Furry-Within

I have to say right off the bat that I was thoroughly disappointed with Bioshock 1 and 2. One just had this bore about it, and you knew what was going to be around every corner. Some splicer or another cackling madly about something or another, swinging a meat hook or firing a horribly inaccurate and rather ineffective revolver, which you then shoot/zap/immolate/Falcon Paunch™ until she or he dies to death. You unlikely hero, guy playing Villian A must be stopped, acquire power-ups, kill the masses, devour small children.

I returned Bioshock 2 within two days of buying it for a refund. Two was exactly the same, except you played as a Big Daddy, rather lame gimmick in my opinion, and your new mini-bosses in the game were, originally enough, Big Sisters. Get me a tissue, my mind is blown. Both of these games seemed overhyped, which is a recipe for destruction as far as most games are considered, and really didn't offer all that much to the gamer. It just seemed like a standard shooter set in an atypical location. Sure, the gist of the story was good; the utopia is given a gift of Adam, that gift is glorious and humans are too unruly to control it properly. It's delivery, however, was just not to my liking. Everything is same-y, and that's about it. It appeared to want to be everything it was before and a lot more, but failed on delivering more, and thus it was exactly as it was before.

But! I see them as redeemable if the best thing that comes out of the franchise is Bioshock Infinite (On the condition that Infinite is an enjoyable and interesting game). Take a look at the video below, linked from The Escapist Magazine. I'll wait.



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Admittedly, a lot of it is reminiscent of Bioshock, at least in the characters you see. People preaching one extreme view or another, plasmids (Or a variant thereof), and crazy shit all around you. Regardless! The setting is a nice change. Instead of leaky, dingy city that has fallen into complete disrepair, you're thrown into a flying city that's nice, bright, going batshit and full of more than a couple people preaching this and that. The place is intended to be, yet again, an Eden where something has gone wrong as humans are the most unreliable, though most predictable, variable. You can tell that this is still set in the Bioshock universe.

I am just so fucking glad that Bioshock 3 doesn't have you playing as Big Sister as, yet again you see how many splicers you can chop down with your drill, or needle as it may be. Everything looks crisp, realistic, (not that fake rippled sheen that everything takes on when it's supposed to look wet, courtesy of our current generation of graphics), interesting, and fun. A robotic horse, sky rails, giant half-steampunk-robot enemies, what's not to like? It's a nice change of scene, and even if that's all it is in Bioshock Infinite, I'll at least be intrigued enough to give it a look.

The abilities, too, look far more inventive than "Set your foes on fire!", "Use your mind to move objects!", "Zap your foes to stun!" Well, okay, the last one, from the preview, is in there. But you get a partner in there who looks as though she's an actually competent AI companion. And the cooperative events look pretty damn interesting. She creates a storm cloud, you add the lightning. She forms a ball of molten metal, you launch it at enemies. And the enemies, too, beyond the cannon fodder, are more interesting than addicts with a gun and dementia.

I don't know. Based on this preview alone, I'd say Bioshock Infinite is taking steps in the right direction, as far as my tastes are concerned. That being said, I am not one to be suckered in by something designed specifically to make me empty my wallet into a preorder of the collector's edition. (Currently WoW Cataclysm has that purpose.) I've been disappointed enough by developers and titles, Bioshock among them, to know they let us see what they want, and leave out the parts they don't want us to see till they have money in their pockets.

I am simply intrigued, and interested, enough to the point that I will most likely follow Bioshock Infinite's progress up to and beyond release, whereupon I shall bitch about not meeting my ridiculously high expectations.

So, that's out there now. What are your opinions on these previews of the new Bioshock game? And for that matter, do you have something to dispute on my opinions of the previous titles in the series?

Go now.

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I'll also re-read this when I'm sober, so I can pick out any typos and erroneous points I may have made.

Wow, you really didn't like Bioshock 2.

I stayed far and clear from that as possible. My friend played it though, (He's mad. Won't leave a game unfinished...Ever.)

I saw the preview, saw him play it. It looked pretty bad and just a clone (or an identical twin even) of the first one.

This new one however looks....maddening? Really fucked up. My kinda game. I'll probably give it a shot, but sadly I know full well how these things go. Creative director comes up with something new and incredible, rest of the production team takes turns eating it, craping it out adn spoon feeding it to the next department.

But, I do think I might give it a shot. If I'm not too busy playing Arkham Asylum 2 or Dragon Age 2 for that matter. (Which I think come out around the same time)