This morning we behold the multiplayer footage of Bioshock 2, in which people are augmented splicers in the submerged environs of Rapture. These splicers get cracking killing each other with physics and deployable turrets, which all looks rather entertaining. But… what’s that? There’s a use for the research camera? And someone gets to be the Big Daddy? A Tank round for genetically-spliced deathmatch? Intriguing. We’ll have more on Bioshock 2 rather soon.
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Well…yeah. But that’s like saying BG2 is a hack n’ slash because you can use nothing but fighters and have the game autolevel your characters instead of developing them yourself.
1. There is no such thing as auto-level in BG2.
2. A party full of fighters would require intricate knowledge of the entire game to complete. A new player wouldn’t even get out of the tutorial dungeon with them.
Have you actually played the game?
Also, saying things like ‘You should stop using words you don’t understand’, ‘If you don’t think Quake or its Arena variant owns, you have no business being here’ and ‘a horribly designed experience for horrible people’ sort of makes you sound like a bum.
1. There is no such thing as auto-level in BG2.
2. A party full of fighters would require intricate knowledge of the entire game to complete. A new player wouldn’t even get out of the tutorial dungeon with them.
Have you actually played the game?
I suppose I was fusing BG2’s status as awesome RPG with NWN’s 2 autolevelling option. And I beg to differ on the fighter party, I think it’s perfectly doable without too much in-depth knowledge. You’d have to waste a fortune on healing potions though! ;-) And yeah, I played BG2, more than a sane person should.
The point was: just because a game offers you the option to get through it playing like a fool, doesn’t mean that anyone should take that path (unless that’s what they’re going for). A bad game, for me, is a game that makes you suffer at the hands of less than optimal game design. In Bioshock, nobody is forcing you. Imho.
A resounding ‘meh’ from me. The first was a clone of a great game with shiny graphics.
Loved Bioshock for what it was, not prepared to cry over what it could of been.
Looking forward to Bioshock 2. The way I see it, is that I’m primarily buying the title for it’s single player, and the multiplayer is just added value. Even if it’s not the best online experience of the year, it’s nice to have, and I’m sure I’ll be able to squeeze out some fun on it with a couple of friends.
Comment made bu a console player:
AAAaaababababba y yyyayayyxxxxxx aaabbbxxxyyyyyy aaaaabbbxxxxxyyy
( the pad only has the A,B and X, Y keys )
Comment made by a owner of a powerfull Personal PC Computer:
Humm… heres a sily multiplayer. me likes it.
This is looking great, actually.
Man, I love this site. The articles are great, the tone is pitch perfect and the comments are knowledgeable and often childish. Perfect! Plus, you Brits use different terms when things get a bit flamey, so even the same old arguments sound a bit more interesting from over here in the US.
For example, I can’t believe I actually enjoyed reading yet another Bioshock comment thread. As someone who likes gaming but is a shitty gamer, I actually enjoyed the ability to play through Bioshock without tons and tons of reloads, experiencing the story at roughly the pace I thought it was supposed to play out at. I experienced it as an entry in the “Game as Storytelling Platform” branch of gaming progress. As such, the parts I remember being disappointing were not game play features but the times I sat back in my chair and thought “What?”
And I agree that multiplayer is being kluged on to games that don’t need it. May as well add a Rock Band element as well.
I’d say that a lot of the BioShock “hate” comes from the simple fact that Take2 called a spiritual sequel to System Shock, but forgot to mention that as good as all complexity of the former game had been removed.
As it was, it was a shooter with not so good mechanics, but great art direction and good story. Not a shit game, but it didn’t reach even the ankles of System Shock.
Big-publisher logic dictates that BioShock 2 is going to be worse than its predecessor. So thats what I think.
I don’t really recall that System Shock 2’s enemy AI was that advanced compared to Bioshock. Maybe check it out on weekend.
@Tei: You forgot the geometric expressiveness of square, circle, triangle and cross. And of course the universal language known as “trigger”
I recall one of the more entertaining RPS moonbat commenters claimed that he hated Bioshock despite having played through the entire game three times.
P.
@Garg
I would say I agree with you but from what I read suppodsly this multiplayer is supposed to further the story of Rapture. Though from looking at this trailer it looks like they dropped that.
Also Dead Space was generic with generic plot, generic samey scares(is he dead, no of course not), generic characters, and not even the slightest creepy because it does everything in a gun ho way not in a survival horror way.
