I don't think this is a good excuse. That's like 30 minutes into the game. If someone doesn't have the attention span to get to Elizabeth then they just shouldn't play games. The game is even amazing before then! That opening...
Like hell it's 30 minutes. A lot of people don't rush these games, instead taking their time to slowly explore the world, listen to NPCs, and get a good feel for the mechanics. There's a pretty gigantic chunk of "game" to experience before that happens that steers well over 30 minutes.
Yeah, I probably took 2.5 hours before I even got to the area with Elizabeth. I enjoyed wandering around because that's just how I roll, but I wasn't particularly enthralled by anything else. The intro is very cool (and I'm guessing loaded with clues), but it just didn't do so much for me that I could gush over it like many have. Thankfully once you get to Liz the beginning felt, to me, like it was just the tutorial.
It's a fair point since that's most of the loot in this game. You lose the will to explore when you know you're only going to find money or 100 different variations of food/salt items.
Regarding the Possession vigor: does holding the trigger - charging it, so to speak - affect only the speed at which it travels, or other variables such as duration and type of enemy that it can inhabit? Took me 3/4 of the game to even realise that it could be done.
Speaking of, charging vigors and setting traps is something that I barely did. It wasn't as necessitated/emphasised as much as it was in Bio 1 and especially 2.
I get what he's upset with. I just don't get why people let this kind of stuff detract from the experience. There's a certain level of suspension of disbelief required for video games - there's some level of story/gameplay dissonance in basically everything with more than a basic story and/or basic mechanics, and there's nothing wrong with that, it's part of the medium.
Regarding the Possession vigor: does holding the trigger - charging it, so to speak - affect only the speed at which it travels, or other variables such as duration and type of enemy that it can inhabit? Took me 3/4 of the game to even realise that it could be done.
Speaking of, charging vigors and setting traps is something that I barely did. It wasn't as necessitated/emphasised as much as it was in Bio 1 and especially 2.
If you jump off an edge you just respawn instantly back on ground. Guessing there's a force field or something that keeps temperatures and wind in check.
Just listening to the Bioshock Infinite Soundtrack, suddenly I get to the track titled "Lutece" and I hear the background music that only plays when the "Gentleman" and the "Woman" appear...
Don't worry about it... you'll find audio logs from Lutece later with a picture anyway. You don't really know anything about Lutece from what you've noticed
Like hell it's 30 minutes. A lot of people don't rush these games, instead taking their time to slowly explore the world, listen to NPCs, and get a good feel for the mechanics. There's a pretty gigantic chunk of "game" to experience before that happens that steers well over 30 minutes.
I agree with some folks that the fact that this game is ultimately "just" a shooter or "just" a game seems like a letdown. And the Big Ideas that it tackles are handled so smartly that it seems cheap to respond to them all by just shooting dudes. But I think that's also a testament to how strong it is in so many other ways--especially the richness of the environments.
I'm eight hours in, but since I've been so thorough in my explorations of the environments, I'm probably nowhere near halfway through the game. Loving the experience. In a paradoxical way, I'm only let down by parts of the game because it's so good.
Yes that was my point. I don't mind loot or killing like that as much in games such as the elder scrolls or those old sidescrolling beat em ups, where you eat whole chickens for some extra health. It's not really to be taken seriously, no big deal. But games like Bioshock want to cleverly subvert my worldview. For that I need to actually buy into the world. Need to be persuaded by it, for the actual persuasion/attitude change to work. When there are glaring internal inconsistencies however, they make me take it all less seriously. Then when the upheaval starts I'm just going to be yeah whatever it's just a frivolous game. But it definitely is a good thing that it actually tries that, and I commend Irrational Games greatly for that.
Like hell it's 30 minutes. A lot of people don't rush these games, instead taking their time to slowly explore the world, listen to NPCs, and get a good feel for the mechanics. There's a pretty gigantic chunk of "game" to experience before that happens that steers well over 30 minutes.
It's a fair point since that's most of the loot in this game. You lose the will to explore when you know you're only going to find money or 100 different variations of food/salt items.
I dunno. Money always made me happy because on Hard you never have enough to actually upgrade everything. So every Silver Eagle helped. And also looting everything led me to find voxophones and pick up little world details I would have otherwise missed. I don't think it's a problem.
It's bad for a video game to try to be a movie and then also have to be a video game. Even persona struggles with this, and that's like, my favorite game series.
Speaking of which, this game had at least half of the damn Persona 4 cast. This industry needs more voice actors.
Yes that was my point. I don't mind loot or killing like that as much in games such as the elder scrolls or those old sidescrolling beat em ups, where you eat whole chickens for some extra health. It's not really to be taken seriously, no big deal. But games like Bioshock want to cleverly subvert my worldview. For that I need to actually buy into the world. Need to be persuaded by it, for the actual persuasion/attitude change to work. When there are glaring internal inconsistencies however, they make me take it all less seriously. Then when the upheaval starts I'm just going to be yeah whatever it's just a frivolous game. But it definitely is a good thing that it actually tries that, and I commend Irrational Games greatly for that.
