What do you think of the BioShock series?

[Niggernerd]

1 and 2 are fucking amazing imo. The atmosphere in 1 was really nice.
I didn't waste my time or money on infinite

 

[Gar For Archer]

I like 1, I'm indifferent to 2 and I don't like Infinite.

Although I don't think infinite is as bad as some people make it out to be and despite the fact we got a neutered storyline (Compared to what could have been from previews and interviews) My major complain comes from the momment to momment gameplay and the trend chasing going on, having two weapons and rechargable shields is bullshit and exploration is non-existent.

Infinite doesn’t feel like a Bioshock game. The RPG-lite elements that made Bioshock stand out feel completely tacked-on in Infinite, and the vigors were a poor excuse for a plasmid replacement. What made the plasmids and tonics great was that there was a shit ton of them, some great some not so great, and you could pick and choose whichever ones you liked. It gives Bioshock a LOT of replayability, because the plasmids and tonics you use can pretty drastically change how you play the game. Meanwhile about half the vigors are highly situational or almost totally useless. They were also like BARELY integrated into the plot, with only two enemy types using them at all, whereas Bioshock had normie splicers with electric/fire powers alongside the specialized splicers.

I guess basically what I’m saying is that Infinite feels like a historical fantasy shooter with alternate timelines as the main story/gameplay gimmick, that for some reason was poorly co-opted into the Bioshock universe while retaining little of what made Bioshock special.

Bioshock 2 is probably the best game overall, because it introduces a lot of QOL shit that just makes it more fun to play, but also because the original peaks HARD in the middle. It’s all downhill after you beat Andrew Ryan to death with a golf club.

 

[XANA]

I played through 2 and Infinite, but have seen playthroughs of 1.

I know that the devs tried to cram the family relationships that was present in both 1 and 2 into Infinite, but the relationship between Booker and Elizabeth felt forced more than anything, I'm not sure if it's because Booker is a voiced protagonist, and people tend to not like them as much because they can't project and put themselves in the place of the player character's shoes. For example, the feel between Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 4 is dramatic, and not just in terms of the limited dialogue choices. Because we become the Sole Survivor in 4, we're immediately hit over the head by the game telling us what to feel and when to feel. FNV's silent character allows for a more immersive experience and lets the player imagine that they're saying the dialogue choices instead of the player character.

I don't think that Infinite captured a lot of the feel that 1 and 2 had - mainly a bleak outlook on life in what was supposed to be a glistening utopia marked by unchained human progress. I did appreciate how they mixed up some of the tonics/vigors in Infinite, while keeping the base mechanisms the same (salts vs EVE). Infinite also suffers from some level "blandness", in which everything looks the same and thus the story becomes a blob. With 1 and 2, you had plenty of memorable personalities and level stylizations that could easily make you think in terms of chapters; in Infinite, the only two people I remembered during the gameplay was Comstock's ghost and the suicidal soldier in the museum.

 

[Begemot]

I firmly believe 2 was the overall best in the series after playing through the series this year.

The combat in 2 was genuinely great. Bioshock 1 felt like most of your options were worthless, ammo was scarce and switching to plasmids was slow. I went melee focused and that trivialized the rest of the combat. In 2, almost everything feels great to use. I played the second half of the game like an evil overlord, using summon bot and the brainwashing plasmids to get armies of things to fight for me with one hand, and launching turrets with the other. Super fun and closest to an “immersive sim” in the series.
Having an actual resource cost to saving the little sisters makes being evil an actually attractive choice, combined with the options for who you get to save through the game, makes the morality choices way more interesting than the first game.

The story in 2 gets crapped on a lot, but a collectivist villain stands out a lot more than evil capitalist. It doesn’t have 1’s great twist (except the DLC, which is also fantastic), but it does a great job of fleshing out the world, showing you what it would be like to be the majority of people in rapture, and pointing out how the people overthrowing the system might be worse than the people they are overthrowing.
I really didn’t care for Bioshock 1’s story after the twist, the villain was terminally retarded.

Yeah, Fontaine, as others have mentioned here, got exceedingly boring after their 'twist'. "Betrayal hurts, kid", fuck off. The gameplay in BS2 is far more fluid, the hacking system is superior, the mini turrets are great. I'll admit the enforced escort missions can be a pain but they also add variety. I'm having way more fun in bs2 compared to some of the levels in bs1, like Arcadia.

