I went through 1999 on my second playthrough and got the Scavenger Hunt achievement using mostly just Possession, Devil's Kiss and Charge. I only used Murder of Crows on the first handyman fight because I hadn't upgraded enough weapons at that point, Shock Jockey on mechanized patriots until I was able to upgrade Charge, and Bucking Bronco once when I was so low on Salt I couldn't use anything else. I put all Infusions into Salts until it was maxed and pinched every silver eagle so I could get Possession Aid when it's first available, because it disappears for a while after that.
Upgraded and with max Salts, you can use Possession about ten times. It really shines for removing stronger enemies with rockets or mortars from the fight since they have a ton of health and - unlike Vigor-using enemies or machines - they'll suicide when it wears off. Possession's also useful for getting a bunch of guys to gang up on and kill a machine in the distance. Because prematurely ending possession by using it on another target still triggers the suicide, there's really no reason to not have someone on your side during any fight except lack of Salt. My biggest problem with it was that the projectile sometimes either missed or was blocked by geometry when I used it from long distance while sniping. This is annoying early on when you can only use Possession twice and are in tight areas but becomes less of an issue once there are more lines and hooks around for re-positioning and its cost is reduced.
Devil's Kiss was my go-to for setting up traps in places where I knew enemies would spawn, or if I caught them unawares. The Aid upgrade is available sooner than Shock Jockey's, I believe, and also increases damage along with spreading vulnerability across a large area. Also used this often against the first couple of handymen for more damage, to burn and incapacitate all the other enemies, and apply its debuff.
I found Charge invaluable after upgrading it, but I also I lucked into Brittle-Skinned relatively early. Together with Charge Aid, I could charge for invulnerability and apply weakness, melee to try and trigger Burning Halo, then easily get point-blank crit shots until I became vulnerable again and repeat to take down heavy hitters. I was able to kill
Mrs. Comstock all three times
faster doing this in 1999 mode than my first time on normal, and without ever taking health damage. Because gear is so random, though, it may not be worth upgrading if you haven't found some good melee items.
The only weapons I upgraded were the sniper rifle, shotgun and RPG. Shooting from the hip is accurate enough that the sniper rifle's rate of fire upgrade coupled with Rising Bloodlust, Overkill and Head Master makes it effective at pretty much any range. Also, nothing beats getting headshots while going full-speed on a sky-line.
The shotgun does a lot of damage, worked well with my Charge tactic, and - importantly - is commonly carried by enemies so ammo usually isn't too scarce. This is probably less of an issue if you're not trying to get Scavenger Hunt.
I leaned on the RPG a lot early on, but by the time I was comfortable with my Vigor upgrades and had a decent selection of gear I stopped carrying it around. Still useful to grab one from a tear or an enemy to take out mosquitoes or turrets, though.
Of course none of this matters if you find and use Winter Shield (or just reroll a gift until you get it) because of how well it combines with other melee and hook gear to trivialize every single fight in the game that has something to grapple onto, even on 1999 difficulty.
Dear me, this really seems to be building up to something big. If anything, the plot has me utterly compelled. This is one of a scarce few games that manages to stay on my mind no matter what I'm doing, a feeling only matched by games like Skyrim, while not at all fitting in the same mold as such RPG's.
The Bioshock series has always been a bit of an odd one out for me, in a good way, meaning that it is per chance the only modern FPS series I care for. Anyway, I can't permit to say much more without spoiler tags, so for my first impressions please read on, but don't spoil yourself. This game is best played with a blank mind indeed, for it is in the details where this title most impresses.
Honestly, I'm not even that far into the game. I just stepped through the second tear and learned that I, Booker DeWitt that is, has set the Hall of Heroes ablaze... That's odd, I remember killing Slate not helping him. It seems my mind is struggling to remember two events occuring at seemingly the same time, lovely twist. I do find the whole world hopping concept to be a bit "out there", but on the other hand... It is truly very intresting and has me wondering who or what Elizabeht really is, and what Colombia truly is, to no end. The atmosphere is uniformly excellent, the combat constantly enjoyable (If little more.) The combat does seem to stand in stark contrast to the moments of exploration, feeling far more aimed at keeping you entertained than invested. But the combat is fun enough, and littered with the ubiquioutous plot, to keep me from considering it a serious flaw.