I'm pretty much with you. Ultimately, this is one of the most intellectually, visually, and environmentally impressive games I've ever played. But Columbia all "comes crashing down to earth," so to speak, once you recognize that you're still doing the same gamey things you do in pretty much any shooter. And the shooting itself isn't all that exceptional.
It's like two different games/experiences happening at the same time. One is like nothing else I've ever played, the other is like pretty much everything else I've ever played.
I feel like an a-hole talking crap about this game because I truly am loving playing through it, but I'm not having nearly as much fun when I'm shooting stuff as when I'm walking around and looking at stuff. Not to mention that even on Hard, this game is really, really easy.
Whoever thought it was a good idea to not subtitle the audio logs thus making half of the game incomprehensible to the weak of hearing, but did subtitle the videos with text on them is a major bellend that deserves some minor leg injury from tripping over. (my hearing is fine btw, I just hate having to turn up the volume every time I see a audiovox)
Agreed. It's a very odd choice to have the subtitles on the videos where the subtitle text is smaller than the text it's quoting. I usually play with subtitles on but turned them off because of this. The only reason I can think of that being there is for non-English translations of the game (if the video wasn't remade in that language). But it's very annoying to be there when playing in English. The lack of subtitles for the voxophones is also a weird choice. Hopefully that gets patched in at a later date.
I just got to Liz with Raptr reporting 5 hours. I must be going thru the game really slow Loving every bit of this game so far.
Just finished the game. The ending is something I had predicted and I had hoped I was wrong since it's a pretty easy twist. But it was still presented pretty well, although it doesn't really make up for the entire game being a really boring shooter.
I'm in a huge firefight. I step out from cover, take out a couple of guys, then press X to reload, but right before I press the button... "Here take this!" Elizabeth yells, and my press of X instead forces me into an unwanted sequence of her tossing me a useless coin. Right then, another guy starts shooting me from behind. I die. Fuck that annoying bitch.
I'm in a huge firefight. I step out from cover, take out a couple of guys, then press X to reload, but right before I press the button... "Here take this!" Elizabeth yells, and my press of X instead forces me into an unwanted sequence of her tossing me a useless coin. Right then, another guy starts shooting me from behind. I die. Fuck that annoying bitch.
Finally got to the point where I get this joke. Women's intuition solves everything!
I played for about an hour like I said. I'd say I'm 6+ hours in. Finished up my time in
Battleship Bay
. While walking down the hallways, it finally hit home to me how much I love this world and how much I don't want this game to end. Forgot to mention last night that I went through the entire beach area, only to reload it for whatever reason and go through it all over again. Discovered some stuff I missed the first time. That was awesome!
For the rest of the time, and something I didn't expect to spend most of my time doing, was
exploring the boardwalk of Soldier's Field. Stopped when we went to go activate the gondola only to find out we have to go get Shock Jockey in the Hall of Heroes. I think I passed by that in my exploration of the boardwalk.
Got a story question:
At this point, does Elizabeth think the people who hired Booker hired him to bring her to Paris so they could meet her? What does Elizabeth think about why Booker came to rescue her?
Got a few quibbles:
1. In the area I'm in, Booker asks Elizabeth to call him Booker and not "Mr. Dewitt." In my exploration of
Soldier's Field
, she goes back to calling him "Mr. Dewitt." Kind of jarring.
2. Hitmarkers. Now, one doesn't negate the other, but there is a trend I've noticed in games that rely on hitmarkers and those that don't. Hitmarkers tell the player if her bullets are hitting their targets, and this often comes at the expense of strong visual and audio feedback surrounding the enemy. It's the same case in BioShock: Infinite. I'm still fighting primarily regular people at this point, but I'd rather they give more groans and spray more blood, become dirtier with blood the closer they are to dying, than rely on hitmarkers to tell me I'm hitting my target. It's also more fun that way.
One other thing: I find the criticism of "Columbia is an amazing world but I've murdered 600 people so it takes me out of the experience and kills my suspension of disbelief" to be a very silly criticism. Learn to separate the game-world from the story-world. It's not that hard.
Enjoying things so far, though I must say the intro had me prepared for something much more magnificent than the comfortable bioshock beats and rhythms the games settled into
I'm also disappointed its not really a game I can play with my wife, due to the constant combat, as the themes, ideas and characters are something I know she'd really love
Okay, so I completed it last night. Slept some, and am now going to give my overall opinions. I'll save story opinions for the spoiler thread, this review will simply be mechanically/the game parts.
The Good
-Combat. Gunplay is very solid. All vigors are useful and once you get into the thick of things you're presented with more than enough options to keep combat fresh and entertaining.
-Art Direction. Columbia is beautifully envisioned. All the notable enemies have great aesthetics. The Vigor sequences are neat. It's fun just to explore the world and look at the backgrounds.
-Story. Irrational nails it out of the ballpark with the story. Won't say anything else.
