Game 50 - Castlevania - Week 76 - June 21

astlevania. It still holds up. 

I just finished the absolutely brilliant Netflix series wrapping up Season 4. The story was exactly what I wanted with the Carmilla (fem Dracula) arc coming to an end. The animation is top of its game and this is none more clearer than in the fight scenes. Issac vs. Carmilla, Alucard, Trevor & Sypha vs. Dragan and of course Trevor Belmont, Vampire Slayer vs. Death. A twist about Varney I did not see coming at all btw. Naturally these fights made me want to play a series I was always curious about. Well the anniversary edition was on discount at the time, smart move Konami, so I just had to pick it up. 

Trevor faces Death itself... what a natural and satisfying climax to wrap up the gothic saga. 

Well enough gushing about the Netflix series, what about the game? The art, the music, the gameplay. So SO GOOD. There's just something timeless about the 8-bit art and chiptune sounds tracks. Especially when it's an authentic OG. But specific to Castelvania they do a good job of making it uniquely gothic. The story is almost non-existent. You're Simon Belmont, line to a family of legendary vampire slayers. Count Dracula and his Castle has reappeared after he was slain by your ancestor a century years prior, so it's time to get to work. As you traverse the castle you'll vanquish classic monsters such as bats, skeletons, zombies, ghosts, mummies and medusa heads. 

So what about the gameplay? It's so good. Even the whip. Similar to Mario and mushrooms of the era, finding a whip improves the range of Vampire Killer - instead of a health buffer it gives you a damage buffer. A skilled player can crouch whip, jump whip and back step like something reminiscent to Street Fighter. Even now it's still fun to vaporize enemies with the whip. In addition to this Trevor has various items such as cross shuriken (boomerang), holy water that's essentially a Jesus Molotov (my favourite) or the ability to freeze time. It's fun to figure out the weaknesses and techniques for each enemies. The waiting and strike patterns, which items are best, especially for bosses. Some items just break bosses and I love that. In the Netflix series, a big part of the Belmont Clan's success at monster slayer is there study of enemies to find that classic Silver Bullet. Even dedicating an episode to the trio venturing into the abandoned hidden keep to find secrets on Dracula. So you can tell they were really faithful to the games, because that's exactly how they feel to play. The game does a great job recreating a feeling of adventure, climbing the castle to the top in a slow ascent, slaying everything evil as you go before inevitably reaching the villain. A classic fairy tale and I can see why it captivated so many of the time. 

I really would have liked to do the whole collection at once but there's just so many. I'll do 1-4 and Symphony of the Night one by one.  

Game 49 - BioShock 2 - Week 76 - Jun 21

ioShock 2 is looked at by many as a step down, the under achieving little brother. Even now searching for a retrospective on YouTube returns surprisingly little. And for a while I looked at it the same way. Originally I played as far as the Little Sister introduction. But after playing it all the way through I have a new found respect for BioShock's misunderstood cousin. Why a game analyst like GVMER or Raycevick hasn't discussed this game surprises me to no end.

The first thing I noticed - the presentation is still Rapture. It's all the same here. I did notice a few glaring omissions. In my typical tourist routine I'd always look out the windows of Rapture. Quite a few times the outside world was on the blurry side low res and I'm not sure how or why considering the first game was picture perfect. Was it not rendered in this game? It might seem small but walking up to any window and seeing the under water city in full detail had such a huge impact of making the world real. A claustrophobic experience yet in a massive world without invisible barriers. But when it works it works. 

It's good to be home.

At the heart of BioShock is an interesting story. The story begins with a flashback, memory, dream? You've just become an Alpha variant of the Big Daddy, Subject Delta, the fourth in a line of experiments, After you're imprinted on your Little Sister, Eleanor she's taken from you and in your rage you're decommissioned with an electro bolt and pistol. This model imprints to only one Little Sister so it's not ideal. I don't have an issue with this setup outside the fact that we saw the first Big Daddy imprinted on a Little Sister (in Burial at Sea). The one that killed Dr. Suchong and was not an Alpha Variant. But after some further reading it looks like I wasn't paying attention enough... Alpha develop pair bonds, while Bouncers and later models have protection instincts, as developed successfully by Suchong. Considering peoples confusion online and continuity I would have made this much more overt then subtle audio logs, but then again maybe they were intending for Alpha to be used as the model that killed Suchong.

You wake up 10 years later with an extra hole in your head. You put your helmet on and off you go, to find your Eleanor. Experiencing Rapture 8 in-game years after Jack left is an interesting experience. Rapture is a ticking time bomb. The minds that held the city up against the metric shit ton of water pressure are now gone. I actually played through a significant amount of the game before I realised this was set after BioShock 1, not before and the audio logs of the cabal are actually dead. Well regardless that made it even more interesting. Everyone is dead and Jack has left to the surface. I assume this is the canon ending with no evil Jack around leading the splicers. Well replacing the cult of personality is a... cult.

Sofia Lamb, the last remaining bright mind of Rapture has capitalised on her intellect, using her skillset and knowledge in Psychology to manipulate that remaining inhabitants of Rapture. Rapture is sinking, join me and you will be saved, in your sacrifice you will be reborn anew. Atlas... uh I mean Sinclair servers as your fragile partner. Unlike Atlas he's genuine, wants to escape and needs your help to do so. Sinclair is a likeable character, a charming hustler that sounds like a distant relative of Kevin Spacey. He has a tragic ending when Sofia irreversibly turns him into a Big Daddy. The game does a good job of managing continuity issues with BioShock. Where was Sofia Lamb this whole time? Well via audio logs you find out she gained a lot of popularity with the lower class lost souls of Rapture. This lead to much tension with Frank Fontaine and his ambitions as well as Andrew Ryan and his god complex. So he locked her away, covered her up and threw away the key. With all the competition gone, Lamb has surfaced again to her lead her people to the promised land. To do this she needs Adam, and considering the Big Daddy's won't cut it she has made a new creation - the Big Sister. Girl power, woo! 

Before I give my thoughts on the finale I need to discuss gameplay, and there's a lot to go over. The reason I enjoy the gameplay of BioShock 1 so much was not just because of the engrossing experimental gameplay with plasmids, weapon, ammo and enemy types - but because all of it served the story and immersed me in its world like no other shooter was before. Even the hacking made you feel like you were a plumber, and machines operated in hydropower, redirecting the flow of water. It's hard to even call BioShock 1 a shooter, redefining what the word means with so many RPG and immersive sim elements. So of course, I was resistant to the gameplay of BioShock 2. It had big shoes to fill, and of all the routes it could have taken it tried to do that with a Big Daddy. The Big Daddy was such an iconic intimidating villain in BioShock 1 and playing one in the sequel felt like it cheapened that experience, the key factor for my hesitation to play BioShock 2. To diminish the fragility of Jack in the face of the towering behemoths was an unforgiveable sin that undermines the original masterpiece. The Big Daddy made you feel terrified with step or low bellowing groan from its iron belly. Each time you heard one you knew it was stop, prepare - its go time. Until later levels at least. So playing Daddy vs. Daddy, mano a mano? It's just not the same experience when you're on equal footing. 

But after playing it all the way through I can say that's exactly the reason that it's a great game in its own right. Where as in 1 the gameplay served the story without sacrificing fun over immersion, similar to something like The Last of Us or an RPG. In 2 I would argue the story primarily serves the gameplay. Making you an Alpha variant, the first experimental model that can use plasmids and weapons at the same time, can handle far more tonics and punishment then Jack feels like a convenient excuse to provide vastly experimental gameplay and builds. And honestly, it worked. When you hold up the gameplay and fun factor in itself, it exceeds BioShock. There are few factors at work here. 

