@nessisonett Hmmm... I wonder if you’d have enjoyed Infinite better if you had played Bioshock 1 first. Obviously it’s not directly dependent on the details of the first game’s story, but the wider narrative in the shared universe is what really made it special to me.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution I dunno, my misgivings with the plot are more to do with the twists that just did nothing for me and the really bad and dated political commentary. It’s especially bad when you look at it from today’s viewpoint with everything going on in the world. But hey, loads of people love it (or did at the time), so it’s probably just me!
@nessisonett Actually, I think the consensus from most gamers is that the original game is the best. I am partial to Infinite because of mind blowing narrative and interesting characters. But I can see how it’s a very individual taste kinda thing.
And I better spoiler tag the rest just in case — major spoilers for BioShock Infinite
I enjoy the games that have stories that are open to interpretation, or at least have some depth and surprises that tie back to the very beginning. It’s why my very favorite games include the likes of Shadow of the Colossus, MGS5, and NieR Automata.
In the case of BS Infinite, the “there’s always another lighthouse, there’s always another man, there’s always another city...” multiverse / alternate related dimension concept just blew my mind. And the infinite possibilities of all the Elizabeths and all Bookers and all the potential outcomes that would occur; the ‘Terminator’-esque fixing of the disastrous outcome by cutting him off from becoming either Comstock or staying Booker by killing him at the choice at his baptism... it was just so cool to me. But yeah, I’m a sucker for the narrative technique of “Surprise! The guy you’ve been fighting this whole time is you!” I was equally impressed with the same twist in another popular game which I won’t name in case people haven’t played it, but whose story was also polarizing to the fan base. So maybe I’m the one who’s the odd one out on the narrative twists because I fall for these cheap tricks, but to me it just has huge impact. But I was brought down to earth when I read how Foxy (a forum user among those whose opinion I regard highly) thought the NieR Automata narrative was so ridiculous and trite (I forget her exact words) when I had thought it was so mind blowing, deep, philosophical, and unique 😂
Anyways, one things for sure, Levine’s games do tend to generate discussion.
@Th3solution they are certainly popular games! I'm sort of familiar with the overall story of the franchise so maybe a bit of the surprise and wonder is lost on me. It is a good game but it would've probably been better if I played it when it came out! I think the initial scariness I experienced has subsided now too. It was definitely freaky walking/bathysphering into rapture and the perceived difficulty of the game got to me but now I'm quite used to it and the game isn't as hard as I thought it would be so it's less scary. Though I hate saying a game isn't hard when I'm less than half way through because I know something in the game is just going to kick my ass after I've said it 😂. I'm definitely gonna play all 3 of them as they've been in my backlog since they got added to plus
@ralphdibny Glad you have started to enjoy it. You’ll have to let me know how you like BioShock 2, since I skipped it. In my mind it would be anticlimactic to go back to it after Infinite, but I’m not sure.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution I enjoyed the second game. Playing as a big daddy was an interesting move. The Big Sister enemies they introduced were terrifying too!
Infinite was the first game I played in the series as it was a PS+ freebie and I thought it was great. I almost preferred the setting and loved the story. The ending is one of s handful from gaming that stuck with me. The Burial at Sea DLC is also excellent.
@Thrillho Good to know that the second game would still hold up after having already played the third.
Yeah I did hear about the twist, even though I never played it.
What I really need to do is play the Infinite DLC. I fully intended to a couple months ago and downloaded it to my PS4 (where it still sits) so maybe if I get in the right mood.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Pro tip: shoot proximity grenades on a corpse and then use telekinesis to throw the corpse at a Big Daddy. If on hard mode with vita chambers turned off it’s my favourite method for defeating them.
BioShock 2 is quite underrated @Th3solution. When I played it at launch it didn’t really gel at all and the setting felt stale, but on repeat playthroughs I’ve enjoyed its many gameplay improvements along with some of the subtleties of its more character-based story. We also see a side of Rapture (the poorer areas) that wasn’t explored particularly effectively in the first game. It also has one of my favourite gameplay sections near the end. The story does have a few issues, mostly because of the retconning needed to make it fit, and also because the critique of collectivism becomes absurd towards the end and is therefore nowhere near as effective as the first game’s critique of crazy ass libertarianism. To me that was more cutting given the real world nutjobs in government that are deadly serious about following Ayn Rand’s philosophy.
