REVIEW - Dishonored

GENRE(S): Action-adventure, Stealth

AVAILABLE ON: PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360

DEVELOPER(S): Arkane Studios

PUBLISHER(S): Bethesda Softworks

RELEASE DATE: October 9, 2012

Arkane Studios' work on their greatest hit – back then, just a handful of hope for the struggling studio – began in 2009, which was to be the year of the assassin adventure; in the end of the year, Ubisoft launched the mother of all sequels in Assassin's Creed II. A niche was getting set up, which might be one of the key reasons to ZeniMax Media reaching towards Arkane Studios and buying it in hopes for a different, yet just as groundbreaking tale of murder and conspiracy to be released under the oh, so fabled Bethesda Softworks banner. By the time Dishonored finally came out in 2012, the niche had gotten much bigger, it was all but perfect for a new stealth action IP. Assassin's Creed was no longer at the top of its popularity, but waned just the right amount for a new game to come collect its remaining harvest. Released almost a year before, Skyrim smothered the Bethesda Softworks logo in molten gold, and still continued to flourish, as fans all around the world were eagerly anticipating the arrival of the third and final add-on, the magnificent Dragonborn. There couldn't have been better circumstances for Dishonored to hit the shelves, and for a completely new game, it sold well. It was loved by critics and gamers alike, and hailed by many as one of the greatest new franchises of the century, the perfect mix of a stealth-based action-adventure and a Bethesda RPG, but never to my account, a real masterpiece. I don't remember anyone ever giving it a straight perfect review. That figures. Dishonored is not a perfect game. What Dishonored is, though, is a good start.

Requiescat in Pace, or don't

We're in 17^th century England, a very industrialized and very fictional one. Empress Kaldwin's personal bodyguard Corvo Attano – a quite intimidating, soft-spoken guy with supernatural talents – returns home from a long journey, only to be brutally framed for his liege's (and lover's) murder, as well as her daughter Emily's abduction, by the Empress' spymaster and his hired help. Six months later, on the eve of his execution, Corvo escapes prison with the help of a group of imperial loyalists operating on the far outskirts of the city of Dunwall. With these loyalists at his back, Corvo starts picking off the spymaster's – now Lord Regent – cohorts one at a time, and aims to rescue Emily from her real captors in the process.

Dear sir, I do believe you're getting fucked.

Dishonored has a very interesting story, that I personally think goes to waste, just a bit, in a comic book environment. Got to keep in mind, though, that this game is really, really violent. It's not all that more or less violent than Assassin's Creed was at this point, but it's a first-person game, so it's a bit different; photorealism might've seriously pissed censors off. The first-person perspective threw me off a little too, at first. It's a challenging perspective for me as it is, but a stealth game? That's serious shit. It's surprisingly adaptable once you get over it. The stereo surround is awesome, it's one of your greatest tactical advantages. Many stealth- or stealth-oriented games tend to have problems with distancing chatter or footsteps properly, Dishonored does it just right. Headphones, or some really juicy home theater set-up are recommended for this one. To further praise the sound department, the music's quite OK, and we have talented voice actors we ALL know placing their bids here – Susan Sarandon, Lena Headey, Michael Madsen, Carrie Fisher, and Brad Dourif, for starters.

Double, double toil and trouble

Dishonored actually has much more in common with Metal Gear Solid than it has with Assassin's Creed, IF it can really be compared to any earlier game in existence; it really is a rare game of its very own kind. So, let's just leave any comparisons to any game that came before out right now, and just concentrate on the distinguishing features of Dishonored.

And down he goes.

Dishonored is cut into 16 distinct chapters, 9 of which are your primary missions and the rest are more or less tutorials or small quests that work towards the story. During these missions, you'll be visiting different parts of Dunwall, very often the same parts, but not without some significant changes, always for the worse – and side missions are always designed to accommodate a specific main mission, so if you're gonna do them, do them right away. As to why Dishonored has more in common with Metal Gear Solid than Assassin's Creed, is that in Assassin's Creed, the only true solution to any situation or major confrontation is a knife to the neck. It's just the approach you can decide for yourself. In Dishonored, you can decide most of everything for yourself. You don't have to kill any of the guys and gals on your list, you can go for an indirect approach to make sure no one hears or sees them again. Such as utterly humiliating them; humiliation has no cure in this fancy-ass town ruled by self-important dicks. Or, if you necessarily want them dead, but are tired or bored of sneaking behind their backs and venting their necks with your blade, very often you can find an alternative, more difficult but rewarding method. The side missions in the game very often give you clues to some really cool assassination plans, and it's really hard to resist trying them out.