1. The plasmids for the most part the plasmids are still the same. However you can now upgrade them to new more powerful tiers. In their final form they become game changing. You know Cyclone Trap - that plasmid you never looked at twice in BioShock 1? Well here you can charge it up with plasmids and even place it on ceilings and walls. Any plasmid is now a trap! What about Decoy? Eh. Cool but I prefer a straight forward approach. Now it reflects damage and that damage also heals you in combat! Electrobolt chains, Frost bite becomes a jagged ice dispenser, and Incinerate turns into an Incinerator. Hypnotize is rolled into one - Hypnotize anyone! Insect swarm, well.. more bees. What more could you want? Prefer the shadows perhaps? Scout lets you use a projection to sneak around, hack, and even use plasmids. Security Command. Summon two elite upgrade security bots: Did you say rockets? Telekinesis - now your foes become weapons. If your mind isn't already a buzz with ideas, let me give you an example. Use Scout to wander into a room of enemies. Drop a few cyclone traps, electrified or frosted. Auto hack a few their turrets and whip out Security Command to summon an Uber-Drone. Now use Telekinesis to throw enemies around. Well golly me, you just massacred an entire room without wasting a bullet. My personal favourite was Security Command. Not only were they badass little choppers reminiscent of the ones slapped together in Abe's Odyssey but you could give them names. And will this one I call Little Brother. 

2. You can now equip both a weapon and plasmid - it should not be understated how much this changes the gameplay formula. Previously Jack would need to Electrobolt an enemy and whip out the wrench for the one two punch, meanwhile a splicer can shoot him from a distance. Not Subject Delta. He can shock an enemy, drill a hole in his skull, and zap that pesky enemy in the distance, locking him down while he does so. All those weapons the Big Daddy's used in the first game? You get to use those now. And my god do they get the Rivet Gun and Drill so so right. The drill uses fuel and absolutely shreds splicers. Getting the charge and running your drill arm through a splicer chest never gets old and I wish there were animations for this ala the original CGI cutscenes. But the ragdoll is still great. The Rivet Gun has low recoil and pins people to walls. Soooo satisfying. It has armour piercing "heated" rivets and my personal favourite, the trap rivet. I never had the opportunity to use all my ammo in BioShock 1, but here I can unload an entire ammo type into the floor and watch as the Big Daddy runs the gauntlet. Or better yet - find a barrel, put 10 trap rivets on it, several proximity grenades, whip out telekinesis and watch even the mightiest Big Daddy or Little Sister fall. Machine gun is a dope minigun, basically the tommy gun. The shotgun is double-barrelled, always a welcome sight. The spear gun is so thematic and awesome, basically a sniper rail gun. The grenade launcher is the rocket launcher with an arc, as you'd expect. They're all fun, unique and inventive. Last but not least is the hacker tool. Being able to hack from range is a welcome addition, although I loved the pipe minigame I was sick of it by the end. The new minigame is simple and quick, a great weapon for that quick turret hack in combat.

While not exactly a weapon the camera deserves a special mention. Unlike the camera in the first game you don't need to equip it. You're a BioMech after all and it's a film camera mounted on your shoulder. So not only can you capture enemy behaviour during combat, you can equip both a plasmid and a weapon while you do so. This feels far more integrated and fun - perform better and you capture better footage finding more weak spots. Improve your build so you can capture better footage, the loop continues. The camera in BioShock 1 made sense. 2 leans more towards an arena shooter where 1 was more of an immersive sim. Jack is fragile, he needs to sneak around, analyse his environment from the shadows. But it did feel a little clunky, stealth wasn't great so you often found yourself taking a photo in the middle of receiving a led pipe to the face. Here it feels completely at home and in sync. 

3. Tonics are off the chain. The limit of holding Tonics as per type is now gone. You're free to equip up to 16 as you well. The degree to which this creates different build possibilities is absolutely insane and there are just too many to go over. I would say the sheer amount of replayability ends here, but it just doesn't end.

4. Lastly is the various scenarios the game puts you in where you can unleash your Big Daddy Builds. There's the classic Big Daddy wandering around, protecting sisters. And here's where it gets interesting. Once you down a Daddy you get a Little Sister, you can consume it or save it. But you can also escort it around as it collects Adam. When you do this you need to defend it against attacking splicers. Perfect situation to setup some traps or just go ham. It was actually awesome walking the shoes of a Daddy, listening to a Little Sister as she stabs "angels" with that giant fuck off needle. The voice acting and lines are always superb. There are new variants of the Big Daddy such as Rosie with a Rivet Gun or Rumbler with the grenade launcher. The Alpha Variant will show up later to go full Hulk on you too. They're all fun to fight. But if you clear all the Little Sisters on a level you'll get the attention of Big Sis. With a shrill loud shriek she announces her arrival and you have a few moments to prepare (best to do so before you send Little Sis off into the vents). These are tough fights and I often found myself depleted afterward - requiring everything you've built and sometimes more. Pushing you to further your build. 

Escorting little sisters lead to some of the best gameplay moments in the franchise. It does a great job immersing you in the shoes of a Big Daddy even if you don't have the protective instinct of Bouncers.

I think this was the turning point in the game for me. I did and still do feel like playing a Big Daddy cheapens the first game - but I can't deny it's just so damn fun. As family friend of mine said he likes BioShock 2 the most as it just appeals to his monkey brain that likes messing with builds. After hearing that I was able to hold BioShock 2 up on its own and it enjoy it much more as a standalone experience. Even now writing this months later I won't to go and play the game again. I can't say the same about Infinite after experiencing it twice. The biggest disservice that was done to this game was likely pushed by the publisher, and that was calling it BioShock 2. The game is not a direct sequel, it's an expansion - a fun step sideways. It should not have been called the sequel for it will be forever and unfairly compared to BioShock 1. 

So back to the story. Stop Sophia, help Sinclair, save Eleanor. Simple but with many twists and turns along the way. I would put the story of BioShock 2 closer to Infinite actually. An intimate heartfelt story between surrogate (or actual) father and daughter. It's nice and you do end up feeling attached to Little Sister and Elanor by the end of it. Here are some of the best moments. 

Previously we could only see Rapture from inside the claustrophobic halls. But now in our Mecha Aquaramarine state we can wander the ocean floor. It's best described as a brief and beautiful walking simulator that forces you to appreciate Rapture from a difference perspective. It's a nice nod to see the sea slugs used for Adam on the ocean floor, which you can harvest for Adam. The ocean and Rapture towering above us is a stunning sight to see as it immerses you inside the suit you don. 

The creative director and BioShock 2 has a colourful history. Jordan Thomas is well known for creating some of the greatest levels in immersive sims such as The Cradle in Thief: Deadly Sins or Fort Frolic in BioShock. Considered by many to be the best in the game, which is an impressive feat considering immersive sims often live or die based on their level design. So it's no surprise he was offered a lead position, nor that the level design is so good in BioShock 2. Personally I think it lacks the environmental story telling, the biggest X factor of the original to reach the same level. I have no doubt this was hindered by making the player a Big Daddy instead of a vulnerable average joe, which is simultaneously the games biggest strength. But this is also the primary reason why BioShock 1 is better. The embedded story tied everything together. When I say everything I mean combat, weapons, characters, plot - it made the world of Rapture real - and is why BioShock 2 does not do as well, it feels more tropey, more like an arcadey but fun video game experience as a result. This wasn't always the case as Jordan will tell you. His originally pitch was you playing as a Little Sister in the aftermath of the first game, lost, wandering, trying to escape in the spirit of Silent Hill. Holy fucking shit does that sound awesome. Maybe she becomes a Little Sister at some point? But the opportunity for environmental storytelling has so much opportunity. It's a real shame the publisher 2K was chasing the military shooter trend of the time, as all AAA publishers do. They wanted BioShock to be the next big shooter. That's not BioShock, that's not evolution, that's devolution. It goes in the face of the spirit to elevate and push the boundaries of the genre. So it's no wonder it failed and disappointed. It's no wonder the military shooter trend burnt out and the first immersive sim on the block after BioShock: Dishonored was hailed as fresh and novel and interesting when much of it had all been done before. And it's no wonder it took years and years for many to appreciate BioShock 2 for the redeeming elements 2K Marine managed to claw into the game. AAA =//= Creativity. Innovation and risk earns the big bucks, not chasing the safe tried and tested trends of the time. Even now as I write this I can feel the air turning on Battle Royal - people are losing interest. 

