The lights are on
I'll be honest, I have been giddy with excitement after getting my Special Edition of Bioshock 2. I haven't played the game yet since I haven't finished with the first one yet, but I came home hopeful that it would as great an experience as the first has shown me to be.
I logged on to the site looking for positive reviews and maybe even some hints at how I should tackle the game. All I got was a huge DISAPPOINT stamp on it, and now my expectations have been challenged. The first Bioshock has been testing my nerve in the past two weeks and I have definitely been enjoying myself. It's been said that the sequel is more of the same, but is that really so terrible?
I'll edit this posting with my thoughts on Bioshock 2 and perhaps even later, write my first User Review.
EDIT: I've finally finished it! Yes, it took "mad long dawg" but Hard Mode is hard (and so is trying not to die)!
I was reading through the blog comments and I do agree with both sides (except when it comes to this font). I know I shouldn't let a review of a game affect my enjoyment of it, but even if the game is a sequel I do think it should have been reviewed as its own game, not something the would revolutionize the series.
To me, Bioshock 2 never became stale. Every envirionment felt brand new to me and as with the first one this game seriously gave me the jitters. For it to have been said that this game offers nothing new I believe to be inaccurate. Yes the battles with the Splicers were very familiar and most of the combat felt the same as it was with the first installment. It felt as if nothing was new but the story. Still, I was kept on edge like nothing I felt playing the first one and challenged with every encounter. The new powers were amazing, and all the different tonics made adapting to enemies all the more easier. The new hacking system was a great match for me, someone who prefers to run and hide.
Once again, the story made my pulse race. Each stage I advanced I anticipated the next new revelation and each one threw me for a loop (aside from this one that I saw coming a mile away). The new audio diaries fleshed out more of the history of Rapture, and truly made the experience much more thrilling. Tens years later, Rapture still haunts in all the right places. Even saying all that, the one problem I had with the second game was its Hard Mode. It was definitely easier to get through than with Bioshock. The score I really don't give two [expletive]s about. Just go enjoy the *** game.
You deserve a slow, painful death for propagating the comic sans typeface or something close to it.
I know GI ratted it pretty low, however they are profeshinals. They rate the games on pro. standards. So i would try it out and see if you like it
I am currently playing it now. Hope to have a entire new post about how good it is compared to the first one.
I'm playing through it now too. I don't agree with their review.
It's a score, not the end of the world. Honestly it doesn't matter.
Yea bioshock 2 is amazing its so fun ive been playing it all day
Bioshock 2 is cool try it
When i was reading it, it sounded pretty harsh to me as well. I would definately give it a try. just pretend tht 8 was a 9 instead and forget about the review until you try it yourself =]
As much as I like reviews to see what folks think about games, I don't let them form the basis of my opinion. So my advice, play Bioshock 2 and don't think about what others say, and form your own opinion about it.
I was surprised too, but there are many many many other reviews more positive that I was able to agree on (The IGN review for example). However, it isn't like an 8.25 is a BAD score. It's just below expectations. I personally think that it's stupid because Halo 3: ODST was also one of those "more of the same" kind of games that for some reason got a higher score. All in all, just play the d*mn game yourself and see how you'd like it. Don't make one review make you not wanna play it.
Surprised here as well....but the game plays great! :)
@StarKiller: most of the games your "professionals" rate poorly are the ones i love to play the most, and think they deserve more than the score. a lot of the "broken controls, poor graphics, broken camera, etc" complaints they make i never notice. the games they rate highly as Can't miss i can't stand to play. i think they're overated and so forth.
but aside from this, i must agree the score deserved to be this low. the graphics, story, gameplay, and everything else in the game were not a single improvement on anything from the first one.
Yeah I was expecting a rating around 9.5 or something...They only rated it 8.25 for repition and the similarities betwenn the prequel and the sequel...eh...Kinda a disappointment. This doesnt mean Im not gonna go buy it or rent it. I liked the first one so Im sure I will like the seond one. I wanna see the ending cause the review made a big deal about how great it was.
The game is great bro. It's "more of the same" but when you actually are experiencing it it's "Wow this is completely different." You'll know what I'm talking about when you get there. The only thing I have to agree with on the review is I did NOT feel like a bad arse big daddy. But you get over that withing ten minutes when you're done hitting walls and jumping around.
Oh and by the way use metacritic.com it is an average of all reviews so it's not just ONE PERSONS OPINION. Averages ftw.
Okay, first off, 8.25 is not a bad score. All you people that think it is need to quit letting you love for the series get in the way of rational thinking. It's the score of a good game that didn't reach it's full potential. There are plenty of good games that got in the 8 range. The original Uncharted and Darksiders for example. Uncharted for a little bit of an ungainly control system and Darksiders for something that simply wasn't very original in design. The same goes for Dante's Inferno and I thought that game was pretty good when I got hands on time last weekend, it's just that it's a complete rip off of God of War's gameplay and has some camera issues.
After playing BioShock 2 at my friends house yesterday I must say it feels like the exact same game as before, just with different enemies and gimmicky online play. I agree with the GI review that the Big Sisters could have been an underlying plot element and they just turned into another enemy that repeated over and over again without any back story. As a Big Daddy I felt that I should be a tank, but I only moved like a tank. I would get into a fight and run out of gas for my drill, only to turn around after beating down a couple slicers and find that I'm getting my ass kicked by one. I would be okay with moving as slow as you do if it meant that splicers didn't stand a chance up close, but there were several moments where I had to run for my life (not a very Big Daddy type thing to have to do) and could not get away.
As for the complaint over Halo 3: ODST, I didn't think it was that good of the game, but on the other hand its high score came from the fact that was indeed a shift away from the normal Halo formula, if not from the gameplay mechanics. Normal Halo has you in a super suit taking on hoards of enemies on foot, some of which are in vehicles. ODST gave you a normal dude, low ammo, no regenerating health, night scenes, small groups of sometimes ridiculously strong enemies and told you to get from point A to point B by any means necessary. There were times in ODST where fighting wasn't really an option because you didn't have enough health, or ammo, to take on a pack of Brutes. Taking on Brutes as an ODST is a daunting task, especially considering they were hard to take down as a Spartan. I don't think it got the score it should have, but Bungie did go a bit out on limb with something different. I would have given it around an 8 or 8.5 for poor graphics, especially the character and facial models, and a relatively boring mission structure.
Comic Sans....