in which Nick plays Games: Bioshock 2
Things I Liked:
- The section where you were the Little Sister was a bit trite, but creepy as all hell.
- The Rivet Gun was exactly as satisfying as it should be.
- The Cyclone, Insect Swarm, and Winterblast plasmids suddenly didn't suck anymore. Hell, I was actually using Winterblast MORE than Lightning!
- They replaced the Shock Buckshot and the Electric Gel, which in many ways WERE game-breaking.
- There were a few genuinely spooky moments, and the atmosphere from the first game was largely carried over successfully.
- The way non-Plasmid tonics were handled - i.e., you have PLASMID slots and then slots for EVERYTHING ELSE - was much more user-friendly.
- Some of the tonics were flat out amazing - the invisibility and the "I'm in water so regenerating" were both wicked cool.
- Hard was, often, ACTUALLY HARD. Nice!
- Some of the things your Sister said when you were killing guys were fabulous. Specifically lighting a dude on fire, shocking him, or upgrading a weapon.
Things I Didn't Like:
- It didn't really ADD anything. I mean, sure, it tacked on a whole (sub)plot about a character no one ever mentioned before and tried really hard to make it all make sense, but at the end of the day you're still in a city that's miles underwater and still somehow viable some 20 years after everyone stopped repairing it. AND after the last game TOTALLY ENDED THE THREAT.
- I never really felt like a Big Daddy. Even in this very game, Big Daddies are terrifying - giant armored tanks that can wipe out a schoolbus of Splicers with just a Drill-arm and a bad attitude. I could get beaten to death with a Wrench in 3 seconds if I wasn't careful, even with all armor tonics and whatnot up and running. That's sort of retarded.
- The Drill Arm was useless. Don't get me wrong, when I used it and had Drill Charge it was BEASTLY, but it ran out of fuel in all of 7 seconds pre-upgrade and no one ever seemed to drop fuel instead of bullets. Fucking lame, as that's the big draw of the goddamn Big Daddy.
- The game is SUPER linear. It also didn't allow any sort of backtracking between zones, which meant that other than maybe twice where I had the option of doing B then A instead of A then B there was no real question of what I was doing next. I was riding that train, and that got sort of annoying when recalling the relative freedom of the previous game.
- On that note - nothing really surprised. Oh look, it's a room full of mannequins right in front of a mission-critical element. Wanna bet one or more are ACTUALLY bad guys waiting to trigger? Yeah. The only things that were new were painted in GIANT GLOWING GOLDEN AURAS, so taking 2 seconds to look around you resolved any sense of mystery.
- They have a terrible habit of giving you a Power-to-the-People station right BEFORE you find your next gun, so waiting to upgrade until you've advanced a few rooms is CRITICAL. The Machine Gun, Shotgun, and Grenade Launcher ALL had this issue.
- Really weird glitches - I'd be listening to an audio diary and get attacked, and instead of continuing it'd just go silent. Or start a different diary entirely. Or whatever. Also, in the one place where TWO Big Sister's attacked, one got stuck on a wall and it made it really freaking easy to kill her. These are just the ones I remember, but there are definite issues with the polish.
- They completely nerfed the shotgun. Previously, it had been a pump-action 6-shot. Now, it's a dual-barrel breakaction with an 'upgrade' to make it 6-shot again. Taking away the broken ammo I can understand, but cutting the number of shots for a now less-powerful gun by 66% is bullshit.
- Several of the Plasmids were worthless. I never leveled Incinerate or Telekinesis because...well, why bother? I bought Scout and tried Hypnotize and Security Command, but never found a good use for them. Honestly, I found I'd rather throw down some traps and a turret and blast my way out with Winterblast and/or Lightning than play it sneaky. I'M A FREAKING BIG DADDY, remember.
- The whole "harvest" thing felt somewhat tacked on. Amusing, sure, but given that it always led to a Big Sister it wasn't terribly new or unique.
- I sorta like the Pipe Dream-style hacking. The new hacking is less fun, though faster.
- Why does failing a hack still electrocute me when I have Electric Flesh equipped? The FUCK?
