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Bioshock (PC)
by Danscomp
Background
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Bioshock is a first person sci-fi shooter that came from nowhere. It married dystopian visions from Ayn Rand and George Orwell, injecting them into a horror setting on the bottom of the Atlantic ocean. You play Jack, the protagonist and only survivor of a plane crash. Swimming from the burning ... wreckage, you find a lighthouse and a bathyscaphe that takes you down. Down to the city of Rapture.
"Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his own brow?
"No!' says the man in Washington, 'It belongs to the poor.'
'No!' says the man in the Vatican, 'It belongs to God.'
'No!' says the man in Moscow, 'It belongs to everyone.'
I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. "
- Andrew Ryan
Designed by the magnate Andrew Ryan, the city was intended to be free of government and religious interference. A utopia for the best and brightest. When Rapture's scientists discovered Plasmids in sea slugs could alter a persons DNA, granting them almost superhuman powers, it accelerated the inevitable decline into civil war and madness.
Now, Rapture's surviving citizens are insane. Pawns in a greater scheme. Orphaned girls have slugs implanted in their stomachs, allowing them to harvest dead splicers for the Plasmids in their system. They are protected in their duties by lumbering figures in diving suits, the big Daddies. Andrew Ryan is still alive, and has declared war upon you. Can Atlas, fighting against the tyranny of Ryan and little more than a voice on the radio help you survive?
Adam and eve
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Played from a first person perspective, your primary means of attack is by conventional weapons and plasmid powers. Weapons can be bought and upgraded at rare stations in the game, and all require ammo with the exception of your trusty wrench. Firearms vary from a conventional pistol all the way up to a device that fires mines.
Plasmids are many and varied. You can set enemies on fire, or shock them. Fire angry wasps from your hand, catch and throw objects, and others. A favourite tactic is to combine powers with the environment for greater effect. For instance, electrocuting multiple enemies who are wading through water. Another good one is freezing someone solid, then shattering them.
Splicers, your principal enemies, vary from foot soldier types to more lethal varieties, like the wall-crawling spider splicers. One of the most disconcerting are ones that can teleport short distances. If you want to buy Plasmids, you need ADAM, a mutagen that typically comes from little sisters. If you can get past their formidable protectors, of course. You are given the opportunity to follow the good path by saving the little sisters by destroying their parasites, or kill them by absorbing the slugs yourself. Saving them grants you less ADAM, but you will be left occasional gifts. Killing them results in greater ADAM. Both paths substantially alter the game's flow and ending.
EVE is another compound needed to activate powers. You'll be glad to know it, along with health packs and food are available all over, particularly from vanquished enemies. Each level will have a number of little sister and big daddy pairs. You don't have to target all of them in order to proceed, but it is advisable if you want the most formidable plasmids available to you.
ADAM can also be used to buy tonics, smaller permanent powers which act as buffs for your other skills or abilities, like making melee attacks more powerful, or having longer to hack a terminal or fewer blocker tiles during the same process.
Welcome to the world of tomorrow!
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The graphics in this game are excellent, particularly water effects. At the time this game came out, many PCs had problems running on the highest settings. Now, the majority can handle that just fine. Everything has that flash Gordon meets Nemo feel. Sharks and other oceanic wildlife are visible through the glass.
With a stealthy approach, you'll be able to hear the insane ramblings of the splicers as they search for you. Being machine-gunned by a shrieking madwoman who's cut her own face up and is wearing a bunny costume is just one of the delights awaiting you. The voice acting is top notch, with a 40's accent. Getting punched into a corner, than drilled by a big Daddy is equally unforgettable.
Flames and spot effects are great, although the blood looks rather fake. Despite some rather innovative level design and some great quests, there is a certain amount of repetition here. You do feel that there are too few different enemies to fight. Being careful to conserve ammunition is recommended. You can often find yourself reduced to just your wrench otherwise. Tonics make more and more sense, once you realise this.
Hacking is done via a pipe type mini-game where you have a limited time to assemble pipework in the form of tiles, from one end to the other. The appeal of this mini game quickly wanes. The only real irritating thing in this game, as hacking can do everything from making vending machines cheaper, to opening safes, to making enemy gun emplacements and flying robots work for you instead. In the sequel, this was redesigned.
There are a small number of sane people about. Many of these you will work with during the course of the game. Some will work against you. As you proceed, you will come to appreciate what a large game this is. There's always an arrow on hand to help you navigate what is often a maze. Count on about twenty hours of gameplay to finish it.
Summary
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Yes, the game engine is great, with the exception of the aforementioned mini-game and limited enemy types. The graphics and sound effects and voice acting are all top notch, but it is the plot and setting which are the overriding reasons to play this game. The ending depends on your in-game actions, and the "good" ending that I took was very emotional.
Graphics: 8
Gameplay: 9
Sound: 8
Plot: 10
Overall: 9/10
There is no real reason not to own this game. It has gone on to spawn two excellent sequels. One where you play as the progenitor of all Big Daddies (yes, it is cool) and another that abandons the bottom of the ocean for the roof of the skies. A scraped five out of five stars from me.
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Evil Genius (PC)
by JoelM
I picked up Evil Genius a couple years after it's release which was 2004. Cex price was £5 was well worth it!
Evil Genius was one of the last in a dying genre that we do not see much of anymore much like Civilization which is hanging on by a thread right now. A 'god mode' type game where you control an 'evil genius' and ... everyone else that comes along with that, right from scratch. You are taken by boat to a remote island and you are to start building you're evil base!
You start by picking a main evil genius to play as either Maximilan a short, short fused completely insane man. Skipping the dull back story his industrial background (that leads to his interest in scientific research) gives you a reduction to the costs of anything you will need to research in the course of the game. I did pick him for the comedy purposes because of his look but he turned out to be a good choice for my style of play (the benefits from each character are not pointed out for you, you would have to research that so I did not know this and did not notice the benefit he gave. I then replayed the game with a different character and did notice!
