Bioshock reviews are coming in...

[Wiglaf]

I give it a 93

Reminds me of TA's in college who would grade essays on a point-based system that was as arbitrary as possible.

[DaShi]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Which is better, shock or ice? I mostly just use shock right now, but the guys that take 8-10 wrench shots (spiders, for example) are pretty hard to take out with just wrench without losing a lot of HP... maybe i'm just not good enough on the timing

Research the spiders, they'll go down fast. It's the houdini's that drive me nuts. Although, I turned a bouncer against Sander and that was an amusing fight since the bouncer doesn't use ranged attacks. Sander would vanish and the bouncer would look around confused then suddenly charge across the room after Sander. I was actually worried that my bouncer might lose, so I jumped in there and finished Sander off myself.

Another plasmid I love is the one that makes you invisible while standing still.

[pg]

Yeah that invis is very powerful. It basically makes triggering the security not matter anymore. You can just stand still for 1min until the bots leave.

[DrSpike]

From what I remember it's better turning them to your advantage.

[pg]

Sure, but if you accidentally trip something or have problems hacking them you no longer need fear setting them off with invis.

[Solver]

I hadn't followed news about the game much ever since originally completing it. It turns out that the patch adds an option to disable vita chambers. There's no excuse for not including that option in the first place, but that's exactly what I wanted in a patch. Now I'll want to play the game for a second time, this time also getting the adrenaline.

Ft. Frolic, yeah. I remember it fondly and it should be even better without vita chambers. What a masterpiece of level design.

[DrSpike]

I just finished it today on hard with vita chambers disabled.

[Solver]

Does anything else change if you disable vita chambers? Like, do you get more EVE? That's the one difficulty I foresee with vita chambers off, running out of EVE quite often.

And you're a bad person. You should've posted to say that a vita chamber disabling patch is out

[Apocalypse]

I didn't even know what they were until someone told me...I never used them in my run.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Solver
Does anything else change if you disable vita chambers? Like, do you get more EVE? That's the one difficulty I foresee with vita chambers off, running out of EVE quite often.

You don't get more eve or health, and the items you can pick up remain the same. Having said that for the Xbox version they've released a new tonic which keeps prices of vending machine goods down a bit which does give a similar effect.

But to be honest as long as you don't waste your eve and health packs you shouldn't run out.

Originally posted by Solver
And you're a bad person. You should've posted to say that a vita chamber disabling patch is out

I'm not sure whether it is for the PC though - and the fellow Xbox players will notice soon enough.

[Solver]

It is for the PC. Along with the new tonics. At least the PC version has some new tonics, I believe one of them is that lower-item-price tonic.

[DrSpike]

And for what it's worth I didn't feel like playing the game on hard was a cakewalk, so the difficulty criticism has been addressed.

However, the late game combat does get a little more tedious, as the splicers have insane hitpoint levels. It's not a problem as you get so much money late game you can always buy more health packs but it slows things down, espcially as you'll usually hack vending machines first.

But that's pretty much all the criticism I can level at this game. It's simply one of the most memorable and immersive games I have ever played. The characters and great voice acting, the sound and atmosphere, the beatiful level design, and most of all the way the initially alien (but brilliantly conceived) world slowly becomes clearer as the story unfolds means this game is unmatched at what it does in my view.

If anything I enjoyed it more the second time around because I found all of the tapes, and some parts of the story that I thought were a bit muddled became clear. You also notice a few small things early on you would miss originally.

When you've played as many games as I have some of them mash into one after a while - but I know this is a game I will never forget. And what is more it is a slamming indictment of some that like to post around here that modern games are brainless, just popular because of marketing, and offer nothing over older games. The Bioshock world is one of the most intricate and subtle ever introduced in a game, and it's hard to imagine the plasmids, the physics system, and the wonderfully immersive graphics being possible on older systems. Basically, either play this game through or keep it shut.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Solver
It is for the PC. Along with the new tonics. At least the PC version has some new tonics, I believe one of them is that lower-item-price tonic.

Well worth picking up then because it's only 1 eve.

[Solver]

I definitely agree with you about the upsides of Bioshock. The difficulty was my only complaint with it (and I did feel that it was a cakewalk on Hard) but disabling vita chambers surely fixes that. Then, aside from some minor problems with hacking, it's hard for me to find anything to complain about.

I'm sure I'll enjoy the second playthrough a lot. I almost always find the second time very enjoyable for such games - when you already know the story, you play with a different understanding of the game and the fine details. I'm also still to find some tapes... and gotta listen to the Steinman ones again

This was definitely a very good ear for the FPS genre, but Bioshock with vita chambers gone can take its place among the very best I've played.

[DrSpike]

Favourite Bioshock moments (spoilers!)

Far too many to list really but:

1) Ft Frolic - everyone's going to say it but no harm in reinforcing! Sander Cohen is just so deliciously insane. The best bits are where you walk in on him giving the piano lesson, and when you complete Cohen's masterpiece. Also the 'poem' he wrote is hilarious and the tape about the fellow artist. The voice acting is excellent throughout.

2) Steinman tapes are spine-chilling, especially the one where he just starts cutting his patient in the middle of the routine surgery. Also, him hacking at his last patient when you corner him is a great moment.

3) Andrew Ryan - his death is a great scene, but also I looked forward to his tapes. The voice acting conveys his passion for his beliefs really well. The best tape though is the one you find late on where he is just launching his splicer army at Fontaine and begins to doubt that his actions are still consistent with his ideals.

4) There are too many small touches of brilliance to mention, but one I really liked was the early tape in Arcadia about the tree farm, where the scientist is complaining Ryan is making her charge for entry. She then does an impression of Ryan talking to her: "Is a potter not entitled to money from his pots?" and the intonation is perfect. It cracked me up.

Suggest others.