Image from Joystick 101With the release of Bioshock 2 only days away, I thought I would take a minute to reflect back on my time with the original Bioshock.
I vividly remember reading video game sites and listening to podcasts who were hyping up how amazing this game was. I didn't care. The screenshots looked pretty, but I didn't care that it came from the guy who made the System Shock games cause I'd never played them before. I didn't care about the Little Sister dynamic. I didn't care that you could add elemental powers to yourself to add variety to the combat.
Then I played the demo. Oh, my, God.
The way that game starts has to be one of the greatest openings in video game history. When your plane crashes and you find the pod that leads you to this incredible looking underwater city, it's mind-blowing. Then you get in there, and the world is equal parts beautiful and creepy. Without spoiling the demo (which if you haven't already tried, you really should), it's wonderfully paced to a climactic end that left me saying, "I need this game. Now."
So within the span of 45-minute demo, I went from indifferent to "zOMG!!!111". I bought that game the moment my local Best Buy opened and hunkered down on the sofa to explore the world of Rapture.
Throughout the game, the atmosphere of the game was always my favourite part of the Bioshock experience. I loved exploring the fantastically-designed world that was part futuristic, part historical and part apocalyptic art deco. Each of the different zones brought something slightly different to the table, which made the game wonderful to look at. To add to the experience, the music was spot-on for the environments, as they went with old-time music from the era the world of Rapture existed in before everything crumbled to crap. At the time, the tapes that were left behind added an extra layer of depth to the world by narrating to you what happened before you got there. This idea has been done to death since, but Bioshock really made that popular.
Character design was also a big win for Bioshock. Save for the last boss, everything you encounter in that game from the splicers to the Little Sisters are wonderfully designed to fit that world. The Big Daddy's themselves have become so iconic, that it's hard not to talk about this generation of gaming without mentioning them.
Speaking of the Big Daddy's, these were arguably the best and one of the weaker parts of the game. As a player, I was always intimidated by them initially due to their size and arsenal. But thanks to the chambers where you were brought back to life with little penalty, it took a lot of wind out of fighting a Big Daddy. Knowing that you could die and come back with the Big Daddy at the same health you left him took away a lot of tension once you figured that out. I also did not like the Little Sister choice system. On a base level, I get the concept of either saving a Little Sister to revert her to human or killing a little sister to harvest her energy. However, the game doesn't really reward you for going down the middle, or harvesting all the Little Sisters. The moment you harvest one little sister, you automatically get the "bad" ending and lose out on the achievement points you would have gotten if you saved them all. Maybe I would have ended up a stronger character in the end if I harvested all the girls, but I beat that game just fine.
I don't know if it was just me, but actually playing the game wasn't as great as the world they gave you to play in. I thought it played fine and the combat was fun, but it's not as good as the top first-person shooters on a mechanical level.
One other thing I wanted to say before I wrap this up: the plot and pacing of Bioshock was incredible...to a point. There is a very distinct point in the game where the plot peaks and slowly devolves from there.
At the time of its release, Bioshock to many was game of the year, and to some the best game of this generation. I'm not sure if I could go that far in stating my love for the game, but the overall product was (and still is) excellent. Here's to hoping that they did not ruin the Bioshock reputation with the (in my opinion) unnecessary sequel.
I vividly remember reading video game sites and listening to podcasts who were hyping up how amazing this game was. I didn't care. The screenshots looked pretty, but I didn't care that it came from the guy who made the System Shock games cause I'd never played them before. I didn't care about the Little Sister dynamic. I didn't care that you could add elemental powers to yourself to add variety to the combat.
Then I played the demo. Oh, my, God.
The way that game starts has to be one of the greatest openings in video game history. When your plane crashes and you find the pod that leads you to this incredible looking underwater city, it's mind-blowing. Then you get in there, and the world is equal parts beautiful and creepy. Without spoiling the demo (which if you haven't already tried, you really should), it's wonderfully paced to a climactic end that left me saying, "I need this game. Now."
So within the span of 45-minute demo, I went from indifferent to "zOMG!!!111". I bought that game the moment my local Best Buy opened and hunkered down on the sofa to explore the world of Rapture.
Throughout the game, the atmosphere of the game was always my favourite part of the Bioshock experience. I loved exploring the fantastically-designed world that was part futuristic, part historical and part apocalyptic art deco. Each of the different zones brought something slightly different to the table, which made the game wonderful to look at. To add to the experience, the music was spot-on for the environments, as they went with old-time music from the era the world of Rapture existed in before everything crumbled to crap. At the time, the tapes that were left behind added an extra layer of depth to the world by narrating to you what happened before you got there. This idea has been done to death since, but Bioshock really made that popular.
Character design was also a big win for Bioshock. Save for the last boss, everything you encounter in that game from the splicers to the Little Sisters are wonderfully designed to fit that world. The Big Daddy's themselves have become so iconic, that it's hard not to talk about this generation of gaming without mentioning them.
Speaking of the Big Daddy's, these were arguably the best and one of the weaker parts of the game. As a player, I was always intimidated by them initially due to their size and arsenal. But thanks to the chambers where you were brought back to life with little penalty, it took a lot of wind out of fighting a Big Daddy. Knowing that you could die and come back with the Big Daddy at the same health you left him took away a lot of tension once you figured that out. I also did not like the Little Sister choice system. On a base level, I get the concept of either saving a Little Sister to revert her to human or killing a little sister to harvest her energy. However, the game doesn't really reward you for going down the middle, or harvesting all the Little Sisters. The moment you harvest one little sister, you automatically get the "bad" ending and lose out on the achievement points you would have gotten if you saved them all. Maybe I would have ended up a stronger character in the end if I harvested all the girls, but I beat that game just fine.
I don't know if it was just me, but actually playing the game wasn't as great as the world they gave you to play in. I thought it played fine and the combat was fun, but it's not as good as the top first-person shooters on a mechanical level.
One other thing I wanted to say before I wrap this up: the plot and pacing of Bioshock was incredible...to a point. There is a very distinct point in the game where the plot peaks and slowly devolves from there.
At the time of its release, Bioshock to many was game of the year, and to some the best game of this generation. I'm not sure if I could go that far in stating my love for the game, but the overall product was (and still is) excellent. Here's to hoping that they did not ruin the Bioshock reputation with the (in my opinion) unnecessary sequel.