We did get a taste of Jordan's original vision. In one sequence you get to control a Little Sister and see the world through her eyes. And wowee is it not one of the best most chilling moments in all of BioShock. Dead bodies are surrounded by flies and blood Angels are surrounded by butterflies and rose petals. Deformed splicers gawk at monstrosities Lovely adults ponder the exhibits that Rapture has to offer. Seeing the world from a Little Sister's eyes is just... heart-breaking. Taking these little innocent girls and turning them into monsters that inflict pain and misery, literally spread disease while seeing the world as nothing more than a fluffy dream is horrific. 

Eleanor now all grown up is trapped and needs the Little Sister help her to escape. Once free she doesn't waste much time for a touching reunion. In a twist I didn't see coming she dons the Big Sister suit. Not so little anymore. This is so cool, a kin to the Songbird antagonist turning to your side in Infinite years later. A villain, a weapon of Sofia Lamb throughout the entire game is now an ally that you can summon via a plasmid. So she comes, she shreds, she leaves. 

So with that Big Daddy Build you developed, no perfected, and with Eleanor at your side it's time to face Sofia. There's a cool race against the clock here as you both tear through Sofia's henchmen. When you summon Elanor she scrambles down vents, cuts through some of Raptures finest before disappearing to do whatever she was doing, which is just so thematic. She has her job, you have yours. As you reach the end you face the final boss... Two big sisters?! I went absolutely ham preparing my traps. First I setup two barrels covered in Grenades and Rivets. Then I put rivets absolutely everywhere. When they arrived I basically one shot the first Big Sister and halved the health of the second - didn't even need Eleanor or Josh to finish the last one.

Oh I forgot about the final boss fight with Sinclair. Tragic, but unremarkable. I suppose that is keeping in spirit of the final boss fight in BioShock 1. Whoops.

I'm not sure whether to be surprised or not but the end is actually great. Eleanor observes your actions throughout the game and whether you sacrificed the Little Sisters for power (like I did) or killed the side characters (which I spared). The consequences of your choices feel a little less on the nose then BioShock 1. My Eleanor kills Lamb - now on the surface she concludes others are merely tools for what is to come. I choose the lesser evil in BioShock 1 and wanted to do the opposite for 2. Not only that but I felt the choices made sense for each character. Jack wants to redeem himself and save what little innocence is left in Rapture - not only that but he's an orphan, lost, he can relate and empathize. Subject Delta is bonded to Elanor, he does not care about the Little Sisters - they are merely tools to save his own Little Sister as is his nature. In the end Elanor kills Delta and forsakes the inhabitants of Rapture. 

There are  several endings, the severity of outcomes depends on the choices you make. 

Lastly is Minerva's Den. This DLC was fantastic. The gameplay is largely the same beyond a new cool plasmid Gravity Well (sucks enemies together). Minerva - aptly named from Athena the Greek Goddess of Wisdom - or The Thinker is a super computer that powers that machines of Rapture. Created by an unfortunate fellow, Charles Milton Porter for Ryan Industries. You're another experimental Alpha Daddy activated by Tenenbaum and must help her and Porter stop Reed Wahl to recreate The Thinker on the surface and cure the ADAM sickness, saving Rapture. The story is really about the two creators and their motives - Wahl wants the computer to create an algorithm capable of predicting anything (aka Skynet) and Porter wants to use it for machine learning to recreate his dead wife (creepy dude...). Well in a twist nobody saw coming, it turns out Sigma is Porter himself, arrested, trapped and experimented on by Ryan years prior for implementing a failsafe protocol into The Thinker. Tenenbaum reveals The Thinker has emulated Porter, acting on its own to manipulate and guide Sigma through a familiar voice. In a final room you find many mementos and in a log its revealed that Porter abandoned the project, recognising that it was delusional to think he could bring back Pearl to get past his grief. In an epilogue Tenenbaum and Porter return to the surface, his former body is restored using a cure she discovered. Standing over a grave he leaves a letter apologising for desecrating her memory. 

Just wow - Minerva's Den certainly makes up for the somewhat lacking story in BioShock 2. Unlike the main game I actually feel like this added to the lore. The Thinker explained and helped flesh out Rapture. It wasn't just Ryan sitting at the helm, he had a supercomputer made to guide his ship. Not only that but it's a tragic story, more so then even the first game. I do feel like them escaping to the surface was a little necessary, the story to Rapture didn't need a neat little bow to wrap it up. The more people that escape to the surface after BioShock 1, the more I feel it goes against the ending that Irrational Games craft. Jack and the Little Sister survived and the rest of Rapture was forsaken, the canon ending. But still, there's no question that this is the definitive BioShock DLC - even better than Burial at Sea from Irrational Games themselves. 

Steve Gaynor the Lead Designer went on to create the walking sims Gone Home and Tacolma. 

Game 48 - BioShock Infinite - Week 74 - Jun 21

ioShock Infinite is a game I played and finished at release, but never got around to the post-release DLC Burial at Sea. Knowing that it ties it all together, I wanted to play 1, Infinite then 2 in reverse chronological order. Well that was before I realised 2 wasn't a prequel. Oh well, considering 2 is basically an isolated story, it worked out all the same. Next time I might play them in the proper order: Infinite > Burial at Sea > 1 > 2. 

Looking back, the opening scene for Columbia really did set the world up just as well as BioShock did for Rapture. I don't know how they did this twice and it amazes me that they did every time I see it. A mysterious duo take you to a lighthouse, ominous threats of failure and a dead body lie within. You enter a contraption similar to the Bathysphere. However instead of a descent your rocket up with great momentum, and there it is.... Columbia the city in the clouds. Soothing music plays as you descend peacefully onto a landing pad. A feeling of serenity envelops you. 

Columbia is a bastion of freedom and liberalisation. The Founding Fathers of the United States are worshipped as messiah and the influence from the American West is apparent in the buildings you first wander after landing. Where BioShock was 1950s, Infinite is 1920s. Stripped red and white swim suits, classic barber shops and dapper gentlemen walk the streets with an air of zealous nobility. The prophet Comstock founded the city, married his wife and seeded his holy daughter, the Lamb. All the inhabitants of the city are seemingly his devout followers. Like Jews following Moses or more aptly Mormons following Joseph Smith (man that dude had a generic name). As you navigate the city in search of the girl you meet these followers, wander through a carnival and see Vigors (Plasmids) for the first time.

I think the strength of Infinite is in its story and presentation. And when I say story I purely mean plot and performances, particularly the chemistry between Troy Baker and Courtnee Alyssa Draper. The relationship between Elizabeth and (her yet to be revealed father) Booker, who you play, is something that's explored with great depth and emotional investment. At the time I thought this was absolutely phenomenal and the story was ground breaking, but since playing The Last of Us I've softened on this. I think the plot, the twists and turns are just as good in BioShock as they are in Infinite. I could explore the nuances of each in great detail, so I won't. Ultimately Infinite is a story about two characters, Booker and Elizabeth on their journey, while BioShock is about a decaying city and a cult of personalities, incredibly flawed geniuses. They're simply different, and that best describes BioShock Infinite. It isn't trying to be BioShock, it's trying to be different. The influence of military shooters of the time is apparent. The weapon wheel is gone, replaced with two weapons. There are far less Vigors, allowing for less experimentation and a more casual experience. Arenas are tighter, and emphasis is put on the sky-rail. I'll admit the momentum you feel when first using the sky-rail is fun, but it's mostly used to reposition when you're not feeling too hot. Compared to the experimentation and randomness that plasmids, items, level design and AI gives way to its predecessor, it certainly falls short. Crows nest, Undertow, Devil's Kiss, Shock Jockey - for the few that there are here the Vigors are all memorable. But the weapons are anything but. RPG, rifle, pistol, shotgun, cannon, minigun are all generic. There's no chem thrower or crossbow. No weapon wheels and there's no special ammo types either? That's a mistake, that's not BioShock. It's an unnecessary reduction. There's an argument to be made around how did Jack carry 10 different weapons? That's not realistic or immersive. The answer is who cares - its a concession for fun and one that I never questioned. Why does every game have you killing thousands with no mental and minimal physical repercussions? That's not immersive, its fun. In combat I used Return to Sender (catch and return projectiles) for defence and Bucking Bronco (knock up enemies as a shooting gallery) and a hand cannon for offense. Conceptually I LOVE gunslingers. Roland Deschain of Eld here I come. So playing this through the first time I loved it. This second playthrough I experimented a little more, but largely defaulted to this build. Infinite absolutely falls short here. I will say I did love Elizabeth. Her AI never feels intrusive, she's always helpful, finding your salt vials or ammo. And you can use her tear ability to change reality and manipulate the battlefield - this mechanic was awesome. Summoning an ammo barrel, rocket launch or Motorized Patriot to take down that Handyman is so gratifying. Or even bringing in a skyhook to allow you to jump across the map. This is a great fun fast-paced action game. 

