Thank you Steam sale!
*spoilers*
The first game ended with our mute hero on his deathbed, surrounded by the family he rescued. Who will the story be about now?
Of course, you start out as a Big Daddy, somehow resurrected. The poster on the wall of the city founders, with a new founder inserted to shoe-horn in a new character to this episode, is right out of Half-Life 2. It's nice to get a rivet gun, but why do opponents carry rivet ammo? Why is there drill oil ammo lying around, when nothing of the sort was in the first game. Only a few minutes in, and this game reeks of console nerfdom. Head down, plow straight ahead to Bioshock 3.
2014.12.26
After trying the game, I kind of forgot about it. Getting back into it, I'm hit with the instant visceral reminder of my arm drill that I am playing a Big Daddy in this game. Now I am chasing a newer model of Big Daddy through the ruins, one that seems much faster and deadlier than me. It might not even be human.
There's no easy way to take a screenshot. There's nothing in-game, Steam won't do it, Print Screen yields noise, and Fraps gives a black screen. There's supposedly a way to edit the ini and bind dumping a BMP, maybe I'll do that later.
I like the general sense of decay, but it strains credulity that this city hasn't completely imploded by now, let alone that there are even any humans left alive. There's just no point in thinking about this stuff anymore, just enjoy the rusty atmosphere and the music.
The new character, Lamb, who made me shoot myself, won't shut up and I'm getting visions of someone name Eleanore? I already forgot most of the intro.
I love eavesdropping on conversations in game; its such a natural way to introduce some exposition. Unfortunately with this mash of wacky accents, I can't make out all of what they're saying. I turn on audio subtitles, but it doesn't seem to work for everything.
Anyway, I overhear some splicers talking about the protaganist of the first game, how he freed a bunch of little ones and took off, and there's some other info that I can't quite make out. Something about can-can girls and a bomb. How could this information filter all the way back to these psychotic savages?
Is there any dumber light source than candles? Especially in places where I will come back this way later enough that they should be spent. Who is even making candles down here? What's keeping the oxygen flowing well enough to even use candles down here?
I really appreciate the vending machines not screaming their catch phrases at me any more. Favorite thing in the sequel so far.
2015.01.02
Now I'm taking down other Big Daddies, so I can adopt their kids. Sounds wrong to say, but it makes sense in the game.
I remember taking out the first Big Daddy in the first game, and its very difficult and stressful. You have to use up most of your resources to get the job done, and I got it wrong often, and had to reload from save a bunch of times before coming up with the right tactics. This time around I find I barely have anything to fight with, get killed and step out of a very nearby resurrection booth. The game doesn't care, and now finally I don't care. I win with only that one resurrect, and feel only a little pang of cheating.
A little later, and I fight my first Big Sister. This is a much tougher fight, but it feels more fair. I'm better armed, better equipped, and a little better practiced. I barely survive the encounter, and I'm out of almost everything, but I got her fair and square the first time, no reloads. That was an exhilarating fight, nothing like the terror and button mashing of fighting a Big Daddy, or the tedium of fighting slicers.
I do like how a swing of my Big Daddy drill arm does massive damage, just like in the first game. It fits that this should be my staple attack.
Meeting Sinclair is typically awkward for this game, and conducted through a glass wall. Betrayal is inevitable.
I'm enjoying this game more, if for no other reason that I know what I'm getting myself into. It's an atmospheric fantasy console game, and as long as I keep that in mind, it is an enjoyable ride.
2015.01.24
I drop in again after almost a month absence, surprised that there is no difficulty to get right back into the swing of it. I get back to the grind of exploring, collecting photographs, leveraging whatever power I have to rescue Little Sisters, so I can gain yet more power.
I just realized that if in the first game I play as a human, in this game I'm a Big Daddy, then in the third game I will likely play a Little Sister.
I get a bug where I take out a Big Sister but her intro music never stops. I search, and its been a known bug since 2010. They never fixed it. Fortunately moving on to the next level fixes it.
2015.01.27
Snow day + no power outage = game time.
Why is there a painting of the airplane crash of the character from Bioshock on the wall? Who knew about this event, and had the talent and drive to make a painting of it, and then hung it up in Siren's Alley? Its probably just an easter egg, and while pretty, it is dumb.
More paintings of scenes from Bioshock the first. Whatever.
I like when I have a Little Sister in tow she makes commentary on my combat, especially when I light someone up and she says "ooh marshmallow!".
2015.01.28
Oh no, Big Sisters are Little Sisters all grown up. Too old to reliably harvest ADAM from angels, they are brainwashed, weaponized, and armored up. I was kind of hoping they were just poor schlubs like the ones shoved into Big Daddy brainwashing, which is horrible enough. This game is always finding some new grim angle, and I love it for that.
Eleanore's dedication to my character seems to go above and beyond even that of Big Daddy conditioning. Sofia Lamb seems to hate me with more venom than just some random Big Daddy. Maybe my character is Eleanore's real father, who Sofia just shoved into the Big Daddy program to get rid of? Except it didn't quite take, as my character seems far more aware than any normal Big Daddy.
Not much further on, you find out about Delta's origins as some deep sea adventurer, and Stanley's role in it. And far worse, Stanley's role in mass murder, and getting Eleanore sold into the Little Sister program. At the end, I was hoping there would be some way to redeem or spare him, but the game offered no such opportunity.
I find a tonic that makes plasmid use really cheap, if you limit yourself to the drill. At first I thought who would want to do that, until I thought about how my fighting style changes as I get further into the game. More and more I am softening targets up with plasmids and letting a pet security bot finish him off, sometimes closing in with my drill if they seem distracted enough. Could work.
2015.01.29
* i already said spoilers, but you really want to experience this late game development for your self *
I love where the story goes, as you approach what should be the final boss battle. It seems so unexpected, yet it feels right. If you accept the crazy world of Rapture, as you must to keep playing, then all these new developments play within the rules, and stretch and expand it in believable yet fantastic ways.
My favorite part is Take Your Daughter to Work Day, though why this plasmid has Ryan Industries marketing on it does not make sense. I can't wait to see where this is going.
2015.01.31
I think its really cool that even though Eleanore has been kept in a coma for years while her mom pumps her full of ADAM to make a demi-god out of her, Eleanore's mind has been travelling through the bodies of all the Little Sisters, and she has been influencing events from behind the scenes, not only to wake up her Big Daddy, but to overthrow her mother. It must feel great to get back to your own body, and then into the dangerous and agile Big Sister suit... oh no. Big Sisters are the product of mental and physical conditioning. Eleanore's been in a coma, and her muscles should be like jelly now, she's going to need some long therapy to get normal, let alone turn into a killing machine. Unless... of course, magic. ADAM is the magic in this world, and it can be shaped into may different magic spells, i.e. plasmids, and Eleanore was kept well-supplied with it, so why not. It would be nice for the story to give it a nod, though it is not necessary.
A while later, and I'm done with the Sinclair portion of the map. Same thing, you don't just stick someone in the Big Daddy suit, and all of a sudden they are a Big Daddy. Its very clear in the first game that there is a lot of conditioning involved, not just shoving someone in the suit. Bioshock 2 seems to fetishize the trappings of this world and ascribe them powers above that of the first game. Still, its a neat dramatic hook to turn one of your last allies against you.
A couple more really easy fights, then one last big fight that's surprisingly difficult. And then some long long cut scenes. What follows all makes sense except why did Eleanore feel the need to absorb Daddy? Was he near death or dying? That would make sense, but it doesn't seem clear. If she absorbed him just because, that makes little sense. But I really like the idea that Eleanore, a true superhuman, is ready to take on the world, and she considers this episode just the beginning. It feels good, it feels right, and its a heck of a story.
There's really nothing much more to do now than to move on to Bioshock 3, "Infinite", except what's this about Minerva's Den that I keep seeing? I assumed its a DLC for Bioshock 2, but I didn't want to know anything, for fear of spoiling. Time to look it up. Seems kind of interesting, but not necessary. I'll put it on my wishlist, and check it out maybe later.
2015.02.05
Days later, can't game right now, but I've been thinking about the Bioshock 2 ending and the lingering image I have is Eleanore standing amongst her sisters, but I still can't get past why she absorbed her Big Daddy. Everything would click into place if it was demonstrated that he suffered a mortal wound, and this was the only way to save him. Which is exactly what should have happened when you see the cartoonish pile of dynamite that you are treated to at the end, and Big Daddy's desperate struggle to cling to the wreckage.
When I get a chance I need to watch the ending video again. I'm not paying ten dollars for Minerva's Den right now, and from what I read, its not essential. I'll just move right on to Bioshock 3 (i.e. Infinite). I've seen art from Bioshock Infinite, often with the person who I now know to be Eleanore, and knowing what she has become, the Infinite part makes sense.
2015.02.09
Going to watch the end of Bioshock 2 one more time, see if I missed something about why Delta, Eleanore's Big Daddy, got absorbed at the end.
OK, I think the signs are there that Delta is dying, and is using the last of his strength just to hang on to the rapidly rising wreckage. Between the explosion and the rapid ascent in a probably compromised dive suit, its a wonder he stayed conscious long enough to see Eleanore one last time. And then suddenly he's inside Eleanore, who doesn't seem to see his transition as death. Or maybe she's just taking it really well, considering all the changes she's just been through.
I don't feel like I can review Bioshock 2 much, I feel like I need to move on down the road to the next installment to make sense of it all. And yet this game deserves some individual mention. As many frustrations as it kept from the first game, it smoothed over many others. It benefited from having the world mostly explained already, and had the luxury of telling a new story. And I love the ending more and more, as it stays with me days and days after finishing.
As hopeful as the ending of the first Bioshock was, the second is almost giddy with hope and excitement for what this new world can bring. That's kind of a magical place to bring the game player to.
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
status 2014 December
Because I have such a backlog I haven't been keeping up with game sites, or game sale sites. I check out CheapShark, and what do you know, Bioshock 2 for $4.99. That's quite reasonable, but most of my library is in Steam, and I'd like to keep it there.
2014.12.23
Mass Effect 1 and 2 are available for $17.49; it would be really nice to be able to pick up all three, but I heard there's some business reason why 3 wasn't released on Steam. I'll make a note on my calendar to purchase it before January 2.
There are no achievements for Bioshock (1). The runway is clear for Bioshock 2.
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Bioshock review
Bioshock is a must play, and a good game, but I've mostly forgotten about in the week since I last played it.
It was too much of a console game, with its resurrection booths, hint button, and ease even on difficult setting. It was too much of a System Shock game, with its everything and the kitchen sink inclusion of so many different ways to do similar things. It was too much of a cultural and technological mash of retro futurism, which makes the Fallout series (and Portal 2) use of it seem restrained.
The Big Daddy and Little Sister are iconic and memorable, and I'll probably never forget them. I like the overall mood and atmosphere of the game, even if most individual components didn't bear much scrutiny. The voice acting was hit and miss but overall OK. The art work and graphics were mostly good. The characters and writing were not very believable, and the world was mostly unbelievable.
The ending seems tacked on, but I like the sentiment a lot. Part of my dissatisfaction might be due to not yet having played the next two games in this series. This is somewhat annoying in that I have to still avoid spoilers, and I can't even go read the tvtropes page yet.
I feel like I can't even properly review this game yet without having played the next two, but as a stand alone product, Bioshock is worth playing once, but I don't think I'll revisit it.
I don't understand why this game received so much praise, or such high scores. It is good, but there isn't really anything in here that hits you with originality or depth. And I do mean even for its day, as even in 2007 this game doesn't do much that hadn't already been covered by the System Shock and Half-Life series. Maybe it helped introduce a new generation to FPS with RPG elements, but that can't account for all the hype. I look forward to more answers as I play the sequels.
It was too much of a console game, with its resurrection booths, hint button, and ease even on difficult setting. It was too much of a System Shock game, with its everything and the kitchen sink inclusion of so many different ways to do similar things. It was too much of a cultural and technological mash of retro futurism, which makes the Fallout series (and Portal 2) use of it seem restrained.
The Big Daddy and Little Sister are iconic and memorable, and I'll probably never forget them. I like the overall mood and atmosphere of the game, even if most individual components didn't bear much scrutiny. The voice acting was hit and miss but overall OK. The art work and graphics were mostly good. The characters and writing were not very believable, and the world was mostly unbelievable.
The ending seems tacked on, but I like the sentiment a lot. Part of my dissatisfaction might be due to not yet having played the next two games in this series. This is somewhat annoying in that I have to still avoid spoilers, and I can't even go read the tvtropes page yet.
I feel like I can't even properly review this game yet without having played the next two, but as a stand alone product, Bioshock is worth playing once, but I don't think I'll revisit it.
I don't understand why this game received so much praise, or such high scores. It is good, but there isn't really anything in here that hits you with originality or depth. And I do mean even for its day, as even in 2007 this game doesn't do much that hadn't already been covered by the System Shock and Half-Life series. Maybe it helped introduce a new generation to FPS with RPG elements, but that can't account for all the hype. I look forward to more answers as I play the sequels.
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Bioshock : game notes
Start a New Game. It offers Easy, Medium, Hard. I'll take "Hard - You've played a lot of shooters". Loading, more quotes from Andrew.
Its hard to start a story with a plane crash and not think of Lost. I love just being thrown right into the story. Nice intro to Andrew. Is that a submarine down there? What is the Great Chain.
