BioShock Review

Having done some System Shock videos, Bioshock was only a matter of time.Now, there were a lot of people who only knew Bioshock, especially if they were mainly gaming on console.But that's immediately what makes it so interesting.It's a spiritual successor of System Shock, that streamlined some things down even more than 2 did.But the exposure from console was so huge in comparison, it became its own thing.Because, for one audience, it felt like this amazing game and franchise just came out of nowhere.

But for the other, it was familiar, with a lot of trade -offs.And I'm sure that System Shock, now having a remake, did bridge that gap more, but that is still a 32 -ounce big gulf.And if that wasn't enough, Bioshock also got a remaster back in 2016.So there are a lot of Bioshock fans who have only played that version of the game.And I'll get into it soon, but that remaster… is messy.So, no worries, we'll unpack all that.

See, sometimes, for older, usually more obscure games, I show you how to get them running more easily.or to fix up any things that might be scuffed about them.And Bioshock is no different.But what I didn't expect was how much of a nightmare this one would be.It's not like a lack of resources either – there's tons of fan patches, but for different things.And even if you do all of them, the game might still be wildly unstable.

I have seen the game crash in the same spot, go to bed, leaving the PC on, I try it the next day, and then it works perfectly.This isn't like some weirdo strategy game from the 2000s barely anyone plays.It's Bioshock!Sometimes, I've played and it's perfectly fine.Other times, I've played during the wrong moon phase, and the game crashes every 10 seconds.Or a new bug I've never seen before happens, and then never does again.

But for now, let's get into the premise of the game first.Because, normally, I would say, eh, install this, or maybe tweak this number, and we would just move on.Not for Bioshock.That's a longer talk.Okay, here we go.Wait, to drink minimum?

It'll be a little something of gratitude that may help you… 1960.

The decade of JFK, MLK and LSD.There's none of that on this flight, but you can smoke, because back then everyone smoked, including the pets.Peering through the tobacco stratus you and the other passengers have created, you reminisce of your life on a farm.You are Jack, and your parents always told you you'd grow up to do great things.That heyday prophecy is cut short by your plane crashing.Though, luckily for Jack, he's out of the dust and into the sea, right next to a large lighthouse.

Which is weird to be in the middle of the Atlantic, but it only gets stranger.In what country is there a place for people like me?Andrew Ryan.Well, based on the foyer, the man seems humble.So much of the architecture is gilded and ornate, celebrating science, industry and art.Seeing as all of this is surrounding a bathysphere, it does make an impression that Ryan can deliver on all of this.

The dive down seems even more fantastical.And then you get the tour video.

ANDREW RYAN I am Andrew Ryan.And I'm here to ask you a question.Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?

NOS is the man in Washington, Moscow and the Vatican.They all want to take your work and give it to the undeserving.And Ryan is sick of all of them.

Instead, I chose something different.I chose the impossible.I chose Rapture.

As far as game openings go, this is an outstanding one.When Ryan says he chose the impossible, the city really does look the part.a glowing Art Deco cityscape at the bottom of the ocean, with a whale just drifting by downtown.It's surreal imagery that should be out of a dream, but Ryan's Epcot introduction -slash -economic rant makes it feel more grounded, especially with how dramatic the score is.The game is barely started, but it's nailed its tone for a wild fantasy, and introduced its two most interesting characters – Andrew Ryan and Rapture.As much as Ryan has hyped up his achievement, there are some hints that things aren't going great in the city.

Like the broken neon sign, and your concierge being murdered by crackheads.A man named Atlas was monitoring the plane crash, and is amazed he survived.Rapture has been undergoing its own social problems, and your way out has been destroyed by the locals, who ripped apart most of the Bathysphere's hull, before realizing it had no hubcaps.It turns out most of the population is addicted to genetic splicing.It comes from a substance called atom, that can give people powers called plasmids, which seemed to be about as common as getting a haircut, and has now spiraled out of control.Atlas will help you escape and return to the surface, as long as you rescue his family first.

Which means learning about Rapture and its weird weapons and powers to fight your way out.It's a good story setup, but now we've gotta go back to the game setup.So, as for PC, I've tried the GOG version, the Steam version, across multiple PCs now.I couldn't nail down any consistency when it came to stability.That's all to say, the things I'll list here isn't everything you can do to improve the game.But if I'm leaving out something you know about, or if something you read that should make the game more stable did the opposite, that's why.

But what makes it extra insane is, typically, you might hear something like, oh, you're having trouble playing an old game?You should go play the remaster.There are a lot of things you can do.but they did fix some technical problems.Well, no, because, from what I've seen, the remaster can be even more unstable.Playing the remasters on PlayStation, they were still crashing more than the original PC versions.

Didn't expect that!I have not seen any perfect solution.So all of this should – SHOULD – be a relatively safe route forward, but your mileage may vary.If you say the game's unplayable, I believe you.If you say you've never seen a crash, I believe you.Welcome to Hell.

There are more reasons to avoid the remaster, but for now, let's get into modifying the original game.And this is the least painful way.Well, second least… First up is the Bioshock Physics Unlocker.The game's physics were capped at 30 FPS.This lets you put any number in there to match your monitor.Just put it in the Bioshock directory, run it and put your number in.

You can put it higher than 60, but 60 is the safest bet here.For reference, all those instability things still show up in an unmodified install of the game.And you might run into other issues, like if you don't cap the game's framerate to 60 anyways.Your character can be misaligned with some of the cutscenes.So, in some of the game's biggest moments, you might not be able to see what's actually happening.So, locking the game to 60 in the first place will save you a lot of trouble.

Unless you like crashing… and dead space ragdolls.I don't need more of that… Next are your controls with the Bioshock mouse fix.Ooh!Like many console shooter ports, Bioshock has bad dead zones.The easiest way to see it in Bioshock is to aim up and down.You can see where the camera is snapping to the sides.

So, get the mouse fix, put in your DPI if you want, and then there.No more of that, the controls will feel much smoother.And you know what's funny?This was fixed in Bioshock 2, but not in 1's remaster, which also includes 2 remastered.There's a lot of weird oversights like that… But anyways, our final change is getting EAX audio.If you've seen my Thief videos, I go over this in a little more detail.

but there are a few options for getting EAX sound back, and I will pin one of them.But this gives you much better sound propagation, and is absolutely worth it for Bioshock.To pick on the remaster some more, the audio mixing is a lot worse than the vanilla game.To the point there are mods much larger in size than the fixes here, just replacing audio files with ones from the old game.Even the pre -rendered video cutscenes, which you think would be completely safe, have horribly compressed audio.Assuming you're not listening to this on your telephone, pay special attention to the strings in both intros.