But you realise the levels are less sandbox focused and more linear, giving way to a reduced emphasis on environmental storytelling. As discussed in my previous post, this is the secret sauce that ties it all together in BioShock. The world, lore, characters, level design and gameplay are all connected through how you interact with the people - both alive and dead - and their stories. All that is mostly absent in BioShock Infinite. Where BioShock feels like a museum, Infinite is more like a roller coast. Grab your Skyhook, buckle up and jump on to a skyline to enjoy the ride. Playing the two back to back you realise just how mainstream an audience the game is striving for. It's closer to a corridor shooter, which goes in the face of BioShock which was anything but. The game itself was a commentary on the nature of games and shooters, the player being a slave to the game design. And then the sequel goes and steers (though not entirely) toward the very style of shooters it was trying to revolutionize and satirize in a way. Some of the best moments of BioShock come from the environment. Easily missed and often found through happenstance. It always makes you wonder what else is out there that you haven't found. It feels lived in and immerses you in its reality as a result. The best moments of BioShock Infinite are largely scripted. That's not to say they are bad, in fact they're great and BioShock Infinite is a great game. Booker and Dewitt draw you in, their performances make you believe them and their world is real, engrossing you in there journey. A lot of the best moments involve Songbird or Battle Zeppelins or Handyman attacking, Elizabeth falls and Booker dives to catch her. As I said, a roller coaster, so strap in and just enjoy the ride. 

One such great moment occurs when journeying through a portal to another world were Columbia is being overturned by the Vox Populi. The power struggle has flipped, Comstock was toppled and Booker martyred himself in doing so. Daisy Fitzroy upon seeing you, can't let her propaganda die or hand over power so she declares you an imposter and to kill on sight. Seem familiar? Not very different to being an apostate wanted by the Columbians. The world is flipped on its head but there are constants and variables. After Daisy kills Fink (the industrial mastermind behind Columbia) and Elizabeth kills Daisy - her first blood. It's a powerful moment for Elizabeth, as she has never killed anyone before and due to the great performance of Draper you feel the struggle of what it means to lose your innocence with bloodied hands. 

I really liked the Songbird as a persistent villain. It was Elizabeth's Big Daddy, constants and variables, and its Siren call always had you on edge. As a villain it just makes sense. Elizabeth has a weird dual-relationship with the creature one part pet, the other part Stockholm syndrome. It's been her only friend for most her life. But at the end of the day we're in the water and there's a shark encircling us. We can't escape, this domain is the sky, it has wings and we don't. This made it all the more awesome when you got to take control of Songbird and fight Comstock and his fleet. The creature nose diving into the zeppelins and tearing them apart with its giant titanium talons. While you take on various boarding parties via the Skyline. This is the perfect boss fight, far better then BioShock's final fight. What you thought would be the final boss is now an ally, flipping your assumptions on its head in "oh wait what? Fuck yes!" moment. It takes all the game mechanics you've learnt so far and challenges you to use them all to overcome all the attackers. I loved it. 

So that twist.. The Comstock House - the final residence of his family where you venture to rescue a captured Elizabeth. Navigating what feels more like an insane asylum you encounter the Boys of Slience "enthralled young men fitted with sense-enhancing helmets who are forced to act as watchmen". They're absolutely horrifying and blind, any peep and they'll alert nearby patients to attack you. The game does a good job of building their mythos with posters "No Sin Evades their Gaze" or nursery rhymes “Watch where you step! Don't say a word! You'll be in trou-ble if the Boys have heard!”. For a game that felt lacking in the environmental storytelling department this scene certainly made up for it. The atmosphere was perfect. They're just creepy. 

So it's fitting that this is also where its revealed. You saved Elizabeth, this time. But what about the others? You're shown another world, Zeppelins attacking countries, the lamb leading the purge in the name of the prophet her father. Again you're taken throw a portal. The Songbird attacks, and Elizabeth teleports you again. The bird drowns, in the ocean sea, and it's eye cracks. You look around at the familiar city beneath the ocean. In every world there is a man, a city, a girl, a lighthouse, a bird. You, Booker are Comstock, in your world Elizabeth was taken by future you and her finger was cut off as your wrestled her through her portal. So she drowns you before you can become Comstock. Credits roll. Like the gameplay, it was shocking and interesting the first time, not not so much the second. I did like the twist and multiverse - it was well done and the idea that infinite Elizabeth's are destined to kill infinite Bookers before they can become infinite Comstocks and kill infinite Elizabeth is an interesting paradox to ponder. 

Infinite is a superb game with a superb story. It draws you in, makes you care. But it does so in a way that could be done in a movie, scripted performances. Whereas BioShock relied on interactivity, discovery, experimentation - it leveraged the uniqueness the medium to a holistic degree that no other game had before. Yes the two are different - but ultimately that's why BioShock is brought up as an example as games as art, and Infinite is brought up as a great game. 

Burial at Sea

Seeing Rapture before the fall is something that can only be described as pure fan service. Wandering Rapture in its former glory, Andrew Ryan's vision is on full display here. Plasmids in everyday use is only something that was hinted at in posters. Seeing it in full view is so awesome. All the upper class hedonists are living it up. Cohen is at the height of his popularity and still exploring depravity (you witness him electrocute failed performers). 

Even in the upper class areas of Rapture there are signs of the coming fall..

The gameplay is more or less BioShock Infinite but with one change. The weapon wheel is back and I have to say I welcome it with open arms. The gameplay is so much better when you can switch weapons on the fly. The skyline is absent however, so there could be a good balancing reason for why this wasn't in the main game, but I struggle to believe they couldn't figure out a clever way to have both. Maybe even a reduced weapon wheel. Maybe the weapons where just too generic to have them justify them at your side at all times. The action focus of Infinite becomes quite clear here, as you scavenge for ammo. 

I noticed a few oddities, such as Eve's in salt vials... but then I realised Eve hypos have not been invented yet. You actually find schematics for a hypo work in progress, which plans to save on Eve waste by a considerable degree compared to just drinking it from a vial. A pretty cool nod and workaround to changing assets and animations. 

The story is an interesting one. Elizabeth has recruited you, Booker a PI in Rapture to locate a missing girl. Eventually you find the girl for Elizabeth but not before a Big Daddy sticks its drill through your chest. Well turns out in this world Booker tried to wrestle Elizabeth from Comstock, but instead of her finger, it was her head that was cut off. Only a baby. And in his immense guilt he fled to Rapture to drown his sorrows. Well Elizabeth is here for revenge and she achieves it.

The second part of the DLC is unique. Elizabeth has traded in her frilly French dress for a crossbow. 

I loved the portals it takes you through. It reveals Daisy did it all knowing she would die so that Elizabeth would carry forth the resistance. Elizabeth journeys to Paris, but it feels oh so not right, very Disney, very imagined as it melts away before your very eyes into something grotesque. The entire journey Booker, dead, talks to you through audio logs, always ominous and spine chilling. As a great homage you see the imprinting of the first Big Daddy on a Little Sister first hand, as Dr. Suchong berates a little sister you see the Daddy successfully gouge the doctor with its drill before turning to you as you're whisked away. 

