Nightmare Zero 18 years 9 months ago wrote:

I don't know why, but people consider this game to be the best game since...ever. Although it didn't have the super hype of previous games, it was still talked about almost everywhere. Made by the same guys who made System Shock 2(pay attention to this title), you'd expect pure awesomeness, right?

Wro- well...almost wrong.

Wait, I don't like this game either? Damn it.

Graphics
Sexy. Too sexy. So sexy it hurts. Requries a decent PC to seem so sexy though. The atmosphere reeks of the 30s, 40s, and 50s with neon and bright colors, and dark and dismal settings remind me of...ummmmmmmm...Doom 3? Nah, its not that dark. Ummmmmmm...ah, Halo! No wait, that game was never all that dark. Its like...somewhere in the middle of there. But that shouldn't distract you! Everything else will though! The only thing that didn't look good was the blood! They tried to make it look realistic, but failed because it looks like there are pieces of plastic in the blood. At least, that's what I thought it looked like.

Gameplay
First-Person Goodness, with a side of RPG elements. You have a few weapons, but they're not all that good. Instead, stick with the psychic powers you get! YES! You heard right, folks! Psychic powers! And do we love our psychic powers? YES! You love those powers like they were a woman! You don't have to, but it'll make your life, and death, easier. You start off injecting super heroin inside of yourself and this is where you get the first of many powers you will get in the game. The first one is Electrokinesis where you fire bolts of electricity out of your hand like you were fucking Zeus! These bolts make all the difference too! You see, your main enemy, believe it or not, are genetically altered and mutated super humans who live under the sea! I'll go into more detail with the story later.

The game also has a buying aspect, where you can purchase health, ammo, a few power-ups, and anything else that you'll need. You can take money off of dead bodies you either create or find, and you can sell any crap you pick up too.

Anyway, lets get to a part I hate. Now, you get your first gun shortly after you begin to play, and you get a revolver. Now, out of all the handguns in existence, the revolver is a pretty powerful weapon. If you're made of flesh, you don't just shake off being shot by this fucking gun. I mean, Revolver Ocelot can tell you about it, its his favorite gun, but, what I'm getting at is that, this is the first gun you obtain in this game, and, I don't know why, but its also fairly weak. Maybe they were trying to make it challenging, and, this IS an alternate, genetically enhanced dimension, but still...

Anyway, stick with the combination of your psychic powers and your wrench. Use guns whenever you have to go up against Big Daddys.

SPEAKING of Big Daddys, those punks are tough. But I'm sure he's overcompensating with that big drill...yep.

UMMM, anyway, let's talk about the RPG elements of the story. As you progress, you can enhance your life and powers and obtain new powers, which are necessary most of the time, such as telekinesis to stop this guy from throwing grenades at you, and pyrokinesis to create underwater barbeques(I'm kidding about this last part). As you continue your way through hordes of mutated people, you'll encounter these random lolis called "Little Sisters" in which you expurgate them, either of their mortal coil or their mutation. By this, I mean, you can choose to kill and absorb their "ADAM" which works towards you gaining RPG-like power ups, or you can cure them and then absorb less of their "ADAM", but it helps you out later and gives you a "better" ending. It depends on if you want the other ending and/or merely have a good sense of morality. Me and my friend decided to MOIDER the girls, take the "ADAM", and then go power up and become Gods of the sea! =D

Story
Christ, that gameplay took a while. Ok, the game starts off with you innocently on a plane, minding your own business, while imbibing bubbly champagne, when, all of a sudden, the plane crashes into the ocean and you survive, without an injury, while all of the others on the plane now rest in a watery grave. Upon swimming towards a light house, you take this transport to an unknown underwater city called Rapture while hearing a voice greet you and welcome you to their city under the sea.

Ok, let me explain something first, this is all fictional and not possible, of course. I mean, MAYBE if someone invested in it, an underwater city could be possible, but this is only the 30s and 40s, with the game taking place in the 60s. I don't think it was possible with that technology at the time. But, then again, you wouldn't be playing this great great game if I get into the art of SCIENCE, so, let's continue.