I hit Print Screen sometimes, I don't know if its going anywhere, there doesn't seem to be a keyboard bind for screenshots.
In game story, good. Vita-Chamber - a resurrection booth, oh no, not that again. This was not something good to carry forward from System Shock. Early impression is that everything is being spoon fed to you, but at this point it could just be because of the in-game tutorial nature of the beginning.
There is stuff, but I can't seem to collect anything, I don't have an inventory. So far this game feels very console minded.
The M key is very informative, telling me all sorts of things I shouldn't even know about yet in-game. There's map spoilers too. OK, so now I know this game has magic, called Plasmids, and mana, called EVE. The technology and culture of this enviroment is retro, like Fallout, but somehow in the present. Its like the schizophrenic tech of Portal, but at least they were working with alien technology.
More in-game cut scenes, slicers run away from Big Daddy, who the little girl calls Mr. Bubbles. And I'm going to be an angel?
They invented magic, but it made them crazy, and it killed the society. Got it.
Can't name my save games, annoying.
Ghostly messages, and tape recorder messages, many ways to deliver story while playing, good.
So there's lot of items around that let you trade health for mana and the reverse, things like food and drink. When you run out of mana there's a brief reloading animation, but if you switch away, you can leave your mana empty. Then you can eat mana depleting items, and get the health bonus at no cost, because that meter is already empty. Gamers are always gaming the system. I run back through the map downing all the booze I avoided.
I am more formally introduced to a little sister. Nice of them to introduce the powerful big daddy, then you come across the corpse of one. How many sister daddy pairs are there?
Apparently crouching lets you sneak, and you can hide in the shadows. In the menu I can read about how the security system works. This is a good time to break for tea.
Should I read this extra information about security systems? Is it a spoiler? I think it is, in addition to being bad design tripping over itself trying to make the game too easy. I'll wait for it to be introduced in game.
One thing that is not very in-game realistic, but I like it, is being able to review messages. My handler contacted me with info in the middle of an end level fight, and I could barely make it out. Not only could I review it in my Pip-Boy (or whatever this steampunk device I'm carrying), but it has a nicely typed transcript too. Handy, but ruins immersion.
There is a wheelchair next to the resurrection booth, double underlining and bolding just how stupid resurrection booths are. If people can be instantly and automatically made whole from any injury with no consequence, why would you need wheelchairs?
While I entered the menu just to pause, the bottom of the screen says Little Sisters In This Level, with two icons. More game reality ruining.
I'm starting to like the splicers and their wordy brand of crazy. I especially like how they fight each other with little provocation.
The vending machine is just as bad writing as the ones in System Shock - why is their ammo in it? The people of Rapture were not at war, and if they were, they would stockpile their ammo in secure locations, not next to the junk food. I understand you need to get plot coupons into the hands of the player at regular intervals so they can keep playing the game, but whatever believable world you were establishing suffers terribly for it. This poor level of gaming writing was kind of excusable in the 90s, but not in the 2000s, not at all. If you can't think of any more imaginative way to get supplies to the player, just have the enemies drop it on death, so the player can gather it as they move through the game. This didn't have to be made stupid on purpose.
I don't even know what to say about this next one, I've already hit red on my exasperation meter. The nameless protaganist of the mid 1960s can somehow hack security robots in this schizo tech world so they will attack enemies? This made sense in Deus Ex, it makes negative sense here. So now I've got my own personal manhack following me around. I really like it, with its apple-crate lawnmower sensibilities, but what intelligence is running it? How does it know not to shoot me, but shoot only enemies? Again, OK in Deus Ex, highly improbable today, no fucking way in the 1960s, I don't care how much of a genius this Andrew Ryan is supposed to be; the tools to make the tools to make the tools that make these things work just were not there if your alternate timeline forks off in the 1950s.
Next to an antique typewriter, a message log about extremely advanced medical techniques.
Different kinds of ammo, and reloading, I like that a-lot.
I like my own personal security bot following me around, but it doesn't seem to be paying much attention. That actually makes it more realistic, but I doubt this is on purpose.
This game has a hint button. That could probably serve as its one-line review of this product, so far.
There's a magic moment in every FPS game where you graduate from your first few weak weapons to something hefty, like a sub-machine gun. A heart warming moment, every time. I want to take a screenshot but this game doesn't seem to do that. Alt-tabbing seems to mess up the graphics forcing a restart, I search online, looks like I might be able to edit the ini file. Or not, this will do for now.
I hate teleporting enemies, when it doesn't make sense in the game. If I go down a dead-end corridor, turn around and head back, an enemy should not be able to just spawn behind me. Especially low-level zombie type monsters. It does crank up the challenge, but at the cost of in-game realism. Frustratingly stupid.
Andrew Ryan seems to be a combo of Ayn Rand and Citizen Kane.
Things get weird fast. I find a glowing bottle of something inside a corpse I just incinerated (they set it up for you, I swear), which is a tonic, which will alter my genes, and I can increase my tonic slots at a Gatherer's Garden by using ADAM which I get from Little Sisters. I've got no problem with any of this, but why set this game in the 1960s if you want to use cyber magic? And why infodump this on me via the game's menu system, while not addressing it in the story? Unless the story assumes I'm somebody who should know all this ahead of time. It's like the game can't decide what it wanted to be, so it just does a bit of everything. Like the System Shock games.
For a game that is supposed to be one of the best of the 2000s, I can't stop hating on it. Maybe I should really just relax and try to hear the story over all this crap, which is how I got through System Shock 2. After another short break, I'm eager to get back into the action, and find out where this is going.
You're fighting a city full of people driven insane by all these body modifications, and you are quickly joining them in self modding; it would be interesting if they integrate you losing your mind into the story somehow. Or maybe it takes years to take effect.
The helper radio magic-voice narrator is so knowing, so sympathetic, so helpful - I'll be shocked if they don't pull a Shodan.
I love Incinerate! (the exclamation point really is part of the name).
OK, this is really impressive - enemies exhibit rational behavior. Set one on fire, it runs to the nearest water to douse itself. Get an enemy's health way down, they run for the nearest healing station. I like it, and it seems so simple you wonder why you haven't seen it before.
Another nice little smart thing - hallway blocked with ice, you can generate fire, it melts. Simple.
Another favorite moment in FPS - getting your first shotgun.
Some of the voice work has been iffy, especially the accents.
Telekinesis power, very nice, almost like gravity gun. Very useful for catching rockets, using them to take out a camera.
Kill the level boss, very high hit points but little damage. Mostly I just burned him and smacked him with the wrench. A little more story with a cutscene or two, my handler Atlas talks to Tenenbaum, explaining to me more of how Little Sisters harvest something called ADAM, that I need to take from the Little Sisters so I can buy more upgrades from vending machines.
Before I can leave the level for good, it admonishes me that I left a sister unharvested, and that I will not likely survive later if I don't do this. I tried a few times, but its very tough. My armor piercing rounds barely do any damage, and my electric shotgun rounds only stun it.
Maybe I need to backtrack to the last vending machine, and actually buy something, because I'm out of ideas. It doesn't help that the sister and daddy are quite cute together, and I am not comfortable with this whole procedure. That's enough for today.
2014.11.07
It should be safe to read the manual now. I know the environment, I know the (early) weapons and spells, I know the monsters and the big bad. I have little doubt this game ends like Portal 2, with this mad world continuing without you, and you going back to civilization with nothing much to show for it but your memory. Right now, I want a minimal hint on how to deal with my daddy issue.
I went a little past this point to the next area, past where it warns you not to proceed without harvesting all the sisters on this level. I soon met another Big Daddy that didn't have a drill, but lobbed explosives. Now that is something I can deal with nicely, with my Telekinesis plasmid. But drill daddy gets up close and shocks you, stuns you slams you into a wall, and I'm dead before I can even get off a few armor piercing shots, which barely scratch him. Maybe he's vulnerable to something else entirely, I should at least try fire.
Reading the manual, I am reminded that there is a zoom key, I should try that out. There will be weapon upgrade machines (more stuff like System Shock). ADAM is a parasite that was discovered in the deep sea, it creates stem cells which are the basis for cures and healing, and Plasmids and Gene Tonics. If Plasmids are magic, EVE is the mana that powers it. And just like Diablo, your health bar is red and your mana bar is blue (how long has that been standard).
Gene Tonics come in Physical, Engineering, and Combat. Normally when a game does this you are supposed to think how cool it is that one can play through this game several times as different classes. Most games can't actually balance that many classes in one game properly so usually there is only one optimal path; good luck figuring that out your first time through. Same goes for weapons. I still regret spending so much of my class points on Energy Weapons in System Shock 2, but there's no going back (unless an enhanced version is released, or maybe to try mods).
So the Little Sisters collect ADAM from corpses, but to what end? Ah, I think I just found the most useful line in the manual for the current problem: "If you have failed to collect ADAM from Little Sisters on earlier levels you can return to those levels at any time to tackle the Big Daddies." This gives me permission to continue in the game, gain more powers and weapons, and come back with the right attack. Frustration avoided.
I think this means I can come back and use gene vending machines later too, which means I will probably hoard power way longer than I need to. Yes, yes, just like System Shock. I do like that you can re-arrange at least some powers later, this might make me more inclined to use them instead of waiting.
Will the game work without the DVD in the drive? No, not without a crack, which I don't like to use. Score another one for Steam, which I'll probably use to continue this series. If. Probably. This game has a lot of annoying unskippable self-promotion at the beginning. Makes me more disinclined to tab out to save a screenshot.
Manual says Vertical Sync locks frame rate, by default its on, I'll try it off. I have an option for Use Creative EAX Audio, though the manual doesn't mention it. Its currently off, I'll try on. Have to restart game. I can't tell if the audio is different. Wandering around, I find an audio log from Tenenbaum I missed. She was in the camps? This world goes from World War 2 tech to near Deus Ex tech in a decade or two?
Into the Bathysphere (I always thought it was bathosphere). I can only select Neptune's Bounty; there are 7 more slots that aren't named yet.
Getting square colored flashes over some active graphics, try going back to Vertical Sync off. Not sure what happened, it crashed or restarted. Resolution back down to 1024. Creative EAX is off, turn that back on.
I really like grabbing rockets mid-air and returning them. Silly, but satisfying.
Still getting some flashes of colored squares over a distant vending machine. I'll just try and ignore it for now.
My crouch key got reset to C. Back to Ctrl.
What are the smugglers smuggling? Religion? Films?
The sea slug was the key to all this magic. OK.
I'm now looking for a research camera that can "analyze genetic information" and "parse biological structures". This is like discovering a 747 a thousand years before the Wright Brothers ever flew.
Another favorite terrifying moment in every FPS - you lose all your weapons which you've spent so much effort gathering, with no guarantee you'll get them back. At least they go through the motions of making it seeming voluntary, instead of the usual bonk on the head in a dark room.
Here we go again with the party line in my head. Bad enough narrator Atlas can somehow see what I'm seeing and help guide me over the radio, but now Ryan can too. This kind of worked in Deus Ex, but its handled with varying degrees of awkward everywhere else.
There's a weapons upgrade kiosk - can I come back to this? The manual said I can go back for the daddies, but not this. I hit the end of the level, its a little confusing. I was kind of expecting Atlas to turn out to be other big bad Fontaine (otherwise why spend all this time building him up), but maybe his family really was in that submarine. Its kind of awkward how the game bends over backwards so we can't actually meet. Then its time to rush off to the the next area.
I'll reload. Maybe I should use the weapons upgrade before proceeding.
2014.11.11
I've been thinking about the game for the past few days while I can't play. As frustrated as I am with parts of it, it is calling to me, and I am eager to return. There's enough going on that I want to see it through.
I have to backtrack to the weapons upgrade machine as, unlike the Big Daddies, there is no guarantee I can revisit. And while I'm backtracking, I have this grenade launcher now and maybe I should try to take on a Daddy again. The game really emphasized the one-two punch of neutralizing with a plasmid, finish with a conventional. So if I could keep using shock, maybe I could finish him off with the grenade launcher. Problem is I gave up shock so I could have fire. And for a few ADAMs more, I could purchase a third plasmid slot. Maybe I can make this work with shotgun electric shot and switching rapidly to grenade.
2014.11.12
Let's check some game settings before starting, since they changed randomly that one time. Yep, graphics quality all still high, EAX audio still on.
Load my last quicksave. Crash. Taskmgr, quit, restart Bioshock. Graphics are back to 1024x768. Maybe I have a graphics setting too high? Unlikely. Reload, OK. Back at the weapons upgrade machine. Time to reload further back and try to take out a Daddy.
Load 11/7 4:38. Yes, this gets me back to the last group of vending machines, and I'm holding all my weapons. I'll swap out Telekinesis for Electro Bolt. Not a good first try, but at least backtracking I found a tonic I missed between the two turrets. I take more pictures, get more research bonuses. I look around the UI, but I can't see where my picture progress is being tracked, if anywhere. How am I supposed to keep track of what I've already photographed. I backtrack to Medical Pavilion map. I need to take some photos of Daddies and Sisters, now that I have a camera. The camera tells me the Daddies are of type Rosie and Bouncer.