To effectively sneak around in this severely plagued police state, Corvo has a wide array of gadgets and supernatural talents granted to him by a spirit of an intentionally vague alignment; he's kinda there to remind you of your own alignment and the ending you're going to receive for your actions. No need to browse through them all, but a few examples would be nice. You can possess rats (which there are plenty of, I can assure you, and all the more if you keep icing folk), bloodhounds and fish (really) to access certain types of path- and entryways. At a more advanced level of this ability, you can also possess regular enemy soldiers. You can't do anything to directly harm anyone – except push them off cliffs by just walking into them, that's fun (not to mention walking off a cliff yourself) – but this is a standout method to get closer to any enemy that's actually your target, including main mission targets. Your basic method of stealth movement is a teleportation ability you'll gain almost immediately after the first mission of the game, it's a real diverse hoot once you learn to use it properly and to great effect. Of course, as in any self-respecting game nowadays, you can hack all sorts of enemy equipment to function for your cause with the Rewire Tool. Finally, I guess I'll mention Thief Vision, which allows you to track enemy movement behind walls. So, it's kind of like Batman's Detective Mode, only you can use this for a very limited period of time and it really isn't quite that useful. Oops, a comparison.

Ouch. That'll leave a mark.

Last, I'll speak of what's left in the levels besides the missions and side missions, what makes them last for hours. Well collectables, of course, and not just any dolls or statues that reward you with a warm soul and a Trophy, but really important stuff; Runes to upgrade your abilities with, and Bone Charms, role-playing accessories which allow you to augment yourself with multiple passive abilities and perks. As the game developers practically encourage you to survive this game without improving on your default abilities too much, the Bone Charms are not all that essential to your success, the augments are not really that awesome, but they can be of surprisingly great help from time to time. To find these collectables in each stage of each level, you have a ”sonar” called Heart... which, actually, is literally a still beating human heart. Nice to have one in your pocket on these long trips, huh.

Dishonored is full of good, innovative ideas, but their execution is very rough-edged, very clanky at times. The gameplay never quite leaps the expected standards of the publisher or the genre. Close combat is somewhat clumsy, ranged combat has somewhat random registration, and the radial menu for the abilities and weapons is a complete fucking nightmare at its worst. Instead of the ability you pick, the game very often picks another one. Let's say you pick Blink to teleport right behind an unsuspecting guard to stab him in the neck, and when you use it, you notice that well, the game didn't like your choice and chose a hand grenade to throw at the guard and perhaps kill him, but also alert every damn guard in the vicinity. Like I said, a fucking nightmare. Always double-check.

VERDICT

Dishonored's flaws might be few, but it's a fairly lengthy game, and these problems, few as they are, follow the trail from the beginning to the very end, only getting worse with time and difficulty. It's not a stellar game as far as gameplay is concerned, but it has so much great ideas, a whole new, such great take on the stealth action genre, and such a good story to it, that it really should not be ignored by anyone. Not with a sequel on the way.

8.4

REVIEW - Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

GENRE(S): Action-adventure, Third-person shooter

AVAILABLE ON: PlayStation 4

DEVELOPER(S): Naughty Dog

PUBLISHER(S): Sony Computer Entertainment

RELEASE DATE: May 10, 2016

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune was one of the first games I ever bought for my PlayStation 3. It had already been out for a couple of years and a sequel was already in the works, so it was quite cheap. I had heard a lot of good things about the game; today, a cheap price such as that and good buzz on the immediate grapevine would probably be enough for me to go out and buy a game. I wasn't doing too good back then financially, so I needed something else to assure me of the game's quality. I found that one final guarantee in a playable demo, which blew me away. The game blew me away even more. Even in 2013, when I replayed the game for the first time in four years, I gave it an honest-to-God 9.1. It's a genuine PlayStation classic, followed by an even better game, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. After completing this masterpiece, co-directors Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley shifted their full attention to The Last of Us. Amy Hennig – the director of the first game – took over the development of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. Although the game was extremely well received in the media, some fans were disappointed with the story, and the general pace of the game, including yours truly. The Last of Us was finished a year and a half later, and Druckmann and Straley solidified their spots on the great video game walk of fame with this post-apocalyptic behemoth. In November of 2013, it was announced that Druckmann and Straley were now working on the final installment in the Uncharted series, and the world exploded. Two and a half years, and many delays later, the end is finally here. Join me in a final farewell to the greatest treasure hunter there ever was. Besides Henry Jones Jr.. (Did you hear Ford's signed on for a fifth flick? Insanity? Or genius? I swear to God, if he finds the fountain of youth and turns into Chris Pratt...)

One last time

Three years after Ubar, Nathan Drake has abandoned his old life of thrill-seeking and fortune-hunting for marriage, and a hellishly boring deep-sea scavenging job. Nate's life turns upside down as his older brother Sam, declared dead and erased from all records 15 years back, suddenly shows up and asks Nate for help in fulfilling their mutual childhood dream: finding the lost treasure of pirate captain James Avery. Seeing that his job is taking him nowhere, and that his brother's life hangs on finding this mythical loot, Nate agrees to brush up his mad adventuring skills one last time.

