November 2018 Playthrough - Bioshock

[MetalFRO]

I was hoping to beat the game last night, but from Olympus Heights forward, the game gets harder, I think, even though I'm sufficiently powered up enough to feel like a bit of a powerhouse. As much as I don't want to rely on the Vita-Chambers for keeping my health up, I find that Big Daddies still end up taking me out more often than not, and getting bum rushed by 3 splicers at once, especially in narrow corridors and tight spaces, is a recipe for a fast death. Sure, I can freeze one or two, and deal with what's remaining, but those effects are short-lived, so it's a constant juggling act. Splicers that attack you via melee means will always shave a little health off, and because their movements are so erratic, I often end up wasting ammo as I'm trying to target them. Over time, I've learned how to conserve that somewhat, but it's still a factor. Either way, I'm hoping to finish it off tonight, as I think I'm about to enter the final area.

[singlebanana]

Good luck FRO!  Anyone else think those Hoodini Splicers especially suck?

[MetalFRO]

Boy howdy, do they! The Houdini style are so annoying, because they can disappear right as you're lining up your shot, and even if you use the Electro Bolt plasmid, they can still teleport away, so they can take a little while to take out.

[Crabmaster2000]

Have you guys maxed out your Houdini research with the camera? One of the benefits of doing that was it makes it easier to see where they are reappearing. Makes it pretty simple to line up a shot well in advance and they can't really do anything about it.

[MetalFRO]

Have you guys maxed out your Houdini research with the camera? One of the benefits of doing that was it makes it easier to see where they are reappearing. Makes it pretty simple to line up a shot well in advance and they can't really do anything about it.

LOL, I'm too busy trying to NOT DIE to take pictures of those turds

[Crabmaster2000]

Ha!

[MaterialHandlerMike]

Unfortunately, I am once again falling behind in the playthrough. I will try and get this finished before December, but between trying to compete with my gf over the PS4, and being hopelessly addicted to Let’s Go Eevee, I’m struggling to play this.

[Crabmaster2000]

Unfortunately, I am once again falling behind in the playthrough. I will try and get this finished before December, but between trying to compete with my gf over the PS4, and being hopelessly addicted to Let’s Go Eevee, I’m struggling to play this.

Just name your character Atlas and you Rival can be Andrew Ryan then you can play right alone side us with your pokemon/splicers

[Crabmaster2000]

Finished it off this morning. I did remember the Big Daddy stuff, but I thought it was in Bioshock 2 for some reason. No I can't remember what happened at all in Bioshock 2, lol. I have many questions for you guys:

Why did it have to be little girls gather the ADAM? Tennenbaum mentioned in a log I found that she understood why it had to be, but I must have missed the one that explained it to the player.

Why did at no time during this game did the player speak? Did they ever explain why you are a mute?

How does everyone who is on the radio with you know exactly where you are and what you are doing at all times? Ryan, Fontaine, Tennenbaum, Cohen all would speak to you as certain actions unfolded like they had just witnessed what you had done.

Why wouldn't you ever turn off your radio especially after learning about the psychological conditioning?
 
Did they dive into how the magic potion heals your physiological condition? That seemed a bit far fetched even in the reality they had constructed for this game. Just seemed like a lazy out so they could have you face Fontaine in a head to head fight.

What exactly was I doing to the little sisters when I was "rescue"ing them? I never really understood what was going on there.

I still don't get how the Vita-Chambers fit in. What did I miss there?


As for how I feel about the game in general. I don't care for it. It's a long repetitive slog for very little actual story. Cool twists don't make it worth the time investment. If they cut out half of the game I think it would have been a lot more enjoyable. The shooting itself never evolved past the first area and it wasn't very fun there. The hacking just got worse and worse to the point it felt like a modern mobile game at the end where I was spending money to not play the game (purchasing auto-hacking tools). Nearly all of the plasmids and upgrades felt tacked on just to flush out the game and weren't actually useful. That last fight (and really every encounter after the first Big Daddy) was so easy it was very silly that he would knowingly keep restraining himself even after you started harvesting him. The style of story telling just didn't jive with me, I had a really hard time piecing things together and getting attached to any of the characters. It's a neat idea and I can definitely see the merit, it's just not for me.

I did like the happy ending I got though for saving all of the Little Sisters. That was a satisfying conclusion afterwards. It seemed like only about 5 made it out with me though and there were a ton more of them still in Rapture though. My favorite part of the game was when I was in Olympus Heights and I was wandering around with all of the little sisters and I took a candy bar off of one of the tables and one of the little sisters looked right at me and said "hey!!", that caught me off guard and was a super cute moment in such an otherwise dark depressing game.

A friend of mine has had me playing through the original Halo with him a little bit each time I go there and I feel very similar about that game as I do Bioshock. I could see if I was enjoying the game play a lot more that the sparse story might not be an issue for me, but since it's not really my thing it makes the whole experience feel like a slog. There isn't really a part that I love about the game that has me grinding through the rest of it to get there, which I definitely do in a lot of other games. I definitely need to play more FPS games as I'm sure there has to be one that sucks me in. This wasn't it unfortunately though.

PS - I blew up every first aid station I found for the rest of the game and I only got one that dropped me 2 kits!! I was starting to think you guys were trolling me, but it seems I just had back luck assuming they are rng drops.

[GrayGhost81]

QUESTION OF THE MONTH: @thesinglebanana and I will be recording this weekend and we want to know, what is your favorite DYSTOPIA from any from of media, and why?

PS - Thank you all for an incredible discussion this month. I still love this game and it was awesome to revisit it with the playthrough gang. I'm pretty sure everyone has finished the game so we can go ahead and discuss everything, including the ending, freely at this point. Coherent final thoughts will be read on the podcast as usual, so fire away!

[Crabmaster2000]

QUESTION OF THE MONTH: @thesinglebanana and I will be recording this weekend and we want to know, what is your favorite DYSTOPIA from any from of media, and why?

Equilibrium is one of my favorite Dystopian settings for sure. The odd society were people take drugs to suppress their feelings and it's a crime punishable by death to engage in things like listening to music or hiding art is fascinating. Also Gun Kata is super badass!!

[GrayGhost81]

Crabby, you missed airtime with the answer by just a few hours, but thank you for the response!

What is Equilibrium from? Sounds cool.

[Crabmaster2000]

Crabby, you missed airtime with the answer by just a few hours, but thank you for the response!

What is Equilibrium from? Sounds cool.

Aww dang. It's an early Christain Bale and Sean Bean movie. Really cool concept and the Gun Kata that I mentioned is a gun based martial art that they train the government agents in so you get to see Christain Bale do all sort of wicked gun based karate moves. If you go to moviebodycounts.com his character is still ranked number 3 character of all time for dropping 118 bodies in 1 hour and 47 minutes. It's one of my favorite movies period dystopian or not.