I agree with Don on this one, about both the game and the articles/ comments. I do have one question for him though; did you find the story to be sort of… well, boring? I played the game, and I enjoyed quite a lot of it, but the characters, the world, and everything in between just about drove me away. I got all my enjoyment and entertainment from the mechanics, rather than the plot.
I well aware that some of those mechanics wouldn’t have existed if not for the plot, but that doesn’t help me much when I realise the story behind everything I’ve just played through bores me to sleepiness.
I hope they can come up with something good for the multiplayer aspect of this game as I can’t even hope to begin to fantasize about maybe giving a shit.
Looking forward to the single player like gangbusters though.
@Post Maker: You know, yes, I suppose I might have been. It’s been a while, so the specifics elude me, but my problems were not so much boredom as plot “twists”, dead ends or seeming inconsistencies that took me out of the experience, as they do in a movie. And I guess I should have said in the post that I thought the game was “good.” I didn’t feel ripped off at all, (the ambivalence toward it on this site helped me to wait for Steam to knock $10 off), but I didn’t feel it was anything particularly special, either. I am a fan of both art deco and “Citizen Kane” aesthetics. If I wasn’t, I’d have judged the game more harshly, I imagine.
I am also not a huge fan of magic, psyonics, powers, etc. Just a personal game play taste, but I will say that BioShock had me using them without thinking about it, which is probably a sign of good mechanics design.
They changed the revolver from the original Bioshock. Those bastards! That was the best bit!
I always feel slightly amiss in these discussions. I put off getting Bioshock until it was cheap and when I did it was amazing to me. I played through it three times and then I uninstalled it to prevent me from going back.
Sometimes I sit here with my pile of crappy games and think, I could just go sit in a level in Rapture and listen to the music and world in 5.1 surround. Yes, that would be fun.
At the same time I hate the consolification of games and knowing that they eliminated a lot of depth from System Shock 2 (though I have never played it) makes me question my feelings about the game.
Yeah I felt the controls were floaty and the gameplay was a bit iffy at best, but I rarely remember games for the sweet ways I killed enemies (Okay, FEAR)…..
Point is, I liked it. I may feel guilty about some of my liking it, but I am looking at Bioshock 2 with trepidation and hope.
Well that’s bloody chaotic.
I think its becoming possible to judge the importance of a game by the strength of the backlash against it. How often do you find people willing to tell you how slightly disappointing a mediocre game you’ve never heard of is?
If I was forced to play one game out of: BioShock, Far Cry 2, or Fallout 3, I don’t know which game i’d choose… (probably the one you can complete the quickest).
I think Bioshock is one of the most meaningful times i’ve ever spent playing video games. And i feel sad for anyone that can’t get the same enjoyment out of it for somewhat bizarre platform-theology reasons. Your stubborn backwards-looking minds are denying you wonderful things. I was a huge giant fan of Shock 1 and 2 as well as the Thiefs, and i absolutely loved Bioshock. Not for a moment did i stop to think WAIT A MOMENT, IN SPITE OF ALL THIS WONDERFUL ART, POLISH, AMAZING SOUND WORK, CAREFULLY PLOTTED STORY AND ATTENTION TO DETAIL, I AM DISAPPOINTED THAT THIS GAME IS NOT A CARBON COPY OF A LIMITED-APPEAL PC GAME THAT CAME OUT MANY YEARS AGO THAT I HAPPENED TO ENJOY. I just can’t put myself into that mindset where i’m willing to look past so much good stuff because my expectations were different.
‘Shock has always been about the logs and the incluing storytelling technique for me, and Bioshock absolutely nails that bit. All the twiddly UI bits, while cool, are VERY pc-gamey. I dare you to port Shock 2 to a console without simplifying.
I’m a bit worried about the MP. Competitive MP really is at odds with SP from a game design standpoint, so they’re basically making 2 games instead of one. I quite enjoyed Bioshock (and loved Far Cry 2 and Fallout 3, the haters are incomprehensible to me) but I’m not 100% on board with the sequel.
We’ll see, though, it may yet be great.
Haven’t tried Deus Ex: The Conspiracy on the PS, and how much thta had to compromise to work on a console (see how it worked backwards in DX2), but it might also be doable for a Dark Engine game to work to some degree (although that’s starting to give me nightmares :P).
Bio was a great platform for a sequel. They were likely over equipped for the challenge after the teamed ballooned to make bio 1. Not just that, bio’s price crashed mere weeks after release because of second hand trades. Multi will help stem that bleed.
Personally i think it will be competent but fail, the bio fan base may be a small multiplayer cross section when you remove those who wouldn’t rather play halo and codmw. Yes, halo, because the real dollars are on the 360.