- Even with all the changes AND playing it through on Hard, I still finished the game with full ammo/health/EVE, all the upgrades I wanted AND some 500 ADAM leftover I just never got around to spending, and maxed out cash. The game showers you with ammo and loot, so even dying as often as I did (and, man, did I die), I still rocked the casbah without too many problems. It never felt like SURVIVAL horror, thus, but rather just another stock FPS with horror-ish elements.
Sidenote: What's ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL when you play, IMHO
- Always wait to see what's around the next corner before using a PttP station. ALWAYS.
- Upgrade the Machine Gun's accuracy, first damn thing - the recoil makes it useless until you do. All of the weapons have a similar all-but-mandatory upgrade - damage for the Rivet Gun, damage immunity for the grenades, capacity for the shotgun, fuel efficiency for the Drill, and....well, whatever you want for the spear gun. Damage, I guess. I didn't really use/need it much, so eh.
- In terms of tonics, the tonics I ALWAYS had equipped the 2 armor tonics, the 2 research enhancement tonics, the various EVE saver tonics, the fountain of life and camouflage tonics derived from research, the 2 Little Sister tonics (I saved all of them, mind), and Electric Flesh. Electric Flesh is AMAZING, as it renders you immune to any water/electricity issues (including your own!), trap spears, and some splicer/Alpha attacks.
- Winterblast or Shock and shooting people in the head kills pretty much everything in one go, including Alphas.
- Learn to snipe with the Rivet gun, as the final upgrade makes a 2-3 shot kill really easy. There's a Headshot tonic, too, but I never picked it up.
- Hack EVERYTHING, health and damage-centric things first. Get bots often and use them.
Verdict:
If you loved the first game - and you SHOULD HAVE - this game is a letdown. It's worth a rental or borrow I guess, but I played the game through once on Hard and got the 'good' ending and other than "Didn't use Vitachambers" and "Don't take a hit during a Harvest" (both of which, while doable, would be FUCKING HARD and only worth some 30 points between them) I achieved every single-player reward. And some of the multiplayer when I spent 20 minutes dinking with it, so eh. Borrow or rent, or pick it up if you find it for $20.
I had actually preordered this and gone home to find my 360 RRoD'd. Apparently, I should've taken it's warning. Last time I pick up a new game in the first month or two of it's existence. Until Starcraft 2.
- The section where you were the Little Sister was a bit trite, but creepy as all hell.
- The Rivet Gun was exactly as satisfying as it should be.
- The Cyclone, Insect Swarm, and Winterblast plasmids suddenly didn't suck anymore. Hell, I was actually using Winterblast MORE than Lightning!
- They replaced the Shock Buckshot and the Electric Gel, which in many ways WERE game-breaking.
- There were a few genuinely spooky moments, and the atmosphere from the first game was largely carried over successfully.
- The way non-Plasmid tonics were handled - i.e., you have PLASMID slots and then slots for EVERYTHING ELSE - was much more user-friendly.
- Some of the tonics were flat out amazing - the invisibility and the "I'm in water so regenerating" were both wicked cool.
- Hard was, often, ACTUALLY HARD. Nice!
- Some of the things your Sister said when you were killing guys were fabulous. Specifically lighting a dude on fire, shocking him, or upgrading a weapon.
Things I Didn't Like:
- It didn't really ADD anything. I mean, sure, it tacked on a whole (sub)plot about a character no one ever mentioned before and tried really hard to make it all make sense, but at the end of the day you're still in a city that's miles underwater and still somehow viable some 20 years after everyone stopped repairing it. AND after the last game TOTALLY ENDED THE THREAT.
- I never really felt like a Big Daddy. Even in this very game, Big Daddies are terrifying - giant armored tanks that can wipe out a schoolbus of Splicers with just a Drill-arm and a bad attitude. I could get beaten to death with a Wrench in 3 seconds if I wasn't careful, even with all armor tonics and whatnot up and running. That's sort of retarded.
- The Drill Arm was useless. Don't get me wrong, when I used it and had Drill Charge it was BEASTLY, but it ran out of fuel in all of 7 seconds pre-upgrade and no one ever seemed to drop fuel instead of bullets. Fucking lame, as that's the big draw of the goddamn Big Daddy.
- The game is SUPER linear. It also didn't allow any sort of backtracking between zones, which meant that other than maybe twice where I had the option of doing B then A instead of A then B there was no real question of what I was doing next. I was riding that train, and that got sort of annoying when recalling the relative freedom of the previous game.