I do find that Colombia functions much more as a decor, theatrical piece or theme park than a living breathing world. The characters just utter their lines and keep silent, they're not alive, they're puppets with simple tasks. As an exposition and review of "the hubris of man" it is truly excellent, but as a world it's not quite as effective. The spoken dialogue is always of the highest standard though, and this minor gripe shouldn't deter anyone from picking this title up. Bioshock Infinite is here to tell a story, and never tries to be cute about its intentions... Take the game seriously, consider every word whether it be spoken in person or recorded, painted in blood or in paint, on a poster or carved into the abdomen of a Racial minority, carefully... and you will find much to think about indeed. Anywho, that's about all I've got to say right now. To all you who say: "Those were some uninformed first impressesions" I say: "That's what all Dimwits say!" And also... "My word is the word of the prophet." (How's that for quoting at random.)
Oh and a simple question many have asked before me, just
I'm guessing so they can quantify it, for example, if someone was 4 hours in and was told they were 75% of the way through the game, they probably wouldn't be particularly happy about it.
However if they were 4 hours in and only 25% of the way through then they know that they've still got plenty of hours of enjoyment left to go.
I don't feel like testing it, but if you play with chapter select, do you keep powers a la "New Game+"? I want to quickly play over the better campaign moments with full powers and experiment a bit.
I don't feel like testing it, but if you play with chapter select, do you keep powers a la "New Game+". I want to quickly play over the better campaign moments with full powers and experiment a bit.
Um, I think they have enough big differences in design to simply pick a preference of play. Dishonored's encounter and level design puts a much larger focus on AI temperament, where more flexibility is given to messing with the AI fluctuations within the constructs of a level, at the expense of really tight, complex raw combat. Infinite on the other hand is a lot more of a traditional FPS in design, with little effort put into AI temperament and more on the scope of encounters themselves. Using powers and skills in Dishonored is about how you want the AI to respond. Using powers and skills in Infinite is how you will conquer an encounter.
I think they both have pros and cons. I probably prefer Dishonored in the long run as the difference in game style was more appealing to me. Infinite was almost there. With a bit more effort put into the damage feedback (you and enemies), maybe faster movement, and more rounded run-and-gun play the mechanics would probably be on par with what I enjoyed from Dishonored.
More than anything I think Infinite has a tremendous amount in common with Half-Life 2.
Dishonored's encounters were completly based on player ingenuity. It was as hard or as easy as the agency of the player wanted it to be. In the sense that you could time your blinks and skim through a majority of the game. More so if you had dark vision. If you chose not to use Dark Vision, you were left estimating, or guessing what the enemies were going to do(which is where it became fun.) Blink gave the player a large amount of control over his environment and let him tackle it as they chose.
Bioshock:Infinite on the other hand, gave you a very specific set of rules very early on in the game, you as a player have the choice to conform to those rules, or, you can choose to go against the grain and find your own path.
End Game Spoilers:
BS:I Genius is that no matter what choice you choose, there is always the one choice that you have to play to complete the story. With the fact that the overarching theme is that you have no choice, just variations of choice.
Dishonored in my opinions plays as a better game.
Infinite in my opinion is told as a better story.
Infinite seems as if it's one of those games that'll go down as a campfire story told by Uncle Randy(Trailer Park Boys) which will resonate with you, and also freak you out as a person because Randy, holds you when you sleep.....
BS:I Genius is that no matter what choice you choose, there is always the one choice that you have to play to complete the story. With the fact that the overarching theme is that you have no choice, just variations of choice.
I want to say, that those that think that this BS:I have the common thread of Half-Life 2 in it's veins are wrong.
HL2 was about Alyx and Gordon F.(more so GF) being guided down his role of Destiny to his conslusion.
Their is a big differnce in how Alyx and Liz are, as not only characters, but agencies for the player in general. Liz is an element of combat that empowers you and makes you feel week(or less able) without. Alyx is an A.I. that doesn't entirely get in the way. Valve did a great job of making sure of that, more so in regards to the time. Valve was going for A.I when A.I wasn't/Isn't possible(which it still isn't now) and Irrational wasn't going for the same thing. Irrational had the benefit of time and it shows.
A.I. realistally won't be a fully realised thing for about 15 years. That's just a fact. We'll see many imitations. And the fact that we see hints of that now, is a good sign, as tech is moving slightly slower than the dreamers making it.
The fact that what we see now is a possibily, especially considreing that 13 years ago we were drooling over Crash Bandicoot. Things have come a far way.
I kept going in my 1999 playthrough and it got a little easier once I got my shield and vigors. In my first playthrough on Hard I used Crows, Posession and Bronco. I think this time i'm going to level up Devil's Kiss, Posession and Shock Jockey to try something different. I don't think I could give up Posession though. It's just too useful.
