lol, I was going to write the same thing.

What a weird thing to consider rude.

http://www.pentadact.com/index.php/2009-04-15-ending-bioshock

But yeah, BS2 seems to be shaping into something I’ll like but not really love. SS2 on the other hand… get writing that article Kieron, just to watch a fanboy explosion (from me included).

yup, the last 1/3 of the game is certainly linear. but i’d argue the first 2/3s of the game is pretty linear too, at least in terms of how the main plot is advanced. sure, you have to backtrack through decks you’ve already visited, but there’s no choice in the matter, and no alternate way to accomplish each goal. (You could actually critique this as a lazy way to reuse assets, but i think it worked well enough. Maybe a smart way to reuse assets.)

Maybe the last 1/3 of the game just makes this railroading more explicit because it prevents you from returning to the previous levels.

to be fair, the game does open up a touch after completing hydroponics deck, where there’s a couple of new levels to explore simultaneously, each with their own objectives, but again, there’s precisely one solution to each objective…

Perhaps shock2 works because you feel like you’re moving and surviving an actual environment, exploring and foraging and researching, and interacting with the wandering monsters, despite the fact that every single objective is still get red key wut goes in the red door.

re: bioshock? very similar, in a lot of respects. i had a great time playing it! but i don’t think it quite hits the same notes of feeling like you’re trying to survive in some deranged environment – maybe because bioshock just isn’t hard enough* – stalker does a far better job at that, but that’s another kettle of buggy, buggy worms.

[ *: i liked ss2's weapon degradation, perpetual shortage of ammo, and respawning wandering monsters. i liked how often it was better to just run and hide instead of fighting. and it was hilarious how the game was built atop the thief2 engine, so one could hide in the shadows and then wrench-blackjack the hybrids as a means of ammo conservation. maybe i just like being treated rough ]

(are there any perfect games? Isn’t perfection a subjective quantity?)

It’s objective, scientifically quantifiable, 10/10, Metacritic says so! Raaarrrgh!

I played SS2 all the way through coop over lan recently, and it was epic. The earlier levels are noticeably better, but the later levels were still awesome, with the exception of some of the platform-jumpy bits inside the many.

The most memorable situations were almost completely running out of ammo on engineering, when playing as a techie and a psi-op, and having to use about 7 bullets in a almost broken pistol and wrenches to escape back to medical. We had to constantly be looting everything whilst avoiding any enemies. Those were the days…

Also memorable was splitting up to search the bio-deck (?) and immediately running around a corner into a midwife and screaming like a little girl.

The most memorable part was inside the many, just about to board the Rickenbacker, and gunning down what felt like hundreds of the macho-many :p, while waiting for my brother to arrive. Reminiscing just makes me want to play it again.
Anyone who hasn’t played it really ought to. Make sure you get SHTUP and Rebirth though, and there is a widescreen mod somewhere too.

And the shooty aspects of SS2 were more satisfying. Given the right ammo combinations, you could take out the hardest enemies in 2 or 3 shots, and you didn’t have to spray and hope due to poor accuracy. Bioshock definitely needs more tight shooty bits, and separate crosshairs per weapon to make it more clear to the player what the weapons are capable of.