- On that note - nothing really surprised. Oh look, it's a room full of mannequins right in front of a mission-critical element. Wanna bet one or more are ACTUALLY bad guys waiting to trigger? Yeah. The only things that were new were painted in GIANT GLOWING GOLDEN AURAS, so taking 2 seconds to look around you resolved any sense of mystery.
- They have a terrible habit of giving you a Power-to-the-People station right BEFORE you find your next gun, so waiting to upgrade until you've advanced a few rooms is CRITICAL. The Machine Gun, Shotgun, and Grenade Launcher ALL had this issue.
- Really weird glitches - I'd be listening to an audio diary and get attacked, and instead of continuing it'd just go silent. Or start a different diary entirely. Or whatever. Also, in the one place where TWO Big Sister's attacked, one got stuck on a wall and it made it really freaking easy to kill her. These are just the ones I remember, but there are definite issues with the polish.
- They completely nerfed the shotgun. Previously, it had been a pump-action 6-shot. Now, it's a dual-barrel breakaction with an 'upgrade' to make it 6-shot again. Taking away the broken ammo I can understand, but cutting the number of shots for a now less-powerful gun by 66% is bullshit.
- Several of the Plasmids were worthless. I never leveled Incinerate or Telekinesis because...well, why bother? I bought Scout and tried Hypnotize and Security Command, but never found a good use for them. Honestly, I found I'd rather throw down some traps and a turret and blast my way out with Winterblast and/or Lightning than play it sneaky. I'M A FREAKING BIG DADDY, remember.
- The whole "harvest" thing felt somewhat tacked on. Amusing, sure, but given that it always led to a Big Sister it wasn't terribly new or unique.
- I sorta like the Pipe Dream-style hacking. The new hacking is less fun, though faster.
- Why does failing a hack still electrocute me when I have Electric Flesh equipped? The FUCK?
- Even with all the changes AND playing it through on Hard, I still finished the game with full ammo/health/EVE, all the upgrades I wanted AND some 500 ADAM leftover I just never got around to spending, and maxed out cash. The game showers you with ammo and loot, so even dying as often as I did (and, man, did I die), I still rocked the casbah without too many problems. It never felt like SURVIVAL horror, thus, but rather just another stock FPS with horror-ish elements.
Sidenote: What's ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL when you play, IMHO
- Always wait to see what's around the next corner before using a PttP station. ALWAYS.
- Upgrade the Machine Gun's accuracy, first damn thing - the recoil makes it useless until you do. All of the weapons have a similar all-but-mandatory upgrade - damage for the Rivet Gun, damage immunity for the grenades, capacity for the shotgun, fuel efficiency for the Drill, and....well, whatever you want for the spear gun. Damage, I guess. I didn't really use/need it much, so eh.
- In terms of tonics, the tonics I ALWAYS had equipped the 2 armor tonics, the 2 research enhancement tonics, the various EVE saver tonics, the fountain of life and camouflage tonics derived from research, the 2 Little Sister tonics (I saved all of them, mind), and Electric Flesh. Electric Flesh is AMAZING, as it renders you immune to any water/electricity issues (including your own!), trap spears, and some splicer/Alpha attacks.
- Winterblast or Shock and shooting people in the head kills pretty much everything in one go, including Alphas.
- Learn to snipe with the Rivet gun, as the final upgrade makes a 2-3 shot kill really easy. There's a Headshot tonic, too, but I never picked it up.
- Hack EVERYTHING, health and damage-centric things first. Get bots often and use them.
Verdict:
If you loved the first game - and you SHOULD HAVE - this game is a letdown. It's worth a rental or borrow I guess, but I played the game through once on Hard and got the 'good' ending and other than "Didn't use Vitachambers" and "Don't take a hit during a Harvest" (both of which, while doable, would be FUCKING HARD and only worth some 30 points between them) I achieved every single-player reward. And some of the multiplayer when I spent 20 minutes dinking with it, so eh. Borrow or rent, or pick it up if you find it for $20.
I had actually preordered this and gone home to find my 360 RRoD'd. Apparently, I should've taken it's warning. Last time I pick up a new game in the first month or two of it's existence. Until Starcraft 2.