Lastly is the ending. Atlas demanding you bring him a child, his ace in the hole. I don't think it was necessary to the plot, trying fit it all together under one neat little bow. Elizabeth didn't need to be apart of the process but regardless it was still cool. Atlas slips into his Fontaine voice momentarily and out of anger, yet to perfect his new personality. A lovely nod to the first game...

My god I love the art of Rapture.

The gameplay is an entirely unique experience, focusing on Stealth and avoidance as criminals fight each other in Fontaine's sunken district of Rapture. You're best to let them. You have sleeper darts to bypass threats. However none of this helps you when Ryan threatens you, to abandon your mission for Atlas. You deny him of course as he taunts you  and sends his thugs. 10 years after the original game released it feels oh so good again to be lambasted by this arrogant man. You're no Booker or Jack, so you need to prepare carefully for a fight like no other. You need to outwit your enemy, predicting their movements, setting traps and using all the tools at your disposal. Not only does the story come full circle, but spiritually the gameplay does too. It feels more like an immersive sim ala Thief or Deus Ex harkening back to the days of Looking Glass Studios.... Well that summarises the DLC more or less, it's fan service done right and a fantastic send off to BioShock and Irrational games. RIP you were one of a kind. 

Game 47 - BioShock - Week 72 - May 21

ioshock is another franchise on my pile of shame. As a kid BioShock was the first next gen game I played on my cousins Xbox 360 - and oh boy did it set the bar high by todays standards. Looking back its unfair to compare the game to contemporise of the time, because none will compare nor stand the test as time as well. I had played BioShock maybe half a dozen times but could never carry through to finish it. There was always a reason that pulled me away and by the time I got back to it I'd want to restart. BioShock Infinite on the other hand is a game that I played through to completion. The influence of military shooters of the time is somewhat apparent, and maybe that made it more digestible at the time. But playing them back to back there's no doubt which is the superior experience. If I had to rank the series it would be BioShock, Minerva, Infinite, 2. Though each have their own strengths that make them great... 

I couldn't open a discussion of BioShock without discussing the opening of BioShock. I don't think I've ever played a game that sets up the world so perfectly. A plane crash and a lighthouse. No gods or men, just a bathysphere and a slow descent. Andrew Ryan, the creator of Rapture introduces his creation as a haven from the ire of politicians and religious ideologues. And here it is revealed, Rapture in all its grandeur. Towering stone structures covered in neon 50s lights and deco art connected by glass tunnels. Whales, jelly fish and other Aquarian creatures float by and a giant steel behemoth grapples the exterior of a building and begins welding it. A testament to human ingenuity calls you to explore what mysteries it holds within. In this opening moment Irrational Games have foreshadowed and setup everything. Beyond its beauty Rapture exists to serve as a paradise from the suffering above, a libertarian paradise where everything is a luxury and you can be whatever your merit allows without social barriers. You see giant mechanical creatures grappling buildings from the outside, and appear to be building and maintaining the city with massive drills. What the hell are those? There's only one way to enter and Andrew Ryan holds the key to his city, able to lock the gates at will. 

There's a slowly dying conversation in the medium that should have been put to rest years ago - and that's whether games are art. The primary counter-point is that games are not art, but simply containers of art. The game that is typically called to Games are Art defence is BioShock - and for good reason. Not only do the sum of its parts represent a level of synergy unprecedented in games, but it also has the capacity to trigger high emotions within the player and raise great questions of morality and socio-political commentary. On top of this it allows you to interact and participate in those conversations through the art in a way that cannot be replicated by any other medium of art. There is no question, the art of interactivity is a fact that can only be contested through dumbfounded denial and a lack of understanding. The world, story and lore are primarily inspired by Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. Even the primary characters names are references: Andrew Ryan, Atlas, Frank Fontaine, Tenenbaum. Everything in this world is a commodity to be bought - plasmids let you shape your body and manipulate the world around you - posters are shown around Rapture exactly how they would be used. Incinerate to light a cigarette, Telekinesis to fetch some ice for your whiskey, electro bolt provides power to whatever you want. In an under water aquarium city, the very air you breath is created, bought and paid for. It can be shut off at any time. The pinnacle of Objectivism. Of course as you pass through the doors into Rapture it's quite clear this wasn't sustainable. Humanity gives way to corruption wherever you go. Economic classes cannot be equal on merit, because we are not born equal, this gives birth to contempt. Religion and politics as detested by Ryan are not the problem, they're simply tools and as long as humans have free will, there will be someone willing to use those tools to get the upper hand for themselves or their tribe. Its human nature. As you wander the halls this becomes increasingly apparent. Humans or splicers, have spliced their DNA to the point their unrecognizable. Those plasmids that made life so easy, were produced from a substance called Adam extracted from sea slugs put in little girls, and if the power wasn't enough to twist your sanity, they're biologically addictive to boot. It questions the validity of utopia focused on hedonism, when a lack of purpose in the individual gives way to misery, suffering and degrading mental stability. The world isn't just deep in its novel 50s art deco inspiration and historical references of the time, philosophical and ideological undertones, there are many references, especially Biblical and from Greco-Roman mythology. Adam and Eve ruining a utopia, Eve comes from Adam and the two are intertwined. Lazarus is referenced and so are verses quoted by various characters. Aphrodite, Olympus, Neptune, Minerva, Apollo are all locations throughout the game. Hephaestus (or Vulkan in Roman mythology) is the God of Fire and Smithing. He smiths many of the Olympian relics from his forge in Hades. In Rapture Hephaestus uses enormous machines to draw power through fire and flame, from Volcanos below the sea bed. This is such a nuanced caveat and each of the areas are the dwellings of the Gods and their disciples - with Andrew Ryan sitting atop Olympus Heights. 

I love Greek Mythology.

The cast carries this world to the very end - they're all colourful and interesting - flawed and brilliant in their own way. When I think of a genius, to have a level of intelligence that extreme, I wonder what personality traits have been sacrificed in their DNA to an extreme to tip the scales. Are they socially awkward, arrogant, bipolar? I won't go into each character because there is far far to many. Andrew Ryan the Creator, is a Walt Disney-esque visionary, arrogant with a messiah complex. Lording over Rapture with his Ryan Industry automatons. Everyone is equal but the city is his creation, so he is God above all others. Ironic isn't it? Frank Fontaine helps the people, but at the same time is a product of bottom feeding and wants to fight his way to the top, sacrificing others by feeding them plasmids and creating an addicted army of splicers. The epitome of ambition at all costs, an agent willing to manipulate and corrupt a free market. Yi Suchong created the sisters with their "mother", Dr. Tenenbaum. He also imprinted Big Daddy's on to them, before one put a drill through his chest. J.S. Steinman or the Picasso of Surgery "helps" reshape the splicers as they become more and more deformed. His higher calling is to create a "perfect being", in his hallucinations of Aphrodite. Sander Cohen is an interesting fellow, and represents the upper class of Rapture and Hedonism. Inviting us to act the main lead in his play of depravity, immortalised in death as the highest form of art. Atlas is the only remaining normal human and needs your help so he can escape with his family. The way these characters are intertwined in their own conspiracies and lore in the fall of Rapture is nothing short of brilliant. The lore... I just can't. It's as if this game was developed by a hive mind with every aspect of it perfectly synergised, everyone understanding what they're working towards. Ken Levine and the other creative leads must be be brilliant leaders. 

The siren call of Rapture...

When BioShock characters come to mind, the forerunner is without a doubt the iconic Big Daddy. Towering, lumbering, echoing, miserable, sad. If it wasn't already creepy enough that some miserable bastard gets sealed in one of these suits, they essentially become subservient zombies. They serve as a reminder of what happens when someone falls in Rapture, unable to pay their debts to survive (until Fontaine recruited them all of course). The Roman serfs. Upon your arrival their purpose has been long diminished, they've been imprinted upon the creepy Little Sisters. Seeking them out as they collect Adam, protecting them. They're not hostile unless you get too close. If the Big Daddy was on one side of a coin in BioShock, The Little Sister is the other. Creepy children that have been indoctrinated and experimented on. The way they walk, talk, call dead bodies "angels" and stare at you, yellow eyes wide with innocence and incomprehensible is always unsettling. And no wonder why, the developers have stated that they're based on the Grady Twins from The Shining. There's something entirely disorienting about the innocence of a child and miscomprehension when it comes to morality. Like a blank canvas that can be shaped to your will; a statement of nature vs nurture. Every time you murder a Big Daddy, you're rewarded with a choice. Save the Little Sister and capture some Adam, or sacrifice them and take all of their Adam from the source, a sea slug inside. It's a hard choice, especially considering you're going to need a lot of Adam if you hope to see the light of day again. 