-Skylines. They make world traversal fun and add a unique spin to combat.
-Audio. The licensed music choices are incredible and the score is nearly perfect. The voxophones are just as great as the original's audio logs.
-Pacing. Never drags, even when you're on a "fetch quest." Story things are happening all the time.
-Locations. Most of the locations are distinctive and inventive enough to stick with you. The early game and late game especially.
-Elizabeth. Great AI, great companion. I love the little extra things she does during down time, and she's helpful in combat.
The Bad
-Enemies. Too quickly do the enemies turn into faceless mobs. At the beginning there are some unique encounters
the cult, the gondola man stabbing you in the hand
and the fact that the later encounters lose that unique sheen is noticeable. I was craving more world-specific enemies.
-Heavy Hitters. I feel the unique enemies were underutilized. Often they were either part of the faceless mob, or used at the end of a battle to punctuate the finish. Except for
The Boys of Silence
which were wonderfully done in relation to their place in the world. I wish each of the Heavy Hitters were "featured" like that.
-Vigors and Enemies. Again, early on you get a certain tone set because the first enemies use Vigors and you acquire them by beating them. It would be nice for the later Vigors to have been attached to an enemy type as well, just for world-building.
-Minor Mechanic Issues. The checkpoint system is overall just bad. Not allowing for manual saves is a bummer, and several times I would die in combat and the checkpoint I respawned at would make me lose my bearings.
-Indoor Environments. Columbia's strength and uniqueness is its open-air floatiness, along with Skylines. While a few of the indoor environments were done well, too much time is spent inside places that don't have distinctive feels. The more time I was outside zipping around, the better.
The Ugly
-That one boss fight that everyone knows about or will know about.
Still a 10/10 game for me, personally, though. Most of my gripes are about what the game "could have been" due to either my own ideas or from early trailers. This was one of the few games this generation where I honestly didn't want it to end. I've played a lot of games where I was just finishing it to add the "I beat this game" check mark to my list. Bioshock Infinite was a game where I enjoyed taking my time and just enjoying the world. If the DLC hits the right notes, bring it on. I'm ready to explore more of Columbia.
Anyone use the Murder of Crows vigor? It's such a cool idea but I can never justify using it during combat, it always seems like there are way better options.
Anyone use the Murder of Crows vigor? It's such a cool idea but I can never justify using it during combat, it always seems like there are way better options.
Anyone use the Murder of Crows vigor? It's such a cool idea but I can never justify using it during combat, it always seems like there are way better options.
It Is bad enough worrying about spoilers from the the internets or other media but my 5 year old is almost finished with the game and won't stop talking about it.
I go with Possession/Undertow/Shock Jockey most of the time. I'll try using Murder of Crows more, I didn't know people thought it was so good. I figured it was just there for a cool visual.
I didn't use Insect Swarm that much in the first BioShock, either, and it seems pretty close to that.
Anyone use the Murder of Crows vigor? It's such a cool idea but I can never justify using it during combat, it always seems like there are way better options.
Get the second upgrade. Then end up using ONLY that vigor for the rest of the game against the fodder enemies.
The stun increase isn't super useful, but the fact that each enemy killed while stunned creates a vigor trap is beyond amazing.
The crow traps also have a huge range, meaning that you can have a whole room stunned for a pretty long time. The base stun is pretty lengthy all things considered.
I go with Possession/Undertow/Shock Jockey most of the time. I'll try using Murder of Crows more, I didn't know people thought it was so good. I figured it was just there for a cool visual.
I didn't use Insect Swarm that much in the first BioShock, either, and it seems pretty close to that.
What makes Murder so good imo is in the big fights later in the game. One of the upgrades makes it so that crow traps drop under the body of anyone you kill that was under the effect of Murder of Crows. It gets ridiculous really quickly.
I go with Possession/Undertow/Shock Jockey most of the time. I'll try using Murder of Crows more, I didn't know people thought it was so good. I figured it was just there for a cool visual.
At this point, does Elizabeth think the people who hired Booker hired him to bring her to Paris so they could meet her? What does Elizabeth think about why Booker came to rescue her?
Got a few quibbles:
1. In the area I'm in, Booker asks Elizabeth to call him Booker and not "Mr. Dewitt." In my exploration of
Soldier's Field
, she goes back to calling him "Mr. Dewitt." Kind of jarring.
It Is bad enough worrying about spoilers from the the internets or other media but my 5 year old is almost finished with the game and won't stop talking about it.
That's awesome. What does he think about it? I have no idea at what age kids can take on certain things, does he understand it on any political/race/religion level?
I really didn't care that entire area on my second playthrough. Lot on contrived running about for tears, and it's relationship to Elizabeth didn't connect with me much, because I find her so conceptually silly.
It Is bad enough worrying about spoilers from the the internets or other media but my 5 year old is almost finished with the game and won't stop talking about it.
Your 5 year old? Wow, I guess I didn't even realize kids have enough coordination to play fps's at that age. Then again, the genre didn't even exist when I was that old.