One last time begins here. And it's going to be a long walk.

Words can't describe my anticipation for this game. I've had the PlayStation 4 for two years, but Uncharted 4 is but the second game that ever made having that thing there truly mean something. The first was Batman: Arkham Knight. When all the delays were over and the game was nearing gold status, I replayed all of the three previous Nathan Drake adventures; it was then I realized how many years had passed since I last played them all the way to the credits. I did it so quick, too, that I was still left with a lot of spare time, so I decided to take The Last of Us for a spin as a bonus, doing absolutely everything in that game for the first time, and I was left with a mind so blown that I had such high hopes for Uncharted 4. Druckmann and Straley redefined the Naughty Dog standard with The Last of Us, just as they previously did with Uncharted 2. Uncharted 3 was a good – no, great – game, but it was clearly missing something that made the previous adventures so good. That is a fact that was driven even deeper on the second time around. Uncharted 4 seemed a bit darker than the rest of the series, at first, like it was influenced by The Last of Us a bit too much. Well, that is certainly not the case. If you loved Nathan Drake's previous adventures, including (and especially 'cause of) the humour, you will love Uncharted 4: A Thief's End. There are dark parts to it, the theme song might not be as cheery and uplifting as it was before, but it's still Uncharted to its very core.

Another page from Big Boss' playbook.

The game looks and sounds just as sweet as the franchise ever did. Drake's Fortune was already one of the finest-looking games ever made at its time, and it still looks quite good – and definitely playable – today. If Drake's Deception shone at some part, it's audiovisuals. You can just imagine how this game looks like at its best. Even at its worst it looks spectacular; no still images can do this beauty any justice. It's easily the best-looking game on the PlayStation 4 right now; probably the best-looking game ever made. Uncharted stalwarts Nolan North, Emily Rose and Richard McGonagle are joined by the almighty Troy Baker and Warren Kole, as Sam Drake and main antagonist Rafe Adler, respectively. Verbal exchanges between all characters have never sounded this good and alive, and that's a lot when we're talking about Uncharted. There are tons of in-jokes that you might find funny even if you haven't played one previous game in the franchise.

The story is extremely good, definitely the best this franchise has had to offer; previously, the stories didn't really matter all that much if you ask me. It was all about the most ridiculously epic action sequences you could think of, and the most ridiculously epic treasure at the end you could think of. Here, the treasure's not really all that essential; it's a tale of two brothers, with tons of Uncharted action on the side. It's a more immersive, and a more personal game. Nate even bluntly says he doesn't care about the treasure. He just wants to save his big bro. Also, there are absolutely no supernatural elements to Uncharted 4; I know for a fact there are people who will appreciate a ”normal” story in Nate's life for once.

Climb, shoot, jump, rinse, repeat

Some open-world exploring new to the series.

Uncharted has always been a game of extremely easy access and simple gameplay – that is one tradition that still sticks. If you've played all or any of the previous games, you'll learn all there is to Uncharted 4 in ten minutes. Fifteen, tops. The ”return-to-sender” ability from Uncharted 3 is removed (to many a fan's dismay, I presume), and ”replaced” with a new rope-swinging mechanic, that allows for trickier climbing puzzles as well as more tactical and stealthier combat. Stealth is a VERY important element in Uncharted 4. Unlike in Uncharted 2 and 3 where stealth felt kind of like a stamped-on feature – just because stealth games were in such high demand – you can seriously avoid many tough gunfights by picking guys off one at a time; hanging on ledges, crawling through long grass, etc.. Especially on harder difficulty levels, nearing the end of the game, I find the option of stealth a very welcome one. Uncharted 4 goes all in with the gunfights. It is not an easy game. Most covers break after a while, the enemies like to use a lot of grenades, and without the return-to-sender ability, you have to prepare to be on a constant move if you decide to go at it all guns blazing. The enemy A.I. is amazing; luckily, so is that of your allies. They're pretty good shots, and in stealth situations, they can take single enemies down for you, if you take cover within the confines of the same screen.

After this documentation, we arrive to the threshold: is Uncharted 4 the best game in the franchise? No, it's not. As great as the story is, it plods through a few slumps, most of which are placed near the end of the game; these slumps concern both story and gameplay. There are a few dips into frustrating repetition, a few faux endings, and the absolute ending of the game really didn't work for me at all. It probably would've worked as a promotional video or something, but as a part of the game, no. Even Uncharted 3 had a better run for its last few hours; but, in turn, Uncharted 4 has nothing like that frustrating walk across the desert. At least something happens, all the time, in repeat or not. Uncharted 4 comes very close to Uncharted 2 in the race for the best game in the series, I'll give it that much.