DUNKEY They told me, son, you're special.They told me, son, you're special.

Now imagine that across the entire game, and the audio can still glitch out and become a YouTube poop.

DUNKEY Pizza Hut in the garage?

RESTORING EAX SOUND IS MAKING A GREAT MIX BETTER, BUT AT BASELINE, IT SEEMS LIKE THE REMASTER'S AUDIO IS COMPRESSED DOWN, LIKELY TO SAVE SPACE.Even ignoring EAX, you could add more channels in the game's innie, but even though the original audio sounds better, that system has always been unstable.It's not that the original is perfect and has no technical problems, I mean… God, no.It's more that there's a lot of technical issues.seems to have fixed existing problems, while adding new ones.When it comes to graphics, there are a few areas where the models and textures are clearly better, or have extra detail, like the banner moving there.

But a lot of these big improvements seem focused on the very famous areas of the game.Like, the Andrew Ryan banner is stuff you can anticipate journalists taking screenshots of, and you want that to look really nice.But the small staircase leading up to that banner doesn't have that attention.Some textures, like the concrete railing, are absolutely better than before.But you've also lost that wet sheen effect on all the bricks.And sure, that's just a sheen, but this heralds the downgrade of all of Bioshock's water effects, which feels like something that should have special attention when the game is set in an underwater city.

The shaders are more simplified, with less reflection and foam effects.And this is on top of the lighting itself looking more static.It's 2007, and the water reflects things.I thought you had to sell your Corolla to afford that now.I've just always loved how waterlogged Rapture looked.So, in a remaster, seeing it like this is such a sadness.

Textures were made sharper, but countless details were lost along the way.Except for adding lots of starfish and jellyfish.A lot that's technically better, but atmospherically worse.At the time of this video, you can still buy the original games on PC.But if you're on console, and only have those, it's still the same core game, and it does have some cool additions.Like the new Survivor difficulty mode, which is a really fun way to play.

Even on hard, Bioshock is very generous.It gives you tons of items, options and second chances, to the point that I don't think easier difficulties quite do the game justice, but that's likely part of the reason it did so well.Your power does scale.eventually, but Survivor does make the early game a lot more engaging.There's an explorable museum to see all kinds of cut content and enemies, there are new collectible director commentaries, the challenge room missions that used to be a PS3 exclusive, and proper controller support, because, of course, the game that launched with controls like this also didn't just support plug -and -play for a controller.You could play it and have a great time that never ever crashes.

I would say Bioshock has always had a layer of jank, but unless I was wanting to do a Survivor challenge run, for me, the remaster has too many downgrades, while not addressing that.I still don't think this is a big technical dive, because there's still tons I'm leaving out, but I hope that gives you a sense of how deep the issues run.And it wouldn't surprise me if one day we get a second remaster, or, more likely, a remake, because fuck it.I actually just looked to see if that was happening, and, uh… Netflix is making a Bioshock movie.Everybody get excited!Desaturate those stupid colors, pump up that bokeh!

Yes!Yes!Someone call in Lin -Manuel Miranda!He's gonna be Andrew Ryan!Oh, oh, don't play that.That song sucks.

No more remaster.Let's talk about the original's visuals.When it comes to Rapture, I love the look of the world.It's this glowing, neon, art -deco, would -be paradise at the bottom of the ocean.It has all that glitz and glamour of classic Americana, but it also has that layer of Cold War paranoia twisted into a new extreme.Right from the intro, you know that Ryan hates the world's biggest power players.

And instead, he formed Rapture under the idea of the Great Chain.

RYAN I believe in no god.No invisible man in the sky.But there is something more powerful than each of us.A combination of our efforts.A great chain of industry that unites us.But it is only when we struggle in our own interest that the chain pulls society in the right direction.

The chain is too powerful and too mysterious for any government to guide.Any man

Now, you could be wondering, isn't that just the invisible hand of the market?Well, not really.The whole invisible hand idea is purely an economic one.Put super simply, even if you act selfishly with your money, it does go back into the economy and benefit society, even if you don't mean it to.But the man who coined the term, Adam Smith, used it in a limited context, and still thought there should be some regulation.He only used the term three times across three publications.

The way people know it now was hyped up by later figures.Speaking of which, Andrew Ryan has made the extremely visible hand.This isn't spend -how -you -want -things -will -work -out.This is a banner that says altruism is the root of all wickedness, right next to the medical district.With the Great Shane, you always and deliberately act in self -interest.And this is visually reinforced everywhere.

At first glance, a lot of Rapture can look like Vegas, or some kind of cruise ship casino.But there's this underlying tone to it all, that if you fail, you'll be crushed.Enjoy your dinner, but the Great Chain looms!I love games that clearly spent a lot of time world -building and creating an interesting setting, and once it's all done and proper, throwing a hand grenade into it.The Great Chain isn't just restricted to economics, but also science and art.So you have an extremely isolated location, full of wealthy eccentrics, tired of limitations, being blatantly told that you're here because you're a winner, and acting selflessly is discouraged, because acting in self -interest is the mandate.

Do whatever you want, as long as it doesn't interfere with someone else's pursuit of self -interest.There wasn't a leak in this pipe dream.There was a fucking flood.And that's before these people discovered superpowers.You don't have to be in Rapture long to realize property values are on the decline.God, this place takes me back… You're in an underwater city of tomorrow, where even small, mundane things have style infused in them.

But it was also the cutthroat capital of competition.Hmm… Painless Dental, or Dandy Dental.A magical place, where a 7 -Eleven could have an entire turret defense grid, and an alarm that distributes a horde of robots, but you could pay the security fee to turn that all off.Sorry, Silver Slave.I bought the premium gold package.All the opulence of Rapture was only matched by its paranoia.