The Bouncer is very tough, I zap it to stun it, and chip away at it with armor-piercing rounds, but it keeps stunning me back. If I don't mind dying and running back, the Bouncer's health stays where I reduced it to, and I can just keep knocking him down until he dies. But that means using resurrection booths instead of reloading, and it feels like a blatant cheat. Of course you can kill anything if you just keep getting back up again, while your opponent can not. As long as I've got a Sister and I'm not saving this attempt, I might as well see what Harvesting looks like, as opposed to the no-kill Gather. It's about as bad as I expected, though at least there's a discretion shot so it doesn't show you actually ripping the slug out of her. It would probably make for a much easier game if I abuse the resurrection booths, and kill the slugs outright, and max out my skills quickly. I'm not ready to do that yet.
I put down all my proximity mines, use an electro bolt to lure him towards me, a few more electro bolts and frag grenades, and I've got him. And now the sister is crying over her fallen Daddy. No matter what kind of monsters these are now, the game doesn't let you forget they were human. I wonder if I could redo that fight using less ammo. I think I'll just leave it, especially since I am going to lose all my weapons at the end of this level, and not get everything back. That brings up another question - can upgraded weapons be lost through confiscation? Most shooters only make you lose everything once, but who knows with this game. Time to gather, and go purchase another plasmid slot, so I can have fire, electro, and telekinesis all at the same time.
Right after you kill one Daddy, another seems to spawn immediately. I notice an iced over door I missed, it leads to a funeral parlor. A weird set piece, a splicer crying over a coffin. I wonder if I can sneak up and wrench it. Yep. Nice, another tonic, Security Expert, I'll use that instead of Shorten Alarms (I try to never set off alarms). The event with the shadow and the lights going out is a little cheesy, but cute.
To the Gatherer's Garden to purchase my Plasmid Slot, then around the corner to the Gene Bank to rearrange my plasmids. I try the Rosie Daddy, and catching and returning his proximity mines is fun, but his shots are distracting. Back to the Garden, I'll purchase Armored Shell, and give up Wrench Lurker (for now).
Hit and run helps chip it down a lot, but Electric Buck shot finishes the shop. Another rescue, this time Tenenbaum radios that she will reward this behavior - how does she know what I'm doing in real-time? Anyway, these are some nice rewards, mostly compensating me for ADAM I've foregone from harvesting. The Hypnotize plasmid sounds like it will be fun to play with, but not practical to occupy a slot.
I have 320 ADAM now, but not sure what to spend it on. I don't need to unlock another plasmid slot just yet. I wonder how much improvement EVE Upgrade gives? With my EVE full, I can cast 4 fire bolts before needing a reload, or 2 lightning bolts. Purchase EVE Upgrade, I can do 5 fire and 3 lightning. I'll take it, and I'll take Health Upgrade, even though I'm not sure how much it benefits me. With 160 left, I can still afford Plasmid Slot and Winter Blast, so why not. I can cast 3 cold bolts before reloading, and it works on Daddies!
Enjoying the camera, got Photographer's Eye 2, will give up Wrench Jockey for now.
Taking down another Rosie is proving more difficult. I'm in the bar, and its much tighter quarters. Its hard to take a few potshots, run away, regroup, and come back. Since I know I can come back this way, I'm not so motivated to take down another Daddy. I wonder if Rosie is a Daddy or a Mommy in that suit. They are going to explain who these people in diving suits are, aren't they? And how they can fight so well while being locked inside what's basically a coffin with a porthole?
Maybe I can finish the map, get a weapons upgrade, and hit him harder and in less time.
Sometimes when I panic or get frustrated I'll mix up F8 with F9, and save a shitty circumstance over a good save. That's why I do a real save before tackling something big, then do quicksaves from there.
Another possible way to game the system, and its very useful. There are three Daddies on this map, I already rescued the one in the large area where I can run up the stairs and through a hole I can duck through and Daddy can not. I thought this Daddy was done so I went to another, gave up, came back, to find a new Sister in this area. So maybe that's how it spawns, I get three Sisters this level, and they randomly spawn amongst the different Daddy locations. In which case, I get to choose where I fight.
I use up all my special shotgun ammo, take out another Rosie. Of course, he is carrying a Rivet Gun, which I can search but not pick up. Since Rosie the Riveter was a female, are we supposed to guess there's a female in that dive suit, or is this just some silly reference?
In a vending machine is some free Electric Buck. Was that always there and I missed it? Is it a gift because I'm out?
I'm going to start tracking who I've photographed at the end of these notes.
While its cute that the Sisters call the Daddies Mr. Bubbles, since when would a sister have ever seen a Daddy underwater emitting bubbles? Surely in this technological wonderland they have not been using such ancient artifacts like diving suits, and in any case the city is already built, and probably maintained by robots. Otherwise it should have imploded by now from lack of maintenance.
I've been trying to let this become a fully realized conscious thought, but Atlas, who may or may not be the evil Fontaine, is a reference to Atlas Shrugged, isn't it. And while Andrew Ryan is not a straight anagram to Ayn Rand, its really painfully close. I really hate puns, and I really don't want any more reasons to dislike this game.
Moving past the ambush, its much easier this time with all my plasmids. I was right to use up most of my special ammo, its all gone now. I can now backtrack all the way through the map, and I go back a ways to pick up some of the loose ammo that I've left lying around. I know that most of these ice piles won't have anything in them, but I have to melt them all. When you blast a stalactite it ignores gravity and melts upwards, looks like the Founders in DS9.
I really like how crates get grayed out when you search them, I really appreciate that.
On to the Weapon Upgrade Station. I love the shotgun in most games, I'll take Shotgun Rate of Fire. Watch the ghost movie, which doesn't really seem to add anything to the story or atmosphere of the game at all, why did they bother. Its just like the ghosts from System Shock 2.
Again, how did Atlas know I passed through the iced over passage? There are no cameras anywhere. I don't think I have cyborg eyes transmitting my vision to a controller like in Deus Ex - or do I? Who am I? As if to comment on that, as I move down the hall, the game flashes some old photos before me with an ominous screaming kind of sound. I was on a seemingly typical commercial flight, that just happened to fly over Rapture and crash.
It sure is convenient to have a resurrection booth down here in the secret smuggler caverns. It looks like I can backtrack, the hallway is just a loading point. A message tape from Frank Fontaine, looks like he isn't Atlas. He also hasn't decided what kind of voice or accent he has. Its possible they used too few voice actors in this game, and they are really pushing accents and funny voices hard to make it not seem so.
On to Arcadia. The party line between Ryan and Atlas lays out the revenge story. In crates I find battery and kerosene. I enter the Tea Garden, its pretty. The graveyard and weathered gravestones make about as much sense as if we were on a space station. In the stream, a body, with a rubber hose. A tidbit of info on how the Little Sisters were created. A poster titled Who Is Atlas? So much for any last shred of subtlety.
Someone is clearly trying to lead me into an ambush. The weird little shrines feel very Blair Witch Project. Ah, I have met the Houdini Splicer. He's carrying Chlorophyll Solution. Where is all this new strange stuff I'm picking up going? I have no inventory other than guns and ammo. At $500, my wallet is now full. Now I find a steel screw, another item that the game says I take but doesn't seem to go anywhere. I can purchase Napalm and Liquid Nitrogen, hinting at weapons to come, that I already have plasmids for. Found empty hypo, glue. I'm expecting some major arts and crafts to occur later. And now out of nowhere, a dead cat, one of the strangest non sequitors I've come across in a video game yet. At least I can't pick it up.
2014.11.13
I find a U-Invent Mahine. Finally a use for all these odds and ends, and I can inventory them here. Reminds me of weapon crafting in Fallout 3, but I can make useful things like ammo. It doesn't make much sense, but I'm getting tired of saying that.
A vending machine sells Napalm and Liquid Nitrogen for the "chemical thrower". Convenient.
I get the Scrounger tonic, and can search containers again, but not multiple times, I can simply re-roll. Is it random? I open a safe with 20 AP auto, 6 electric buck, $53. Reroll , no change. Reload, same, OK I guess some things are fixed. I search a Houdini Splicer and find Brass Tube, $16, and Chlorophyll Solution. Retry, get almost same thing but 5 less dollars. So re-rolling can get worse. I do a few save and reloads, and it varies.
OK, I'm getting it now, need to keep an eye out for kerosene so I can load up on Exploding Buck.
Two sister daddy pairs cross paths in a hallway, I think they say something specifically to each other, not sure.
I find a grenade launcher on the ground and it only yields one frag grenade. I reload and leave the launcher there, just in case I lose my weapons again.
It seems like there's no end to how much photographs you can take, the score just slows down. Got another tonic, SportBoost.
I find a Gatherer's Garden where I can purchase Tonic slots.
2014.11.14
The honeymoon is ending and this relationship is starting to feel like work. I dread my next Daddy fight, knowing I'll probably win, but have to save and reload multiple times until I can figure out what combination of attack and retreat and resource consumption it will take.
I feel like I get the game now, and I'm ready to move on. I'm not fond of the kitchen sink System Shock gameplay, and the blatant demonization of certain economic theories. Both of these things were already worn out, so why make a game about them? Big Daddy and Little Sister are iconic, creepy, scary, and sad, and something worth experiencing, but its a gimmick with a thin story behind it. I just want to finish the game now.
In other news, invisibility is kind of nice, it makes about as much sense as anything power in this game, and it allows you to take good photos of unwitting subjects. They detect me when they get pretty close, then I put down the camera and pull up the shotgun. The shotgun is very dissapointing against soft targets at short range, maybe I should have upgraded revolver or Thompson SMG.
This game seems dead set on you never interacting with another character, though you can bump into sisters and daddies constantly.
Nice, if a Splicer has a friendly drone, you can run away and have it chase you, freeze it, hack it, and its now yours.
Another weapons upgrade station. Might as well double down on shotgun, see if this was worth it.
More flashbacks. Another bulkhead.
I don't much care for invisilibity, back to scrounger.
There's a nice ledge where I can shoot down at a Rosie. I throw two explosive cylinders, about a dozen explosive buck, and a few armor piercing rounds; I barely get hit.
Strange, I'm supposed to pick up 7 distilled water, I already took it from this dead end location, I come back and there's another one.
Hacking a security camera near where splicers spawn provides a slow steady trickle of resources.
A phone on the wall. Sad that it doesn't call anyone.
Another wepaon upgrade machine. Pistol seems to weak, Grenade launcher ammo too rare, and the chemical thrower seems redundant with plasmids. I'll take Machine Gun Damage Increase.
I'm not tracking photos anymore. It seems like you can just keep on photgrapphing, and keep collecgting prizes.
2014.11.17
Bioshock crashes when I load my Quick Save. Close, restart, back to 1024x and windowed, fix that (again).
There's a maximum amount of saves, and trying to delete them within the game's shoddy console minded UI is not possible. Can I delete them externally? There's a folder \Users\$\Documents\Bioshock\SaveGames, I'll just move most of them to a subfolder.
There's some serious tone issues in the mid-game. Ryan started out as the noble capitalist that built this utopia under the sea, but his experiment clearly failed, its now a failed state. So how is "Ryan Industries" still making combat gene tonics this late in the game? Everyone in this city has gone insane and homicidal, so who is creating these products, let alone buying them? And to what ends - to use on other citizens of Rapture? This place should be mostly devoid of life by now, with only a few isolated survivors. I understand the products are there for the player character to use, but the writing is tone deaf.
I have 520 ADAM points to spend, and I'm not sure what to buy, if anything. A few more abilities would make life easier, but I'm getting by, and I want to see what other powers await. I tend to spend when I can't accumulate any more, like with money; I keep hitting the $500 limit, so I'll just bleed off some excess money on hard to find ammo. Speaking of ammo, all I really need is electric buckshot and a few armor piercing rounds, and maybe a a few frag grenades, and I can clean up all these Big Daddies.
This is my new strategy, bleed off any excess ammo on ADAM collection, otherwise keep the plot moving.
Back to Medical Pavilion, ok done with those Sisters. Back to Neptune's Bounty, 1 sister left. Stocking up on first aid kits. OK, done with this level. Back to Arcadia. Might as well buy something with all this ADAM. I'll take a Plasmid Slot for sure, and some more physical and engineering.
Back to bathysphere, on to Fort Frolic. Atlas says let's take out Ryan now, but there are still 4-5 more slots open on the map, so I don't think that's happening soon. Unless there's a bigger end boss further down the line.
2014.11.18
Slot machines, why can I hack everything except those? I have the best hack anyway, the quick save/reload buttons. About 10 minutes of this and I've got my wallet almost maxed out. And why shouldn't I? If you were really there, by yourself in a city that wants to kill you, why not just pry the cover off the machine (you're loaded with weapons) and take everything inside? For that matter, why can't I just pry the covers off all these vending machines and take their contents. There's no one here to stop me or care. This city is dead. Time to go spend my winnings.
I drop about $20-30 in the fortune telling machine, it gets really repetive. Reload.
Break glass, drones come, good. Freeze it, hack it, its mine, repeat. Third one doesn't work - can I only control two at a time?
Vending machines reveal there will be a crossbow weapon. Finally, I hope I can snipe. Also, a flashlight would be nice.
Another Power to the People weapon upgrade machine. I know how to fire in bursts on the SMG, but I'll try Kickback Reduction anyway.
Time to max out Physical Tonics, these are the most useful.
Lots of creepy moments in this game, like the corpses in plaster of paris. I also give credit to this game for allowing bad things to happen to children. All too often lately games pander to a noisy minority who can't keep their fingers out of other people's art. Of course its terrible, but to pretend it doesn't happen is even more terrible. Note: Alt+Print Screen doesn't work, but just Print Screen does copy to clipboard.
