gunsmoke on 2/4/2013 at 02:32
I don't miss leaning a bit. It's balls to the wall, skyrail raging combat over here.
Yakoob on 2/4/2013 at 04:44
Just finished, so cross-posting from the poll thread:
The interesting story completely drew me in, pulled many unexpected twists, and is deep enough that I need to sit back and think for a while. The storytelling, with the aesthetically beautiful vistas, gorgious environments and story-segments, is constantly enthralling. The combat, once I got the hang of it, was also very fun, allowing a good variety, rewarding strategy, but also occasionally forcing you to mix things up and adapt. And the pacing, between story, battle and pure exploration segments, was also perfect.
That being said, yes it has its issues - the world, as rich as it is, is just smoke and mirrors; the gameplay can be unfairly brutal at times (1999 mode); the story/suspension of disbelief is soemtimes broke by gam-y elements coming in the way ("oh my good look at these massacred people... let me search their corpses for beans and ammo."); and the game is basically just a linear rollercoaster. But the thing is, it doesn't pretend or try to be anything else, so if you accept it for what it is, it absolutely excels and will suck you in like no other. Few forgivable kinks aside, BS:I felt very polished and refined in that regard.
Quote Posted by mothra
The upgrades. (no need to explain you will see and experience how crap they are - ALL of them)
I used to think so and, fearing costly death, strayed away from them until very end. But they are actually great - buckling bronco, for instance, increasing duration made a big difference and chaining can make a hilariously awesome impenetrable wall of floaties, immensely useful when getting rushed by a mob. Companion vigor upgrades are also excellent. Electric stun duration increase also helps. Those were the main ones I used, tho, can't comment on others.
I don't know about your battle complaints, I didn't find them too repetitive or boring because I actually had a ton of fun with them. Yes they were annoying and tedious at first, but once I found my favorite weapons (Shotty + carbine) and vigors (companion + buckling bronco) it reach a good balance between challenge and frustration. And it does occasionally force you to mix things up with different environment, enemies, bosses and weapon/ammo availability.
Quote Posted by faetal
I think a large part of it for me is that I really don't like to play games with a
dark theme that have caricature aesthetics. I think it is why I didn't get very far in Dishonoured before uninstalling either.
While, like you, it did bother me with BS 1, it surprisngly really wasn't as much of an issue here once the game sucked me in. The Walking Dead is another great example of how cartoony graphics need not prevent serious story with dark undertones
Quote Posted by retractingblinds
iron sights are completely useless and offer no benefit over using hip fire.
True for most of the autos, but I found them invaluable for carbine adn the hand cannon. I could practically use those as sniper rifles with the extra accuracy and zoom-in.
Quote Posted by Dresden
Here's a cool thing I discovered: You can
hack vending machines with the seduction plasmid... or whatever it's called. You get a bit of money (~25-50) and prices lower a bit. It lasts until you switch maps.Ooh ya thanks for the tip, that gave me tons of extra cash
EvaUnit02 on 2/4/2013 at 05:25
Leaning would be useless, as often the "arenas" are often large/open and because the enemy intelligence is actually fairly good in this game. They're good at flanking.
I discovered that you can indeed swap out Gear on 1999 mode. Character permanence for 1999 mode was obviously something that fucking Levine went all "Molyneux" on. (Another was the moral choices. Opening tears was originally supposed to come at the cost of making Elizabeth suffer.) From what I gather, the current incarnation of 1999 mode = bullet sponge enemies that do far more damage + certain UI "visual aids" are permanently disabled. What a load of shit.
mothra on 2/4/2013 at 13:42
Yakoob, I should have made it more clear, I meant the gear upgrades. Only a few work hand in hand together with your preferred playstyle or are only viable while fighting on rails, making them drop randomly did not help by planning out a "special" build. So in that regard Bioshock1 was more "rpg"-ish, at least you could swap out and plan ahead. If I would decide to make a "melee only" build in B:I I could have serious troubles if my preferred gear only drops in the last maps. In higher diffs you need the weapon upgrades as well but those are pretty boring "+x % damage or less spread", not very creative. Vigor upgrades are very good.
Yakoob on 2/4/2013 at 18:02
Aye, I agree the randomization was a bit weird, and Im not even sure how many of all the gears I've actually discovered. I got lucky with two awesome shield upgrades (one that cuts down on recharge time and one that makes you run at like 3x the speed when your shield breaks) so my build was heavily reliant on that and I maxed my shield but didnt even upgrade health for that reason.
But I guess you could make the same argument for any RPG practically (especially of diablo variety), tho those games are inherently randomized, whereas here the randomized gear just stuck out as a sore thumb given how everything else is so planned and deliberate.
Jason Moyer on 2/4/2013 at 18:58
I've been getting a lot of gear with skyhook bonuses, which is goddamn awesome. Right now I get a massive speed boost + automatic gun reload whenever I dismount which is useful as hell.
On a side note, I find it weird that in most of the discussions of the game I've seen (not sure about here, haven't read everything) people seem to think that the binary decisions you have to make are totally superficial. I've made 2 so far and both of them had really obvious repercussions (one of them gets you gear, the other one basically gives you a disguise that makes it easier to sneak past people).
Jason Moyer on 2/4/2013 at 20:01
Quote Posted by EvaUnit02
Character permanence for 1999 mode was obviously something that fucking Levine went all "Molyneux" on.
Yeah, Levine totally sold out by not having Booker rivet his clothes to his goddamn body.
The idea of permanence in 1999 Mode is based on the importance of specialization with weapon and
plasmidvigor upgrades because of a.) the retarded bulletsponge enemies and b.) the relative scarcity of the cash required to upgrade everything.
(and playing on medium, I don't really see how the generalization vs specialization thing plays any differently, to be honest - the enemies get stronger as you progress, and I'm just upgrading the 2 weapons/2 vigors that I ever use to keep them effective)
Avalon on 11/4/2013 at 19:06
I just finished Bioshock Infinite.
While I think the combat had a tendency to lean more towards "mindless zerg destruction" than "meaningful firefights," that didn't stop it from being one of the better games I've played in a while. Hell of a blast and I really have a hard time saying more than just whoa. It's been a very, very long time since a game has left me speechless (in a positive way, anyway).