Completely justified paranoia.And a lot of the game's audio logs give you the nitty -gritty of the fall in more detail.But progressing through the game, you can find the areas that are mainly undamaged, the ones with some wear and tear and the complete bombed -out war zones.Between this and really paying attention to the audio logs, the timeline of what happened can be clear in a lot of detail.Plus, how visually oppressive the areas look don't always reflect the actual danger you're in.I mean, considering the circumstances, suddenly finding a mostly untouched area means there's probably a reason it hasn't been looted to hell and back already.

And, sure, both those points are also true in System Shock 2.You know, having to piece the details of the disaster together yourself.But System Shock 2, looking so sterile, gives it a different kind of uncanny.Compared to the Von Braun, Rapture is more like a firework show.When the music wasn't ramped up to Berlin clubbing levels, the cold and quiet look of the game did well for the horror atmosphere.But, at the same time, these games share a lot mechanically.

But Bioshock having the Art Deco hall pass can make a lot of those things more memorable.Both games have vending machines.Only one has the Circus of Value.Both games let you unlock magic powers, only one has an addreel before you get it.It's not like a pure graphical fidelity thing.Each style works in the context of its own game, but it's easy to see why one left more of an impression, even as a lot was being simplified down at the same time.

Bioshock is visually its own thing, even with Fallout being around.Or, at least, whatever Fallout is these days.But it's safe to say the most recognizable thing is the Big Daddy, which serves as the city's most powerful security guard, handyman and communal father figure to little girls who ferment superpower fentanyl from sea slugs.And it's not clear how human they still are.The short version explained by Atlas is that Little Sisters are living atom factories.The original substance was found in a new form of slug on the seafloor, but after experimenting, it was discovered if you placed one inside of a human being, it would generate dozens of times the atom.

And that's the raw fuel you need to create and harness plasmids, along with other tonics.The finer details of how and why this happened are better saved for later, but it's clear from the rampant splicer problem that atom is highly addictive.The shortage has gotten so bad that, at some point, they began putting the slugs in engineered children.They harvest the remaining atom from splicer corpses to drink and refine inside themselves.This makes these little sisters little atom piñatas, and the splicers know this.But if they try to kill them for it, Daddy's not happy.

However, this wasn't the most recent move.They're established enough that they're on the vending machines you get Plasmin upgrades from.Though they do still play commercials reassuring that it's not creepy at all.I remember when the game was shown back at E3, and the image of a giant diving suit golem protecting a little girl was something that created a lot of intrigue.Then you play the game to find that they're a team of corpse harvesters.I mean, most AAA games now are still shy about showing harm or death to children.

Not only do a bunch of junkies want them dead, whether or not the player takes their atom is a central dilemma.But we'll get more into that part in a bit.Big Daddies serve as wandering mini -bosses, with a few per level, but what really keeps them memorable beyond the great name?suit designs, is just how neutral they are.They'll square up if you get too close or scare a sister, or you could accidentally provoke one during a firefight.Otherwise, they're only there to protect their little homunculus, and don't care what else you're doing.

Their relationship is extremely in -your -face.He's always lumbering next to her, as she frolics around and calls him Mr. Bubbles.When she's done harvesting, he calls her over and basically puts her to bed.He knocks on a hidey -hole to summon one out, and if none appears, he gets angry and desperate, and knocks way harder and more aggressively.Then lets out this sad wail song, if she doesn't arrive.If you fight one, she's running around encouraging him, or maybe even riding on his back during the battle.

Before you even win your first fight, you know his death won't go over well.It's a little sad when he's childless too, but I assume he has some pipes to fix or something.You get the sense that neither one of them can really see the reality around them.They're stuck in this twisted little job, and because the encounters are so open, it feels a lot more effective just running across them doing their thing, compared to something more scripted.Compared to them always trying to kill you, it's some more depth.Otherwise, the game has a lot of other small visual touches.

Like, think what you want about the hacking minigame, but having a different animated background, depending on what you're breaking into, is a nice extra detail, even if most players' brains will start to tune it out.There's also a divide between the weapons, where some are regular guns and tools of the time, and others are a lot more ramshackle.The basic security robots use apple boxes to hold their ammunition, and the grenade launchers a bunch of cobbled together pipes.The actual explosives are packed into old canned goods.Man, in Rapture even the beans hurt!This is also one of those games where you can physically see your weapon upgrades, which is great, and can add some weird science onto your more mundane weapons, even if they start to get pretty silly.

I do wish some weren't so Xbox huge – I mean, the upgraded crossbow takes up, like, half the screen.But, at the same time, while the game does have aim -down sights, I'm never that compelled to use it.There aren't that many fights at extreme range,and the combat is built all around using combinations of weapons and powers.So, unless you're sniping with a crossbow, rather than slow down for precision aim, I usually keep moving and switch to something else.I've mentioned this in other videos before, but on its own, Bioshock's gunplay looks and feels pretty stiff.

The act of only mag -dumping a machine gun into a Big Daddy isn't that exciting on its own, but it's at its best when you're getting the spectacle of mixing up your weapons and powers.It's also why that physics unlocker I mentioned earlier is so good.Even if shooting a weapon can feel a bit floaty, a good ragdoll is always welcome.Overall, it's a nice looking atmospheric game, when it's not drowning in too much 7th gen blur and bloom.And that brings us to the sound design.I admit, this one's in a weird place for me.

Because the game does have rich layered atmosphere.Lots of great unique effects, excellent voice acting and direction.But no matter what you do, installing EAX or increasing sound channels, it's still glitchy, and security bots especially are a tool of hell.And look, they sound like lawnmower mosquitoes, they're doing the Mac and Me looking for Coca -Cola whistle… I get that they're supposed to be annoying, but they're the biggest example of sound effects that suddenly cut off, because the game struggles with having too many audio channels.Even if you increase it on an engine level, it does not completely solve the problem.When a recommendation is, don't use too many rapid -fire weapons, like machine guns or hacked bots, that's how you know you're in trouble.

Hey, wait a minute… Is that the egg sound from System Shock 2?What the hell are in these tomatoes?!Bioshock's sound effects and how sound propagates can be excellent.It's already good the second you step foot in the city.Bioshock generally sounds at its best when it's less busy.Like the art, there's a lot of small details in the environment.

