I've been INSPIRED to finally give this one a try. My expectations are low but we'll SEE! Gonna start tonight prob

I've constantly heard that the Minerva's Den DLC is one of the best parts of the series so tbh half the reason I'm playing is to get to that

welp, fun while it lasted? (: My game crashed and wiped out almost an hour of gameplay. Could be WORSE but I have like zero patience for replaying long stretches of games soo idk!

funny that Cyberpunk crashed exactly zero times for me yet this game that's been out for over 4 years is what did it for me

yeah but then I would lose out on grabbing all the LOOT! Maybe I'll just turn it to easy mode...IF...I give it another shot...

something similar happened with Disco Elysium (though that wasn't a crash but actually an annoying part of the game design that if you die you get set WAY back if you haven't been savescumming) and I lost 90 mins of gameplay and...I still haven't really gave that game another shot a year later even though I was enjoying it

I simply can't STAND it!

so anyway

Pauper's Drop

+

wowee turns out when you're not scraping through and trying to discover every nook & cranny you can breeze through a level P QUICK! What took me around an hour last night I was able to get through in like...15-20 mins this new camera mechanic seems like something I won't be using at all! Apparently that existed in the first game too but I have zero memory of that The SHOTTY on the other hand...helllll yeah. Always my fav gun the writing is a bit on the nose so far but o well, still p good. None of the BioShock games have exactly been SUBTLE I suppose Spared Grace ofc, I was halfway expecting her to punish me anyway I can't get over how funny/weird it is that there's such a thing as stealth when you're playing as a BIG DADDY. Like the visual of me crouch-walking over to a splicer and them somehow being completely oblivious to the seismic footsteps behind them

no more crashes since that one time hooray! Still been savescumming just in case tho

@Curt I did change two settings for the game under its Steam properties, one was checking the box to run as Admin, the other was to disable the Steam Overlay while in-game. No idea if either of those are the reason I haven't had further problems but worth a shot

Siren Alley

+

getting some FITZROY vibes from Lamb now. Seems like she might've started with good intentions but lived long enough to see herself become a villain Burial at Sea spoilers + until the Kid Killer retcon ofc (: Which was COOL but I'm still mixed on if it was necessary walking back through Siren Alley after it flooded was a really cool visual. Love those kinds of things, especially in these games, when you get familiar with a level's layout/look just to see it flipped on its head the insect swarm is back babyyyy! Rapture's version of Murder of Crows, both of those are my fav vigors/plasmids in either game same here with the resource overload Curt. I was MAXED out on cash for most of this level which felt weird, but then it usually only takes one Big Daddy fight before I'm having to burn half of it on more ammo again although I did have a really FORTUNATE Big Daddy fight on this level where he was poking his head in a room where I'd hacked two turrets. They didn't start firing right away since he was still neutral, but as soon as I shot a bullet into him they just UNLEASHED and he got absolutely obliterated with very little assistance from me. It was actually p brutal to watch! Poor guy

aaand it crashed on me again so I didn't quite finish but

Dionysus Park	+
HEYYY they did the ATTWS3 thing with Mark's latest audio tape intersecting into Delta's timeline. That was p NEAT! Glad we could give them some inspiration

DUN!

Ending

+

first of all, yeah that was pretty damn derivative of BioShock 1's ending. Light vs. dark ending (I got the light ending where Lamb is spared - p sure I made all the 'good' decisions since I saved/spared everyone I could besides the Doctor in the fish tank which was a mercy kill), Little Sisters being saved and brought to the surface, etc. That being said...! There were def some neat elements to this one. I did really like that bit where you got to see the world through a Little Sister's eyes, would've been fine with that going on a bit longer tbh Eleanor turning into a Big Sister was...interesting, considering I thought the process for turning people into Big Daddies was this gruesome procedure where they meld their flesh directly into the suit? Not just slipping on a uniform. Unless the rules are different for Big Sisters but eh. p TOUGH armor to withstand all those boxes of dynamite! The ending battle was simple (it's kinda funny comparing this to Infinite's insane last battle) but at least it wasn't silly like the Atlas boss battle. It was p liberating getting to go full bore with my ARSENAL knowing it was the end considering how stingy I am with my resources usually. The first part of the battle no one could even get NEAR me with all the trap rivets/mines/harpoons I laid out...and then I got Eleanor right after that so it rly wasn't that much of a challenge A little underwhelmed by the storyline/characters overall but it was fine. It's only disappointing compared with the rest of the series, otherwise it's definitely a SOLID game

Minerva's Den SOON. p excited

Minerva's Den ✔

short & sweet

Spoiler

+

wowee this felt like the game BS2 shoulda been. EVERYTHING was better about this. Within the first 15 minutes I already cared way more about CM Porter than any character from BS2 great twist too, I like that they sprinkled in enough ahead of time to let you figure it out for yourself before the outright reveal. That sequence where Wahl points out the man you've been talking to was taken by Andrew Ryan's secret police -> the vox where Porter mentions they've been turning prisoners into Big Daddies -> the scribblings about Sigma/Porter/Thinker on the floor was well-done. And ofc they had all those tapes with the Pearl tests throughout the game to leave the DOOR open for the Thinker to be anyone Speaking of which! That emotional core with CM and Pearl was great, all those voxes were well written/performed. Honestly that's instantly the most character depth the series has given outside of Booker/Elizabeth. BS1 was good in a lot of ways but emotional depth was NOT one of them! Really liked the quiet walkthrough Porter's living quarters at the end, that was nice. The Rapture entries in this series could really use more contemplative moments like that (according to the wiki the producers asked for combat to be added to that environment too and the developers refused. That would've been SILLY!)

series rankings:

Infinite - 10/10
Burial at Sea - 9/10
BioShock 1 - 8/10
Minerva's Den - 7.5/10
BioShock 2 - 6/10

was it a mistake to post that outside of spoiler tags

ok :)

btw Minerva's Den had zero crash problems for me

I ended up just saving after like every enemy encounter. Kinda tedious but not nearly as tedious as replaying 15+ min worth

hey check it out