 

[CAPTAIN HAPPY]

Loved the first one, it was awesome.
Second one was okay? I beat it like once and didn't hate it.
Infinite was gobshit. The gameplay was fine, but the story lacked any real depth, the sky city looked really interesting at first, but it dulled out by the end. Some shit barely made any sense, like you being able to use multiple powers while others can barely use one or two. You can find kinda sorta explanation for this type of shit, but only if you go balls deep into the lore and codex reading bullshit. First game didn't need any of this type of shit.
And the ending, that fucking ending was the most retarded garbage of gaming history. Any fucking dumbass retard who says Infinite's ending was good or deep, or whatever the fuck is a damn lost cause. First of, it made no obvious sense, it rushed through itself without context and the basic idea of it is this, nothing matters, you're the bad guy no matter what you do, kill yourself.

 

[Begemot]

Loved the first one, it was awesome.
Second one was okay? I beat it like once and didn't hate it.
Infinite was gobshit. The gameplay was fine, but the story lacked any real depth, the sky city looked really interesting at first, but it dulled out by the end. Some shit barely made any sense, like you being able to use multiple powers while others can barely use one or two. You can find kinda sorta explanation for this type of shit, but only if you go balls deep into the lore and codex reading bullshit. First game didn't need any of this type of shit.
And the ending, that fucking ending was the most retarded garbage of gaming history. Any fucking dumbass retard who says Infinite's ending was good or deep, or whatever the fuck is a damn lost cause. First of, it made no obvious sense, it rushed through itself without context and the basic idea of it is this, nothing matters, you're the bad guy no matter what you do, kill yourself.

In about a week or so I'll go back to Infinite. It'll be interesting to see how it holds up, considering I've had more more fun with Bioshock 2, frankly, than its predecessor. Maybe my nostalgia will show up as dreck?

 

[Corpun]

To some extent, Deus Ex 1 and Human revolution also predicted the small group of elite people who control key aspects of the world. I'm more familiar with Human Revolution and the shady and cliche name given to the elites are the Illuminati. That small group of people seem to have similar characteristics of the people behind the whole great reset idea that's floating around recently. Guess it would be Klaus Schwab? Mr Robot also had a similar type of thing.

Deus Ex got that partially wrong. In real life there are likely a dozen or more loosely tied groups who do shady shit like this, whether they attend things like the Bilderberg or Bohemian Grove, or do have corporate empires or are simply wannabe politicians like Schwab. Enough sperging about DE here though.

I'd actually like Infinite more if the original concept was kept and you could carry more than two weapons. It's pretty much pointless to upgrade weapons if you'll be forced to ditch them down the line.

 

[Dave.]

Bioshock 1 was a game literally no one would shut up about and I never got a chance to play it until about 2008 because my dad was a moralfag who legitimately thought that in that game you killed children. I remember finding it hit and miss as there were some things I liked and some things I didn't. I remember saying in another thread that the game was boring and it kind of was because the environments almost all looked exactly the same and the enemies you fought seemed almost identical. The only places I remember fondly were Fort Frolic (mainly because of Sander Cohen who is an LGBT character and one that is actually well written and nobody seems to know this or care), Medical Pavilion, the opening level, and the final level (which featured a tacked on boss fight that had a very shaky justification for existing). The gunplay also turned into a poor man's half-life because rather than the guns having some kind of niche that would be useful in certain situations (seriously, the fucking machine gun is useless after Neptune's Bounty despite being the coolest looking weapon after being fully upgraded) it's instead just one weapon is good for certain levels then you're just using the crossbow and maybe sometimes the pistol and grenade launcher in certain situations. However, setting aside the jank gameplay and kind of bland looking levels that didn't really feel like I was in a city underwater, the world itself was fascinating and reading up on external material and fan analysis on why Rapture as a society fail was intriguing. As a kid, an underwater city sounded really cool and reading up on a lot of lore surrounding it and listening to the audio files you found around the level made it feel much more lived in. Also there was Fort Frolic which really felt like I was living in a city underwater in its cultural peak. There was also the twist at the end that I thought was really done too. But that's my short summary.

It's been a long time since I played Bioshock 2 so I unfortunately can't tell you anything about that game or how I feel about it now, but I remember first playing it when I was 15 when it came out and I remember REALLY not liking it. I'm fuzzy on details I didn't like but I remember I really hated how it contradicted a lot of the previous game's canon and one example I do remember fondly was one level that had 60's style architecture which looked very uncharacteristic for Rapture at the time. There was also the character Sinclair(?) whos dialogue didn't match the dialogue from the first game with his "Ring-a-ding-ding" west coast kind of slang from the 60's that didn't fit the world. There were also african americans in Rapture which doesn't seem like something Andrew Ryan would've tolerated because he only brought the best and profitable and smartest people to Rapture and during that time period Blacks were unfairly treated like second class citizens. It's a shame that they felt out of place given that I actually really liked the black lady you meet in one of the levels that I unfortunately can't place the name of. I know blacks were referenced by one of the splicers in Bioshock 1 which I feel like maybe they were a hidden second class citizen in Bioshock 1, but I don't remember any blacks in that game and the only races I noticed were either Jewish, White, Asian, and I believe there was a mexican as well. Again been a long time since I played the first and second, so I may have completely missed some lore bits here and there, but that's why I didn't like it at the time.