In comparison, combat can still sound meaty and visceral, but in some fights, the audio can start cutting short or cutting out entirely.Or other strange things might happen, like a voice line suddenly playing unfiltered right next to your ear.I'm guessing here she was right above me, and it played it as clearly as possible.The sound design has such a strong bass, but this is one of those string -and -bubblegum aspects of it.Moving on… The game uses its sound to help guide you along in such a smart way too.A good example is you want the item from Little Sisters, so have her guardian screech like a whale you can hear from three zip codes away.

He's always close by her, since he's such a good parent.How about the vending machine jingles?Sure, they're charming and thematic, but it's also a background sound that guides you to their location without needing a map.So, I can always find the Circus of Value, or the Loco Bandito, whatever the hell it's called.As you might expect from the snippets you've seen already, the voice acting and direction is also excellent.Most of the best performances are pretty spoiler -heavy, so I won't go into those.

But it's easy to demonstrate just how good it is with the splicers.The insane addict performances go such extra miles, like, these people are screaming their lungs out half the time.

CYBORG -LIKE MAN -SHE WON'T STAY!CYBORG -LIKE MAN -I WANNA MAKE THEM BEAUTIFUL!CYBORG -LIKE MAN -BUT THEY ALWAYS TURN OUT WRONG!

The regular Splicers have these personalities you start recognizing, like angry businessman, or German who sings about Jesus.But I'm especially fond of who I call Fancy Lady.Every Splicer is an already extreme personality going through psychosis.So, when Fancy Lady charges at you, she's not always yelling, I'm gonna kill you!Instead, she thinks she's throwing you out of her daughter's wedding.Or you're a rude guest at a dinner party.

FANCY LADY – "...I'm not in any respectable hotel..."

Ah, New Yorkers can be at the bottom of the fucking ocean, and they're still like, it's different where I'm from!Don't worry, we all know.By the nature of the game, you do run into those generic Splicer personalities over and over again.Which is a normal game limitation, and not a big deal.But there was one detail that stuck out to me, and that's that Bioshock has ghosts.At least, they look like them.

In System Shock 2, they were actual psychic remnants of the dead, and your cybernetics let you perceive them.In Bioshock, their actual leftover genetic memories pass to you through Adam.It's been recycled so much that the population is dead, people are getting each other's memories.So, if that were the case, and Splicers were going through lots and lots of Adam, Some personalities flat -out overriding each other doesn't feel that far off, though nothing in the game directly supports that.Either way, it's interesting a lot of them are still around in Bioshock 2, and some have had bits of character development.The others…

make it that far.As for music, the game has a lot of classic jazz and big band tracks.And most of those just play diegetically on radios inside the game world.Which is a cool, expensive addition, but it's got a great, dramatic original soundtrack as well.It's good at creating tension, but, like the game's opening, the best stuff is saved for the game's bigger moments.

I've got a family.I need to get them out of here.But the splicers have cut me off from them.If you can reach them in Neptune's bounty, then maybe, just maybe...I know you must feel like the unluckiest man in the world right now, but you're the only hope I'll ever see my wife and child again.

Come to Fort Frolic.

Except for a few standouts, a lot of game orchestra music in this time could just be generic action noise.Mainly, since they were chasing the few games that did it extremely well.But Bioshock leans more into being classic drama, and even gothic horror at times.Instead of any big FPS, it reminds me more of something like Arcanum.And sure, Arcanum's was smaller scale, but I still prefer that soundtrack, and it feels more emotional to me.But even approaching that territory in a game like this… Yeah, we could use more of that.

So, sure, I have some issues, and many are just bugs, rather than what the developer actually wanted to happen, but, presentation -wise, Bioshock is so stylish.Rapture is insane and basically fantasy, but still feels believable with all the attention to details in its setting and its characters.So, with all that, let's talk about the gameplay.As an FPS, it's got a strong base with lots and lots of combat options.There's some good enemy interactivity in those physics I talked about earlier.I think, generally, it would be hard to make a bad game, where you can throw bees in somebody's face.

When you boil it all down, Bioshock excels at giving you screaming, entertaining enemies…fight across a wide variety of locations, at least for most of the game.Either way, when it comes to being in the thick of combat, I think they did great translating a lot of ideas over from System Shock 2 and enhancing them here and there.But everything surrounding that had a lot of changes too.Some were good, but a lot of others were trade -offs, and many felt like just baffling downgrades to me.Even in the context of them wanting to streamline it down for a console audience.

But let's start with the good.Obviously, the combat fidelity came a long way.It's near a decade later, and competing against a game that had no reload animations, until the Nightdive remaster.But ideas like having ammo types were kept in, which were a handy hotkey on PC, but on Bioshock console, they're right there on the D -pad, and a breeze to use.It still has the old hotkey too.Some old tools of the trade, like armor -piercing ammo, was back, but Bioshock has a focus on using elements in combat.

For example, the shotgun's electric buckshot is great at stunning enemies, and especially groups of robots.Exploding buckshot deals high damage and sets the enemy on fire.And these are just extras beyond your weapon's normal ability, being a shotgun.Here you can go buy superpowers at Walmart.Then you have a weapon like the Chemthrower, that is pure elemental.It can shoot out napalm or electric gel, but also freeze enemies using nitrogen.

Freeze attacks are super powerful, since they make your enemy completely helpless.They're trapped in the 9th circle of Klondike Hell, as you break through their ice health bar.The drawback there is they completely shatter, so there's nothing left to loot.Now, all these elements have some extra interactivity with the game world.Electricity can shut down a camera, or open a door with a sparking panel, and it can travel freely in water, looking to make a connection.Anyone who's in there will do.

Similar to that, fire can ignite oil slicks.People generally don't like being on fire, but, beyond just running around screaming, if water is nearby, they'll try and douse it out.Otherwise, fire is nice for melting ice.When it comes to your own ice powers, sadly, you can't freeze water, but the hacking minigame is about moving fluid through pipes.So, if you freeze a device beforehand, hacking is a lot easier.I don't think I knew to do this for a few years.

But anyways, these bits of interactivity make the world feel more alive.It's fun to mess with the environment in and out of combat.Though, not everything is interactable, and sometimes it can be weird, like a burning enemy not igniting the fuel pile below them.And you have to do the Mustang double -tap to get that going.And all these things are on top of the Splicer's AI.They're not one unified faction, and you'll often see them murdering each other just as much as they're after you.