Tenenbaum's Sanctuary - the process for creating little sisters is as harrowing as you'd expected. 

Lets talk about the best moments. The first of course being the opening, this is followed shortly by injecting your first plasmid. It's exciting to see a power manifest itself in this way when no game to date (I can think of) has done this before. Visually injecting lightning liquid into your veins as it recodes your DNA, providing you a pool of Eve (stamina used to generate plasmids) which knocks you out from the sheer trauma of such a miracle. You awaken only to be gate crashed by several ugly splicers and realise you're outnumbered. But hold on, I'm in a city of water, with lightning at my finger tips. This opens the first possibility of experimentation in BioShock. Electrify the puddle beneath an enemies feet, and pulverise their skull with a wrench. Simple yet effect. Then comes incinerate and oil. Frostbite and a shotgun slug. Oh you thought the big daddy was scary? Try different ammo types. Lightning shotgun shells or liquid nitrogen. Well, what about Telekinesis, an explosive barrel stuck with several sticky grenades, all flung to the face? I just love the animations for plasmids, clicking your fingers like you're a member of the Rat Pack to ignite someone is ohhhh so smooth. The plasmid you're using is always present on the screen, immersing you in that world consistently. Telekinesis hangs in the air, ready to lazily pour yourself a drink. Frostbite has icicles protruding your hand, ready to chill your drink. Insect Swarm, my favourite, has bees crawling in an out of your hand, ready to sweeten your drink. Posters litter the halls demonstrating exactly how they were used in Rapture, which I love, adding so much lore to their old world purpose. Certain areas can only be accessed if you have the right plasmid equipped giving the game a Metroidvania design that's almost always addictive, and keeps the back tracking fresh and interesting. Especially when enemies are constantly changed up in these area - new plasmids, new enemies. Perfect. All this serves as a testament to the synergetic design, the combat is fun and experimental, wild and wacky, yet grounded in this reality and completely believable - serving both the gameplay, story and world. Then you throw in the tonics - perks that improve your passive abilities or plasmids - such as alcohol giving you Eve or your wrench doing more damage on shocked enemies. I could do an entire playthrough of this game with telekinesis and weapons. Explosive barrels are plentiful. You can lob grenades back at enemies or even pull the hats off their head, stunning them momentarily. The AI is no slouch either. They flank, they run, they take cover, they press you when you're outnumbered and they run to health stations and heal when they're injured. They live in this world and they go about their day, they attack Big Daddy's when they find a little sister, their addiction overcoming their sense for survival. This is their home, a hellscape they created and you're the intruder. 

Who could forget donning the big suit and walking in their footsteps...

I only have two real criticisms of the gameplay. It feels a little floaty at times, especially the original version of the game compared to the remaster. I can see how people who play modern shooters or BioShock Infinite first disregard BioShock for what it is. A good friend of mine is among them. But ultimately BioShock is a strategy-shooter, not a run and gun game. Still, the controls could be tightened up a little - possibly in a remake or future iteration without sacrificing your soul to casual shooters like Infinite did. Resident Evil 2 Remake did this perfectly while still maintaining the limited movement and controls integral to the original core experience. The second are the vita-chambers. These aren't really an issue because I could turn them off in the options. But they suck. I really hate in-game revivals and immortality. It removes consequences and tension from a game. It's unrealistic and unbelievable, it breaks immersion. And for a game all about immersion, it totally pulled me out of the experience. 

Oh I almost forgot about the minigames. I'm not a puzzle guy but the hacking minigame is one of my all time favourites in any game. Hacking turrets and helicopter drones to do your busy work never gets old, throw in a few tonics and it's a viable playstyle. Then there's the camera. Such a cool idea, capture, study and research an enemy from a distance to find the weak spots and flaws in their behaviour. I would have loved to see this explored more - maybe it introduces new mechanics or weapons or ammo types to deal with enemies. Like goggles or a tonic that highlight vulnerable mutations or tumours inside their body, providing even more critical damage than a headshot. You're literally exploiting their disease, dark as fuck and in keeping with the game. Or kinks in Big Daddy armour to shoot and knock off armour plating. 

A city is built, a sea slug is discovered, the power to manipulate elements is abused, the city falls. Setting this after the fall was the right decision, as it let you unwind what happened, the betrayal and corruption while working your way through the creaking glass and steel halls of Rapture. Speaking of which the art design is nothing short of phenomenal. The underwater fallen city, damp carpet, rusty walls. It's all compounded by a 50s aesthetic, jolly vending machines, music boxes, vinyl, tapes, cigarettes and whiskey. The design is geometrically perfect, a symmetry that can only be achieved by the brilliant minds drawn to Rapture. Everything is malfunctioning and that leaking ceiling is a constant reminder of just how much pressure this city is holding up above your head. We experienced the city before the fall later in Burial at Sea DLC - which was nice but it did not have the same character - the same eeriness the things are not right here and never will be again. A decaying city and slow descent into insanity that crawls under your skin that is all too Lovecraftian. The splicers have given up on the city, to defend yourself you must become like them, reshape your DNA. If you don't you will surely perish. How can you escape that? Terrifying. You're against the clock and the clock is your sanity, everything around you is a constant reminder of that. This is a game I like to take my time with to notice different things. If the characters, story and lore weren't already deep enough the environmental storytelling is like no other. Every time I see a window I just stop and gaze out at the ocean city - almost any window could be a painting in itself. 

The graphics hold up surprisingly well, especially the water which is infamously difficult to get right. Walking into a bathroom may reveal a dead splicer on the ground, with a message HELP written in blood on the wall, turning around will reveal an assailant right in your face. The splicers are undeniably insane, and this gives way to some of the best moments in the game. That first time you happen upon a lady singing to a baby in a crib. Surprised at your presence as she turns around to defend her child and you're forced to kill her; after dusting yourself off you wander over to the pram and realise it's not a child, bug a gun... She was singing to a gun. This highlights the first of many unsettling moments of why this game is so creepy. Splicers talk, sing and yell at themselves. Even when they're amongst others. Audio logs of inhabitants long lost to the depths of insanity can be found across the city. Stories of class warfare, children disappearing, suicide and desperation. Cohen's art pieces are littered across Rapture, plastered figures of wax in various poses. In BioShock you walk in the footsteps of these ghosts. A museum dedicated to Troy, Atlantis and El Dorado. A lost city to discover its mysteries and treasures. A story is only as good as its characters, and holistically Rapture is the greatest character of all. 

Sander Cohen is more of an eccentric madman then you could possibly imagine. 

Last but not least I have to discuss the finale. Now a family friend of mine spoiled the fact that Atlas was Fontaine - that was annoying but nothing compared to the final twist. In the end, BioShock is a battle of ideologies, exactly the extremes that Andrew Ryan sought to escape in a time quickly heading into the greatest battle of ideologies - The Cold War. He, your father, reveals to you that you're a slave and you must make a choice. Would you kindly? Familiar words he says as he hands you a golf club. Would you kindly he repeats as the 9 iron in your hands comes down upon his head. He repeats and repeats this against this will until you've taken his own life against your will. Are you a slave or a man? Would you kindly are the words that Atlas, or Fontaine rather, and Dr. Tenenbaum programmed into you as a child - taken from your mother under the extreme pressures of the ultimate laisse faire capitalist society. A free market that gave way to someone like Fontaine, powerful and smart enough to manipulate the market and bring it to it's knees. Well Andrew Ryan cauterized that wound, sinking the city he was in, but not before he underwent reconstructive surgery and sent you to the surface as a sleeper agent. You were destined to do great things they told you, and you did years later, hijacking a plan over the North Atlantic, murdering dozens of innocents. Tenenbaum, mother of the little sisters helps you find an antidote, in exchange for saving her sisters. What follows is a race against Fontaine (or the plot) to stop him turning into an Adam Plasmid Super God. 

