Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Return To Rapture

So I finished Bioshock this week. I looked about for some sort of celebratory dance to do, but it seems none have yet been invented. As I mentioned in this post here, the game initially frustrated me. However, I can go down my list of gripes nearly point for point and say that nearly all of them are vindicated by later gameplay. It seemed to be one of those games that got way easier as you went along.

So I thought I would give Bioshock 2 another go, after Rage-Quitting due to lack of fun all those months ago. I like it much better now. It plays very much like the first game, but have streamlined a few things, and needlessly complicated others. Hacking, instead of being a pipe-based puzzle, is now a swinging needle you need to stop in the right place, and can be done remotely with a dart. Security robots are not the incredibly persistent little buggers they were, only doing one sweep before leaving. The initial guns are fun and powerful (a rivet-gun instead of a pistol, a gatling cannon instead of a tommy gun) and the enemies come at you in droves. The rivet gun has a trap feature that is like the crossbow in the first game, but you can deactivate the traps (and it's the first gun you get, as opposed to the last). As for the complications... your main weapon is a spinning drill instead of a wrench. Drills need fuel. Feh. Remote hacking needs darts, but happily you can just walk up and do it the old fashioned way, hand to motherboard. So I'm optimistic. So optimistic that I didn't even need to point-form this list.

So there you go.

1 comment:

Electric Chikken said...

I'm about to finish BS2. I'm disappointed with just how easy it is, but I'm enthralled with the universe and the story, as well as the telling of said story. The creativity kinda blows my mind - to describe the asthetic of the universe only as steampunk, for example, would be cutting way too many corners, as it follows its own template in so many ways.

I liked the drill - thought it was stupid to begin with, but I think they give you a few cool options with it later on. If you choose, it can either be a fixture in your arsenal, or you can be more projectile-heavy. The plasmids on the left hand/weapons on the right system is a lot better, too. Makes creative play a bit more rewarding.

I enjoy what they did with level 2/3 plasmids, btw. They get a little more interesting.