VERDICT

Nathan Drake has come a long way from a sleeper hit to a megastar, and exits the fold at the absolute top of his game, with a fantastic final performance. At the same time, Naughty Dog comes full circle – in more ways than one, as you will see – and after The Last of Us and this here Thief's End, I can't wait what those rascals have got planned for the future. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is a near masterpiece, which no PlayStation 4 owner can afford to miss.

9.2

REVIEW - BioShock Infinite

GENRE(S): First-person shooter
AVAILABLE ON: Linux, Macintosh, PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360
DEVELOPER(S): Irrational Games, 2K Marin, Human Head Studios
PUBLISHER(S): 2K Games, Virtual Programming (Linux)
RELEASE DATE: March 25, 2013 (PlayStation 3)

It's the year 1912. Private investigator Booker DeWitt finds himself neck-deep in debt, and sees his grand opportunity when a mysterious man suddenly appears on his doorstep and tells him to ”bring them the girl and wipe away the debt”. Booker heads to the colossal sky-borne city of Columbia to look for this particular girl, Elizabeth, who's been held prisoner by a religious cult led by one Father Zachary Comstock for her whole life. As if it wouldn't be enough that one's come to take their chosen one away, Booker is almost immediately recognized as a false prophet who has to die. Prepare for take-off, we're in the sky now – welcome to BioShock Infinite.

Hallelujah

”You've played one FPS, you've played them all.” This is what me and my ex-girlfriend perfectly agreed on. Yet, when BioShock Infinite came out, she was ecstatic and after a week, claimed to have spent every waking moment of her short spare time on the game. For the longest time, I thought she had just simply sold out. Even after all the awards, all the reviews, all the nominations. Even after about a dozen friends tried to force my hand to finally take on this ”perfect” game – including friends that weren't that keen on the genre and guys who hadn't played the earlier games at all. Well, the obvious question here is: what makes BioShock Infinite so special in this genre? As a matter of fact, the two BioShock games that came before already answered that question. There's a familiarity about BioShock Infinite; it's very different in a lot of ways, but turns into a bonafide BioShock gradually, on the go. The storyline, and how it finally fits into this crazy universe, is more important and better than ever. That means the game slows down a bit every now and then, but after the admittedly strange and quite boring start, and after getting accustomed to the simplified gameplay, you shouldn't care anymore. There's a lot to love about BioShock Infinite, and I sincerely can't imagine someone not seeing anything good in it.

...Belle?

As I said, the game starts out very slow, and takes about two to three hours to really begin. I consider finding Elizabeth the true beginning of the game, everything prior is just tutorial to the very basics, to prepare you for the real thing. Well, what's strange is that there is no ”real thing”; Elizabeth does just fine on her own, as she's immune to both friendly and enemy fire. What separates the earlier gunfights from the later ones with Elizabeth in tow, is that she's simply there. When it comes to other stuff besides ferocious gun- and Vigor (earlier Plasmid tech) play, having Elizabeth around is a true bliss. She's a great character, I love her (Courtnee Draper) and Booker's (the almighty Troy Baker) constant, very realistic exchange. Elizabeth can also pick any lock; she uses her hairpin to bypass the locks you need to open to make progress in the story, but there are plenty of secret rooms and safes all around Columbia which need proper lockpicks to be cracked. She can also summon "tears"; fully explaining them would need a lot of text, so let's just say she can summon random things that aren't actually there to your aid in combat, such as stashes of medical kits or even gun turrets. All forms of hacking are out of the question, there is only the Possession Vigor which you can use to possess both man and machine – it also works for a limited time only. Machines get ultra-hostile once they break free of the spell, while the human enemies are so badly traumatized by the possession and what they've done under its influence, that they actually blow their own heads off. Awesome beyond compare – it also looks awesome beyond compare.

A lesson in violence

The first moral decision of the game is both a shocker and a
no-brainer.

Though it might not look like it at first, BioShock Infinite is a very brutal game. Not only by the amount of blood that is spilled, it also probes oft-tabooed subjects such as racism and slavery, and some of the moral decisions you're forced to make during the game are linked to these underlying themes. But, lest I spoil some of the most disturbing scenes in the game, let's talk about the graphic violence. Your basic melée weapon, the Sky-Hook, is probably one of the best tools a gamer could ever imagine having in any sort of action game. The Sky-Hook can be used to travel the rollercoaster-like ”roads” of Columbia, called Sky-Lines. It should be clear by now that the world of Columbia is a lot more open and wide than that of Rapture, the Sky-Lines make it possible to travel from level to level fast and comfortably. You can shoot any weapon while hooked on a Sky-Line, and even pull off fancy air assassinations with the Hook itself. The Sky-Hook is such an excellent melée weapon that it's ALMOST up to your own preference whether you want to wield the Hook or the big guns in any casual fight sequence. You can use it to decapitate folks, impale their necks, slit their throats, even to drill holes in their skulls. In very close view, at that. Never leave home without the Sky-Hook.