@mookysam The problem for me is that the first game doesn’t really criticise collectivism at all, despite pretending otherwise. It’s just a generic ‘power corrupts’ deal, which we’ve seen in so many games before and since. If they delved more into how Rapture’s very nature and ultimately just being built let to its downfall then it would be a more effective critique.
Okey dokey folks, it’s the weekend so I reckon if we’re all up to roughly Arcadia then we can push on with the game? From the looks of it, our target should probably be the end of the Hephaestus section. Bear in mind, I couldn’t tell you just how long that will be so first to get there, give us a clue!
@nessisonett I'm not playing at the moment but intrigued to hear the thoughts of those that are playing, especially the first timers!
My involvement in the club will be limited as I'm not getting as much game time at the moment. If the right game comes up at the right time then I'll be sure to get involved.
Almost done this week’s section. Today I learned that you can press R3 to aim down sights. Somehow I missed that one, despite playing FEAR not too long ago which also has that strange design choice. Also, if the game crashes (which it has for me a lot btw), put your PS4 into sleep mode and then boot it back up. When you go back onto the game, it should be in the pause menu and have woken it up from the crash.
I finally finished Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. And when I say “finished” I mean I completed all three endings including the good ending.
The game was quite enjoyable for me. I would never have thought I’d like it because of the genre it’s in, but I ended up with a great experience. I especially liked how the game constantly kept things fresh with plenty of shard powers to try and lots of weapons to experiment with. The enemies were quite varied, although the latter third of the game became mostly re-skins of with more HP or harder hitting attacks. The story was actually a little better than expected as well. Of course, it wasn’t Hemingway or anything, but it was serviceable and mostly made sense, which is more than I can say for a lot of 2D side scrollers.
I thought briefly about grinding for trophies and all the optional bosses, and trying the post game modes like Boss Rush, but I think I’ll move on. I’ve got a lot of gaming to do.
The BioShock experiences have been fun to read though.
It is bringing back memories. I actually forgot a lot about the game, despite it only being a few years since I played it.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution Glad you enjoyed Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. It's probably a wise choice to not bother with trophies. It's not too bad getting the Platinum trophy, but some aspects of it can get a bit tedious, such as collecting every item (including food, weapons and armour) and every shard. Crafting every item can require a lot of money (and rare drops), but thankfully there's some endgame tricks to grind coins quickly. I did get the Platinum, though I don't particularly recommend others trying it.
I've still been dabbling in Bloodstained every now and them. Currently running through the game again with the other playable character, Zangetsu. He plays very differently to Miriam. He starts off much stronger and has some cool special moves. However, he can't use items, change equipment, or use shards. His abilities help him reach areas that Miriam couldn't get to straight away. Overall he feels like a much faster and more streamlined version of the game, especially since most of the cutscenes and interactable characters are gone.
@Th3solution
Story wasn't too bad, I agree. I was surprised at how many characters they killed off. Might make any potential sequel quite tricky.
Having said that, what happens to Hayter's character in the end.. wherever he ends up could end up being a game all in itself.
I haven't played either of the Curse of the Moon games, maybe that could shed some light on if he survives.
The betrayal twist was signposted from very early on unfortunately, but at least it all made sense, as you say.
@Th3solution well done on finishing bloodstained! I think we've picked some challenging games on game club so far so kudos to anyone who sticks with them!
@nessisonett Im in a level called frolic something or something frolic, looks cool. I still feel like I'm not as far in ad I should be because there's quite a few free slots in the bathysphere so it makes me think there's a lot more to do.
Haven't had a crash yet, which is another reason why I was saving so much as I think Kratos mentioned it. I'm playing on regular PS4 so I'm not sure what triggers the crash🤷♂️
Oh man, what happened to KratosMD? I was wondering why I was no longer receiving notifications on that particular thread. Is Bioshock still the August game of choice?
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