At times, there are groups controlled by an alpha addict, or Andrew Ryan starts pumping pheromones into the room, but there's always that underlying chaos.Like, there are healing stations you could pay to fix yourself up at, but sometimes, when a splicer starts losing a fight, they'll also try to run away to one.Even if you're full of medkits you can carry, it's still a good reason to keep an eye out for them.They're just as capable of benefiting from it, and if you do decide to break one, you get a medkit for the trouble.These are all basic examples, but put it all together, And you can see all these gameplay options and choices you have, with some cool enemy reactivity.After all, there are a bunch of different types of splicers, and they do feel different to engage with in combat.

Not to mention, you still have the big daddies wandering around, and sometimes you're in a shootout with a bad man, also desperately not trying to get daddy angry, since, ideally, you wanna be the one to initiate that fight on your terms.So, getting down to it, having all these different weapons and ammo types and powers for countering different enemies does sound a lot like System Shock 2, but the huge difference is how both those games handle the choice.In one, you're selecting military branches, allocating skill points, and all on top of a limited grid inventory.You have to build a character and specialize, and pick where you're strong and weak.The focus is to a point where harder difficulties give you less skill points, to make those choices have even more impact.So, then we go to Bioshock.

There's no inventory, but there are ammo caps.Beyond your wrench, you can hold six weapons, each with three ammo types.So, if those are stocked up, you have 18 ranged attacks available.And that's before counting plasmids.Then you have character upgrades with tonics, across four categories.Tonic and plasmid slots.

are limited, but you can unlock more, and change them out at any time you go to a station.In other words, you reliably have those three elements I mentioned, without ever touching slug magic.Because, above all else, Bioshock is really, really afraid of you having a bad time.They want you to be having a good time.This is by far the most extreme trade -off.Even as the mods and remastered tried to help, chances are, if you play System Shock 2 for the first time, you might re -roll your character after an hour or two.

This was the normal nature for PC games back then.That approach didn't make it to Bioshock.You can always be a super soldier and a super hacker and a slug wizard at the same time.Even your specialty tonics are categorized, so you can always keep them in balance.For weapon upgrades, there's a limit of one free one per station, but even if you rarely use a gun, you'll always have it on you, and still be collecting the ammo for it.You might gravitate towards a playstyle, but will always have backups on backups.

You already can carry 9 medkits and 9 Eve hypos, and Eve is just your magic bar for plasmids.It's not actually mentioned much in the game.These are already on top of the healing stations and the Vita chambers, which are similar to System Shock's Reconstructors.But there are way more of them, they don't cost money when you die, and you don't even have to manually activate them.They're so present, that a lot are borderline hidden, and you'd probably not notice them unless you died.What's extra wild is some things that might seem like limitations at first glance are there to feed you even more items.

Like, before you had unlimited nanites – your space dollars – to spend on whatever you wanted.You could hoard it away, saving for more powerful items that might never come, but Bioshock gives you a hard dollar limit of 500.So, when you often hit the cap, you go and buy more health kits, medkits, ammo – all things you need to survive, but, in the moment, you're just buying them to make room for more money.And near the midpoint of the game, they introduced the U -Invent item crafting station thing, which I always forget about.But new scrap items can craft ammo types, new tonics, useful items like the auto -hacker… So, even if you get low on money, you have an entire backup economy for buying things.Unless your health is so low that a smoke might kill you, you can still buy things.

and loot everything in sight.Most things in Bioshock are geared for immediacy, and not long -term planning.You can't dump all your points by the second area to beeline for the B hands.Powers and upgrades show up when planned, and then you make the decision whether to buy now, or wait and save.These are the biggest choices you make, but you're still not married to them.Like, if you somehow bought the Enrage Plasmid, and then go, hey, wait a minute – this sucks!

You can't refund it, but you can slot it out for something else you have, and the same goes for tonics.You can find a lot of both just playing the video game, so your Atom spends have good flexibility.How much Atom you have is controlled by the game's big narrative choice, but we don't want to get into that just yet.My point is, if you don't dig into the options and just pick a difficulty, the early game will be harder, but Bioshock is a remarkably easy and forgiving game.You have tons of room to make mistakes and change things up over and over again.If you do leave that adaptive training option on, those messages and hints will follow you throughout the entire game.

They don't just taper off after a while.To compare how the two games generally feel, if you completely, stupidly ignore things you're told, System Shock 2 has ways to softlock yourself.You're given points and told to upgrade research, but you don't have to, and if you don't have to, you're softlocked.It's a stupid way to end your game, but a choice you made.When you enter a new area for the first time, there's paranoia, since you don't know where the Resurrector is.You're running across all kinds of new threats, and have to decide where to put points in to counter them.

It's great tension, but the more you play the game, the more you find that some points are just bad spends compared to others.It's something you would do for a themed character or a challenge run, but you would have no way of knowing that going into it.But the fun of that is, on replay, you can approach the same areas in radically new ways.You could go all in on traditional guns and hacking, or psychic powers and eating worms to heal.Your very first run probably won't be the first one.You'll likely restart.

But there's enough to come back to, that I still replay it every year or so.In comparison, Bioshock is way more freeform.You have lots and lots of choices for making a build, and there aren't that many wrong answers, but if you do think you have one, you can swap out easily.There's a lot of freedom and redundancy.There are smarter, hyperactive enemies that should feel more dangerous.But while the music and setting and story generate tension, what's there from the gameplay falls off fast for me.

But, if you play it on the hardest setting and turn off Vita Chambers, the game does get more of the old magic back.There's one part where you have to hold off a bunch of splicers.And when you risk being kicked back to the beginning of the level, desperately trying not to hit the Big Daddy, it is incredible how different this fight feels, especially when he is provoked.The lows of frustration are lower, but it makes those highs of accomplishment so much better.Oh, God, they're right behind me, and he's blocking the heal station!Oh, God!

It may not hit the same for me, but this approach of expecting the player to have all these powers did lead to some interesting outcomes.Like, there's that older saying that gamers never look up, at least in most games.Even in System Shock, only certain players had telekinesis, but here, any player will reliably have it.Because someone has to use it to progress, they're taught the concept.You can still pull out of reach items to you, like you could before, but there are way more scattered throughout Rapture.If you really go hunting, there are things to find in dark corners and rafters all over the place.