As you look about the city from your submarinelevator thingy, you notice that it looks rather...well, run down, to say the least. Upon the elevator arriving, you look outside of it to notice that the lights have been damaged, there are dead bodies propagated about the area, and, someone, or something, has noticed you and is attempting to break through your little submarinelevator thingy. And they're doing a damned good job of it. I don't remember if they give up or are driven off, but you're safe again as you speak to a man on a radio that was in the submarinelevator thingy. The man's name is Atlas, and he walks you through the beginning part and most of the game. As you progress, he tells you that Rapture has become a little more than divided now, with the city's founder, Andrew Ryan, controlling the genetically mutated people, called Splicers, and has been laying waste to almost everything else within the city. Upon his advice, you inject yourself with "EVE", which gives you sight beyond sight- oops, I mean, your first psychic power: Electrokinesis. Well, I don't want to give a ton of things away, but, if you've played System Shock 2, you'll notice that this game has a LOT of elements from that game. I would've liked a more original story, as far as the story telling part goes, but, I can deal with it considering I like it.

It has a ton of horror aspects and twists, so, if you like all of that, without the suck of M. Night Shyamalan, then you'll love the story.

Sound
This has one of the best soundtracks that has ever graced my ears. The music, from the original and orchestrated, to the licensed tracks, is so beautiful and nostalgic. It more than fits the scene. Its just beautiful.

Here is a good example of one of the tracks I enjoy.

The voice acting is good too, as good as you'd expect voices to be. I really enjoy hearing some of the madness that comes out of the splicers' mouths. Seriously, a lot of what they say is insanity incarnate. Its hard to describe, but seeing a mutated splicer talking to a blood covered baby carriage saying "Shhh, shhh, baby. Its going to be aaaallll right." is pretty freaky.

Replay Value
There are about 3 endings, I think. Maybe 4. Play them all, if you can. Try it with different gameplay too, if you're bored. My first run through the game was just an Electrokinesis/Wrench combo against most of the splicers.

Overall A.K.A. tl;dr
Ok, ok, so I don't hate the game all that much. I guess I can call my problems with the game "pet peeves", but still. This game is very good, and, if you haven't tried it, you should play it. Stay away from it though if you dislike horror and/or FPS games. You'll also need a 360 or a powerful PC to play it. I've yet to see it on anything except a PC though, so I can't compare, but I heard the 360's graphics aren't as good as the PC's, and most people prefer their FPSes on PCs rather than the 360, so, meh.

I give it a 9 out of 10.

Dynewind 18 years 9 months ago wrote:

Wow... you are one expert at that game.... o-o....

the way you describe it is nice... i'll go surf for it now..
ooh... is that the game where you can do almost anything to yourself too?
like.. mutate the hand, etc? it is awesome! i wanna get it but it's still overpriced,,, haha

Runagi 18 years 9 months ago wrote:

You have to have a good comp for the PC but the 360 version looks alright to me. I don't own it but I played someones.

Nightmare Zero 18 years 9 months ago wrote:

Well, a lot of the power-ups you get are somewhat optional, but more necessary than not. A lot of the game is tough, but my friend believes its optional to power-up as he considers himself to be an FPS god. >_>;

Anyway, mutating yourself is all in good fun! All the powers are fun too, but you have to make sure to conserve energy and ammunition for later parts. Althought their are plenty of shops to purchase some of these from, they usually only have so much in stock. You can also hack some machines to get more or cheaper items, but hacking can sometimes backfire on you and give you this false sense of security. Like, the first time you hack, its easy, and then you might try it again on a later level and then its like " OMFG, WHY ARE THE CHEMICALS TO HACK THIS THING MOVING SO FAST?! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY-" and then you failz at your haxxoring. Its optional though, and I mostly just used those shopping machine parts to just get health, if necessary.

"FIRST YA GOTTA SHOCK 'EM AND THEN YOU WRENCH 'EM!" is my preferred style in this game. As I said, I'd stick with the revolver, but it was nerfed into some sort of cheap air gun...I DON'T CARE HOW GENETICALLY ENGINEERED YOU ARE! WHEN I SHOOT YOU WITH A REVOLVER, YOU DON'T JUST SHRUG THE DAMNED THING OFF, lol.





Then you should see the PC version. It'd blow your mind.

Strayato 18 years 9 months ago wrote:

I have the PC version, it plays ALRIGHT on my computer. When I fight Big Daddies though, my fps drop