I just finished this at 6 in the morning. A great game that left me very confused and slightly disappointed at my own inability to grasp what actually happened. Thankfully PaulH saved me from myself and after reading his post I've gotten to grips with what was what... which annoys me a bit, I spent 13 hours playing through this while looking at and listening to everything I could, trying to intake all the information possible to try and understand what was happening, and still it went over my head in places. The weird thing is, I knew about halfway through that Elizabeth / Anna was going to be Booker's daughter - I was looking at the cover during a loading screen and noticed that Booker has blue eyes. Man I felt smug when that turned up.
So, I think what bothers me the most is the Tears / Alternate reality things. I personally see it as an explanation for everything, and somehow to me that takes away from the splendour and disbelief of all that happened, if that makes sense - I really like the vocabulary to articulate what I'm trying to say here so I hope I make sense - It's all incredibly well done and executed, but it made Colombia feel less amazing to me. And I love Bioshock 1, so the next time I play it all this is gonna be niggling away at me in the back of my mind. Not that I mind the cross-reference, but I think I would prefer if it didn't occur. But that's just my personal opinion and didn't stop me enjoying this game to the max.
Some great moments that stood out for me were:
- In the Asylum, in the Wardens Office you pull a lever to bring the elevator door open, then you turn around to leave and there's one of those light head things in your face. I literally went "AHH!" that hasn't happened since Amnesia.
- The Twins. I LOVED every part with them in it. My favourite was when I was in the cable car and they appear on opposite sides as you travel along. Playing the Piano, dancing, etc. Took me a while to realise that they were the ones who brought you to the Lighthouse on the rowing boat. Also, at first, I didn't know they were Twins. I thought they were just together as a couple. Derp.
- THE ART. OH my god THE ART. The hands down best looking part of the game was with old Elizabeth with the burning New York in 1984. I literally went "Whoa." No game since Bioshock 1 has made me impressed enough to actually say something out loud with the art. Also the orange sunset with all the lighthouses was fantastic as well. These were serious stand out places for me in a game packed full of brilliant lighting and design.
- Walking around the Arcade with Elizabeth, nexus posted a picture above with Elizabeth holding candy-floss, fantastic. Seriously.
- The skyhooks are neat. Feel like god damn batman flying off those rails and punching some guy in the FACE.
- The Crows vigor. Really cool. Basically the bees plasmid from Bioshock 1 but way cooler and messier.
Some not so great moments for me - to balance it out:
- I didn't feel as immersed in the world as I hoped. Perhaps that can be attributed to my tastes? Maybe.. But that's not to say I didn't enjoy the world, I did, immensely! But there was just something about it that prevented me from sinking right into it.
- No real stand out enemies. Ok ok, you could say the songbird is one, but you don't really fight him. And the big guy with the heart showing in his chest was cool. But on the whole I didn't think the cannon fodder to be terribly interesting. Is this a silly thing to focus on? I'm not sure. I just had a lot of fond memories of the splicers and big daddies in Bioshock 1.
- Far too many pickups. During non combat I was just running around spamming e on everything. During combat I was running around spamming e on everything. Does the 1999 mode reduce the amount of stuff everywhere? I hope so as It got a bit much at times.
- I had a hard time connecting with Elizabeth at first, it took me a fair old while to start seeing her as more than just an NPC that resupplies me on occasion. Maybe it was because Booker actually talks and I didn't really feel an actual part of it. I remember watching all the Trailers back in the day and there was one that really stood out to me: You're walking around a shop looking for stuff with Elizabeth, and you would be talking to her asking if this was what you are looking for, etc. And then the Songbird pops up and she shouts at you to hide, and you both take cover behind a table while the songbird looks through the windows - what happened to this? Whyyyyyy was it cut? I was so looking forward to this part. But in the end: Amazing character. It really did feel like I was watching a Disney Princess in a game.
Love you all <333 thanks for the great game and breaking my mind <333
This was my face at the end, no joke:
[Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/RJGdCnx.jpg]
:hurg2: