[Kvitne]

http://kotaku.com/56...-into-the-skies

Oh my fucking god I cannot wait for this.

Discuss.

[???????]

Funny, I was just reading about this less than fifteen minutes ago when my stomach began hurting. I'm kinda reluctant to read anything about this game until I have BioShock 2 in my possession, though.

[Kvitne]

This has nothing to do with the timeline of the original Bioshocks. Takes place a decent period of time before them, actually. It was developed by the people who did the original Bioshock, not the Bioshock 2 devs.

Plus it's in the sky, so that's fucking amazing.

[???????]

Yeah, I was just looking at some of the images for the game. Apocalypse in the sky looks like it'll be pretty damned neat.

The actual reason for me not wanting to look at this game aside from not knowing the story is mainly that I don't wanna get excited about this new BioShock without even having played the previous one. I'll look at it anyway now, though. Nice to know it'll have nothing to do with the first two, although I kinda figured that one on my own. Wasn't until today that I learned that the original team didn't even develop BioShock 2.

[Kvitne]

Yeah, after the original Bioshock the team went kinda underground and started working on a hidden project. This was that project.

[NiGHTS Noob]

It actually looks pretty cool. Completely different though.

That's a good thing though. Bioshock ended up feeling like a steam punk System Shock built for retarded people. Of course System Shock is still mother fucking System Shock so even if it's built for retarded people it's still amazing, but it felt oversimplified to me with a less interesting villain and a lot of the cool features either pulled out or overused.

The atmosphere was great though, and the gameplay was at least well polished, and considering that this looks like it could really be something.

[Kvitne]

I don't really see how Bioshock was built for retarded people. Simple doesn't always mean bad. I thought the depth of gameplay for the given mechanics was pretty good.

Then again, I've never played System Shock.

[NiGHTS Noob]

I don't know, I guess it's just the lack of an inventory and weight limit, lack of degrading weapons, lack of scarcity of ammo, lack of enemy types, and over abundance of respawning chambers that really kind of got to me.

If there's an enemy around the corner you always know what it is, you never really have to worry about running out of EVE or ammo because there's plenty of it compared to SS. Nor do you have to worry about your weapons breaking. The game was also kind of easy compared to SS which is a disappointment. A whole bunch of little things just add up.

See, I wouldn't have a problem with a couple of these things, because quite honestly there was just so much to keep track of and monitor in SS that it started to get a little off putting, but Bioshock took it way too far in the other direction in my opinion.

I did like, however, the multiple ammo types for every weapon. SS2 did it with the Pistol, Assault Rifle, and Grenade Launcher if I remember correctly, but they only had two different types for the former two instead of three. There were like five or six different types of grenade rounds though so that was cool.

Oh yeah, and several of the plasmids were cool, and didn't make you feel like plasmid specialization was a crippling weakness compared to conventional firearms like the Psi skills did in SS2.

I'd love to see System Shock 1 and 2 remade on the Bioshock engine though. As long as it was faithful so they'd have to put in an inventory system and degrading weapons. The games are really old and look really dated nowadays, plus there's the fact that the first game is a bitch to get running on anything less than a decade old and SS2 forces you to set it's affinity every damn time you turn it on. They're still remarkably scary and atmospheric games though which is a true testament to their writing, setting, pacing, and gameplay.

[Kvitne]

Cool. Good to know what was changed in terms of game play. I'm personally glad there aren't weapons that break. That always pisses me off in games. I hate it. The lack of inventory didn't really bother me. I agree that there were a shitload of resources and the Vita-Chambers were pretty damn common too.

I also see what you mean with the lack of different types of enemies. There were different types, but the way they acted and responded to your attacks weren't really different enough or didn't require enough different strategy to make them noticeably different. This is with the exception of the guys who were invisible and could teleport, although a swift shock in water took care of them. Still, more enemy variety would be a welcome improvement on the original.

[NiGHTS Noob]

For me degrading weapons really depends on the game. In an action oriented game like Monster Hunter it really pisses me the fuck off to no end, but in a horror game like System Shock or a scavenger based game like Fallout 3 I really don't mind it too much. I think it adds to the atmosphere and helps make you feel weaker or desperate which is key in those games.

This post has been edited by NiGHTS Noob: 16 August 2010 - 02:33 PM

[Kvitne]

*whiny voice* But it's so annoyinggggggggguh!

I can see where you're coming from. I guess I don't generally like that feeling, and don't tend to play games to feel that way. I mean, I know it's the point, so I don't hold it against developers that add that sort of thing to their game. I just don't like it personally.