The Handyman most certainly can. And will.

You can only carry two ranged weapons at a time, which makes sense – there's plenty of 'em, and plenty of different versions of the same weapons. The ”upgraded” versions work better in some combat situations, the earlier ones work better in some other combat situations. Advanced stuff like projectile type, rate of fire or clip size are actually keys to success in some of the more challenging gunfights which feature almost every goon on the roster. On top of the cult and the anarchists of Columbia, there are also colossal robots modelled after former U.S. Presidents – called the Patriots – some teleporting guys, some burning guys, and finally, the Handymen, who are this world's equivalent to Big Daddies (size) and Big Sisters (speed and strength). Trust me, Hard Mode wasn't fun. I hear 1999 Mode – Levine's little tribute to his major debut System Shock 2 – is much, much worse. The selection of Vigors has changed some, mostly in name only. There are a few new tricks to unleash on unsuspecting hordes of enemies, as well as the classic Possession which I already mentioned, and Devil's Kiss, Booker's equivalent to Jack and Delta's Incinerate. As I also said, BioShock Infinite gets closer to BioShock on the go. Whether it's the best game in the franchise or not, I was still asking myself that question when I started writing this review. Now that I'm done reminiscing about all its best moments right up 'til the great ending of the base game, I've reached my final verdict.

VERDICT

The even crazier world and characters, the easy access to core gameplay, the gameplay's amazing flow, and the fantastic storyline that's supported by top notch voiceover work and great music – stay tuned for Baker and Draper's duet in the end credits – make BioShock Infinite the most balanced, the finest game in the BioShock franchise. It's a slow hook, but a definite one. Go ahead and play BioShock Infinite. You will NOT be disappointed. And, if it's not enough for you, I can also easily recommend the Burial at Sea DLC, which places our two heroes in 1958 Rapture for old times' sake, and wraps things up quite nicely for this whole franchise. Although the BioShock series will most likely not continue, I'm eagerly waiting for Ken Levine's next masterpiece.

9.1

REVIEW - BioShock 2

GENRE(S): First-person shooter
AVAILABLE ON: Macintosh, PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360
DEVELOPER(S): 2K Australia, 2K Marin, Digital Extremes, Feral Interactive (Macintosh), Arkane Studios (PlayStation 3), 2K Boston (PlayStation 3)
PUBLISHER(S): 2K Games, Feral Interactive (Macintosh)
RELEASE DATE: February 9, 2010 (PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360)

After the credit-less and moreover, the better ending of BioShock, I headed straight into BioShock 2 all pumped up, not fully aware what I was heading into. There were just a few things I knew about this game. First and foremost, BioShock fans didn't like it that much when it came out. The media was somewhat hard on it – if you can call dropping the average from 9's to 8's hard – and I knew series creator Ken Levine had hardly anything to do with the game. That's actually been the favourite peeve of a lot of my friends who are big fans of BioShock and BioShock Infinite – which Levine was actually writing at the time – and I thought that was just some elitist, superficial bullshit. Like it would matter if one guy was missing from the crew, when most of the guys on board worked on the previous game. As it turns out, it actually might have had an effect. BioShock 2 is a good game, a damn good game, with notable corrections in just the right spots on my account, but the story, for one, simply isn't as immersive and addictive as that of the previous game. In both the world of BioShock, and the tunnel vision world of FPS, that means a lot.

Heeeeere's daddy

The story begins and rolls on for quite some time well enough, though – it's a mix of the moral decisions in BioShock and some genuine paternal care. It's New Year's Eve, 1958, the night of Frank Fontaine's failed coup against Rapture's big cheese Andrew Ryan – your character won't survive long enough to see it though. Like in so many games before, but never quite in this fashion, you die in the very beginning of the game – by your own hand. You star as the prototype Big Daddy called Subject Delta, assigned to a Little Sister by the name of Eleanor Lamb. Eleanor's ”mother”, scientist Sofia Lamb, appears to take back what is ”hers”, and uses mind control to make you shoot yourself in the temple. Ten years later, you are revived by a group of Little Sisters under Eleanor's command. During the last decade and Andrew Ryan's death in 1960, Sofia has taken over the whole of Rapture and gained mind control over most of its mutated inhabitants, forming ”the Family”, and also a personal guard for herself and Eleanor from other former Little Sisters, now dubbed the Big Sisters. Let nothing stand in your way when it comes to your girl – it's time to get Eleanor back.

Travel the world. See the sights.