I lose both of my drone buddies to a turret, but its nice to enjoy the quiet, and listen to the creep ambient sounds. Now that I have invisibility back in my portfolio, its like I'm not even here. Invisibility is great for letting enemies get close to you so you can get a good picture.
2014.11.19
So now I have the last weapon, the crossbow. Seems a fitting weapon for this game, that wants to have everything from wrenches to magic.
Enemies are hitting harder, I'll buy a Health Upgrade, and keep 100 ADAM in reserve in case anything really good is coming up.
2014.11.20
This section of the game is frozen, just like Real Life outside right now. Winter is good gaming weather.
The pause screen for this level indicates three Little Sisters In This Level, but I have yet to see them. Perhaps this level's boss is suppressing them, the way he can suppress radio communications.
Lots of frozen enemies make for great photoraphy. Finally, I got a "Subject research complete".
Another weapons upgrade station, no idea which to improve. I don't even hardly use grenade, chemical, or crossbow. I'll take Pistol Damage.
So that's what happened to Jasmine Jolene... I think. Not sure what Tenenbaum has to do with it. And I get another flashback to family pictures, longer this time. The pictures look innocent, but the music indicates something else.
I like how at the end of the level the boss honors his agreement, gives you your prize, then steps aside. Well, other than that brief earlier betrayal, but it was all in character. And the game lets you be the betrayer, if you want, but I don't feel that fits the story at this time.
Checking the map for any gray areas, I go back to Sander's original meeting place, nice that I can get in now, and there's loot.
Before heading out I spend a lot of my cash replenishing basic ammo, and I'll spend a little time gambling. But not too much, this game is generous with the supplies, as long you as keep distributing your usage amongst your many resources.
I haven't used it much yet, but I appreciate the module nature of the game. If I wanted to, I could load up on abilities that focus on melee, or hacking, or electric combat, etc. Right now I'm mostly a generalist, while learning what works best in this world. Despite the replayability this offers, I don't see myself playing this game again.
Now entering map 5 of 8, Hephaestus. Its nice to finally see this place has an infrastructure, and something is keeping the lights on. Apparently its geothermal, but is it a good idea to build your city so close to all these active volcanic vents?
Messages indicates civil war over the plasmids Fontaine helped produce, and Ryan's hypocrisy as this civilization fell apart.
Quarter-Can of Ionic Gel but I can't touch it. Yet. Sure it will come up later.
Explosive barrels, everywhere. If there's an FPS contract, you have to have a peashooter, a shotgun, a heavy weapon, a sniper weapon, and explosive barrels everywhere. It doesn't matter how innovative your game or graphics get, you must still have explosive barrels, preferably on every level.
Cute how you can jump up in the air to hack a camera.
Ryan is so boastful, his downfall is more certain than a Disney movie.
And now the Disney villain is getting delusional about his nearly dead city coming back to life. Reminds me of Sander Cohen's plaster-of-paris world, but at least he proved honorable in his madness.
Another Power to the People station. I'll take Grenade Launcher Damage Increase.
I might as well spend my ADAM points on slots, at least I can make use of whatever plasmids and tonics I have in storage. And I have coin to spend on health and mana upgrades.
The game takes you on an interesting trip with the sisters and daddies. At first you dread and fear them, and as you grow in strength, you see them as a resource to be harvested. This puts you uncomfortably close to the position that the splicer are in, of always needing more ADAM to stay alive in the war down here. The creation of mood and atmosphere is probably the best thing about this game so far.
2014.11.21
I'm starting to sprint for the finish line, but not so much to get it over with, but there are some things I would like to know. First, who am I, where did I come from, who deposited me here, Lost style, and what are those creepy old photos I keep seeing. Who is in the Big Daddy suits; I really hope its not just robots. Whether I end Ryan or not, how will Rapture stay intact without a sane support team? What's left to explore in the two sequels?
Weapons upgrade... Pistol Clip Sizde.
My fireball feels weak, I'll buy another level with Incinerate! 2.
I wish I hadn't cleaned up all the little sisters on this level so quickly, now i have to kill some daddies for no reason.
I'll try Target Dummy and Electro Bolt 2.
Ryan tries to slow me down with an appeal to nostalgia. More creepy memory pictures. I have some idfeas of who I might be, but none really fit.
My first thought on walking in is the Fallout 3 reveal of President Eden. Which makes no sense at all in this world.
I find a message about mind control tests, and quick growing a baby. So that's the route they're taking on who I am. They hinted at this very early in the game, I think its in the hints in the loading screen, that Suchong wanted to find a way to grow humans very quickly. So is that what I am? The one year old with the body of a 19 year old? The horrible family photos, maybe i was placed with a foster family, maybe I had psychotic break, maybe the horror was me. I normally hate the idea of decanted quick-grow humans (like in Deus Ex, and Bladerunner), but maybe it fits this psychotically designed world.
OK, glad Ryan is not an A.I. He seems all to real.
My guess is right about what I am, but its so much more than that. This is more disturbing than I even imagined. Why would he... Did he bet his life on what I would do? Did he bet wrong? This brings up some really interesting ideas in what is free will, and how your fate in a game seems pre-determined.
Fontaine, of course. Why didn't Ryan just say so? He must have known, he could have said so at any time. Why didn't Ryan just use the slave phrase against me to counter Atlas/Fontaine's programming?
I can't save in here, I get killed trying to escape, so I have to go through Ryan's death again. Its still awful. Why disable save just here.
The little ones are helping me, they must be taking me to her. Yes, of course. I love Tenenbaum's line "Welcome to the city where you were born." She could have told me anytime, why didn't she? Was everyone pretending they didn't know me until it was too late to save Ryan?
I very much want to break now, but I can't save. OK, I'm shown out, I can save, but I can't go back. I already miss the orphanage, it seemed safe in there. And now my character knows he belongs there; he's probably youngest one there, younger even than the little sisters.
Fontaine's new accent seems even more of a put on than Atlas'.
I like having my fire plasmid on F1, electricity on F2, and I thought I could easily rearrange their order on the Gene machine, but that doesn't seem to be working now, if ever. I'll risk an internet search. Really, its a bug that goes on into the second game. There's a DLC for Bioshock (1)?
I'm finally full of an item that I can't see inventory for, Empty Hypo.
I'm still puzzling over why Ryan suicided himself using me, and why Fontaine decided to get rid of me, other than for obvious keep a plot rolling reasons. I was a very useful slave that neutralized his biggest enemy, shouldn't he be smart enough to at least keep me on retainer? Also, Fontaine's voice acting continues to worsen, like he's done with this product.
Fire has been my staple attack, so I'll triple-down and take "Incinerate! 3". Hacking is getting hard, so I'll take an Engineering slot, and Alarm Expert.
2014.11.22
Now that I'm in a residential sector, the game feels even more grim. A lot of civilians died down here. I wonder what they did for food down here. Seaweed? Algae? This was a steak and potatos culture, so I may yet find animal husbandry.
Fontaine's explanation that my half Ryan genetics is what allows me to get past the security bots is probably the most insane thing I have heard in this game so far.
Weapons upgrade. Crossbow Damage Increase.
2014.11.23
There's a ghetto in Rapture? I know the story is try to make commentary on class, wealth, government, etc., but this is another gross clash with realism in the environment. Rapture is like a colony, a space station, it takes some resources to be here. There's no room for a ghetto on a space station, though I guess Babylon 5 had one, so why not.
One thing that's fun in the game is my plasmids are all out of control. Its a fun thing to do in a game like this, let the character accumulate weapons or powers, then take them away, or otherwise mess with them. But why do I now have access to plasmids (like Cyclone) that I never purchased? Is that on purpose or a mistake?
I'm guessing take away my magic powers is supposed to really put me out, but its just an inconvenience. Between all my weapons, I have most attacks covered. And every map is awash with money, vending machines, and healing machines. Even taking away a large number of my tools, I am still overwhelmed with all the ways I can kill things in this game, and many of my weapons and ammo go unused. I have to struggle to spread out the usage.
Always hack healing stations immediately, let your wounded enemies run to them, enjoy the show.
Why is there a vending machine all the way at the end of a desolate boiler room, that probably saw very little traffic even in this city's heyday?
Weapons Upgrade Station. Chemical Thrower Consupmtion [sic] Rate.
Now that I'm free I can take out the gatherers on this level. Man, those Elite Rosie's hit hard. Back to the previous level to grab those sisters.
Lots of saves and reloads, but I finished them. As long as I'm here, I wonder what is in that gray area near Suchong's apartment. Can't find it, maybe I get there from Cohen's? I take out the dancers, and surprisingly Cohen himself comes down to teach me to dance. Oh well, I didn't start, he asked for it. I get access to that room, its his personal bedroom, with a weapon upgrade machine inside. Now I have his muse key, I should at least find out what that does. Can't walk back that far, maybe with bathyspheres later.
As I move towards Fontaine, the bargaining begins. Maybe this is why Ryan let me kill him, he was betting I could take out Fontaine. And maybe Ryan will somehow become me later, I wouldn't put it past this game.
Back to Fort Frolic and Cohen's Muse Box. Lame.
I have more ADAM than stuff to buy, I max out on tonic slots. I buy Static Discharge 2, and Electric Flesh 2. Curious to see what happens know when I get hit near an enemy.
On to Point Prometheus. So, Fontaine is high on his own supply. He leaves behind two security bots, which I am happy to capture with freeze and hack. It makes sense that Fontaine is overpowered, since he's the one behind turning ADAM, Eve, and Plasmids into products, but why doesn't he just squash me like a bug then?
The new Big Daddy angle - I like it a lot.
2014.11.24
If I get to take out Fontaine as a Big Daddy, there's a certain poetic justice in that, just like Suchong was taken out by one. It also appeals to the iconic power of the Big Daddy in this game, which at this point is fading, as you can now take them out with ease, they lose some of their power. Now, like a totem animal, you must wear the hide of one to use its power.
Its clear Tenenbaum is just as much of a monster as any of the big players down here in Rapture, but she at least has a hope of redemption in saving the Little Sisters. And even if she betrays me too, I'm OK with that. What I would not be OK with is Rapture imploding, as it should have by now, because then all this was as meaningless as an it was all a dream ending.
Weapon Upgrade Station, I only have two options left, I take Chemical Thrower Range.
Though it seems like the game is almost over, there's still ADAM left to gather and spend. I think I have enough powers, I'll focus on buying Health and EVE upgrades.
Now here's a good sign this game is almost over, a Weapons Upgrade Station, and there's only one last option to exercise: Grenade Launcher Damage Immunity.
If Fontaine knows that I'm planning on becoming a Big Daddy to get to him, what's the point? Not much element of surprise. And Big Daddies are not that tough, so why bother? I wonder if being turned into a Big Daddy is reversible. Probably not.
I walk through an electrified pool and take no damage - is the Electric Flesh 2 upgrade accoutn for that?
Fontaine needs to be put down if only to stop that crazy accent.
I might as well gather up all the Little Sisters on this level before my transformation. Who knows, after this, it'll probably just be me in a Big Daddy suit hanging around forever in the orphanage with all the little ones I've saved. I might as well get Electro Bolt 3, and Winter Blast 3.
Found another message from Suchong, "graft skin and organs straight into suit". There's no coming back from this.
I've been thinking about the plane crash, how I got here. Fontaine had me hijack the plane to come here. A commercial flight, full of people probably. There is much for the main character to atone for, even if he didn't will it, he did it.
The Little Sister education center is delightfully creepy as you expect.
SUITED UP
I put on the suit, but there is no bonding ritual. Maybe I can take it off someday. Meanwhile, I was meant to wear this suit.
FPS games usually give you a last chance to reload before the last boss, I like that they make it explicit here. Its more honest that way.
I get an ADAM extractor, but its not in my inventory. It will probably deploy when the story calls for it.
Got him first time, though I ran out of health packs.
I like the ending. I like it a lot. But it feels a bit rushed. You go from this hectic battle to a quick denoument, and then its just over. Its a really nice ending, it feels right. But they could have told it a little slower, give you some time to transition.
I can see why there needs to be a sequel or two, there are some unanswered questions, like what happened to Rapture? Does our protagonist end his days there, or above ground? What happenened to Tenenbaum? Are there any other survivors?
It feels a bit cold to be dumped back at the main menu, like nothing happened. Continue takes you back to the start of the final battle. Credits just roll and back to menu. Lots of musicians in this game, and they did good work.
Just for the heck of it, I'll start a New Game, see what looks different to me now. I forget the game begins with narration, your narration, your voice. They gave you a voice. They really could have used that some more, instead of being standard FPS mute guy. The plane crash is just as terrible as I remember it. Fontaine killed those people.
Considering all the steel and personnel required, you'd think you couldn't build a secret city in the sea. But here it is. With a weird lighthouse over it, you know, to help maintain the secret. They should have just left a submarine nearby for you to get in, that automatically brought you down. 18 fathoms, and then there's an in-flight movie from Ryan.
The first view of the city is quite magical, you must have only explored a fraction of it. It does feel deserted though, except one Big Daddy in a tunnel - what is he doing? Maintenance? If so, that would help explain why the city is still standing, but this is not evinced in the game at all.
Enough. Eject disc, put back in box.
Its hard to start a story with a plane crash and not think of Lost. I love just being thrown right into the story. Nice intro to Andrew. Is that a submarine down there? What is the Great Chain.
I hit Print Screen sometimes, I don't know if its going anywhere, there doesn't seem to be a keyboard bind for screenshots.