Anyway moving on the next you can pick is Alexis (the only female character available) to sum up her back story she was the daughter of a rich man and got to where she is as a result (multi millionaire) not sure how it fits in but her bonus is that you're minions loyalty will not decrease at such a fast rate as the other evil geniuses. You're minions loyalty will decrease over time and the only way to rectify this is to train them (by interrogating a specific enemy to turn that minion from a normal worker into a valet, security guard etc) or to use you're evil geniuses circle of influence to increase pretty much all they're stats (you simply stand by them and if they're in the purple circle your affects will be applied, these are the same for every genius) Alexis's bonus was not of much use to me as the stock minions you acquire can be executed and replaced fairly quickly and without any fuss, if you have more than one of the special minions you can do the same so in reflection I personally would not have rated her ability very high at all.
The final character you can pick is Shen-Yu he was a secret agent for an agency named A.N.V.I.L. Because of this he has an international network of spies and other agents that are constantly at work and ready for him to give orders they misdirect information and gather intelligence for him. His bonus is it will take longer for agents to arrive on you're island in response to an act of infamy or something similar. This can be VERY helpful as agents will be there a lot of the time unless you play as Shen-Yu.
The game had quite well scripted humor, which can keep you interested when the game gets repetitive, the way your minions will kill and take the bodies is amusing among many little actions in the game, the main ones come with the missions, for example when you interrogate a prisoner you basically slap them and trick them until you eventually turn into them, one missions is to capture a leader and put him in a human sized blender, once you complete an act of infamy you will have a radio message relaying that which can be amusing the list really is endless. It is a good little touch to the game.
The gameplay itself was varied but can get boring if you are the type to put hours into the game at a time, it is best enjoyed in parts such as 3 hours max per session (apart from the start you will need to, to learn the ropes and if it is new to you it will be interesting) there were no glitches that I encountered, everything ran smoothly. It is your basic real time strategy layout. If you want action and FPS standards you will not enjoy this game. It is not stupidly easy either if you just build your 'perfect' base you will run out of funds and you can get out of this situation but it will take time and may expend you're minions. You will need to think logically and build what you need, not what you want. Although I must admit traps were a fun venture. All in all you will have to watch the tutorial videos to learn how it works as without you willl struggle. You will need to learn about the minions levels of loyalty, fatigue etc, why to build certain things, power needs, special minion bonuses, the world domination screen, what objects do what, pressure pads etc etc. The list is almost endless but the most important thing is it doesn't feel like that! You learn along the way and it is an enjoyable experience.
In conclusion if you are a fan of this genre of god games you will very much enjoy this game and if you have not picked it up already a price of £5.51 is great! A great game to pass the time and quench your thirst for an enjoyable humorous strategy game. I have replayed this game many times as it does have replay-ability. Good buy.
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Mystery P.I. - The London Caper (PC)
by Decanus
Couldn't resist this when I saw it on Amazon. A PC game, with decent reviews, for £1.49! And to top it off, it featured London, my favourite city in the world. What was not to love? So once I plunked down my hard earned cash, what did I get....
Well, the game comes in a standard pc/ dvd case, with the title and pictures of London ... emblazoned on the front. The game itself loads up quickly, and from what I read is actually part of a series of 'Mystery P.I' games set in various cities (New York, Los Angeles etc). The plot, in a nutshell, is a very cliche one. You play a 'world famous' Investigator who has been hired to find the Crown Jewels, seeing as they have been stolen. Your client is the Royal Family no less!This is going to involve trekking all over London to look for clues, and to make things tougher, you have a time limit of 17 hours.
Right, first the good points. It is set in London, which I like, so lots of graphics of red buses, london pubs etc. The graphics are all pretty decent as well. There is a degree of challenge (repetitive as it is) in which you have to find items in all the locations you visit, there are 25 'unique' locations to see. The items can be a tad random - a paddle, a trainer, a bell for example. So realism is not too high on the list! To spice things up, the main quest also has three specific items hidden in each location - a key, a pair of handcuffs, and a crown - which you need to find and collect (these are harder to find than the regular items). Much like most games, collect enough of those special items, and you unlock rewards such as bonus game modes, extra money and so on.
Gameplay is quite gentle, a very laid back game that is more suited for the older player than the younger. As straightforward as it is, it does include hints that can be accessed if you get completely stuck, though at the cost of some of your points. Another tip, don't just repeatedly click the mouse over every part of the screen to find items without really looking; the game didn't like that and told me off. Another 'cheat' of a sort, which I did quite early on, is you can turn off the 17 hours requirement, and just complete the adventure at your own pace. I enjoyed looking at stuff and didn't enjoy the rushing from one locale to another, though I know a lot of people will enjoy that aspect. There are a few mini-games you can play as well, some on specific levels only.
The bad points. Very, very, very repetitive. Visit a location, look around, find random items, find special items, hurray, on to next location...and repeat...and repeat...and repeat. Even collecting the special items is not really worth it as, muggins that I am , I spent ages finding them. All you unlock is a new mode that is not timed, in which you can search for even more items! thanks, but no thanks. The plot, about the crown jewels, is not even relevant for about 95% of the game; it provides the set-up, and the conclusion, but the middle of the game could be about anything. I could have lost my sunglasses in the pub, and was retracing my steps across 25 locations in London to find them...would have made just as much sense.
It is not a terrible game. As a 'point and click' it is actually pretty good, especially for the price, but it will only suit a certain type of game player, and that is not really me. I like games to be a bit more varied and challenging; this is a game you can sit down with a cup of tea and play happily for a couple of hours to pass the time.
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