Hello and welcome to “Reality Warp”, the new and improved version of Freshly Picked. What’s new and improved about it? Mostly just the name. Also, I will try to stick to sci-fi and fantasy type games as best I can and go a bit more in depth with. Today, I’m going to review the clear cut example of why genetic experiments aren’t always the best option: The game ‘Bioshock’.
This is a first person shooter, similar to Borderlands, only the plot is a lot more ambiguous. You are an unnamed man who finds his way to the underwater city of Rapture and has to find a way out. The plot, which revolves genetic engineering and the results of it, takes you for a quite a few loops and is very enjoyable. The fighting system is one of the best I have ever seen in a first-person game: You can choose from either using quote-unquote ‘conventional’ weapons, or you can use ‘Plasmids’, which give you the ability to amazing things, from controlling fire to releasing insects from your hands. Combining the two can deliver some really effective damage to your enemies. Also, while there is drastically less choice for weapon than in Borderlands, the upgrades at least make sense. In Borderlands, you see nine bullets come out of a standard six-shooter revolver, which looks weird after a while. In Bioshock, not only do the weapons’ appearances change when you upgrade, it actually explains at the upgrade station what is being added. While this may seem small, it’s one of the little things that make this game a treat to play.
However, there are some things I don’t like about it. For starters, the guns in this game are way too big. And I know that this is normally a good thing, but when they take up quite a large portion of the viewscreen, making it difficult to see anything, it isn’t. Also, the game, up until the end part, is way too easy. When you die, you come back in these pods, kinda like Borderlands, but unlike Borderlands, you don’t lose any money. You are brought back with 60% health, which can easily be fixed if played right, and the only real trouble is the minor inconvenience of tracking down where you were before, which is simple to do. Although, to be fair, the game does have the option of turning the pods off to make the game harder, which I congratulate the game for putting in, but it’s just something that bugs me a little. Also, there are several combination locks in the game, which is fine, but getting the numbers can get really trying sometimes (Anyone else having Saw flashbacks?) Sure, you can hack them and get through without finding the numbers, but not every lock has this choice. Also, I mentioned earlier how the upgrades look better than in Borderlands. That being said, the upgrades are a hell of a lot trickier to get to. You have to find upgrade stations which allow you to pick one upgrade before they shutdown, whereas in Borderlands, you can upgrade as soon as you level up.
This game has what I call ‘Saint or Sinner Gameplay’, which makes use of moral decisions to shape the character into either a good guy or a bad guy, with certain decisions resulting in different endings. Previous examples of this have been InFamous, Fallout 3 and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. The SOSG comes from the Little Sisters (Hey, little sister, who's the one you love? Nice day to start again), whom you have to find in order to get more ADAM and get access to more Plasmids. How difficult can that be? Well, you have to defeat their bodyguards, the Big Daddies, giant creatures in deep-sea diving gear that are basically clones of Juggernaut, before you can get to them.
Once again, if you can find a copy of this, I recommend it to any fans of the FPS, RPG or horror genre. While I find Borderlands to be the more enjoyable, this game comes a very close second in terms of first-person shooters. T he gameplay is enjoyable, the graphics are very impressive, and the plot does bring up some interesting points about our attitude to genetics. Overall, this is one for the taking. I’m Mahan, reporting from within the Den, signing off.
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on Friday, 08 October 2010
in Everything Else
