Bioshock's opening hour

Update: Bioshock is not as clear as we thought in terms of telling the player when they've reached a new chapter. So in light of that, we're only playing up until you get the Telekinesis plasmid then stopping until the Saturday 9 November. I refuse to change the way I write dates.


Fear Factor

So this game is a LOT creepier than I remember! Whenever I think of Bioshock, I tend to remember the story and lore of Rapture much more than I remember the actual gameplay, which has been pretty much terrifying so far!

Anyway, I just love this game's opening. You get so much information about the world of Rapture from the opening sequence before you really even get to move around in the city.

I also especially liked the speech Andrew Ryan gives about a man's sweat during the opening

There's Andrew Ryan's speech, Atlas and friend trying to get you out of the bathysphere, that splicer woman who Atlas' friend meets. And before all that, in the lighthouse the statue of Ryan with the inscription "No Kings, No Gods, Only Men".

The juxtaposition of the utopian beautiful city on the outside with the scary-as-all-hell place on the inside really adds a lot to the 'realism' of Rapture as a paradise fallen, and the vox tapes do a wonderful job of filling in the details of the city's decline.  Diane McClintock's vox tapes allow the player to witness her progression first from Andrew Ryan's devoted lover to a misshapen and bewildered victim of the Kashmir Restaurant bombing and ultimately one of Dr Steinman's first plastic surgery experiments (at a point when he'd clearly lost his mind and believed that genetic rewriting was the only path to beauty). 

Few games are this good at making you remember an NPC's name, and wanting to learn more about their fate, despite this being completely separate to the game's main narrative. I am not sure if I ever saw Diane McClintock (or her body) in my first play through of this game, but I remembered her story the moment I listened to the first vox tape I found, and I wanted to hear it again.

Just a short manifesto written in blood outside a door

Anyway, onto the game playing experience.

The game seemed pretty scary initially, with splicers screaming horrific things like "make me beautiful again", but I quickly started feeling invincible - I was holding 9 health packs and tons of Eve, zapping and clocking each individual splicer I came across with my wrench as I proceeded along the way Atlas directs. The game, the splicers, and the environments didn't really seem scary anymore, maybe just a bit creepy.

Certainly a creepy body, but still not quite scary yet...

But this all changed the moment the game locked me in a room with a fire turret and a gazillion splicers. All my supplies were used up, I died clearing that room, and the reality check wasn't lost on me. The game wasn't as easy as I thought I remembered it being. The feeling of invincibility was gone. The initial fear was back. Seeing this fucking thing didn't really help:

WTF

Slight aside - I love that Bioshock doesn't really punish you for death, though some may argue that makes it too easy. You simply respawn while all of your attackers stay where they are, waiting for you to come back and get them.

One thing I hate about Bioshock, though, is the inability to dual wield (which you can definitely do in Infinite, and presumably Bioshock 2?). There is an awful pause which can be deadly when switching from weapon to plasmid and vice versa. If your Eve meter is empty, the odds of dying increase dramatically as you watch Jack slowly shoot himself up like a junkie while being attacked. I also initially didn't like pressing B to use a health pack (because I forgot to do it several times) but I got used to this one.

So yeah, I guess the takeaway of my first 'diary post' is that the game can be terrifying. Especially in moments like the one below, when you have no health, no eve, no ammo, and you can hear that evil bastard splicer around that corner (thank goodness I had my hacked and confused turret buddy on hand when I did eventually turn that corner):

FML

Somehow, I managed to make it to a vending machine where I bought health. I'm now rolling around with my electricity and newfound telekinesis plasmids (left the incinerator one out for now, because I overused that plasmid on my first playthrough and would like to experience new things) waiting to meet Dr Steinman. 

I do hate buying Eve or health at vending machines because it's usually so plentiful, but sometimes there's simply no other way to get comfortable!

- Wallaby