BioShock 2's events take place in different parts of Rapture, which you'll be travelling between using the ocean floor itself. It's kind of like bypassing familiar lots from BioShock, ensuring that the limited world around you stays fresh. The story is told assuming you've already seen the first game through, so do that first – ironically, this game would feel a tad better if you didn't. As far as story goes, Sofia Lamb is the perfect antagonist – how to outdo an annoying Yankee gangster of the 60's, especially one who's had his whole body mutated in the shape of the god Atlas? With an arrogant British lady scientist, of course. Always works. Also, it feels so good to play as a Big Daddy at first, but after you've scoured through enough upgrades, gotten rid of all the Big Sisters in the game – which happens quite early on, actually – and are just plodding through the lengthy final act of the game, heading from gunfight to gunfight, I won't blame you for feeling just a tad overpowered. There's not even a final boss fight, not that the game would need one, but I was expecting something else than simple waves of Splicers – and a bad ending, to boot. After all that bitch Sofia Lamb threw at me, I would've liked to ”be there” a bit more when she finally met her end. No, I had to watch it from afar. Overall, the story just never quite hits the same mark which BioShock stood on throughout its stretch. You just don't care as much for your character or the little ones around you, there's no human factor there. You're more machine than man.

Bloodbath in paradise

After dealing with the storyline, it's time to look at the core gameplay, and do it good, 'cause here's where BioShock 2 often shines brighter than its predecessor. First of all, to fix one of my personal problems with the first one, your both hands are always up at the same time, with your left hand always ready to dish out some Plasmid-enhanced punishment, and your right hand holding your basic melée weapon – the signature power drill – or a gun. Even the drill works on fuel, but if you run out of gas, you can still use the drill to bash your enemies' faces in, and even that does the job quite well on the more casual difficulty levels. The hacking minigame is removed from the way of a more simple, but also more rewarding QTE-based sequence, in which hitting a certain zone adds in a bonus for a successful hack – for example, hacked turrets gain more endurance points to withstand enemies' attacks, and vending machines drop free items in addition to the usual reduction of prices. Also, you don't have to throw yourself in harm's way in an attempt to hack an enemy device, you can do it from afar with a remote bug.

Those guys really ain't the worst creepin' 'round no more. You
should know. You're playing as one of 'em.

Seeing that you're a Big Daddy yourself, stealing away Little Sisters from others of your kind is quite different. The Big Daddies won't attack you until you attack them. You can strategize quite a bit here. If you stumble on a gunfight with another Big Daddy roaming about, chances are that he will join the fight, absorbing quite a bit of those enemy bullets. In the best case scenario, all the Splicers around are already dead, and the other Daddy just one good rocket shot away from biting it. After ”adopting” the late Daddy's Little Sister, you can either harvest her from whatever she's got, or cleanse and rescue her, just as ever, but it's advisable to take her for a little round trip across whichever map you're on, and harvest some extra ADAM from corpses at fixed locations. Having her do that summons huge waves of Splicers from all around you, which is why you're given a wide array of different traps to lay around the premises before letting her do her stuff. Having miniature turrets of your own build, tripwires and proximity mines all over the place gives you a huge advantage, and devising these cunning plans is damn fun to boot.

Dealing with all the Little Sisters in a single level, any way you see fit, has one serious consequence: the arrival of a Big Sister. A chick's got no chance, huh? Think again. Big Sisters are Big Daddy derivatives with amazing speed, amazing endurance and most of all, amazing talent to kill you dead. The biggest challenge concerning them, though, is having the proper amount of proper ammunition to fight them. Even researching their weaknesses with the good old camera – now a very obsolete model of a video camera – and discovering fire as their weakness, doesn't help you all that much. Even while in flames, they still won't let up from dishing some serious punishment on you. Besides that, they're quite easy, really. There are Vita-Chambers around just about every corner to keep you in some check, and after meeting your demise, you always get a decent window of time to seek out the nearest health station or vending machine and buy some medicine, or hack them to gain freebies if you run out of money.

VERDICT

BioShock 2 is one quintessential FPS game, which will surely keep veterans, newbies as well as born agains such as me happy as far as the core gameplay goes. Those who value the story and the dark, twisted secrets of the BioShock universe will probably not be quite as happy. The ending of the game, in particular, turns out just as bland and disappointing as most of the final act of the game itself.

8.5

REVIEW - BioShock

GENRE(S): First-person shooter
AVAILABLE ON: Macintosh, PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360
DEVELOPER(S): 2K Australia, 2K Boston, 2K Marin (PlayStation 3), Digital Extremes (PlayStation 3)
PUBLISHER(S): 2K Games, Feral Interactive (Macintosh)
RELEASE DATE: August 21, 2007 (Windows, Xbox 360)

I told myself I wasn't going to do this. I wasn't going to embarrass myself right from the start by counting the ways what a douche I've been towards particular types of games in the past. Then I started writing this review, and I realized that perhaps it's for the best after all. Perhaps I should start from a game that I was almost never going to play just because of what it is, and certainly a game I thought to never fall in love with. BioShock is fucking awesome – but you probably knew that already. After all, it's been nearly a decade since Ken Levine's slow-cooked masterpiece first came to light.