In game story, good. Vita-Chamber - a resurrection booth, oh no, not that again. This was not something good to carry forward from System Shock. Early impression is that everything is being spoon fed to you, but at this point it could just be because of the in-game tutorial nature of the beginning.
There is stuff, but I can't seem to collect anything, I don't have an inventory. So far this game feels very console minded.
The M key is very informative, telling me all sorts of things I shouldn't even know about yet in-game. There's map spoilers too. OK, so now I know this game has magic, called Plasmids, and mana, called EVE. The technology and culture of this enviroment is retro, like Fallout, but somehow in the present. Its like the schizophrenic tech of Portal, but at least they were working with alien technology.
More in-game cut scenes, slicers run away from Big Daddy, who the little girl calls Mr. Bubbles. And I'm going to be an angel?
They invented magic, but it made them crazy, and it killed the society. Got it.
Can't name my save games, annoying.
Ghostly messages, and tape recorder messages, many ways to deliver story while playing, good.
So there's lot of items around that let you trade health for mana and the reverse, things like food and drink. When you run out of mana there's a brief reloading animation, but if you switch away, you can leave your mana empty. Then you can eat mana depleting items, and get the health bonus at no cost, because that meter is already empty. Gamers are always gaming the system. I run back through the map downing all the booze I avoided.
I am more formally introduced to a little sister. Nice of them to introduce the powerful big daddy, then you come across the corpse of one. How many sister daddy pairs are there?
Apparently crouching lets you sneak, and you can hide in the shadows. In the menu I can read about how the security system works. This is a good time to break for tea.
Should I read this extra information about security systems? Is it a spoiler? I think it is, in addition to being bad design tripping over itself trying to make the game too easy. I'll wait for it to be introduced in game.
One thing that is not very in-game realistic, but I like it, is being able to review messages. My handler contacted me with info in the middle of an end level fight, and I could barely make it out. Not only could I review it in my Pip-Boy (or whatever this steampunk device I'm carrying), but it has a nicely typed transcript too. Handy, but ruins immersion.
There is a wheelchair next to the resurrection booth, double underlining and bolding just how stupid resurrection booths are. If people can be instantly and automatically made whole from any injury with no consequence, why would you need wheelchairs?
While I entered the menu just to pause, the bottom of the screen says Little Sisters In This Level, with two icons. More game reality ruining.
I'm starting to like the splicers and their wordy brand of crazy. I especially like how they fight each other with little provocation.
The vending machine is just as bad writing as the ones in System Shock - why is their ammo in it? The people of Rapture were not at war, and if they were, they would stockpile their ammo in secure locations, not next to the junk food. I understand you need to get plot coupons into the hands of the player at regular intervals so they can keep playing the game, but whatever believable world you were establishing suffers terribly for it. This poor level of gaming writing was kind of excusable in the 90s, but not in the 2000s, not at all. If you can't think of any more imaginative way to get supplies to the player, just have the enemies drop it on death, so the player can gather it as they move through the game. This didn't have to be made stupid on purpose.
I don't even know what to say about this next one, I've already hit red on my exasperation meter. The nameless protaganist of the mid 1960s can somehow hack security robots in this schizo tech world so they will attack enemies? This made sense in Deus Ex, it makes negative sense here. So now I've got my own personal manhack following me around. I really like it, with its apple-crate lawnmower sensibilities, but what intelligence is running it? How does it know not to shoot me, but shoot only enemies? Again, OK in Deus Ex, highly improbable today, no fucking way in the 1960s, I don't care how much of a genius this Andrew Ryan is supposed to be; the tools to make the tools to make the tools that make these things work just were not there if your alternate timeline forks off in the 1950s.
Next to an antique typewriter, a message log about extremely advanced medical techniques.
Different kinds of ammo, and reloading, I like that a-lot.
I like my own personal security bot following me around, but it doesn't seem to be paying much attention. That actually makes it more realistic, but I doubt this is on purpose.
This game has a hint button. That could probably serve as its one-line review of this product, so far.
I hate teleporting enemies, when it doesn't make sense in the game. If I go down a dead-end corridor, turn around and head back, an enemy should not be able to just spawn behind me. Especially low-level zombie type monsters. It does crank up the challenge, but at the cost of in-game realism. Frustratingly stupid.
Andrew Ryan seems to be a combo of Ayn Rand and Citizen Kane.
For a game that is supposed to be one of the best of the 2000s, I can't stop hating on it. Maybe I should really just relax and try to hear the story over all this crap, which is how I got through System Shock 2. After another short break, I'm eager to get back into the action, and find out where this is going.
You're fighting a city full of people driven insane by all these body modifications, and you are quickly joining them in self modding; it would be interesting if they integrate you losing your mind into the story somehow. Or maybe it takes years to take effect.
The helper radio magic-voice narrator is so knowing, so sympathetic, so helpful - I'll be shocked if they don't pull a Shodan.
I love Incinerate! (the exclamation point really is part of the name).
OK, this is really impressive - enemies exhibit rational behavior. Set one on fire, it runs to the nearest water to douse itself. Get an enemy's health way down, they run for the nearest healing station. I like it, and it seems so simple you wonder why you haven't seen it before.
Another nice little smart thing - hallway blocked with ice, you can generate fire, it melts. Simple.
Another favorite moment in FPS - getting your first shotgun.
Some of the voice work has been iffy, especially the accents.
Telekinesis power, very nice, almost like gravity gun. Very useful for catching rockets, using them to take out a camera.
Kill the level boss, very high hit points but little damage. Mostly I just burned him and smacked him with the wrench. A little more story with a cutscene or two, my handler Atlas talks to Tenenbaum, explaining to me more of how Little Sisters harvest something called ADAM, that I need to take from the Little Sisters so I can buy more upgrades from vending machines.
Before I can leave the level for good, it admonishes me that I left a sister unharvested, and that I will not likely survive later if I don't do this. I tried a few times, but its very tough. My armor piercing rounds barely do any damage, and my electric shotgun rounds only stun it.
Maybe I need to backtrack to the last vending machine, and actually buy something, because I'm out of ideas. It doesn't help that the sister and daddy are quite cute together, and I am not comfortable with this whole procedure. That's enough for today.
2014.11.07
I went a little past this point to the next area, past where it warns you not to proceed without harvesting all the sisters on this level. I soon met another Big Daddy that didn't have a drill, but lobbed explosives. Now that is something I can deal with nicely, with my Telekinesis plasmid. But drill daddy gets up close and shocks you, stuns you slams you into a wall, and I'm dead before I can even get off a few armor piercing shots, which barely scratch him. Maybe he's vulnerable to something else entirely, I should at least try fire.
Reading the manual, I am reminded that there is a zoom key, I should try that out. There will be weapon upgrade machines (more stuff like System Shock). ADAM is a parasite that was discovered in the deep sea, it creates stem cells which are the basis for cures and healing, and Plasmids and Gene Tonics. If Plasmids are magic, EVE is the mana that powers it. And just like Diablo, your health bar is red and your mana bar is blue (how long has that been standard).
Gene Tonics come in Physical, Engineering, and Combat. Normally when a game does this you are supposed to think how cool it is that one can play through this game several times as different classes. Most games can't actually balance that many classes in one game properly so usually there is only one optimal path; good luck figuring that out your first time through. Same goes for weapons. I still regret spending so much of my class points on Energy Weapons in System Shock 2, but there's no going back (unless an enhanced version is released, or maybe to try mods).
So the Little Sisters collect ADAM from corpses, but to what end? Ah, I think I just found the most useful line in the manual for the current problem: "If you have failed to collect ADAM from Little Sisters on earlier levels you can return to those levels at any time to tackle the Big Daddies." This gives me permission to continue in the game, gain more powers and weapons, and come back with the right attack. Frustration avoided.
I think this means I can come back and use gene vending machines later too, which means I will probably hoard power way longer than I need to. Yes, yes, just like System Shock. I do like that you can re-arrange at least some powers later, this might make me more inclined to use them instead of waiting.
Will the game work without the DVD in the drive? No, not without a crack, which I don't like to use. Score another one for Steam, which I'll probably use to continue this series. If. Probably. This game has a lot of annoying unskippable self-promotion at the beginning. Makes me more disinclined to tab out to save a screenshot.
Manual says Vertical Sync locks frame rate, by default its on, I'll try it off. I have an option for Use Creative EAX Audio, though the manual doesn't mention it. Its currently off, I'll try on. Have to restart game. I can't tell if the audio is different. Wandering around, I find an audio log from Tenenbaum I missed. She was in the camps? This world goes from World War 2 tech to near Deus Ex tech in a decade or two?
Into the Bathysphere (I always thought it was bathosphere). I can only select Neptune's Bounty; there are 7 more slots that aren't named yet.
Getting square colored flashes over some active graphics, try going back to Vertical Sync off. Not sure what happened, it crashed or restarted. Resolution back down to 1024. Creative EAX is off, turn that back on.
I really like grabbing rockets mid-air and returning them. Silly, but satisfying.
Still getting some flashes of colored squares over a distant vending machine. I'll just try and ignore it for now.
My crouch key got reset to C. Back to Ctrl.
What are the smugglers smuggling? Religion? Films?
The sea slug was the key to all this magic. OK.
I'm now looking for a research camera that can "analyze genetic information" and "parse biological structures". This is like discovering a 747 a thousand years before the Wright Brothers ever flew.
Another favorite terrifying moment in every FPS - you lose all your weapons which you've spent so much effort gathering, with no guarantee you'll get them back. At least they go through the motions of making it seeming voluntary, instead of the usual bonk on the head in a dark room.
Here we go again with the party line in my head. Bad enough narrator Atlas can somehow see what I'm seeing and help guide me over the radio, but now Ryan can too. This kind of worked in Deus Ex, but its handled with varying degrees of awkward everywhere else.
There's a weapons upgrade kiosk - can I come back to this? The manual said I can go back for the daddies, but not this. I hit the end of the level, its a little confusing. I was kind of expecting Atlas to turn out to be other big bad Fontaine (otherwise why spend all this time building him up), but maybe his family really was in that submarine. Its kind of awkward how the game bends over backwards so we can't actually meet. Then its time to rush off to the the next area.
I'll reload. Maybe I should use the weapons upgrade before proceeding.
2014.11.11
I've been thinking about the game for the past few days while I can't play. As frustrated as I am with parts of it, it is calling to me, and I am eager to return. There's enough going on that I want to see it through.
I have to backtrack to the weapons upgrade machine as, unlike the Big Daddies, there is no guarantee I can revisit. And while I'm backtracking, I have this grenade launcher now and maybe I should try to take on a Daddy again. The game really emphasized the one-two punch of neutralizing with a plasmid, finish with a conventional. So if I could keep using shock, maybe I could finish him off with the grenade launcher. Problem is I gave up shock so I could have fire. And for a few ADAMs more, I could purchase a third plasmid slot. Maybe I can make this work with shotgun electric shot and switching rapidly to grenade.
2014.11.12
Let's check some game settings before starting, since they changed randomly that one time. Yep, graphics quality all still high, EAX audio still on.
Load my last quicksave. Crash. Taskmgr, quit, restart Bioshock. Graphics are back to 1024x768. Maybe I have a graphics setting too high? Unlikely. Reload, OK. Back at the weapons upgrade machine. Time to reload further back and try to take out a Daddy.
Load 11/7 4:38. Yes, this gets me back to the last group of vending machines, and I'm holding all my weapons. I'll swap out Telekinesis for Electro Bolt. Not a good first try, but at least backtracking I found a tonic I missed between the two turrets. I take more pictures, get more research bonuses. I look around the UI, but I can't see where my picture progress is being tracked, if anywhere. How am I supposed to keep track of what I've already photographed. I backtrack to Medical Pavilion map. I need to take some photos of Daddies and Sisters, now that I have a camera. The camera tells me the Daddies are of type Rosie and Bouncer.
The Bouncer is very tough, I zap it to stun it, and chip away at it with armor-piercing rounds, but it keeps stunning me back. If I don't mind dying and running back, the Bouncer's health stays where I reduced it to, and I can just keep knocking him down until he dies. But that means using resurrection booths instead of reloading, and it feels like a blatant cheat. Of course you can kill anything if you just keep getting back up again, while your opponent can not. As long as I've got a Sister and I'm not saving this attempt, I might as well see what Harvesting looks like, as opposed to the no-kill Gather. It's about as bad as I expected, though at least there's a discretion shot so it doesn't show you actually ripping the slug out of her. It would probably make for a much easier game if I abuse the resurrection booths, and kill the slugs outright, and max out my skills quickly. I'm not ready to do that yet.
I put down all my proximity mines, use an electro bolt to lure him towards me, a few more electro bolts and frag grenades, and I've got him. And now the sister is crying over her fallen Daddy. No matter what kind of monsters these are now, the game doesn't let you forget they were human. I wonder if I could redo that fight using less ammo. I think I'll just leave it, especially since I am going to lose all my weapons at the end of this level, and not get everything back. That brings up another question - can upgraded weapons be lost through confiscation? Most shooters only make you lose everything once, but who knows with this game. Time to gather, and go purchase another plasmid slot, so I can have fire, electro, and telekinesis all at the same time.
Right after you kill one Daddy, another seems to spawn immediately. I notice an iced over door I missed, it leads to a funeral parlor. A weird set piece, a splicer crying over a coffin. I wonder if I can sneak up and wrench it. Yep. Nice, another tonic, Security Expert, I'll use that instead of Shorten Alarms (I try to never set off alarms). The event with the shadow and the lights going out is a little cheesy, but cute.