Foreshadowing... 

What you thought would be a final boss fight against Andrew Ryan, who stood between you and escaping was anything but. Instead it reveals to you that you were not in control this entire time. Why did you do the things that you did? Why did you trust Atlas over Andrew, a stranger in an insane city? Even in its final moments BioShock is a commentary on video games. A character tells you to do something, so you follow them down corridors and you kill the bad guys. Why? Are they the bad guys or victims of circumstance? In video games you're a slave to the designer. But you had a choice - you had choice with the Little Sisters. And your father sets you on a path to making a choice as a man, defying the master and rescuing what innocence remains on this forsaken sunken city. Returning to the surface with the Little Sisters and raising them as orphans, as you are yourself. Fontaine was a great villain, ambitious, flawed, evil. But even yet you can sympathise with him. Starting at the bottom and clawing his way out, he earnt his success through merit, even if it was through sacrifice of others he's a product of the environment that surrounds him. His writing and performance is nothing but superb, always antagonizing in the true sense of the word, trying to demoralise you and undercut your goal. "What are you gonna do, go back to your fake family with your fake memories and dreams?" So it was all the more disappointing when you fight him as the final boss. If it was removed from the game the experience would be better for it. And of course it sticks out - when everything else is so perfect that one blemish is going to catch your eye. For such a deep and symbolic conclusion with Ryan, tethering everything and everyone together, the final run of the mill boss goes in the face of what makes the game so great. Especially for a villain that was so well acted, and the game overall defies other shooters and redefines what a game can be. 

Atlas Fontaine is an iconic villain - he deserved a better finale and the creators agree.

The ending warms my heart - I love a good "they live out the rest of their lives" epilogue ending

All in all this is the kind of depth BioShock provides. Every time I return to this game I discover something new. Something I hadn't seen before, a connection between characters I didn't make or a story of a side character hidden away in Raptrues dark halls. Even now after the big reveal I realise the tortured and murdered prostitute tied to a bed was your mother. Rapture is your home and your legacy. The story, world, lore, characters are best described as an interactive mural. Each time you participate you discover something new, a new detail that sheds light on the overall picture or lets you see it a different way. 

Next time I think I'll tale twice as long to soak everything in.

Game 46 - The Last of Us II - Week 67 - Apr 21

he Last of Us

Part 1

The Last of Us still holds up and playing through it again I truly believe it deserves all the praise it got so many years ago. I won't go through the story in detail but just give some general thoughts. The first thing I noticed is how much nuance there is in the world. Naughty Dog has mastered embedded story telling here. In a similar way to BioShock, everything has its place and makes sense, serving the story and world to make it more immersive. In the very first city where Joel is reunited with Tess, his partner years after the apocalypse infected much of the population. You can talk to the inhabitants, and in one such encounter a guy steps up to you, telling you basically to fuck off. His companion quickly reels him back in "don't you know who that is?" "Sorry Joel" "No harm no foul Joel says". This encounter happens before combat even occurs and sets up the story. Joel has been surviving for over decade in this new world, whatever it takes, he's a hardened killer. Never have I experienced a game that from the offset addressed the fact that the character is a mass murderer. There's no disconnect like Naughty Dog's other title, a jolly treasure hunter Dad that's ended the lives of literally thousands. Here you feel the impact of every kill. Joel is brutal, his blue collar strength is put to work to put down anyone that threatens him or his loved ones. Ellie on the other hand is less certain, immature, weaker, more uncomfortable with killing. She and so many other characters represent the little innocence that remains in this world. Joel is not a hero, he's not a good guy, but at least he's trying to protect something in a destroyed world.  

Playing on grounded difficulty is just, stressful. A few bullets means death, just like real life. There's no HUD and the raw beauty of the world is there for you to behold in full. You must count your bullets and use your eyes and ears to perceive enemies. This is without a doubt the definitive Last of Us experience, the most immersive, the most real. At times this feels brutal and broken, like you've been cheated, constantly seeing a death screen. But when it works and (most the time it does) you outsmart your enemy, it centres you in this world. Ammo is rare, I never had a full clip. Bricks and bottles became your greatest weapon, a well placed throw and follow up curb stomp meant one more bullet in the chamber for that clicker later. This level of immersion only enhanced the brutality as you feel the skulls of other survivors crumple under a brick or 4x4, or you hear the screams of someone beg for their life as you level your shotgun at their head. I love post-apocalyptic fiction. The Road, Children of Men, Roadside Picnic. The inspiration is clear and the realisation of what the world would be is absolute here - it's the main draw that puts human mortality into question when they're no social rules left and many revert to their animalistic ancestry. 

The story is still the highlight of the game and ultimately the gameplay, the brutality serves this and the duos character arc. There are no good guys. Only grey and greyer guys. Even David - who tried to turn Ellie into his sex slave - and his community eat people, but do so so their families can survive. This journey into the heart of darkness, watching almost everyone you encounter die, Sarah, Tess, David, Henry and Sam - the many bandits and survivors that get in your way - all serve to show you as the player and Joel that humanity isn't worth saving. The gameplay and story is all about inhumanity. Animals who survive on instinct, absent of morality. So finally with a cure in his grasp, Joel personally and selfishly decides that humans will just find a way to screw it all up again. Humanity isn't worth saving and he just wants his daughter back after humanity clawed it from his bloody arms. Joel's initial journey is about a mission for survival. It's all he knows. But through that he finds his daughter again and by the end of it can't bear to lose it so much he chose to decimate the Fireflies, the last hope for humanity, betraying the wishes of his daughter. A truly a human decision. Many say they wouldn't have done the same, made such a selfish choice. But I question if those people are parents, and better yet have lost a child. That's what makes the ending such a truly human and real decision. If I had to use one word to describe The Last of Us it would be real. Everything just felt realistic. Not in the gritty shooter simulator like Arma sense. I mean the atmosphere, the gameplay, story, performances, characters, performances and decisions they make all feel genuine with weight and consequence, immersing you in a real world scenario. The game gives you the opportunity to live in this barbaric world, immersing you in it and question the horrors of men and what what we're all capable of in desperate times.

Part 2

Well here we are. Whenever a game I'm interested in is divisive such as Resident Evil 3 or Cyberpunk 2077 I often steer clear of the launch window and wait for the dust to settle. It usually helps with the bugs, provides a more polished experienced and often at a cheaper price to boot. Now we're here there's a lot to cover so lets start with the elephant in the room. The story. 

The controversy was overblown, the majority of which I can tell comes from people regurgitating outrage and opinion and haven't actually played the game. I saw the Joel twist coming and to be honest, it did feel a little rushed to speed the story along and whisk Ellie away and make way for new characters. But this direction made sense, the cycle of hatred and revenge is an age old story and it can be retold in clever ways especially in a lawless world such as this. After the events of The Last of Us Ellie and Joel have setup in Jackson with his brother Tommy. This gives way to new characters such as Dina and Jesse who have an interesting love triangle going on and a bunch of other forgettable characters in the town. So Abby shows up to the outskirts with a bunch of friends and after Joel and Tommy save them from a horde, they reveal their purpose and murder Joel, with a golf club, in front of Ellie. Well that was quick but not unexpected, he's gone within an hour or two.... However Joel has made a lot of enemies over the years and it makes sense someone will want to see him pay. So the first 10 hours is Ellie and Dina setting up a base of operations in Seattle to hunt down the killers. Formerly run by FEDRA, the WLF deposed the authoritarian government in Seattle and has become taken it upon themselves to fill those authoritarian shoes - some would argue they're worse. WLF is at war with the Seraphites. 