Cry Little Sister

The logical thing to do first is to tell you about my complicated history with first-person shooters. Once upon a time, even I, a sworn warrior of the inferior race, was somewhat of a PC (and Amiga) gamer. I loved point 'n' click games and the earlier graphic adventures, and sure, first-person shooters, when they first emerged, left their mark on me too. Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, the Quake series (especially the third game), and I had some fun with a few more curious titles such as Hexen and Descent, too. I considered Soldier of Fortune from 2000 the last good first-person shooter for the longest time. I don't know what it was that finally opened my eyes to the staleness of the genre, and at which point I began to loathe these games. Was it the transition to consoles? Might be, I always thought these games were the only games in the world which would never work with a regular controller. Was it that one time Samus Aran – my best girlfriend in the field of 2D action-adventure – was suddenly made into a first-person avatar in Metroid Prime and its sequels? I call double on that. Was it simply the skyrocketing popularity of Half-Life – which I still find boring, by the way – and its seemingly never ceasing spin-off Counter-Strike? I think we have a winner. Thus, this genre was dead to me.

Taste my tool, fool.

On one cold February night, I pre-ordered the new Doom on a whim, after watching the trailer and thinking to myself how much I liked that game back in the mid-90's. This new game was to be a deliberate throwback to those good old days of simple slaughter in the depths of Hell. I just had to have the game, but then I realized what I just did: I deliberately bought a full-priced FPS game, and I hadn't played a single, pure-blooded FPS game in years. Logically, I thought of Doom 3 which I'd had for the original Xbox for ages, but never tried it, as a good warm-up. Well, that didn't work. I got bored with its poor compatibility with my 360 in five minutes, before the killing had actually even begun. Some time later, actually just two or three weeks back, my thoughts returned to warming up for Doom. I had bought a game called BioShock from a flea market bin some months back; a sealed copy, for two whole euros. This game's got some good reviews in its day, not to mention its second sequel BioShock Infinite, which my ex-girlfriend used to play night and day even though she's not a fan of first-person shooters either – these were some damn good reasons to at least give the game a shot. Two hours into the disturbing world of BioShock, its addictive story, and interesting mix of different gameplay elements, I was hooked.

Perfection from simplicity

In this dark tale of biogenetic research which looks and sounds like Fallout 3 – but predates Fallout 3, a key point there – and is set in the year 1960, you play as a fella named Jack, whose plane crashes in the ocean for an initially unknown reason. Near the crash site, he finds a hidden entryway into the underwater city of Rapture, built in the 40's by a businessman with a dream of an isolated, utopic metropolis. However, the local scientists' more recent discovery of a genetic material called ADAM has changed most of the citizens of Rapture into powerful, yet batshit crazy and deformed mutants known as the Splicers, and those in power want to hoard all of that supergoo to themselves. Enter ADAM collectors known as Little Sisters – little girls brainwashed to do their masters' bidding – and their colossal bodyguards, the Big Daddies. With the help of an anarchist who calls himself Atlas, Jack tries to escape Rapture, having to deal with just about every creature that dwells within.

Hap-hap-hap-happy new year.

At first glance, BioShock looks like any old FPS game, but it's made quite clear early on that the story of the game, the history of this remarkable city and its inhabitants – told via collectable audio logs – are at the very forefront of the proper BioShock experience. It's also spelled out right from the start, that you cannot just run aimlessly through the hallways of Rapture and shoot everyone you see. There's security equipment everywhere, from cameras to turrets, stealth and melée are both of great use to you especially in the beginning of the game, and what's perhaps most important, whenever you see the screen shake and hear loud footsteps and low-pitched moaning, just run the hell out of wherever you are, to wherever else. That's a Big Daddy, and he doesn't like strangers coming too close to his girl. Including your common enemies, so he can actually be of use to you from time to time. With this much going on, and this many challenges laid before you, it's only natural that you'll have a load of upgrades to sink your teeth in – hack that security to slaughter your enemies (in a minigame that closely resembles the home computer classic Pipe Mania!!), kill yourself a Big Daddy, and do whatever you wish with his surviving zombie child. With the right upgrades, you can even coerce a Big Daddy to your service, as if you were his Little Sister. That's fucking rad. The upgrade system is very simple, it's your own morality which poses the true challenge in molding your character.