To the Gatherer's Garden to purchase my Plasmid Slot, then around the corner to the Gene Bank to rearrange my plasmids. I try the Rosie Daddy, and catching and returning his proximity mines is fun, but his shots are distracting. Back to the Garden, I'll purchase Armored Shell, and give up Wrench Lurker (for now).
Hit and run helps chip it down a lot, but Electric Buck shot finishes the shop. Another rescue, this time Tenenbaum radios that she will reward this behavior - how does she know what I'm doing in real-time? Anyway, these are some nice rewards, mostly compensating me for ADAM I've foregone from harvesting. The Hypnotize plasmid sounds like it will be fun to play with, but not practical to occupy a slot.
I have 320 ADAM now, but not sure what to spend it on. I don't need to unlock another plasmid slot just yet. I wonder how much improvement EVE Upgrade gives? With my EVE full, I can cast 4 fire bolts before needing a reload, or 2 lightning bolts. Purchase EVE Upgrade, I can do 5 fire and 3 lightning. I'll take it, and I'll take Health Upgrade, even though I'm not sure how much it benefits me. With 160 left, I can still afford Plasmid Slot and Winter Blast, so why not. I can cast 3 cold bolts before reloading, and it works on Daddies!
Enjoying the camera, got Photographer's Eye 2, will give up Wrench Jockey for now.
Taking down another Rosie is proving more difficult. I'm in the bar, and its much tighter quarters. Its hard to take a few potshots, run away, regroup, and come back. Since I know I can come back this way, I'm not so motivated to take down another Daddy. I wonder if Rosie is a Daddy or a Mommy in that suit. They are going to explain who these people in diving suits are, aren't they? And how they can fight so well while being locked inside what's basically a coffin with a porthole?
Maybe I can finish the map, get a weapons upgrade, and hit him harder and in less time.
Sometimes when I panic or get frustrated I'll mix up F8 with F9, and save a shitty circumstance over a good save. That's why I do a real save before tackling something big, then do quicksaves from there.
Another possible way to game the system, and its very useful. There are three Daddies on this map, I already rescued the one in the large area where I can run up the stairs and through a hole I can duck through and Daddy can not. I thought this Daddy was done so I went to another, gave up, came back, to find a new Sister in this area. So maybe that's how it spawns, I get three Sisters this level, and they randomly spawn amongst the different Daddy locations. In which case, I get to choose where I fight.
I use up all my special shotgun ammo, take out another Rosie. Of course, he is carrying a Rivet Gun, which I can search but not pick up. Since Rosie the Riveter was a female, are we supposed to guess there's a female in that dive suit, or is this just some silly reference?
In a vending machine is some free Electric Buck. Was that always there and I missed it? Is it a gift because I'm out?
I'm going to start tracking who I've photographed at the end of these notes.
While its cute that the Sisters call the Daddies Mr. Bubbles, since when would a sister have ever seen a Daddy underwater emitting bubbles? Surely in this technological wonderland they have not been using such ancient artifacts like diving suits, and in any case the city is already built, and probably maintained by robots. Otherwise it should have imploded by now from lack of maintenance.
I've been trying to let this become a fully realized conscious thought, but Atlas, who may or may not be the evil Fontaine, is a reference to Atlas Shrugged, isn't it. And while Andrew Ryan is not a straight anagram to Ayn Rand, its really painfully close. I really hate puns, and I really don't want any more reasons to dislike this game.
Moving past the ambush, its much easier this time with all my plasmids. I was right to use up most of my special ammo, its all gone now. I can now backtrack all the way through the map, and I go back a ways to pick up some of the loose ammo that I've left lying around. I know that most of these ice piles won't have anything in them, but I have to melt them all. When you blast a stalactite it ignores gravity and melts upwards, looks like the Founders in DS9.
I really like how crates get grayed out when you search them, I really appreciate that.
On to the Weapon Upgrade Station. I love the shotgun in most games, I'll take Shotgun Rate of Fire. Watch the ghost movie, which doesn't really seem to add anything to the story or atmosphere of the game at all, why did they bother. Its just like the ghosts from System Shock 2.
Again, how did Atlas know I passed through the iced over passage? There are no cameras anywhere. I don't think I have cyborg eyes transmitting my vision to a controller like in Deus Ex - or do I? Who am I? As if to comment on that, as I move down the hall, the game flashes some old photos before me with an ominous screaming kind of sound. I was on a seemingly typical commercial flight, that just happened to fly over Rapture and crash.
It sure is convenient to have a resurrection booth down here in the secret smuggler caverns. It looks like I can backtrack, the hallway is just a loading point. A message tape from Frank Fontaine, looks like he isn't Atlas. He also hasn't decided what kind of voice or accent he has. Its possible they used too few voice actors in this game, and they are really pushing accents and funny voices hard to make it not seem so.
On to Arcadia. The party line between Ryan and Atlas lays out the revenge story. In crates I find battery and kerosene. I enter the Tea Garden, its pretty. The graveyard and weathered gravestones make about as much sense as if we were on a space station. In the stream, a body, with a rubber hose. A tidbit of info on how the Little Sisters were created. A poster titled Who Is Atlas? So much for any last shred of subtlety.
Someone is clearly trying to lead me into an ambush. The weird little shrines feel very Blair Witch Project. Ah, I have met the Houdini Splicer. He's carrying Chlorophyll Solution. Where is all this new strange stuff I'm picking up going? I have no inventory other than guns and ammo. At $500, my wallet is now full. Now I find a steel screw, another item that the game says I take but doesn't seem to go anywhere. I can purchase Napalm and Liquid Nitrogen, hinting at weapons to come, that I already have plasmids for. Found empty hypo, glue. I'm expecting some major arts and crafts to occur later. And now out of nowhere, a dead cat, one of the strangest non sequitors I've come across in a video game yet. At least I can't pick it up.
2014.11.13
I find a U-Invent Mahine. Finally a use for all these odds and ends, and I can inventory them here. Reminds me of weapon crafting in Fallout 3, but I can make useful things like ammo. It doesn't make much sense, but I'm getting tired of saying that.
A vending machine sells Napalm and Liquid Nitrogen for the "chemical thrower". Convenient.
I get the Scrounger tonic, and can search containers again, but not multiple times, I can simply re-roll. Is it random? I open a safe with 20 AP auto, 6 electric buck, $53. Reroll , no change. Reload, same, OK I guess some things are fixed. I search a Houdini Splicer and find Brass Tube, $16, and Chlorophyll Solution. Retry, get almost same thing but 5 less dollars. So re-rolling can get worse. I do a few save and reloads, and it varies.
OK, I'm getting it now, need to keep an eye out for kerosene so I can load up on Exploding Buck.
Two sister daddy pairs cross paths in a hallway, I think they say something specifically to each other, not sure.
I find a grenade launcher on the ground and it only yields one frag grenade. I reload and leave the launcher there, just in case I lose my weapons again.
It seems like there's no end to how much photographs you can take, the score just slows down. Got another tonic, SportBoost.
I find a Gatherer's Garden where I can purchase Tonic slots.
2014.11.14
The honeymoon is ending and this relationship is starting to feel like work. I dread my next Daddy fight, knowing I'll probably win, but have to save and reload multiple times until I can figure out what combination of attack and retreat and resource consumption it will take.
I feel like I get the game now, and I'm ready to move on. I'm not fond of the kitchen sink System Shock gameplay, and the blatant demonization of certain economic theories. Both of these things were already worn out, so why make a game about them? Big Daddy and Little Sister are iconic, creepy, scary, and sad, and something worth experiencing, but its a gimmick with a thin story behind it. I just want to finish the game now.
In other news, invisibility is kind of nice, it makes about as much sense as anything power in this game, and it allows you to take good photos of unwitting subjects. They detect me when they get pretty close, then I put down the camera and pull up the shotgun. The shotgun is very dissapointing against soft targets at short range, maybe I should have upgraded revolver or Thompson SMG.
This game seems dead set on you never interacting with another character, though you can bump into sisters and daddies constantly.
Nice, if a Splicer has a friendly drone, you can run away and have it chase you, freeze it, hack it, and its now yours.
Another weapons upgrade station. Might as well double down on shotgun, see if this was worth it.
More flashbacks. Another bulkhead.
I don't much care for invisilibity, back to scrounger.
There's a nice ledge where I can shoot down at a Rosie. I throw two explosive cylinders, about a dozen explosive buck, and a few armor piercing rounds; I barely get hit.
Strange, I'm supposed to pick up 7 distilled water, I already took it from this dead end location, I come back and there's another one.
Hacking a security camera near where splicers spawn provides a slow steady trickle of resources.
A phone on the wall. Sad that it doesn't call anyone.
Another wepaon upgrade machine. Pistol seems to weak, Grenade launcher ammo too rare, and the chemical thrower seems redundant with plasmids. I'll take Machine Gun Damage Increase.
I'm not tracking photos anymore. It seems like you can just keep on photgrapphing, and keep collecgting prizes.
2014.11.17
Bioshock crashes when I load my Quick Save. Close, restart, back to 1024x and windowed, fix that (again).
There's a maximum amount of saves, and trying to delete them within the game's shoddy console minded UI is not possible. Can I delete them externally? There's a folder \Users\$\Documents\Bioshock\SaveGames, I'll just move most of them to a subfolder.
There's some serious tone issues in the mid-game. Ryan started out as the noble capitalist that built this utopia under the sea, but his experiment clearly failed, its now a failed state. So how is "Ryan Industries" still making combat gene tonics this late in the game? Everyone in this city has gone insane and homicidal, so who is creating these products, let alone buying them? And to what ends - to use on other citizens of Rapture? This place should be mostly devoid of life by now, with only a few isolated survivors. I understand the products are there for the player character to use, but the writing is tone deaf.
I have 520 ADAM points to spend, and I'm not sure what to buy, if anything. A few more abilities would make life easier, but I'm getting by, and I want to see what other powers await. I tend to spend when I can't accumulate any more, like with money; I keep hitting the $500 limit, so I'll just bleed off some excess money on hard to find ammo. Speaking of ammo, all I really need is electric buckshot and a few armor piercing rounds, and maybe a a few frag grenades, and I can clean up all these Big Daddies.
This is my new strategy, bleed off any excess ammo on ADAM collection, otherwise keep the plot moving.
Back to Medical Pavilion, ok done with those Sisters. Back to Neptune's Bounty, 1 sister left. Stocking up on first aid kits. OK, done with this level. Back to Arcadia. Might as well buy something with all this ADAM. I'll take a Plasmid Slot for sure, and some more physical and engineering.
Back to bathysphere, on to Fort Frolic. Atlas says let's take out Ryan now, but there are still 4-5 more slots open on the map, so I don't think that's happening soon. Unless there's a bigger end boss further down the line.
2014.11.18
Slot machines, why can I hack everything except those? I have the best hack anyway, the quick save/reload buttons. About 10 minutes of this and I've got my wallet almost maxed out. And why shouldn't I? If you were really there, by yourself in a city that wants to kill you, why not just pry the cover off the machine (you're loaded with weapons) and take everything inside? For that matter, why can't I just pry the covers off all these vending machines and take their contents. There's no one here to stop me or care. This city is dead. Time to go spend my winnings.
I drop about $20-30 in the fortune telling machine, it gets really repetive. Reload.
Break glass, drones come, good. Freeze it, hack it, its mine, repeat. Third one doesn't work - can I only control two at a time?
Vending machines reveal there will be a crossbow weapon. Finally, I hope I can snipe. Also, a flashlight would be nice.
Another Power to the People weapon upgrade machine. I know how to fire in bursts on the SMG, but I'll try Kickback Reduction anyway.
Time to max out Physical Tonics, these are the most useful.
Lots of creepy moments in this game, like the corpses in plaster of paris. I also give credit to this game for allowing bad things to happen to children. All too often lately games pander to a noisy minority who can't keep their fingers out of other people's art. Of course its terrible, but to pretend it doesn't happen is even more terrible. Note: Alt+Print Screen doesn't work, but just Print Screen does copy to clipboard.
I lose both of my drone buddies to a turret, but its nice to enjoy the quiet, and listen to the creep ambient sounds. Now that I have invisibility back in my portfolio, its like I'm not even here. Invisibility is great for letting enemies get close to you so you can get a good picture.
2014.11.19
So now I have the last weapon, the crossbow. Seems a fitting weapon for this game, that wants to have everything from wrenches to magic.
Enemies are hitting harder, I'll buy a Health Upgrade, and keep 100 ADAM in reserve in case anything really good is coming up.
2014.11.20
This section of the game is frozen, just like Real Life outside right now. Winter is good gaming weather.
The pause screen for this level indicates three Little Sisters In This Level, but I have yet to see them. Perhaps this level's boss is suppressing them, the way he can suppress radio communications.
Lots of frozen enemies make for great photoraphy. Finally, I got a "Subject research complete".
Another weapons upgrade station, no idea which to improve. I don't even hardly use grenade, chemical, or crossbow. I'll take Pistol Damage.
So that's what happened to Jasmine Jolene... I think. Not sure what Tenenbaum has to do with it. And I get another flashback to family pictures, longer this time. The pictures look innocent, but the music indicates something else.
