Saturday!
In exploring the city of Dunwall (the city in Dishonored), it’s difficult to not draw immediate comparisons to Bioshock’s Rapture. There’s an established city that gives the feeling that it would have been awesome to have seen it 5 or 10 years ago. There’s a strange and alien philosophy that the bad guys in the game all follow. There are a number of strange characters that drop little hints about the past (and your past).
Oh, and the city is dying. You can feel it.
Now, in my opinion, Bioshock was freaking amazing and, so far, Dishonored is merely very good. Much of that has to do with the various mysteries and how they’re presented. When you start Bioshock, for example, they tell you little about yourself other than having you, the protagonist, say “They told me, ‘Son, you’re special. You were born to do great things.’ You know what? They were right.”
And, next thing you know, there’s a plane crash and you find yourself getting ready to enter into Rapture. Part of the mystery of the game of discovering what Rapture is involves discovering who you are. (Indeed, there are little bits and clues about who you are that culminate in a *BIG REVEAL* that makes you suddenly question everything you’ve done up to that point.)
Dishonored, however, opens with you returning from a journey to give your report to the Empress. The guys driving the boat engage in light banter with you, you have a handful of short conversations as you go to give your report and it’s pretty much established that you are an established guy with established relationships and an established backstory. Now, I haven’t beaten the game quite yet (planning on doing that, though) but if there is a big reveal involving the protagonist’s backstory and how that backstory relates to and integrates with the dying city, they’re being really, really subtle about the buildup.
So while, on the surface, Bioshock is the first game to come to mind while playing Dishonored, it’s mostly in service to the thought “man, Bioshock did this somewhat better.”
But, as I said, I haven’t beaten the game yet.
So… what are you playing?
(Picture is “Untitled” by our very own Will Truman. Used with permission.)
I, of course, loved Bioshock. What did you think of Bioshock 2?Report
I know it wasn’t me that you were asking, but I was hugely disappointed by Bioshock 2. Bioshock is still my favorite game, and its endless invention, and the creation of a complete organic-feeling world, it’s beatiful production design, and it’s toying at the edges of videogame morality all made it a completely absorbing dream experience.
Bioshock 2 struck me like a K-mart knockoff of the first one. It didn’t really re-imagine anything, it just featured another trip to the same place: it was clearly just a rehash of the surface components of the first game.Report
Yeah, I agree with Snarky. The main thing I noticed about 2 was that Andrew Ryan was such an awesome character that his palpable absence was the most interesting part of the game. The Objectivist themepark? Everything else was downhill after that.
Now, without getting into politics, some of that might be because the first game actually treated Objectivism as a philosophy worthy of serious exploration and criticism and that was novel and interesting while Communism and Religious-based Institutional Racism are concepts that have been deconstructed and criticized a non-zero number of times (at least in my circle).
But, even so, Bioshock 2 felt like an expansion pack and Bioshock Infinite felt like a true sequel (where everybody from the first game came back except for the writers).Report
Apropos of nothing, I kind of admired Bioshock infinite, but was so distracted by the oversaturated lighting scheme that it just didn’t emotionally land for me.
I have the same issue with Steven Spielberg’s cinematographer of choice since Schindler’s List, Janusz Kaminski. They employ the same smeary, backlit visual strategy, and it really takes me out of the movies. Interestingly, in Kaminski’s work with other directors, he does some conventionally beautiful photography.
I was just wondering if this was true for other people, or it’s just a quirk of my neurochemistry.Report
I also was kindof unmoved by Infinite, possibly because Star Trek has conditioned me to reflexively view alternative universe/time travel plotlines as a sign of desperation and fatigue.Report
And yet Star Trek popularized both tropes in two of its best-known and/or -respected episodes, “Mirror, Mirror” and “The City On The Edge Of Forever”.Report
There is an alternative universe in which alternative universes are impossible, but time travel to the time before time travel was possible is possible (or was).Report
Pass the pipe, man.Report
Not in this universe.Report
“Don’t bogart that joint, my friend.
Pass it over…”Report
Ceci n’est pas un jointReport
So, you’re blaming this on Ceci? What’d she do?Report
Ceci n’a pas un pizza.Report
Finishing up Street Samurai (playthrough 2.0) of Shadowrun: Hong Kong. Might try a mage next.
