BioShock is pretty fun.

The last boss was pretty disappointing. It was just such a standard video game boss - he followed a simple pattern, his attacks were easy to dodge, etc.

Still, I liked the story, and the setting was really interesting.

The exploration was tightly paced, not too open-ended (which I like), and the combat was pretty satisfying, simply for the huge number of options it gives you.

My method of choice was to use the hypnotize big daddy plasmid to get two of them to fight each other, and then finish off whichever one was left standing. It was satisfying every time. It was also really great to watch one of my hypnotized minions tear through a crowd of murderous splicers like it's nothing.

I thought it was annoying that the splicers had three or four key phrases that they would scream at you every damned time they saw you. Also, they were all clones of each other. I realize these elements are necessary in a video game, but it suspends the believability of the world they created.

Intelligently designed games like Half-Life incorporate these concerns into the enemy list itself. All of the enemies look the same because they're all wearing uniforms (and are genetically designed in some ways) or because they're the same species (and you can even tell subtle differences between many of the Vorts). They all say the same things because they don't have anything to say except "Target acquired" (which makes sense because commando lingo would dictate them using the same phrase).

The number of options with the (biologically impossible and economically irrational) plasmids were a creative idea maybe, but in use they were the standard weapons you find in every other damned video game (fire, ice, electricity blah blah blah) with little exception (I like the hypnotizing one, too).

The only thing about the game that was interesting was the moral dilemma involved in the Big Daddy/Little Sister moments. But as the game goes on, you find out that there really wasn't much of a dilemma since you get boatloads of Adam anyway, and rescueing of Little Sisters eventually becomes just another repetitive collection task for you to complete in each new area.

Jason wrote:

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I thought it was annoying that the splicers had three or four key phrases that they would scream at you every damned time they saw you. Also, they were all clones of each other. I realize these elements are necessary in a video game, but it suspends the believability of the world they created.

Intelligently designed games like Half-Life incorporate these concerns into the enemy list itself. All of the enemies look the same because they're all wearing uniforms (and are genetically designed in some ways) or because they're the same species (and you can even tell subtle differences between many of the Vorts). They all say the same things because they don't have anything to say except "Target acquired" (which makes sense because commando lingo would dictate them using the same phrase).

The number of options with the (biologically impossible and economically irrational) plasmids were a creative idea maybe, but in use they were the standard weapons you find in every other damned video game (fire, ice, electricity blah blah blah) with little exception (I like the hypnotizing one, too).

The only thing about the game that was interesting was the moral dilemma involved in the Big Daddy/Little Sister moments. But as the game goes on, you find out that there really wasn't much of a dilemma since you get boatloads of Adam anyway, and rescueing of Little Sisters eventually becomes just another repetitive collection task for you to complete in each new area.

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I agree with you on all of those individual points, but I still really liked Bioshock (though, admittedly, I'm now less sure why I did). I guess I'm a sucker for pretty art design, and a compelling world to explore.

i find that this game is far better than most games in its genre:

Monopoly? What about that? I hear the kids love it.

I'm sure I'd be pre-occupied with criticizing the premises of the game to actually enjoy it.

I like Sorry!

That just looks dumb.