And with the game's new physics, the entire level can be your weapon.Redirect rockets, throw back grenades.You can go and throw the enemy dead back at the living.This is one of those games where a bar fight means you could fight them with the bar.This is the kind of thing I'm talking about for improved combat.If you do get into min -maxing tonics, the wrench can become one of your most powerful weapons in the game.

You can't do something like a true stealth playthrough – both the right things slotted in – you can have some insane critical hits on an ambush.Because you can try to play sneaky, but combat is ultimately inevitable.That freedom does give you a lot of room to experiment and try weird playstyles without starting a new game, and there are cool ability combinations to discover.When you really get into the groove in a big fight, it is a lot of fun switching between all your powers and weapons, and seeing what all you can dish out.So, while things were streamlined down, it makes sense.in the context of gearing it all towards fast -paced, chaotic fights, right?

Well, they added complexity into two areas that go against that.So, yes, it's time to talk about pipes.Yeah, classic Epstein.System Shock 2 hacking is stupid easy.Connect three squares.Sometimes, they don't light up, and if that happens in a red space, it triggers an alarm.

You can reset it as many times as you want, though it costs neonites to do so each time.Whatever happens goes quickly.Skills gave you higher success chances, and let you break into more things.Here, there is no threshold – you can try and hack anything, but sometimes it will be impossible.There are tiles that explode the machine, or raise the alarm.When this happens, you aim for a better failure, that short -circuits the machine and causes you some damage.

Though, it is a range of bodily injury.It still beats the alarm or explosion tiles.You just wanna connect the pipes, and certain tonics can slow down the fluid or remove bad tiles.It's handy for converting over robots and turrets, and even cameras.I find this extremely cathartic.Some yuppie crackhead wanders into the room, trying to emo -tap the life juice out of you, and, instead, they're murdered by the shrieking robots.

I'm not your Anux on a moon, you fucking drunks!Luring a bad man into your security killbox is good stuff.It's just the pipe minigame itself is tedious and dull, and slows down the action.You're in the thick of combat, there's a turret shooting you down, you go and hack it, and you're back in the pipes.It was simple before, but quick, and kept your view of the game world.It's no surprise Bioshock 2's is like that, and miles better.

And they seem to know this was bad for the flow, because eventually, with enemy research, you can instantly hack robots and turrets.The minigame itself is fine, it's just how much it slows the game down around it.It's annoying, but… Could be worse… Unfortunately, research is also the other one.Before, you would get an item off an enemy, and sometimes chemicals, and research would happen in the background.You could get in fights and play the game, and mess with this in your downtime.You could unlock damage bonuses and other cool stuff, like access to weapons.

Now you take photos of enemies, and get bonuses for things like them being in combat, multiple guys in one shot, but you'll get a less score photographing the same object, or not being in center frame.You still unlock buffs and bonuses, but beyond it being a bad idea to cultivate child photography reflex skills in gamers, it means interrupting the flow of combat to whip out your camera and take a photo, to get the coveted action shot.Those higher grades give way more research XP.This whole time, I've been carefully editing to not bombard you with my camera combos.Because, while it's annoying to play it, it probably looks way more torturous to watch it.Since, in theory, you take one or two really good photos, and you're done with the enemy.

At least, in that encounter, since there are quite a few research levels to achieve.But, while some scores make sense, eventually, you do want to start arguing with the Professor.Bioshock can randomly use the Ray Charles grading scale for photography, which makes no sense when the man is a piano player.Even if you get a good photo, again, this slows it all down.So, instead, you role -play as the greasiest man in LA in 2007, and pretend that every enemy is Britney Spears.I got two research levels from that.

If you try and do it the right way, it takes ages, and will keep interrupting your combat.Eh, eh?Dammit!Oh my God, her dad is dead.I'm not playing this to get good at photography.I don't want to take pictures of Spider -Man or… whoever.

You could get by fine without research.But it's funny they added more depth and complexity to those two mechanics, but for me, it plays for the worse.I'd rather stay in the moment during the fights, and not get distracted by plumbing or David Attenborough gunkata.Anyways, this is a good time to move more into the story and the big mechanical choice.Beyond what to scavenge and unlock, Bioshock's big choice was the game.with the Little Sisters.

Atlus has pointed out that they're genetically engineered monsters, and not children at all.However, they have an advocate and a woman named Dr. Tenenbaum, the creator of the program, whose scientific career started in a Nazi prison camp.As a child, she loved science so much, she was advising the Nazis on how to better refine their experiments.Which they also thought was stupid and insane, since she was also their prisoner.Rather than harvest other Atom, she gives you a tonic that lets you rescue the little sisters.You perform an exorcism that sends their soul into a flashbang grenade, and they seem like normal little girls again, with you getting a small amount of Atom.

She's also promised, if you keep saving them, she'll make it worth your while.Okay, so door number one – murder the child to get more Atom, because the voice in the radio told you it's not a child.Or door number two – don't murder the child, still get some Atom, and the mystery box.Now, look, in general, I don't use load -bearing Simpsons clips, but it's save or destroy the child, where one option has the box.I've always felt zero compulsion to do the harvest option, and playing through the game, it seems like it was made that way too.Later parts of the game feel like things you would have gotten for rescuing a bunch.

But if you were harvesting them all, these are all the same, there's just some lines about how you're scary.CHILD'S VOICE – MAMA TENENBAUM SAYS STAY AWAY FROM HIM It's to the point that, when you do the first harvest, the slug's texture doesn't load in at first.It's like the texture system itself is going, oh shit, someone's actually doing this, load that in, there we go.Pure harvesting does lead to a different ending, but everything up until that point makes a lot more sense if you've been rescuing.Atlus frames it as being very pragmatic – they're not really children, and you need the atom to survive and help others who are real.But if you are thinking pragmatically, you probably wanna know what the box is about.

And you don't have to chance whether or not you're actually killing a little girl.And when you rescue one for the first time, they sure seem like a little kid.He was an idealist revolutionary who led the rise up against Ryan.So he's both a family man and also an end -justifies -the -means kind of guy.I guess you can only shrug for now.Otherwise, the main thrust of the game is helping him to save his family, and also taking down Andrew Ryan, who's especially targeting you as an outsider.