Interesting, I just played and beat Bioshock yesterday. It was good at some parts, not as good at others. I generally had fun though.
As for Bioshock 2 multiplayer, do I get to wear a halo if I save the Little Sisters?
“At the same time I hate the consolification of games and knowing that they eliminated a lot of depth from System Shock 2 (though I have never played it) makes me question my feelings about the game.”
I did play SS2 and they honestly didn’t remove an awful lot of depth. That is to say, if you define depth as obscure and totally unnecessary gameplay mechanics that in no way add to an experience (the gun decay was particularly terrible) then yes, Bioshock is shallow. But those mechanics really weren’t what made SS2 great, or deep.
What made it wonderful was an amazing atmosphere, enourmous attention to detail, a great setting and a decent story. Bioshocks got all of that and then some.
How about we talk about whether we liked Bioshock or not and why, rather than talk about what everyone else says about it?
Heresy I know.
i liekd it. waz scry un prety
Nah, let’s talk about the Bioshock 2 multiplayer video instead of having the same argument about how some people liked Bioshock and some didn’t yet again. That war’s over, folks. Everybody won/everybody lost/everybody took it personally.
Or maybe, Bib, opinions differ from person to person.
See, I can sort of see where all this is coming from.
I thought Bioshock was wonderful, and Oblivion terrible.
Others think Oblivion is wonderful, and I just can’t comprehend how they come to such a conclusion.
So I’m gonna leave it.
As for Bioshock 2, I had high hopes for this multiplayer, but this video has turned me off a little bit. I hope they sort out the wonky animations and seemingly ineffective guns before release. The gameplay might not be terrible, but visuals are always important, as TF2 has shown us.
@Lilliput King
“Or maybe, Bib, opinions differ from person to person.”
In fact the gaming community was (is still) divided in two halves. Conversely the “professional” reviewers were compact on their very, very positive reviews of the game. This fact still amazes me.
One of the interesting things I noticed in that video was what seemed to be a Houdini Splicer red-teleport effect at one point.
If you can teleport around like a Houdini Splicer in this, I’ll be sold.
Which would suggest the expert opinion is against you.
Just kidding. It’s virtually the same for Oblivion.
But it can work the other way around. The Witcher received mixed reviews from the gaming press (indeed, from our very own Alex Meer) but the gaming community largely respects it as a very good RPG.
I’m not sure why this is the case. Could be something to do with the short time reviewers have to create an opinion of a game compared to the long time the gaming community has, or the different previews and community buzz those in the profession are exposed to compared with us, the common audience.
I doubt its to do with the professional opinion being out of touch.
Alec! Alec Meer.
Bugger.
“You forgot the geometric expressiveness of square, circle, triangle and cross.”
@Ybfelix Let me rephrase it:
QWRTY > ☐O△X
Also, this video is fun. In a lazy and crazy and silly way. It probably is fun with a good QWRTY over your lap and a excellent Logitech on your hand.
Well, that video is woefully bad, but if i want great fps multiplaying mayhem there is TF2. The single player section is where its at. For what its worth, bioshock and crysis were the first games i bought for my newly built gaming monster. I have only played (and completed) bioshock once all the way through, and i feel no need to go back. I didnt find it amazing in the way i did HL1 or 2. I thought it was fairly average. Now crysis, i have never completed, but have replayed through to the alien bits many many times, and think it is much much better game than bioshock in terms of actual feel. Well, until it goes all “zen”
Looks good.
“And also how does this work, the pods which you could go in in Bioshock were hard coded to his DNA so if you die in the multiplayer will you nto come back or will the screw the fiction and just have you born in the tubes.”
I vaguely recall that the company you’re testing plasmids for in the multiplayer backstory is run by the person(s) that invented the Vita Chambers. But maybe I’m wrong.
That video looks quite happily mental. I’ve been waiting for something that approximates the old “Superheroes” mods for various FPS, this may do the trick. Hoping that there’s a wide variety of plasmids, or ways to combine them for a multitude of effects, though – I’d expect, if the selection is as narrow as the first, that there’d be an uberpower quickly discovered and spammed. Though the Big Daddy looks like an uber all his own… looking forward to more news.
(as to the wonky animations, they’re likely still fleshing out those details)
I’m just wondering if there are counters or defenses against certain Plasmids; that one woman who was frozen solid and then smashed to bits might have been a bit unhappy. Unless a player can only be smashed into pieces when they have low health while frozen?
Essentially all my worries and questions stem from not really having much information, so they’ll be invalid by the time game comes out.