I haven't had the chance to get any further in BioShock recently. I've had a guest in the home and so less time to play games on my own. On the plus side, I've had the opportunity to partake of the joy that is Scott Pilgrim arcade game just released for Xbox. Despite this though, I still would like to take the opportunity to discuss my very first moments of BioShock.
I believe I may be overly fond of
this game's opening. Indeed, it may be so good that my previous attempts to play through may have been hindered by my fear that the rest of the game cannot live up to it's first hour. The momentum and vividness of those first moments are cinematic gameplay at its best. Finding yourself twenty five feet below the ocean surface, oriented only by the glow of fire, and surfacing only to find the tail of a plane sinking underwater, and pushing towards what appears to be some mysterious plane destroying lighthouse: spectacular. Then, through sheer lack of options you push forward, and are taken back underwater by some submelevator as the voice of BioShock introduces you to the utopia Rapture was to the farce you will soon find yourself vying for survival in.
Then, as you land, you witness the murder of some random man at the hands of some monster, a monster who soon turns his attention to you, weaponless, in a preserving jar. But luckily some asshole is going to save you. I know enough about this game not to trust this fuckhead but his voice serves as your only comfort in these first moments, saving you from the first splicer and directing you through your first steps in Rapture.
As soon as the game begins begins after this point the lustre is lost a little for me, but it peaks once again in that small room where you are forced to wait for the door to unlock while the silhouettes fill the propaganda film that fills the entire one wall. As they smash and claw their way through that glass screen, I'm always so impressed at how intense this moment is on me. Bravo, Ken Levine, bravo.
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| Grrrrr. |
Playing through this time, though, it was funny to see how dated this game looks nowadays. NOWADAYS!, as if 2007 was a generation ago. But really, as you swoop through the "high" rises of Rapture, the whale moves swims passed and he just looks blocky and simply animated. How things change, even in a few years. I used to marvel at the visuals of this opening moment, but now I'm distracted by how dated they appear.
Despite this, the environments still looks incredible, and those flying turrets are still the bane of my existence. As I said in my initial post, I am playing on "Easy" so sadly some of the suspense is gone, and I feel confident as I stride the halls zappin 'n smackin any splicer silly enough to fuck with a guy with lightning hands.
I did get pissed when I discovered I had to choose between magic powers. I'm assured I get more slots later, but right now, I don't want to choose between force push, fire, and lightning. I like comfort the ability to light a man on fire and then throwing a chair at him provides. Ah well.
When it comes to my weapons, I feel a little underwhelmed. They seem perfectly serviceable but I'm just bored by the stand-by pistol, machine gun, and shotgun. I know this is just the beginning, but I'd really like to feel some sense of freshness when I blast a hookhand's head apart. As it is, I feel I'm just fulfilling a genre obligation when I use these weapons. Also, I run out of ammo so frickin fast it ain't funny. Given, I'm a terrible shot, but I fail to see the point of a pistol when it seems firing it seems the equivalent of putting nine bullets in my hand and just throwing them across the room. I usually hit with one or two shots, but that's of no comfort to the wall I just chewed up.
Then, of course, came the big moment: my first battle with a BIG DADDY. Poor guy when don't like the "don't-taze-me-bro" guy. It's "Easy"'s fault I know, but this guy dashed at me once knocking me back across the room, which only gave me ample time to empty another clip of machine gun ammo into him before he could approach again. I guess there aren't much brains in the glowing orb of a head they carry around in the middle of their torsos.
And I didn't kill the little sister. I can barely force myself to play bad in rpgs and that doesn't require me to bust open a toddler in a pink dress. I've heard the ADAM difference from good to bad isn't as large as you'd suspect from the ratio it presents you as your moral/mechanical dilemma in that moment.
That's all I got. I'm not sure why anyone would read this now that I put all this down. Oh well, not going to erase it all now.
