Bioshock feels somewhat familiar but it's definitely innovative, still I'm not hooked.
I had no idea what to expect from this game. I know there's been some buzz about it and somebody asked if I'd played the download. Knowing I hadn't, I quit playing Shadowrun and hopped to it. The 1.3 GB downloaded fine (actually faster than R6V Black Pack which is about half the size) and I started it up.
I sat in the water for a good 20 seconds before I realized I was actually in first person mode and should start swimming. Duh. The very beginning reminded me of my first Splinter Cell adventure. Rich graphics, fine control. Then I started down the rabbit hole into the Ayn Randian fantasy turned nightmare. Whoa. A thinking person's game says me. Then the slasher stuff starts and despite the fact that I dig the retro, I'm already thinking.. man this is claustrophobic and creepy. Sometimes I like that vibe, most of the time I don't. So I start through this wild underwater city and as the gameplay gets going, I feel like I've been sent back to Myst. I'm a treasure hunter in a bizarro world plagued by zombies.
The voiceovers are really excellent. I think I was playing it with my own soundtrack, but even so, the voice talent here is immersive. And as I get a couple of the skills and start to hack and slash my way through a half legion of psycho-baddies, I see some of the attraction. Then I get into a bot attack and I try to hack the bot but can't hack it. Oy. I can see that this is going to take some skill to. In other words, it is like a very creepy and claustrophobic Myst, and it ain't easy.
I keep on trucking until I die a couple times, and then finally get to the end of the demo (what? already?) and watch some of the action samples. Ya know? I just can't get with it. It looks too similar and even though I know at some point I'd probably have to swim outside, it's too boxed in. If I could sneak through some of the rooms, I'd probably be more inclined to dig this. But none of the action seems to appeal to me. It all seems to be zombies and I can't stand zombies, not because they creep me out or anything, but because they're not live humans in an online interactive play. I don't know.
Take for example Silent Hill. I very much dug the suspense of that. Also, I think Prey was an extraordinary game. But on both of those, I enjoyed them without a demo. So in one way I think the demo of Bioshock has turned me off of the game - so I've only experienced some small fraction of the action I'm not more interested to see it. That makes it a hard call. If, for example, I had only played Route Kanal for Half-Life 2, I would have not thought it was a great game at all. Bottom line: the jury is still out on Bioshock, but the demo is a total failure.
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