System shock 2 was the same. I honestly was on deck 1 of the Van Braun (Engineering) above the main deck via a turboshaft. I watched a zombie go by, jumped down and beat it to death. Went back up top, seconds later another zombie. For shits and giggles, I did this for near half an hour. Was rather annoying by the end. Overall, the atmosphere is amazing. And funny. And mildly odd sometimes. (Go into a cold room. I somehow freeze, can't move or see. Gain control back, there's suddenly a dead body in the room on an operating table. Move to a desk in the room, take something. Freeze again, turn around and there's a huge splicer doctor dude staring at me. Good thing I had that wrench power upgrade! One hit and down he goes...) I went into this expecting SS3 essentially, and that's what I'm seeing. Just, Medical deck is level 2 in the game, not level 4 (SS2 went first Level 2 - recovery, then level1 - engineering, level 3 - hydroponics, level 4 - medical, EEK! The person on the radio is the AI from SS1! The Rickenbacker proved much harder...but still fun.) I love how in SS2, you NEVER talk to a real living person. Just talk on the radio with the Rickenbacker's captain. Then he kills himself rather then turn into a zombie, and 5 minutes later you're staring at his dead body - this is an element that really added to SS2, and Bioshock might have done well to copy. (Funny, both SS2 and Bioshock tell the story via voice recordings!) SS2 left lots of creepy situations, and never ceased to give a consistent amount of enjoyment, as well as some freaky areas. Thus far, I think Bioshock is sorta living up to it, but I may prefer SS2 in the end for gameplay....but that could just be nostalgia. Oh yeah, DX10 vs DX9: gameplay difference means a bit. I always notice shitty graphics in game, such as poor particle physics....Bioshock is not really lacking here.
All right, so I just beat Bioshock, but it wasn't... Satisfying. Just kinda empty. I noticed that once you get past Arcadia (and the Farmer's Market), the level quality takes a steep nosedive. The rooms stop being as defined as spaces, and navigating itself becomes a chore. It's still pretty and all, but much less well done. This effectively means it's all downhill from halfway in, which kinda bums me out. It seems like games no longer have satisfying endings. Even when they have that peak right at the end (which has become rare), it's missing that certain crescendo followed by a lull that really makes it. Bleh, maybe I'm just jaded.
No I think the ending sucked aswell Its like they use movie storytelling models and some big events have to happen and some huge event MUST END IT. I was like WTF? im evil ? and I nuke the world ? Why should a game end ? I had endless fun in morrowind even if the world was a bit stiff I could do whatever I felt like. In the middle of a mission just abandon it or whatever... I played for almost 600 hours granted I did use 100+ mods. But this took like 2-3 days to end like most other new games that put you on a monorail journey of storytelling and dead easy to use mainstream designs.
I disagree, with PART of your arguement. Fort frolic was amazing, in my opinion, and def. worth it. I enjoyed that level to no end...Hephaestus seemed a little rushed (Kill Andrews! KILL!!!!) and then Olympus Heights/Point Prometheus seemed far too rushed...yet still having some high points (seeing Suchong's final end was to die for. :p )I skipped more than half of Olympus Heights - didn't even go to find how Andrew's mistress died at Atlas' hand...and once you get to be a big daddy, it seemed somewhat silly. I didn' even play most of the proving grounds...I just exited the game, watched the ending BIK videos...I would have gotten the "good" ending - not the nuke the world ending. Frankly, I think towards the end, it got rushed (gee, sound like HL2, anyone?) But that is how most games go. For what bioshock is, it has replayability, very good level design with high detail, and a pretty good story line....much akin to System Shock 2. There are few games that live up to what I remember Thief 2, Deus Ex and so on being. Maybe that is nostalgia, or maybe games have tanked (could the focus on graphics have done this?)
The people making the best kind of games nowadays are the little people without million dollar equipment, like www.spiderwebsoftware.com. Graphics are still 2D, and there are maybe 10 animations per character. But it's extremely replayable and open-ended, guaranteeing maybe 100 hours of gameplay or more, for a game that is maybe 50MB large.
someone linked the zero punctuation review of the game, right? if not, do so. I'm not playing it and not reading 10 page of posts, so......... meh