Bioshock Infinite... is Bioshock Infinite. I think it's been said a million times why that's the weakest.

 

[ZMOT]

1 and 2 are fucking amazing imo. The atmosphere in 1 was really nice.
I didn't waste my time or money on infinite

you can say a lot of things about infinite, but they still nailed the atmosphere. recently watched someone play the beginning again (my last playthrough was after it came out) and it's still pretty damn good all things considered.

Infinite doesn’t feel like a Bioshock game.

that's why I think the DLC makes it even worse trying to tie it into previous games suddenly injecting levine's daughterfu into it. at that point all I though was "fuck off faggot".

reminds me I still have to play minerva's den which apparently was the better than both 1+2 depending who you ask.

 

[Dom Cruise]

you can say a lot of things about infinite, but they still nailed the atmosphere. recently watched someone play the beginning again (my last playthrough was after it came out) and it's still pretty damn good all things considered.

Oh yeah, the whole long intro sequence of Infinite was amazing, but then I kept waiting for the game to "open up" like the first game does when you get to the medical sector and it... never really did.

that's why I think the DLC makes it even worse trying to tie it into previous games suddenly injecting levine's daughterfu into it. at that point all I though was "fuck off faggot".

I can kind of understand what you mean, it is weird to think of Elizabeth being a crucial part of Rapture's backstory, but at the same time I felt like it was done cleverly, especially the part where Elizabeth encounters Suchong just as he's killed by a Big Daddy.

reminds me I still have to play minerva's den which apparently was the better than both 1+2 depending who you ask.

I've never played Minerva's Den either, weird to think there's still one part of this series I haven't played yet, that should change one day I guess.

 

[Just_a_Bored_Guy]

1 is great. Excellent story, solid gameplay, interesting cast, you know the drill.
2 might actually be better than 1. The QoL upgrades outweigh the shortcomings of the story (which are pretty minor anyway).
Minerva's Den is a solid sort-of epilogue (pretty sure it takes place before the end of 2). Has a few more improvements across the board.
Infinite is a mediocre shooter trying desperately to be the previous games. Has some interesting sights and story beats, but it doesn't stick the landing remotely.
Burial at Sea is digital feces and should be considered a separate canon from the other games entirely.
All the other DLC stuff is fine for what it all is: arenas and weird entertaining puzzle things.

 

[Mexican_Wizard_711]

Is this game basically "Capitalism Bad"? cuz I never played it

 

[Skitarii]

Biocock

 

[Just_a_Bored_Guy]

Is this game basically "Capitalism Bad"? cuz I never played it

You could probably read that in some ways, but the focus is on objectivism. 2 covers collectivism, while Infinite touches on radicalism and patriotism.

 

[LightDragonman1]

I actually do like the Bioshock series, even if Infinite did go off the rails. 1 had a great twist rivalling FFVII and MGS2 in terms of themes and player expectations, and 2's ending made me tear up.

That said, System Shock 2 is still better than all of them.

 

[Soycast Guy]

Is this game basically "Capitalism Bad"? cuz I never played it

There is a criticism of it. I’d be lying through my teeth if I said there wasn’t. The story is written really well though. The antagonist of this game is one of the best and most intimidating characters in gaming, and I’d recommend playing just for him.

 

[Gravityqueen4life]

first one was ok. never played two but i heard the gameplay was better but with a worst story. infinite was a fucking tranwreck.

 

[Nasty Habits]

Big fan of 1&2. 3rd is a trainwreck but damn if there aren't some cool enemy designs in it

 

[Malt]

Bioshock 1 is very good. A classic at this point. A bit unpolished, but in good ways for the most part. Story is good and much more complex than 'capitalism bad'. Infinite respawning enemies is a pet peeve of mine that I loathe in most games, but you learn to work with it.

Bioshock 2 is basically just a retextured Bioshock 1 with a much shittier story.

I really liked Infinite in pretty much all respects, DLC excepted. Good story, good characters, good music, good art, good shooting, good pacing. Probably my favorite of the three.

 

[MrJokerRager]

I guess this is the commie version of Bioshock.