What would happen if people built a Utopian society based on social Darwinism, run by an ego-maniacal tyrant, where science gave everyone access to godlike powers. A confusing map interface and respawning enemies don't make the experience more satisfying, either.In the end, I found that I was trudging my way through these garish, stifling levels mainly to see how the story turned out.
The many plasmids and upgrades you have feel like they came out of a slower RPG, and finding the right weapon or plasmid in the heat of the moment feels fiddly and stressful. Eventually I gave up about halfway through and just read the synopsis on wikipedia. The citizens are portrayed as depraved, violent, blathering lunatics, and boss characters are sadistic and maniacal caricatures. The detailed graphics, decent storytelling, and original concept make Rapture one of the most unique and stylised worlds I've seen in a 3D computer game (let alone a shooter). Killing them is difficult but lucrative, yet they never attack unless provoked. The game tries to paint you as an outsider who's forced to observe the sad consequences of an unhinged society.
The answer: everything would go sour and chaos would erupt.surprise, surprise. Maybe the feel of the game changed dramatically in the latter half, rendering this review inaccurate, but I doubt it.I wanted to like Bioshock, but the cartoonish brutality and clumsy mechanics just weren't for me. I don't blame people who love this game. Everything starts to feel as repetitive and visually overloaded as Rapture's populace. I've played games that gave me food for thought about politics and society (Deus Ex comes to mind) but Bioshock isn't one of them.The mechanics could be better too.
shotgun, machine gun, pistol), which all seem to have 3 kinds of ammunition (e.g. On Easy, there's no situation except for dealing with Big Daddies perhaps, when you can't run up and wrench your enemy to death. As you progress through the game, you unlock higher ranks of these with improved capability.You also get "Tonics" which improve your characters in small ways, there are 3 different kinds of tonics, combat tonics (e.g. Medical Expert - Health kits heal you for more), and engineering tonics (e.g. There are also Plasmids. On Medium, you generally will need to use an appropriate weapon and ammunition type, but just shooting for the chest will work well enough.
Static Discharge- When you are hit, you release electric energy and harm nearby enemies), physical tonics (e.g. In Bioshock, you don't have to worry about either of those unless you're playing on Hard. In Bioshock, there are standard weapons (e.g. Your ability to throw flames or ice from your hands.
You don't have to think much about where you're going, there is always an arrow at the top of the screen showing you where to go. With the explosive effects and smoke going off, you can't expect to hit the head too often anyway.This game is all driven by a voice inside your head. Telekinesis. In a standard RPG, you'd expect to level up, pick up new equipment from head to toe.
Standard shot, armor-piercing, explosive). Mind control. Safecracker- which makes the "hacking" minigame for unlocking safes easier). Oh, sorry, I mean a guy named Atlas who's always talking to you on a radio, and can apparently see your every move regardless of where you are located.
This game is extreme in neither the RPG nor the shooter aspects. These are your supernatural abilities. for each of these categories, you can have up to 6 active at a time (you have 2 per category at the very start, and unlock the other 4 as you go)In a standard FPS, you'd expect to worry about using cover, and aiming for headshots.
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