It’s amazing at how much can change with one simple EvilCast podcast. This past week, while recording, I was discussing what games I was playing like we do every week. I said I was burning through my Stack of Shame with the completion of Halo 3 last week, and I’ve started Resistance 2. Somehow, that got the conversation shifting to what I should be playing right now vs. what I am playing, so the entire crew “helped” me reorganize the priority list of my Stack of Shame. It was unanimously voted that I drop Resistance 2 immediately and move it down my list. Then it was almost unanimously voted that I play BioShock immediately. The one person who did not vote for BioShock had not played BioShock, so he couldn’t fully comment.
I agreed, and I reorganized my stack into how it is on the right. No, Assassin’s Creed Revelations was not in the voting pool, but it has to take priority soon. Even with an impending copyright infringement lawsuit, I believe that Assassin’s Creed 3 will release on schedule, and therefore, I need to be prepared. And yes, I’m going to somehow do this while I keep my current review schedule. In unrelated news, I may not finish The Witcher 2 until the end of the year.
So I did start BioShock on Friday. I have a rare talent in keeping blind to spoilers of pretty much any game. The only one I failed at was FFVII, but to be fair, that game is 15 years old. And playing Crisis Core first wouldn’t have helped matters at all anyway. But I digress. The point in me saying that I have such a talent was to explain that I knew absolutely nothing about BioShock before playing other than the fact that it takes place in a utopia under water. Oh, and I knew that all screenshots of Big Daddies and Little Sisters creeped me the fuck out. The main reason why I had put off playing it for so long, despite the critical acclaim, was that I was afraid it would be scary. I’m not a fan of horror and suspense, and Gears of War and Resistance have put me on enough edge about things jumping out at me in the dark. Everyone assured me that it would not scare me. I double-checked with another horror-pansy friend, and he affirmed what my friends said.
And so, I took the plunge. And I was definitely not prepared for what was waiting for me.
It’s true that it isn’t scaring me, but it’s so damn disturbing that that makes it scary enough. I’ve only played for a few hours, and that was enough to make me take a mental break for a bit. I had no idea what I was in store for, but this certainly wasn’t anywhere near my mind. The writers behind this mess could give Stephen King a run for his money when it comes to the mind fuck.
The gameplay was also a huge surprise to me. I knew it was FPS, and that’s all I thought it was. In some ways, I wish that’s all it was, because I really hate coming across my burn victims. If I didn’t have to search them for money and bullets, I’d completely ignore them, but ugh, I have to look. And it really ain’t pretty. So damn disturbing.
While I’m getting all of these genetic powers to do horrible things to people, do I ever get an upgrade for running? Jack really sucks at getting away from Big Daddies. All I want is the ability to run. I think all Jack can do is walk fast, but if you press the analog stick too hard, the jerk walks fast while crouching, which means he doesn’t do anything quickly but die. Jerk.
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