I need to figure out how to make a Shadowrun character in a D20 game. (A friend is setting up a sort of multi-verse thing, so character creation is…very open. You end up stuck travelling from dimension to dimension). Of course what happens when your cyberware breaks in Crapsack Fantasy World is a problem I have yet to solve.Report
@morat20
What version of D&D? If it’s 3e, d20 modern integrates pretty seamlessly. I played an gunslinger in a D&D game without much trouble (beyond the difficulty in finding new ammo).Report
Pathfinder, which is improved 3.5 basically.
Problem is Shadowrun is it’s own system entirely, and conversions aren’t reliable. So I’m cobbling something together with Future Tech style sourcebooks.
I think we’re leaning towards something along the lines of the setup used in Deus Ex: Human Revolution — that is, my character has cyber and bioware that was already there (so I was fully tooled) but that it got ‘knocked offline’ by whatever calamity tossed me into the multi-universe set. So when I level, it’ll be stuff “coming online” or “self-repairing” or whatever. And in high-tech universes, I can (potentially) pay for further upgrades.
Pretty much just starting out with hand razors and cyber spurs.Report
Just finished my second run of SR: Hong Kong a couple nights ago myself, this time as a combination sniper/decker with cranked up charisma. That was a pretty fun run; I think I’ll go cybered-up rigger next time.Report
@zac
I bought this game on your recommendation a few weeks ago and to try gaming again. I liked the Shadowrun setting as a kid. The game was fun for a while but there are too many moving parts. I don’t quite how to use decking to further my quest. For example, I am currently at the party where you are trying to get dirt on the film guy. I noticed there is an opportunity to deck but I am unclear about what programs to pick and what a successful decking will do for the side quest. The instructions are really too complex for this.
Also I would like to leave the quest to raise my stats and armor because vampire lady is kicking my ass but this seems impossible and opportunities to pick up cash for better equipment seem rare.Report
The default loadout for Isobel is pretty solid for a decker. (Running a decker on your first playthrough is a bit hit or miss). By and large ,you need either a decker and a mage/shaman in any party.
Ratchet even mentions a ‘well rounded party’ and your character mentions both Isobel and Gobbet.
I don’t really like the new pac-man style matrix running, but I adapted quickly enough (especially once they added a tutorial).
Money comes from completing Shadowruns (as does getting more karma). But if you have Karma to spend, you can spend it at any time through the Karma screen.
The Vampire fight isn’t that bad if you have a full crew (which you should!) because everyone but the Vampire are civilians and easily killed. Not a whole lot of cover, I admit.
If I’m a fighter (Physical adept, Street Sam, etc) I run with Isobel, Gobbet, and either Duncan or Ratchet. If I’m distance, I can swap Duncan for Gauichu.
You don’t need to upgrade your companions (other than pick their skills) or their weapons or stuff. Just your own.Report
One thing I didn’t like about Dishonoed was that it gave you all sorts of toys and abilities, then “punished” you for actually using them. The low chaos path was a bit boring. It would have been nice if there were more non-lethal options.Report
Have you played System Shock and System Shock 2?
(Anyone know if the unlocked (bootleg!) Thief 2 engine works with System Shock 2? It should, as it’s the same engine, just different graphics…)Report
I’ve played both…WAY back when. All were good.Report
I finished the Witcher and started Fallout 3. My assessment of the former remains the same: Potentially good game drawn out way too long by tedious mechanics. I’m a bit confused as to why Fallout 3 has 1940s music, 1950s design, and 1980s technology when the apocalypse happened in 2077.Report
It’s a fever-dream of an apocalypse that never was.
Fat Man and Little Boy fhtagn.Report
It’s not even 1980s technology. The conceit of the Fallout universe is that instead of miniature electronics (i.e. transistors) being invented circa 1950, miniature fission and fusion were invented. So everything maintained an ‘atomic age’ vibe culturally,Report
Ah. I was thinking of the PCs when I mentioned 80s technology. Though now that I think about it, those appear to be mainframe terminals rather than PCs, so…70s?Report
Yep, those are mainframe terms.Report
I’ve been playing Fallout 3 for the last month. Having a blast. Moving on to the add ons. The only thing that sucks is it’s not optimized for Win 7 or later.Report
They put Dopefish in Deus Ex: Human Revolution!
My mind is blown.Report