I like how at the end of the level the boss honors his agreement, gives you your prize, then steps aside. Well, other than that brief earlier betrayal, but it was all in character. And the game lets you be the betrayer, if you want, but I don't feel that fits the story at this time.
Checking the map for any gray areas, I go back to Sander's original meeting place, nice that I can get in now, and there's loot.
Before heading out I spend a lot of my cash replenishing basic ammo, and I'll spend a little time gambling. But not too much, this game is generous with the supplies, as long you as keep distributing your usage amongst your many resources.
I haven't used it much yet, but I appreciate the module nature of the game. If I wanted to, I could load up on abilities that focus on melee, or hacking, or electric combat, etc. Right now I'm mostly a generalist, while learning what works best in this world. Despite the replayability this offers, I don't see myself playing this game again.
Now entering map 5 of 8, Hephaestus. Its nice to finally see this place has an infrastructure, and something is keeping the lights on. Apparently its geothermal, but is it a good idea to build your city so close to all these active volcanic vents?
Messages indicates civil war over the plasmids Fontaine helped produce, and Ryan's hypocrisy as this civilization fell apart.
Quarter-Can of Ionic Gel but I can't touch it. Yet. Sure it will come up later.
Explosive barrels, everywhere. If there's an FPS contract, you have to have a peashooter, a shotgun, a heavy weapon, a sniper weapon, and explosive barrels everywhere. It doesn't matter how innovative your game or graphics get, you must still have explosive barrels, preferably on every level.
Cute how you can jump up in the air to hack a camera.
Ryan is so boastful, his downfall is more certain than a Disney movie.
And now the Disney villain is getting delusional about his nearly dead city coming back to life. Reminds me of Sander Cohen's plaster-of-paris world, but at least he proved honorable in his madness.
Another Power to the People station. I'll take Grenade Launcher Damage Increase.
I might as well spend my ADAM points on slots, at least I can make use of whatever plasmids and tonics I have in storage. And I have coin to spend on health and mana upgrades.
The game takes you on an interesting trip with the sisters and daddies. At first you dread and fear them, and as you grow in strength, you see them as a resource to be harvested. This puts you uncomfortably close to the position that the splicer are in, of always needing more ADAM to stay alive in the war down here. The creation of mood and atmosphere is probably the best thing about this game so far.
2014.11.21
I'm starting to sprint for the finish line, but not so much to get it over with, but there are some things I would like to know. First, who am I, where did I come from, who deposited me here, Lost style, and what are those creepy old photos I keep seeing. Who is in the Big Daddy suits; I really hope its not just robots. Whether I end Ryan or not, how will Rapture stay intact without a sane support team? What's left to explore in the two sequels?
Weapons upgrade... Pistol Clip Sizde.
My fireball feels weak, I'll buy another level with Incinerate! 2.
I wish I hadn't cleaned up all the little sisters on this level so quickly, now i have to kill some daddies for no reason.
I'll try Target Dummy and Electro Bolt 2.
Ryan tries to slow me down with an appeal to nostalgia. More creepy memory pictures. I have some idfeas of who I might be, but none really fit.
My first thought on walking in is the Fallout 3 reveal of President Eden. Which makes no sense at all in this world.
I find a message about mind control tests, and quick growing a baby. So that's the route they're taking on who I am. They hinted at this very early in the game, I think its in the hints in the loading screen, that Suchong wanted to find a way to grow humans very quickly. So is that what I am? The one year old with the body of a 19 year old? The horrible family photos, maybe i was placed with a foster family, maybe I had psychotic break, maybe the horror was me. I normally hate the idea of decanted quick-grow humans (like in Deus Ex, and Bladerunner), but maybe it fits this psychotically designed world.
OK, glad Ryan is not an A.I. He seems all to real.
My guess is right about what I am, but its so much more than that. This is more disturbing than I even imagined. Why would he... Did he bet his life on what I would do? Did he bet wrong? This brings up some really interesting ideas in what is free will, and how your fate in a game seems pre-determined.
Fontaine, of course. Why didn't Ryan just say so? He must have known, he could have said so at any time. Why didn't Ryan just use the slave phrase against me to counter Atlas/Fontaine's programming?
I can't save in here, I get killed trying to escape, so I have to go through Ryan's death again. Its still awful. Why disable save just here.
The little ones are helping me, they must be taking me to her. Yes, of course. I love Tenenbaum's line "Welcome to the city where you were born." She could have told me anytime, why didn't she? Was everyone pretending they didn't know me until it was too late to save Ryan?
I very much want to break now, but I can't save. OK, I'm shown out, I can save, but I can't go back. I already miss the orphanage, it seemed safe in there. And now my character knows he belongs there; he's probably youngest one there, younger even than the little sisters.
Fontaine's new accent seems even more of a put on than Atlas'.
I like having my fire plasmid on F1, electricity on F2, and I thought I could easily rearrange their order on the Gene machine, but that doesn't seem to be working now, if ever. I'll risk an internet search. Really, its a bug that goes on into the second game. There's a DLC for Bioshock (1)?
I'm finally full of an item that I can't see inventory for, Empty Hypo.
I'm still puzzling over why Ryan suicided himself using me, and why Fontaine decided to get rid of me, other than for obvious keep a plot rolling reasons. I was a very useful slave that neutralized his biggest enemy, shouldn't he be smart enough to at least keep me on retainer? Also, Fontaine's voice acting continues to worsen, like he's done with this product.
Fire has been my staple attack, so I'll triple-down and take "Incinerate! 3". Hacking is getting hard, so I'll take an Engineering slot, and Alarm Expert.
2014.11.22
Now that I'm in a residential sector, the game feels even more grim. A lot of civilians died down here. I wonder what they did for food down here. Seaweed? Algae? This was a steak and potatos culture, so I may yet find animal husbandry.
Fontaine's explanation that my half Ryan genetics is what allows me to get past the security bots is probably the most insane thing I have heard in this game so far.
Weapons upgrade. Crossbow Damage Increase.
2014.11.23
There's a ghetto in Rapture? I know the story is try to make commentary on class, wealth, government, etc., but this is another gross clash with realism in the environment. Rapture is like a colony, a space station, it takes some resources to be here. There's no room for a ghetto on a space station, though I guess Babylon 5 had one, so why not.
One thing that's fun in the game is my plasmids are all out of control. Its a fun thing to do in a game like this, let the character accumulate weapons or powers, then take them away, or otherwise mess with them. But why do I now have access to plasmids (like Cyclone) that I never purchased? Is that on purpose or a mistake?
I'm guessing take away my magic powers is supposed to really put me out, but its just an inconvenience. Between all my weapons, I have most attacks covered. And every map is awash with money, vending machines, and healing machines. Even taking away a large number of my tools, I am still overwhelmed with all the ways I can kill things in this game, and many of my weapons and ammo go unused. I have to struggle to spread out the usage.
Always hack healing stations immediately, let your wounded enemies run to them, enjoy the show.
Why is there a vending machine all the way at the end of a desolate boiler room, that probably saw very little traffic even in this city's heyday?
Weapons Upgrade Station. Chemical Thrower Consupmtion [sic] Rate.
Now that I'm free I can take out the gatherers on this level. Man, those Elite Rosie's hit hard. Back to the previous level to grab those sisters.
Lots of saves and reloads, but I finished them. As long as I'm here, I wonder what is in that gray area near Suchong's apartment. Can't find it, maybe I get there from Cohen's? I take out the dancers, and surprisingly Cohen himself comes down to teach me to dance. Oh well, I didn't start, he asked for it. I get access to that room, its his personal bedroom, with a weapon upgrade machine inside. Now I have his muse key, I should at least find out what that does. Can't walk back that far, maybe with bathyspheres later.
As I move towards Fontaine, the bargaining begins. Maybe this is why Ryan let me kill him, he was betting I could take out Fontaine. And maybe Ryan will somehow become me later, I wouldn't put it past this game.
Back to Fort Frolic and Cohen's Muse Box. Lame.
I have more ADAM than stuff to buy, I max out on tonic slots. I buy Static Discharge 2, and Electric Flesh 2. Curious to see what happens know when I get hit near an enemy.
On to Point Prometheus. So, Fontaine is high on his own supply. He leaves behind two security bots, which I am happy to capture with freeze and hack. It makes sense that Fontaine is overpowered, since he's the one behind turning ADAM, Eve, and Plasmids into products, but why doesn't he just squash me like a bug then?
The new Big Daddy angle - I like it a lot.
2014.11.24
If I get to take out Fontaine as a Big Daddy, there's a certain poetic justice in that, just like Suchong was taken out by one. It also appeals to the iconic power of the Big Daddy in this game, which at this point is fading, as you can now take them out with ease, they lose some of their power. Now, like a totem animal, you must wear the hide of one to use its power.
Its clear Tenenbaum is just as much of a monster as any of the big players down here in Rapture, but she at least has a hope of redemption in saving the Little Sisters. And even if she betrays me too, I'm OK with that. What I would not be OK with is Rapture imploding, as it should have by now, because then all this was as meaningless as an it was all a dream ending.
Weapon Upgrade Station, I only have two options left, I take Chemical Thrower Range.
Though it seems like the game is almost over, there's still ADAM left to gather and spend. I think I have enough powers, I'll focus on buying Health and EVE upgrades.
Now here's a good sign this game is almost over, a Weapons Upgrade Station, and there's only one last option to exercise: Grenade Launcher Damage Immunity.
If Fontaine knows that I'm planning on becoming a Big Daddy to get to him, what's the point? Not much element of surprise. And Big Daddies are not that tough, so why bother? I wonder if being turned into a Big Daddy is reversible. Probably not.
I walk through an electrified pool and take no damage - is the Electric Flesh 2 upgrade accoutn for that?
Fontaine needs to be put down if only to stop that crazy accent.
I might as well gather up all the Little Sisters on this level before my transformation. Who knows, after this, it'll probably just be me in a Big Daddy suit hanging around forever in the orphanage with all the little ones I've saved. I might as well get Electro Bolt 3, and Winter Blast 3.
Found another message from Suchong, "graft skin and organs straight into suit". There's no coming back from this.
I've been thinking about the plane crash, how I got here. Fontaine had me hijack the plane to come here. A commercial flight, full of people probably. There is much for the main character to atone for, even if he didn't will it, he did it.
The Little Sister education center is delightfully creepy as you expect.
SUITED UP
I put on the suit, but there is no bonding ritual. Maybe I can take it off someday. Meanwhile, I was meant to wear this suit.
FPS games usually give you a last chance to reload before the last boss, I like that they make it explicit here. Its more honest that way.
I get an ADAM extractor, but its not in my inventory. It will probably deploy when the story calls for it.
Got him first time, though I ran out of health packs.
I like the ending. I like it a lot. But it feels a bit rushed. You go from this hectic battle to a quick denoument, and then its just over. Its a really nice ending, it feels right. But they could have told it a little slower, give you some time to transition.
I can see why there needs to be a sequel or two, there are some unanswered questions, like what happened to Rapture? Does our protagonist end his days there, or above ground? What happenened to Tenenbaum? Are there any other survivors?
It feels a bit cold to be dumped back at the main menu, like nothing happened. Continue takes you back to the start of the final battle. Credits just roll and back to menu. Lots of musicians in this game, and they did good work.
Just for the heck of it, I'll start a New Game, see what looks different to me now. I forget the game begins with narration, your narration, your voice. They gave you a voice. They really could have used that some more, instead of being standard FPS mute guy. The plane crash is just as terrible as I remember it. Fontaine killed those people.
Considering all the steel and personnel required, you'd think you couldn't build a secret city in the sea. But here it is. With a weird lighthouse over it, you know, to help maintain the secret. They should have just left a submarine nearby for you to get in, that automatically brought you down. 18 fathoms, and then there's an in-flight movie from Ryan.
The first view of the city is quite magical, you must have only explored a fraction of it. It does feel deserted though, except one Big Daddy in a tunnel - what is he doing? Maintenance? If so, that would help explain why the city is still standing, but this is not evinced in the game at all.
Enough. Eject disc, put back in box.
Bioshock (2007)
I've been avoiding Big Daddy (and creepy hypodermic girl) for years, trying not to get spoiled on what I hear is one of the best games ever, and something I must play. This game is one of the reasons I went all the way back to System Shock 1 and 2, because I kept hearing that they were at least spiritual predecessors.
I bought this game so long ago its got a bargain bin sticker on it, not to mention its actual physical media. I put the DVD in the drive. There's a small paper manual in here, I turn a few pages, some immediate spoilers about a city called Rapture and a quote from somebody name Andrew. I stop at a page of keyboard commands. Even that is a bit spoilery, telling what kind of weapons and actions there are.
I've delayed playing this game so long there are two sequels, and the series seems to be done. All three are available on Steam, so I can probably continue there, but for now I'm sticking with this DVD which has been waiting in the attic for a long time.
G:\setup.exe.
Custom
It will install to \Program Files (x86), so screenshots and saves will probably be in a shadow directory.
There's an nVidia logo; I'm OK with that.
Nothing much else to look at during the InstallShield session.
I feel confident that this game will run just fine with little to no graphics problems, and after dealing with 1990s software, I'm OK with that too.
Long install, I hope the DVD is not accessed ever again.
Some of the map names going by during the install are spoilery.
It's checking for a patch all by itself, downloaded and installed.
I need a serial number, its on the back of the manual. How much longer could I have delayed before there was no server out their to register with? There's still a lot to be said for old games (not that they don't have some weird copy protection, but at least they've all been cracked years ago).