It'd be nice if they had one of those subtle HUD icons they use to identify certain enemy types for Elizabeth. A lot of the time in larger areas she interacts with/comments on things in the environment and I miss it completely because I happened to be looking away at the time.
Also I wish they subtitled background dialogue and Voxophones - have a hard time understanding some of the PA system talk from certain characters due to the old-timey audio effects/compression, especially in the heat of loud firefights.
Loved the game and it's almost a shame that this type of creativity and vision isn't more commonplace among games. If I do have one real complaint however it's that I don't feel the gameplay was in service to the narrative as well as it could have been. Don't get me wrong, Infinite merges gameplay with narrative better than probably 90% of games out there, but I do feel the overall heightened action and combat took away focus and diluted the plot just a bit. Combat in the original Bioshock felt more grounded and in service to the world and storyline being told so I never felt lost, while in infinite rarely do I feel like the combat encounters serve any other purpose than to give the player enemy's to shoot, which is fine, but it does dilute the narrative.
In the original just about everything you did was in service to you exploring and piecing everything together. Infinite however feels more like Elizabeth telling the player the story after every 30 minutes of combat. Which is too bad because while the storytelling may have some issues, the actual story is absolutely fantastic and is probably better than that of the original Bioshock. Bioshock just did a much better job of telling its story.
So, yeah, guess I called that one pretty accurately. I can't believe they actually pulled it off that well. I've just been sitting here for the last few minutes trying to collect myself. I'm glad I wasn't way off.
Is it just me, or is the difficulty in this game stepped up a lot compared to the previous Bioshock? I had to knock it down to normal at a certain point about 75% of the way through.
Killer difficulty aside, that was a wonderful experience from start to finish. Irrational topped themselves for sure with this one.
You know they've done a good job building the world when you start using the "walk in this direction, dumbass" arrow as a tool to know which direction to specifically avoid so you can be sure to explore every nook and cranny before moving on.
This, the giant arrow thing was an amazing welcome. Let me explore the world with ease becuase I knew were I didnt need to go, that is let me play my own pace without going form objective to objective, made me explore the world and didnt make the game linear, even if it is at the end.
How is this game on easy? Is it too easy?!? I do play a lot of games but my skills when it comes to FPS are mediocre. I fair okay at Borderlands 2 but it seems like B:I is more fast paced. I really want to experience the world of Columbia without struggling my way through. Plan on going back to play it on a harder level after the first play-through. Thoughts?
Finished it and loved it but it annoyed me in some places. There were a few sections where it was literally spawn, get shot from so many directions immediately that I literally can't see anything, die, spawn, repeat
This is also the first game since maybe Resi 2 that actually made me scream. There was one section that caught me off guard and I'm not ashamed to say it scared the shit out of me
I pressed a switch and there was a Boy Of Silence right behind me. I turned round and it screamed in my face. Dirty and cheap scare tactic but it worked!
How is this game on easy? Is it too easy?!? I do play a lot of games but my skills when it comes to FPS are mediocre. I fair okay at Borderlands 2 but it seems like B:I is more fast paced. I really want to experience the world of Columbia without struggling my way through. Plan on going back to play it on a harder level after the first play-through. Thoughts?
How is this game on easy? Is it too easy?!? I do play a lot of games but my skills when it comes to FPS are mediocre. I fair okay at Borderlands 2 but it seems like B:I is more fast paced. I really want to experience the world of Columbia without struggling my way through. Plan on going back to play it on a harder level after the first play-through. Thoughts?
All this talk about the ending really makes me want to see it, wish I had more time to play.
Had a few bugs with Liz while riding skylines.
There's always a lot to explore, lot's of optional rooms to check out and loot, some people here make it sound like the game is as straightforward as cod.
I need to stop stealing stuff, yesterday I stole stuff thinking only the guy in the room would attack me but I was overwhelmed lol. Made my life a lot harder considering I could've just walked through that area without drawing attention.
Played about 5 hours and I'm a bit disappointed with the lack of songbird, thought it would be a more regular presence throughout, I don't feel like it's chasing me at all which I thought would happen when I started the game.
Thanks LiK and StuBurns. I just want to make sure that my first playthrough isn't too overwhelming. I know I'm odd but I just have a habit of playing games on easy/normal for the first time so I can just simply enjoy the game.
Thanks LiK and StuBurns. I just want to make sure that my first playthrough isn't too overwhelming. I know I'm odd but I just have a habit of playing games on easy/normal for the first time so I can just simply enjoy the game.
I don't think it's that strange at all, especially for a story heavy experience like this. But I do think Easy would just be too boring to play through. At that point combat is literally just a waste of your time before you get to the stuff you care about.