Run to your mother

Though your principal guide and mentor constantly refers to Little Sisters as lifeless, soulless zombies instead of the innocent little children they seem – though damn creepy – and advises you to just kill them all to harvest the most of the ADAM for your upgrades, you can decide yourself whether you want to kill them, or cleanse them of their condition. The latter option still leaves them like lifeless shells, but at least they're not that creepy anymore, and yields less ADAM, but only on the spot. Saving those little ones will garner in some awesome rewards, the more you decide to play it nice all the way to the end. The Little Sisters and their hulking bodyguards are just one small element of the storyline's awesomeness, but without them to diversify the gameplay and bring in that extra challenge every now and then (you ALWAYS have to kill the Big Daddy before you can even come close to his Sister), I'm guessing BioShock would fall in the category of same ol' for me.

Excuse me, is that a puddle of water you're standing in?

And this is exactly where we come to the few cons. Although I'd like to consider BioShock more of a tightly knit, first-person adventure rather than a shooter, it dims down towards the end. There's less storytelling there, more repetitive fight sequences and tons of those hacking puzzles for those who bother – and I definitely bother. Repetitive or not, I love hacking shit. A more minor peeve – which was gloriously fixed in the later games – is that you constantly have to switch between your ”magical powers” and just using your weapons. Having just one hand up at a time results in a lot of small distracting problems, such as forgetting which weapon you had equipped, and whether it had ammo left or not. There are plenty of situations which require quick combos of both magic and good old ammunition to be properly managed.

VERDICT

It has some very minor issues, but besides those, I'm glad to announce that BioShock changed my perspective on first-person shooters, perhaps permanently – I hope so too, 'cause I have a LOT of first-person shooters still completely untouched on my shelf. It lives off its crazy world and captivating story, and delivers a seriously entertaining, action-packed campaign of just the right length. It may well be one of the best ”new” games I've gotten around to in years. Better late than never.

9.0

So it begins... again

Work on five new reviews to reboot the VGMania blog starts today, and will hopefully be done by the weekend. My style of reviewing games has changed quite a bit during these last couple of years, so no more waiting for 50-page write-ups. I'm concentrating a bit more on whether the games are good or not, than blabbering on and on about less essential stuff.

This line-up of five I've got on the plate is nothing short of a perfect new start. We've got a trilogy of games outside of my former comfort zone - some of the first of their genre to be reviewed here - which is kinda exciting; a game that I was supposed to review some years ago and which is a quite hot topic right now - which is a total coincidence, by the way; and finally, a brand new game that rounds out a previous marathon and which I'm really eager to spill my personal beans on. All this in just a few days.

I haven't found the time to work around the old reviews and a whole new layout for the blog just yet, but I've got a short vacation - as well as a transfer to a more comfortable workplace - coming up in early June, so that period's my best bet.

Thanks for tuning back in, my stats are looking swell.

Hey, remember me?

Greetings. Long time no see.

On December 8th, 2014, I published my very last video game review on VGMania: LittleBigPlanet 3. Then, the wire went silent - after which, it was completely gone from public view.

Some of you might've - based on my earlier texts - jumped into the conclusion that I wasn't into this stuff no more, that I might've grown up and out of video games. On the contrary. My passion for video games and the industry never went away. Instead, I was beginning to think that maybe I wasn't suitable to write about video games to begin with.

I was right. I was inexperienced, I had strange views on a lot of things, I ignored so many facts that might've helped me - as well as some readers - to understand why a game was good or bad. Towards the end of the line, I wrote a lot of bullshit articles that were exactly that - bullshit, as in outright lies and naive speculation.

I was going through a very rough patch in my life during the last year of VGMania, and it was shown to the public as utter unprofessionalism and utter uninterest in what was always meant to a joyful experience to gamers, both retro fanatics and active players. Humour, for example, was a big part of the "message", and reading through some of the old reviews, especially from the last year, I think a lot of that was gone too. I somewhat lost my sense of humour, especially my ability to laugh at myself. Of course it wasn't just a problem with this blog, it was a very heartfelt problem in my everyday life.

Well, now I'm back.

"Being back" doesn't just mean I'm going to pick up where I left off. It means I've evolved as a writer, as a gamer, I've evolved in just about every way. It also doesn't just mean "some new random reviews". Actually, I'd sacked all of my old reviews if there weren't so plenty of 'em, and a whole lot of them still basically ring true. Anyhow, I've already rewritten a lot of my old reviews and plan to replace the old ones with those at some point. Right now, I just wanted to reactivate this God damned fossil and tell you the good news. I'd also want to thank those people who always belittled me for quitting in the first place and encouraged me to pick up the proverbial pen again. Thank you, for making me write stuff.

So, ahem... VGMania returns in May 2016. Hold on to your butts and prepare for madness. You can safely expect some other stuff than just video game reviews this time around.