New footage of Bioshock Infinite

[edczxcvbnm]

I love exploring in games which is why I love metroidvania style games and open world games like Fallout 3. Bioshock wasn't all that explorative and there wasn't all that much to find. It is still a weak card in the game to me. The only thing to really find was the story that was far better than what I was currently going through.

I also don't think the gameplay is bad. I think it is boring. The same exact enemies from start to finish. The same stupid moral choice that you will choose the exact same way the whole game. The endless pointless war of attrition until you win. You could beat the whole game with the wrench if you wanted to. The plasmids felt like just another weapon that I needed to reload more often.

Sorry but I just don't think the story makes up for the rest of a game that I thought fell flat in pretty much every other area. Also I didn't like Deus Ex either. I think I just played that one well after it came out and couldn't deal with the ridgid gameplay.

[Slothy]

I find it odd to see such pessimism towards a game like this. Its fair to say that the gameplay might not have the visceral feel of say a Killzone or COD game but its far from being bad. The thing is is that games like Bioshock Infinite have so much going for them that having an area or two that is weak doesn't make the game bad as a whole.

Normally I might agree that one or two areas where a game is weak don't necessarily ruin it, but the gameplay is one which is extremely hard to ignore. I'll give the original Bioshock credit in that I did enjoy exploring Rapture. But at the same time, combat was completely and utterly boring. Even fighting the Big Daddies which should have been an epic, nail biting, holy crap please don't kill me experience was completely boring. Even ignoring the fact that the plasmids and combining them were limited both in terms of combinations and in terms of usefulness, the simple act of running and shooting felt as floaty and unresponsive, and by extension, sluggish as most FPS games that get released these days and that turns me off of one pretty quick. I'm not saying it needed to have a fast and furious visceral feel that you get from something like COD or Killzone. That is in fact almost the polar opposite of what I want. I do want a game that doesn't feel floaty, and forces me to use my various abilities and weapons creatively to overcome obstacles. Bioshock didn't do that though, which is a shame when you consider that's what they were clearly trying to do.

I value games that include strong stories and interesting enviorments to explore, which is why Bioshock Infinite seems like an immediate purchase. Plus ya know what, I think the gameplay looks fine. That stuff on the skylines looks awesome. Simply exploring the world looks fun as well.

Again, I'm not disagreeing with this. These are actually the things Bioshock did extremely well. But the gameplay was so completely boring that it made trudging through Rapture and putting up with one boring fight after another to get to the good stuff a pain in the ass. And it got worse the longer I played. The controls and combat were literally bad enough that they got in the way of enjoying everything else for me.

Watching Bioshock Infinite reminds me of games like System Shock 2 and Deus Ex (makes sense seeing as they're all first person RPG's) in that the gameplay is notably weak but the rest of the game such as the narrative is very strong. Its a shame you lot can't appreciate games like that.

The gameplay in Deus Ex was weak? Huh?

The combat to an extent certainly hasn't aged well (though it played quite well in 2000 for a game that wasn't Half-Life), but the sheer amount of options available to the player meant that even if you didn't like combat, it was all avoidable. Hell, the gameplay literally made that game what it was.

[Rostum]

Imo, they should totally make a puzzle adventure game out of the two Bioshock worlds. Would be totally sweet.

[DMKA]

The gameplay in Deus Ex was weak?

It's wonderful to see that someone other than me realizes this after all these years.

[Dreddz]

In regards to Deus Ex I was only referring to the movement of the character and feel of combat, which edczxcvbnm described well as being rigid. The word gameplay is probably too broad to be thrown around like that. When you factor in the options available in that game the gameplay is quite satisfying as a whole, just not in the way a game like Call of Duty is.

I'm sure I've said this a million times but Deus Ex is still one of my all time favourite games. Mainly because of the story and characters (among other things). So hopefully its easy to understand why I can still be excited for a game like Bioshock Infinite.

[Slothy]

Fair enough Dreddz. I certainly agree that combat is the weaker aspect of gameplay in Deus Ex, but that sort of leads to what separates Deus Ex from Bioshock. Deus Ex had so many other ways of getting through the game that it was almost silly, while Bioshock really didn't have any other options. There was no avoiding combat really, and the few gameplay elements that weren't the combat like hacking certainly weren't enough to build a game around.

If Bioshock Infinite happens to be a huge leap forward in that sense then I will gladly play it. It's the sort of game that I definitely want to love given the world they're creating, so I'm definitely not just going out of my way to find fault and nitpick. I simply choose to remain cautious after getting burned by the original.

If we're lucky then maybe they'll put out a demo around release or shortly after so I can try at least a portion of it, and who knows, maybe they'll pull an Assassin's Creed 2 and turn a humdrum franchise into a legitimate game of the year contender. I have been surprised in the past after all.

[Flying Arrow]

Deus Ex is great, regardless of the iffiness of its controls. It just has a ton of other things going for it that almost completely eclipse the awful shooting and jumping (which isn't the focus of the game anyway). Bioshock's main gameplay element is iffy, which is a much, much worse thing. If DX's exploration and level design were sub-par, then its shortcomings as a game could be compared to Bioshock's. I would argue that despite some minor flaws, Deus Ex is objectively an excellently-designed game for its ambitions.

But I really, really don't care what any of you think on this issue. I'm posting this to give some serious kudos to Vivi for his avatar and sig. Just awesome.