Load main menu screen. Version is 1.0 - I thought this game already updated itself. Options -> Graphics. Resolution is 1024x768, crank it up to 1920x1200. I alt-tab out to take a screen shot; not only did it not work (alt-print screen), it got stuck and windowed itself. Close and restart.
Nothing left to do now but New Game.
Lately when I play a game and blog about it, I've written pre, post, and game notes; I'll continue with that.
I bought this game so long ago its got a bargain bin sticker on it, not to mention its actual physical media. I put the DVD in the drive. There's a small paper manual in here, I turn a few pages, some immediate spoilers about a city called Rapture and a quote from somebody name Andrew. I stop at a page of keyboard commands. Even that is a bit spoilery, telling what kind of weapons and actions there are.
I've delayed playing this game so long there are two sequels, and the series seems to be done. All three are available on Steam, so I can probably continue there, but for now I'm sticking with this DVD which has been waiting in the attic for a long time.
G:\setup.exe.
Custom
It will install to \Program Files (x86), so screenshots and saves will probably be in a shadow directory.
There's an nVidia logo; I'm OK with that.
Nothing much else to look at during the InstallShield session.
I feel confident that this game will run just fine with little to no graphics problems, and after dealing with 1990s software, I'm OK with that too.
Long install, I hope the DVD is not accessed ever again.
Some of the map names going by during the install are spoilery.
It's checking for a patch all by itself, downloaded and installed.
I need a serial number, its on the back of the manual. How much longer could I have delayed before there was no server out their to register with? There's still a lot to be said for old games (not that they don't have some weird copy protection, but at least they've all been cracked years ago).
Load main menu screen. Version is 1.0 - I thought this game already updated itself. Options -> Graphics. Resolution is 1024x768, crank it up to 1920x1200. I alt-tab out to take a screen shot; not only did it not work (alt-print screen), it got stuck and windowed itself. Close and restart.
Nothing left to do now but New Game.
Lately when I play a game and blog about it, I've written pre, post, and game notes; I'll continue with that.
Friday, October 17, 2014
status 2014 October
Finishing Planescape: Torment is a big milestone, maybe the biggest, and I'm glad its behind me.
Its time to review the past, and plan the next step. I read my way through this blog backwards all the way to the beginning, fixing the odd typo as I go. I leave a few typos because I'm reading on a pad and its too annoying to edit, and to leave something for the next read through.
I have so many more old games to knock off the bucket list, but I just don't feel like tackling long-obsolete UIs, pixelated art, or glitchy graphics just now. I go to YouTube and watch a compilation of Blizzard movies from Starcraft 2. Someone put them all into one vid; I'd put a link but it will probably just dissapear, and then get posted again anyway.
That was kind of interesting, so I start watching a new cinematic edit of The Last of Us, and as good as it is, and seemingly edited down, its still five hours, and not something I need to do again.
I find an Age of Empires 3 shortcut and click it, what could it hurt to take a quick look. Well, there goes two hours of staring at a screen. I don't need life's fast forward button right now. Uninstalled.
One of the things that struck me on the blog read through was how much time I wasted covering old ground, while there are exciting new worlds to visit. If there's a lesson in here somewhere, how about not wasting time?
Its time to review the past, and plan the next step. I read my way through this blog backwards all the way to the beginning, fixing the odd typo as I go. I leave a few typos because I'm reading on a pad and its too annoying to edit, and to leave something for the next read through.
I have so many more old games to knock off the bucket list, but I just don't feel like tackling long-obsolete UIs, pixelated art, or glitchy graphics just now. I go to YouTube and watch a compilation of Blizzard movies from Starcraft 2. Someone put them all into one vid; I'd put a link but it will probably just dissapear, and then get posted again anyway.
That was kind of interesting, so I start watching a new cinematic edit of The Last of Us, and as good as it is, and seemingly edited down, its still five hours, and not something I need to do again.
I find an Age of Empires 3 shortcut and click it, what could it hurt to take a quick look. Well, there goes two hours of staring at a screen. I don't need life's fast forward button right now. Uninstalled.
One of the things that struck me on the blog read through was how much time I wasted covering old ground, while there are exciting new worlds to visit. If there's a lesson in here somewhere, how about not wasting time?
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Planescape: Torment - review
After 15 years, I understand now why Planescape: Torment is still so beloved by gamers. The world, the story, the characters are as rich as any good fantasy novel. The sense of playing through a book is also why it can't be considered the greatest game ever. With all that its got going for it, there's not a whole lot for you to do other than read it. Even with that critique, if you're into RPGs, or fantasy, or just a good read, Planescape: Torment is essential.
Now that I'm done with the game, the spoiler floodgates can be opened up. There are so many web pages and forum threads I've skipped through the years, but the Wikipedia page is a good place to start. I see the box cover and am reminded why I didn't want to play this game when it came out. I don't like the styling of the Nameless One at all, with his weird face, minimal attire, and bone clothing. It seems silly now, but it has always rubbed me the wrong way.
Back to the Wikipedia page, to get the basics: producer (Guido Henkel), designer (Chris Avellone), composer (Mark Morgan), developer (Black Isle), publisher (Interplay), engine (Infinity, by BioWare), setting ("Planescape multiverse of AD&D"). The game was "not a significant commercial success", but a lot of great art isn't, especially not at first. In the planning stages, it seems like this game aspired to be a work of art from the beginning, though the designer seems to have some regrets, like having too much dialogue in the finished product. A patch was released, and the game was re-released on DVD in 2009, and there are mods. There's a novelization, bundled with a re-release on GOG. Novelization of games usually don't work at all, but I could see it working here.
Brian Fargo (Wasteland!) announced "Torment: Tides of Numenera" in 2013, as a "spiritual successor" to Planescape Torment. As long as it doesn't try to mess with Planescape's story in any way, that's fine. Planescape: Torment concluded definitively, and needs no embellishment. I question if there's even any value in an enhanced update, other than getting rid of the graphics glitches.
There is an interview with Chris Avellone at RPGWatch from 2007, which I think is the source of the section in Wikipedia where the designer regrets making the game too "story-heavy", and the marketing too "strange". There is a brief but deep look into what goes into making a game like this, specifically a highly detailed Word doc on Ravel's character design. I like the name of "dialogue-based" for this genre; it is at once its criticism and its praise. There's also a PDF of the original game proposal from 1997.
I file those documents away in my text archive, and notice I have a folder called "planescape-torment.com", which contains a file "index.html" from 1999.10.08.0719. I don't remember anything about this, but I guess I was checking out the game then, and didn't take it any further.
2014.09.27
After some further time to reflect on the ending, I realize the villain of this story is Nameless. Various dangerous characters seem to be in the way, like The Lady, Ravel, Transcendent, etc. but they are mostly just reacting to what you are doing. The driver for all the various deaths and suffering was always Nameless. He had an evil life to atone for, but instead of just facing it he moves heaven and earth to extended his life so he can atone later, only to to end up doing far more evil. It is still a redemption story, but more of a 'stop the out of control bad guy for good' story. This game does wonderful things with perspectives.
Back to checking out the rest of the internet. I check out GameFAQs, to see what I missed. There's a bunch of detail, and a few more in-game things I will try, but that kind of detail doesn't belong here, so I'll append that to my previous post of the game notes.
While there's still a few interesting things left to do in this game, it seems clear that I already finished the optimal path through the game, (high Intelligence and Wisdom, mage, Lawful Good) and I've seen most of the what the game has to offer.
2014.10.02
Once I'm free of spoiler restrictions my favorite place to go is tvtropes.org. "It's like Memento in computer game form" is the shortest most accurate description of this game I've heard. Looks like there are actually two 'spiritual successors' coming up: Pillars of Eternity and Torment: Tides of Numenera.
It takes a while to get through a tvtropes page; there are so many rabbit holes to go down, and sub-rabbit holes, and sub-sub, etc. This site is a demonstration of the best and worst uses of tabbed browsing. "Overly Long Fighting Animation" - this game probably invented this. This leads me to a video of the Mechanus Cannon, which I missed, and a few of the other high level spells that I never got to see properly, and some fun comments on the overkill of it all.
2014.10.15
I've been getting more and more into fan art, so off to deviantart.com to see what they have. I find a nice large map of the planes called "The Planescape Multiverse" by zen79. I keep forgetting that the Planescape world is much larger than we get to see in Torment, I should read up on it. I am especially interested in the Sensates, I couldn't get enough of that in the game.
As part of my wrap up procedure, I make sure I have archived files of everything, and that includes getting all the mod files out there, whether I will use them now, later, or never. See previous post for details, but suffice it to say that I see worth in running through this game again, but I don't think I want or need to do that right now. This is something that I will have to revisit over time.
And I know I will continue to think of Planescape: Torment again and again over time. It's the kind of experience that resonates with you at multiple levels, and with multiple realizations over time; I think that's the definition of great art.
Now that I'm done with the game, the spoiler floodgates can be opened up. There are so many web pages and forum threads I've skipped through the years, but the Wikipedia page is a good place to start. I see the box cover and am reminded why I didn't want to play this game when it came out. I don't like the styling of the Nameless One at all, with his weird face, minimal attire, and bone clothing. It seems silly now, but it has always rubbed me the wrong way.
Back to the Wikipedia page, to get the basics: producer (Guido Henkel), designer (Chris Avellone), composer (Mark Morgan), developer (Black Isle), publisher (Interplay), engine (Infinity, by BioWare), setting ("Planescape multiverse of AD&D"). The game was "not a significant commercial success", but a lot of great art isn't, especially not at first. In the planning stages, it seems like this game aspired to be a work of art from the beginning, though the designer seems to have some regrets, like having too much dialogue in the finished product. A patch was released, and the game was re-released on DVD in 2009, and there are mods. There's a novelization, bundled with a re-release on GOG. Novelization of games usually don't work at all, but I could see it working here.
Brian Fargo (Wasteland!) announced "Torment: Tides of Numenera" in 2013, as a "spiritual successor" to Planescape Torment. As long as it doesn't try to mess with Planescape's story in any way, that's fine. Planescape: Torment concluded definitively, and needs no embellishment. I question if there's even any value in an enhanced update, other than getting rid of the graphics glitches.
There is an interview with Chris Avellone at RPGWatch from 2007, which I think is the source of the section in Wikipedia where the designer regrets making the game too "story-heavy", and the marketing too "strange". There is a brief but deep look into what goes into making a game like this, specifically a highly detailed Word doc on Ravel's character design. I like the name of "dialogue-based" for this genre; it is at once its criticism and its praise. There's also a PDF of the original game proposal from 1997.
I file those documents away in my text archive, and notice I have a folder called "planescape-torment.com", which contains a file "index.html" from 1999.10.08.0719. I don't remember anything about this, but I guess I was checking out the game then, and didn't take it any further.2014.09.27
After some further time to reflect on the ending, I realize the villain of this story is Nameless. Various dangerous characters seem to be in the way, like The Lady, Ravel, Transcendent, etc. but they are mostly just reacting to what you are doing. The driver for all the various deaths and suffering was always Nameless. He had an evil life to atone for, but instead of just facing it he moves heaven and earth to extended his life so he can atone later, only to to end up doing far more evil. It is still a redemption story, but more of a 'stop the out of control bad guy for good' story. This game does wonderful things with perspectives.
While there's still a few interesting things left to do in this game, it seems clear that I already finished the optimal path through the game, (high Intelligence and Wisdom, mage, Lawful Good) and I've seen most of the what the game has to offer.
2014.10.02
It takes a while to get through a tvtropes page; there are so many rabbit holes to go down, and sub-rabbit holes, and sub-sub, etc. This site is a demonstration of the best and worst uses of tabbed browsing. "Overly Long Fighting Animation" - this game probably invented this. This leads me to a video of the Mechanus Cannon, which I missed, and a few of the other high level spells that I never got to see properly, and some fun comments on the overkill of it all.
2014.10.15
I check out RPGClassics, lots of good gameplay info about many old games. It seems kind of abandoned, and a little sad, but I'm glad its still there.
I find the novelization [wischik.com/lu/senses/pst-book.html], where the author "followed one path through the game, creating a written story from the source material". I've thought of doing just that for several games, but never followed through, so its very interesting to see how it turns out. And this game is probably the most prime candidate for this treatment. I read a few pages, and it is quite readable, but I don't think I want to do this until I've played through again, if ever.
I find the novelization [wischik.com/lu/senses/pst-book.html], where the author "followed one path through the game, creating a written story from the source material". I've thought of doing just that for several games, but never followed through, so its very interesting to see how it turns out. And this game is probably the most prime candidate for this treatment. I read a few pages, and it is quite readable, but I don't think I want to do this until I've played through again, if ever.
I've been getting more and more into fan art, so off to deviantart.com to see what they have. I find a nice large map of the planes called "The Planescape Multiverse" by zen79. I keep forgetting that the Planescape world is much larger than we get to see in Torment, I should read up on it. I am especially interested in the Sensates, I couldn't get enough of that in the game.
As part of my wrap up procedure, I make sure I have archived files of everything, and that includes getting all the mod files out there, whether I will use them now, later, or never. See previous post for details, but suffice it to say that I see worth in running through this game again, but I don't think I want or need to do that right now. This is something that I will have to revisit over time.
And I know I will continue to think of Planescape: Torment again and again over time. It's the kind of experience that resonates with you at multiple levels, and with multiple realizations over time; I think that's the definition of great art.
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