There are a lot of colorful characters between you and him.The threat levels range between Courage the Cowardly Dog Criminal and Batman Villain.It's overall a good ride, but there is a part in the story where the game starts to slog down for me.Mainly because you're no longer getting brand new enemy types, and the ones you have been fighting are getting cartoonishly tankier, and all while fighting through the most bombed out and brown levels in the game.There are some good character moments and reveals, but compared to the rest of the game, it starts looking more like other shooters of its time.In the remastered museum, you can see enemy designs they toyed with.

And while most no longer fit the tone they were going for, throwing in some new freaks could have been a nice shake -up.Otherwise, compared to everything else, it's a definite rough patch.But there is a stuffed polar bear.I kind of wish I could photograph that thing for research.No, it's just making me think of York in the Golden Compass game.It always looked like he was hiding from paparazzi.

No photos!Noooo!I'm gonna start getting into spoilers, so if you don't want those, go to here.Okay, here we go.As I mentioned before, the game is chock full of audio logs and other clues, all detailing the fall of Rapture.There were a lot of players who all had influence, but I'm covering broad strokes here.

And I don't mean the ones from Jasmine Jolene.While Bioshock does get into a lot of political and economic ideas, the character who practices what they preach the most probably wouldn't consider themselves some kind of philosopher.Because Rapture was one of those funny works -on -paper ideologies.If Andrew Ryan truly put his beliefs above all else, it might have gone on a bit longer.But you know how they say no one is perfect?plan survives contact with the enemy?

I think no ideology survives contact with ego.From the get -go, the plaque lamenting there's no place for people like me is below the giant statue of Andrew Ryan.People like me, and only man, is just about him.Did you ever notice the thin fabric banner is over the embossed logo of the Great Chain?Efficient asset use or symbolism?You decide.

Either way, it seems clear that he views himself and the city as the same.Even as things started unraveling, and his lieutenants argued with him about the pillars the city was built on, Ryan continued to bend and break those, as long as it left him in charge.The fall didn't happen overnight, but it was a slow unraveling.Huh… markets… Those were already in a disruption period when Jack arrived.You could argue Rapture is already a powder keg, but the spark of the revolution was regulation.For all its talk about being a new world and a separate, isolated paradise, the old world is still brought up and complained about constantly.

Ryan's total free trade only counts inside the city.All the adults here are still transplants from the surface.So, something like the death penalty for smugglers is seen as insane.A lot of the smuggling was for Bibles and religious icons, and newspapers from the outside world.As much as he railed against religion and the parasites, it didn't stop people's interest in it.Ultra -free market man who hated regulation still cannot fathom the idea of there being a black market in Rapture.

Most people aren't ever meant to leave it again, and if they miss the surface, they can travel through areas like Arcadia, where they've tried to bring some of that look back.But it's not the same, because you're still at the bottom of the ocean, and it's hard to get people to accept that this is supposed to be forever, and Bioshock 2 gets more into that as well.What's more insane is the originator of the smuggling ring, Frank Fontaine, is also the man that brought plasmids into Rapture.Dr. Tenenbaum was at the docks, and saw the paralyzed hands of a fisherman healed by slug venom.She went to Fontaine to fund the research, he agreed, and Fontaine Futuristics and Adam was born.A pretty far cry from just Fontaine Fisheries.

So now he has a legitimate business in fucking superpowers, and can buy up all kinds of competition.Even as Ryan's staff come to him worried about the side effects of plasmids, he doesn't care.Initially, Fontaine is fair competition, but discovering he was connected to the smuggling is what led to the more extreme measures.He didn't capitalize on Adam when he could have earlier.He missed out.

["I'll go spend an hour pretending to pay attention to the poor fellow."

Was Ryan cracking so hard down on smuggling because it would keep Rapture pure, or because it would be the best avenue to find a good reason to wipe out his competition, and he was desperate?And sure, Fontaine was a criminal under the laws of the city, but Ryan made them isolationists out of fear parasites would learn about them and take all they had built.

So tell me, friend, which one of the bitches sent you?The KGB wolf or the CIA jackal?

The dude thought he built a walled garden, he just ended up with a jungle.Because he didn't understand obvious human nature, they would still want a connection with the surface.Even if they liked the city and just wanted to read up on news or get new movies and music, he criminalized basic things people would want with an extremely wealthy captive audience.And yeah, not everyone in Rapture started wealthy, but I don't want to get into Bioshock 2 yet.So, the black market was inevitable.Andrew Ryan might have been a brilliant industrialist, but Frank Fontaine was a modernist.

dude.When Ryan says he chose the impossible, he's right, because Frank knows not everyone in Rapture can be a winner.The rich were so far past that you need money to survive, that they just viewed it as a game at this point.We'll all go down there, shake hands, be civilized and agree to the rules.

WOMEN DO LIKE IT WHEN THEY DON'T.

Despite the signs about altruism being weakness, Frank brought all sorts of socialist things into Rapture.An orphanage, a place to eat and sleep, Fontaine's House for the Poor.And this tradition is ancient with criminals.Part of the reason classic gangsters can entrench so well in a city, is because they'd often do favors for people in the neighborhood.Pay off some rent here and there, take care of some meals… Sometimes they were from there and could care about their community.But really, if you're struggling and the cops come knocking for information, you don't wanna rat out the guy who's paying your rent and providing you meals.

So Ryan is screeching about ideology and the chain, but not facing reality, and he doesn't understand why he can't catch Frank Fontaine.In one of Frank's audio logs, he dismantles everything about this place in just a few sentences.Sure, Adam and Plasmids accelerated the fuck out of the power struggle, but the operation gave Fontaine the cash and loyalty to buy things up, like he had been doing.Ryan was LARPing that Rapture was an isolated free market.Fontaine knew better.You don't need to read that Welfare Queen's train erotica to see that.

wrong here.So, when Ryan finally killed Fontaine, and then nationalized his company to be his, in one move he lost his ideological loyalists, and made Fontaine a martyr, creating the perfect storm for a People's Hero like Atlas to rise up and lead the revolution.Despite your efforts, Ryan does destroy Atlas' family.But actually getting to Ryan is just finishing a plan the revolutionaries already started.Ryan's special splicer pheromones basically already won the war for him.But, despite what the propaganda says, the city is already ruined.