I don't mind this story. Delve into the heart of darkness and harden yourself like Joel, to kill the killers of our beloved character from the first game. It's a logical story. A long the way we're treated to some flashbacks of Joel and Ellie that remind us just why we're brutally murdering all these people. These are some of the best moments of the game, and remind you just how good their chemistry was in the original game. This I think reveals the biggest issue with The Last of Us 2 story: the pacing. If these moments had been at the start of the game we would have been reminded of both Joel and Ellie's chemistry, gotten a taste of the original game and the new characters wouldn't have felt so ham fisted over Joel's rushed death. More on that later.

I think the gameplay is a stellar evolution of The Last of Us. While Joel was brutal and straightforward, as per his blue collar background and strength, Ellie employs stealth, distractions and confusion to survive. The feeling of being a snake in the reeds adds to the story in the same way. Ellie is here, a sniper among the cattle to take down her prey. Joel in the first game was a brutal tornado, carving a path to the fireflies. The elephant and the mouse. This ramps up even more so by the 10th hour with crafted silencers and bows. The small addition of crawling is huge - under cars, holes in the walls and through long grass in a way that feels face lifted from Metal Gear Solid stealth mechanics. There were so many great moments that came from sleuthing around and surveying the environment to craft a plan of attack. Like using a boat to circle around a 3-story building and enemy encampment, before finding and climbing a monorail and using the rope to reach an unclimbable sniper haven, taking down a gang of Seraphites that are unable to climb or outgun me. I take out their snipers first so the best they can do is pot shots, hide and pray. The subway scene flooded with red lights as WLFs in pursuit have cornered you like rats. Clickers are dormant and all you need to do is lob a brick or sit back and wait for one of them to wander into a clicker and watch the havoc ensue as they tear each other apart. Or fighting in the dark against stalkers for the first time, running through an apartment building to escape onto a side-scaffolding, reminiscent of Will Smith in I Am Legend. A recurring encounter that is always terrifying. The AI is incredibly intelligent, the enemies always callout and outflank you, so do the infected with the tier 2.5 stalkers. As a result outsmarting them such as the moments above is always satisfying. Seattle is a character in itself, from the skybridge towering over the city to the flooded city. Using the boat or horse to explore and scavenge is always fun and leads to some great embedded storytelling. Such as the vault heist betrayal at the offset of the apocalypse going down. This was one of the best areas, it let you openly explore and scavenge in a mini-sandbox at your own pace, unravelling what happened in Seattle. 

The low strum score of this soundtrack is awesome. The ominous humming tone is a horrifying backdrop to the horror of this world. Future Days is an ominous choice of song that fits the tale of grief, despair, hate and revenge perfectly. Pearl Jam is totally a band Joel and Ellie would have liked together, adding that extra meaning. Now we're at the end, the final confrontation between Abby and Ellie. If the game ended here I would have said it was a 9/10. The only issue I had was with the B-tier characters Dina and Jesse in their pointless love triangle. Ellie had murdered a pregnant woman, the die was cast and there was no going back. She had become a product of this violent animalistic world and it's Joel's fault. Was she really worth saving over a cure? Was I the bad (or greyer) guy? Abby has her boot under Tommy's head after killing Jesse out of nowhere, and bam, fade to black. 

~

Um what just happened.... Just as you think the game is over it cuts to Abby and you get to experience everything all over again from her point of view. Abby's Dad was revealed as the surgeon to operate on Ellie, which Joel killed, and so the cycle of revenge was about to come to close. I liked this scene and the context it provided - but what followed is a different story. I was so disoriented with this sudden unexpected shift that I played the first 2 hours of this thinking it was a quick prelude before it cuts back. In other words I was in denial. When I realised this was not the case I was so exhausted I put up the controller and didn't play for another week. I've never done this before. You have to understand everything was just working so far. The skills, weapons and abilities you'd built up had been an in game reflection of Ellie sharpening herself to knock a one-way arrow at Abby - in the same way Abby had done to Joel. 

Even the gameplay reflects this abrupt change in pace to a completely different playstyle after 10+ hours. Like the Jackson characters, the new WLF characters aren't that interesting. Manny is cool, a loveable and loyal wise ass to a fault - but nothing is done with him before Tommy domes him. While the same unnecessary love triangle between Abby, Owen and Mel had literally already been done in the same game 5 hours earlier. They're meant to be a group of firefly veterans and survivors grizzled like Joel or Tommy, they've seen more shit then most. But instead they feel like kids playing at wasteland warrior like the Wolverines from Red Dawn.

 

While jarring at first in the end I did like the dichotomy between Ellie and Abby playstyles. The former is smaller, leaner, stealthier. The latter bigger, upfront, aggressive, familiar to us in previously playing Joel. Of course a bullet to the head will still take her down so stealth is important to level the field, but much less so then Ellie, punching her way through problems. Stealth options are more costly (she has less guile I guess), health is cheaper and better and shivs, momentum (free instant kills), double pipe bombs and craftable ammo for shotguns instead of bows - the action orientation is clear. It's just so much fun to snap an infected neck or crush a skull with a brick in a brutal animation. I wish Joel was in this game so I could see what Naughty Dog could do with our boy now. I never understood the controversy of Abby being so big. I think it would make sense to pump yourself full of testosterone, steroids and hit the gym if you make your entire purpose killing your father's murderer. Especially when that killer is such a hulk like Joel. They even show gyms and people pumping iron at the WLF base, further evidence at lot of criticisms levelled at the game are trivial and from people who know little about it. 

The loss of Joel is quite apparent. And not in a good way. Every scene Ellie is remembering Joel, you feel at home, it's like Christmas has finally come. It's clear that a huge part of what made TLOU so phenomenal is the journey of Joel and Ellie, and the execution of this chemistry between Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson in the game. This is something sorely missed in any of the character relationships of TLOU2. And why you care about next to none of them. I really wish Dina was Tommy in this game or the the journeyed together. Or even Ellie travelling alone would have been better and more unique if they were adamant about a solitary experience. 

Lev and Yarra of course get a special mention as the exception to the new characters are bad rule. The night scene they're introduced is genuinely scary. Running through the dark woods, using fire to fend off infected and hiding. This speaks to all of the chase scenes whether it be that moment, running from gunfire or the initial horde are the most intense moments in this game and I loved every one. Clearly drawing inspiration from it's cousin Uncharted 4. Any other scene with Abby, Lev and the Seraphites is horrifying albeit completely unnecessary and felt like a different game. 

So in the end what was the point? 40 hours....  Granted 10 of that was grounded. but half way through I just wanted it to be over. Even at the end it wasn't over. The epilogue taking hours. Although I enjoyed California (a testament to Ellie's evolution), it still felt unnecessary. A rehashing of the same point made over and over; revenge bad, redemption good, characters good, violence bad. Its evident the purpose of characters like Dina were put there to tempt her from the path of revenge, returning to the life Joel created for her. I like the idea, but it feels a little forced. Also there is no redeeming these characters, stop pretending like they have any sort of moral high ground as mass murderers. They haven't even done so for survival, but selfish interest and emotions, Ellie kills far more than Abby in her quest for revenge and is arguably an even worse person than Abby by the end of the game. The story is enjoyable at the start, but predictable and tired at the end. Circling over the same plot point and moral several times. At least the gameplay was great. If I had to do it all again I'd put Joel and Ellie's 1.5 adventures at the start of the game, the Fireflies murder Joel all the same, and Ellie travels with Tommy and perhaps another character or two to avenge Joel. Balance the old with the new. Abby instead becomes a sympathetic villain instead of a second protagonist with a convoluted plot. I like Abby and her story, especially where it involved Lev and Yara but don't feel like it warranted another 10+ hours. Her story can be optional DLC; released as a "her side of the story". Allowing the team to focus on tightening up the pacing mess that was Ellie's story.  

Anyway. I could go on and on about my love hate relationship with TLOU2. But ultimately it comes down to this. For this last 15 years Naughty Dog has been masters of pacing. From story to gameplay to interactive scenes to set pieces to puzzles. With TLOU2 they dropped the master pacing ball, and they did so with the sequel to a game that had peaked that art of storytelling in games. As a result The Last of Us 2 is strong in parts, albeit a convoluted and bloated sequel overall. 

To quote a man loved by many "you see there was a sequel...  It wasn't as good"