So many questions to ask. Still processing everything. The spoiler thread is fantastic.
All in all it too me over 20 hours, but I collected every Vox, looked through every telescope and viewed every kineticscope. Only trophies I missed were Heartbreaker (which is tough as balls), Lost Weekend and the two regarding 1999 mode.
GOTY so far, easy contender for game of the gen and easily in my top ten of all time.
So many questions to ask. Still processing everything. The spoiler thread is fantastic.
All in all it too me over 20 hours, but I collected every Vox, looked through every telescope and viewed every kineticscope. Only trophies I missed were Heartbreaker (which is tough as balls), Lost Weekend and the two regarding 1999 mode.
GOTY so far, easy contender for game of the gen and easily in my top ten of all time.
You know they've done a good job building the world when you start using the "walk in this direction, dumbass" arrow as a tool to know which direction to specifically avoid so you can be sure to explore every nook and cranny before moving on.
I didn't think about this after finishing the game, but this is exactly how I used it as well. I can't tell you how many times I've played a different game where I wanted to explore an area, accidentally took the route that progressed the game, and couldn't come back.
I didn't think about this after finishing the game, but this is exactly how I used it as well. I can't tell you how many times I've played a game where I wanted to explore an area, accidentally took the route that progressed the game, and couldn't come back.
They usually make it very clear if you're going to go passed a point of no return though, she'll say really on the nose things like "These turnstiles only go one way, are you sure you're ready to leave?", etc.
I started out on Hard, but I tend to have a tough time enjoying this game. Enemies like the Handyman are just retardedly powerful and take absolutely no damage.
I started out on Hard, but I tend to have a tough time enjoying this game. Enemies like the Handyman are just retardedly powerful and take absolutely no damage.
So many questions to ask. Still processing everything. The spoiler thread is fantastic.
All in all it too me over 20 hours, but I collected every Vox, looked through every telescope and viewed every kineticscope. Only trophies I missed were Heartbreaker (which is tough as balls), Lost Weekend and the two regarding 1999 mode.
GOTY so far, easy contender for game of the gen and easily in my top ten of all time.
I agree this is my goty too, I don't see anything matching this, and could end up game of the gen. Bioshock was a really highpoint for me, and Bioshock Infinite sets a new standard. The audio, combat, narrative, setting and art direction kept pushing me on to the great end sequence. It's not without its faults - 2 weapon slot and crappy save mechanic doesn't spoil the experience but it certainly doesn't help it.
I'm at the first encounter after getting undertow.. how far am I? Hoping I have a lot left. All of the combat elements are just starting to come together. Skylines + vigors + tears + guns all complement each other, but not in a way where you can really plan things in advance (dissimilar to the trap-setting gameplay of Bioshock 2) - it's all really frantic and gives you more options in the moment. It feels really unique, you can't just hide behind cover and line up headshots while waves of enemies pour after you -- at least I can't do well if I do this. So I think some of the comments calling this a COD-style corridor shooter are doing a disservice to the gameplay. I don't remember flying around rollercoaster tracks in COD.
Finally got the crow upgrade and possession for less. Both good investments...chaining crow traps is awesome. Although, I am still not great at dealing with turrets. You can possess them, but you can't damage them while they're possessed and you can't walk up and disable them like Bioshock. Sometimes the enemies will destroy it when it's possessed but other times there's a lone turret and I haven't found a satisfying way to deal with them.
I'm not sure I love the dying mechanic. Sure, you don't want to die because you lose a ton of money, but I feel like it let me cheese a couple of difficult encounters so far. The first handyman fight comes to mind. He barely got any health back when I died and it just felt like the fight started over with me at nearly full potential and him almost dead. He killed me twice in a row and I wasn't getting any better at killing him, it was just getting a little bit easier every time. I think i'd rather the game just load an autosave right before that battle upon death. Minor complaint though. Another minor complaint that I've seen other people mention is that some of the weapons seem too samey. Repeater vs Carbine for example. I guess the carbine has better range? I don't know. Also the burst gun seems pretty weak.
Im not sure if this has already been mentioned, but did/has anyone else gotten major There Will be Blood vibes from the soundtrack? The music playing when you're escaping
Songbird
specifically, but even the odd violin shrieks when you make that final execution kill with your Skyhook sounds completely similar to Greenwoods work on TWBB. The percussion work is spot on.
The environments get better and better the further into the game I get. Incredible art design and architecture behind Columbia. And so much detail. Really impressed. Even better than the opening section maybe.