It's a playground for people like Steinman to do grotesque surgeries, and crazed artists like Sander Cohen to turn people into plastic through avant -garde art projects.All while burning through more boy protégés than Bruce Wayne.Through all of this, Andrew Ryan sits in his office, doing whatever.

MONEY.POWER.NERVE.A MAN CHOOSES.

A SLAVE OBEYS.This is where we have the game's big reveal.Jack wasn't in a random plane crash, he caused it.Because Jack is a sleeper agent FROM RAPTURE, who can be controlled by the phrase, WOULD YOU KINDLY.You're also Andrew Ryan's son, sold as a fetus by the dancer Jasmine Jolene.Using weird science and conditioning, Jack's growth was accelerated, memories implanted, and he was smuggled out of Rapture to be returned later.

Ryan has many security systems locked down to his genetics, so you could guess the son twist earlier, because bathyspheres and vitachambers should be locked out to anyone who doesn't have his DNA.But you still likely only guessed son, and not borderline homunculus.Jack was Fontaine's long -term backup plan to get rid of Ryan, and it's finally succeeded.

FONTAINE'S FATHER – Nice work, by all!FONTAINE'S FATHER – Hahahaha!

FRANK FONTAINE FAKED HIS DEATH AND HAS BEEN ATLAS THE WHOLE TIME.HE WAS HELPING AND GUIDING YOU OVER THE RADIO, DISGUISED AS SOMEONE ELSE, IN A LONG -TERM PLAN TO GAIN ULTIMATE POWER.Hey… HEY!It's a more intricate and layered plan, with a lot more tied into it.But yeah, the main beat is dead -on for System Shock 2.Though, once he is revealed, he exerts a lot more direct control over you than SHODAN did.

Tenenbaum is able to break you out of being what you kindly'd, but it takes time and effort for you to fully escape his grasp.He can stop your movement and zap down your health, your plasmids start randomly changing, and all the while he's taunting you, saying how you're nobody, how smart people make the best marks for a scam, and sometimes doing his Atlas voice.Then, when you truly break free, he yells like he's an evil Disney queen.He's an entertaining villain, and a competent one whose motivation makes sense.By taking control of Rapture's security, and the Big Daddy and Little Sister pipeline, Fontaine can turn the city into an atom factory, and get rich selling it all to the world.All because he exploited Ryan's pipeline to get a son who would act as his agent.

When Ryan found out, he made sure she couldn't do that again.It all makes perfect sense for Fontaine.After all, he worked with Tenenbaum on Plasmids, but also Jack and the Little Sisters.The girls weren't genetic creations, and many came from the orphanage.All the ideological set -dressing broke down to a power struggle between two egos.Even though he doesn't wax on about objectivism and the economy like Ryan does, at the end of the day, Ryan didn't fully buy into it in the first place, and abandoned more and more of it as time went on.

Ryan believes his own bullshit, but Fontaine does not.He isn't pretending to have a code or values.He just dresses things up that way when convenient for him.So, he may have some traits, but I wouldn't call him an extreme libertarian.There's a lot about how Wood U kindly represents choices in games and narratives being conveyed.and… I can't even pretend to give a shit.

I think it works better in the actual narrative.If I ever get on to Bioshock Infinity, then we'll talk about it there.Sorry, I meant Bioshock Infinite.That was a weird slip.It is great the narrative in reveals stays so strong right till the end.Because, like I said before, the gameplay was wearing thin to me at this point.

There's a section where you need to become a big daddy and escort a little sister.And it's not terrible, but it's still worse than that sounds.

Alright, let's go!Come on!

No, no, no!Not in the fire!Not in the fire!Ah, well… At least it's just this one part.You fight pure natty, paleo -mode Frank Fontaine in a pretty rough boss fight.It's not difficult, just frantic and messy in a bad way.

Then, in a twist of fate, he's murdered by all the little sisters he wanted to exploit.When I first played this, I thought this was the good ending.Like, if you killed too many, there won't be enough to save you from Frank.But no, this part always plays out this way.The actual good ending is refusing to seize power and bringing all the children up to the surface.Everyone gets a new second chance at life, Jack is no longer a prisoner of power, and it's a short but sweet way to wrap up the game.

If you devour all the children, instead you and the Splicers… hijack a nuclear submarine.Which is exciting in the sense this means Rapture might become a nuclear power and become present on the world stage.I'd imagine it's more rare players got this, but it is the better sequel hook, and not followed up on.The game did have some more subtle choices too, but only this affects the ending.Sister Jockey… Overall, Bioshock is a super stylish game.It has excellent art and sound design, music, layered and interesting characters with great voice performances… But when it comes to the actual gameplay, I am pretty mixed on it.

It's good overall, but points of it do feel like a downgrade of the game that came before it.And while fighting feels better, it can still be janky.And your gameplay decisions can be so free, that it feels like they lack some weight.The game feels like it has all the elements to make that happen, like if it was a separate game mode or difficulty, but I still think its position in the game landscape is extremely important.Sure, it was streamlined and simplified down, but it brought more people into playing games like this.If Bioshock didn't happen, I don't know if Prey would have.

Purely from gameplay, this is what I would call a gateway game.But, if you meet it on its terms, there's still a lot of fun to be had playing it, and an intricate narrative with lots of details to find, if you go looking for it.So, speaking of that, come back next time for Bioshock 2!Thanks for watching!Thoughts on Babylon 5?It's a cool show, and a lot of it looks like a Command & Conquer cutscene.

It's probably the closest thing out there to a Mass Effect show, if you like that.But, if you're big on puppets, watch Farscape.Now that Destiny is getting its final update soon, what's the chance of entering the rabbit hole?This one actually had a reply that's pretty dead -on.I don't know how accessible Destiny 1 is anymore.And 2 has had such giant chunks cut out of it over the years, every once in a while I'll try to boot it up and see, and it's just incomprehensible to me.

I've played with people trying to explain the story to me as we're going through it, and that's fucking crazy.So I don't wanna do a video relying on lots of second -hand interpretations, where I can't play tons of it.Why did I change my mind about doing Ultima Underworld videos before Bioshock?This will sound weird, but I played a bit of the new marathon, and it mainly comes from that.I guess that's all I can say for now, but hopefully, it'll make more sense in the future.How about the next Thief game?

I'd say probably.I assume you mean the remaster, not the VR one, but it'd be nice to return to Thief, or just go for Dishonored.