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Structurally, it's far and away the strongest. Bioshock 1 is an amazing game top to bottom but it dove off a cliff in the third act and Infinite kinda sucked. Another anon already hit why Bioshock 2's story was so compelling, so I might as well blather about the gameplay.

Bioshock 2 made some very fruitful tweaks to the gameplay and character customization. They allowed you to dual-wield weapons and plasmids, which greatly improved the flow of combat. They fleshed out the melee weapon by making the drill run on its own fuel and adding the drill dash (realtalk: Drill Dash is the funnest fucking thing in the game, even more than bee tornadoes), making it not only an always handy sidearm but completely viable for melee-only runs (not to say the wrench wasn't, that thing was a fucking doombringer. Skyhook is a joke, though). They streamlined and expanded on the plasmids, greatly tweaking the upgrade system so that you were constantly gaining new powers even at the end of the game and went further by adding in plasmid combinations. And they changed hacking so it's not a cut-away minigame but a quick QTE that's done in the middle of the action. And they added the hack tool which allowed for long distance hacking, letting them get more creative with the level design.

They were all really small changes, but in the end, it made the game flow so much better, both in the combat and the level design. Things move so much more quickly than in Bioshock 1 and the character growth feels so much more genuine because you're constantly earning new powers by way of the Gatherer missions. And because of the depth and speed of the combat and the way the game encourages you to try different methods of defending your Little Sisters by mixing up the terrain, the Gathering is really fun and doesn't feel like a tedious escort mission like it did in BS1.

I wish it had added a couple more weapons and plasmids (or at least brought over the chemical thrower from BS1 - that thing was badass) and that they had gone even further with the plasmid combinations, but the gameplay in Bioshock 2 was filled with a bunch of subtle improvements that made it an incredibly strong game. And then, whoops - Irrational Games completely frickin' ignored all the subtle improvements 2K Marin made and went in the totally opposite direction for Infinite, so it plays exactly like BS1 but stripped down and overly streamlined to the point where even Call of Duty is side-eyeing it. The worst part about it is the vigors. The plasmids in BS2 had so much variety and so much depth in the upgrades, which is completely gone in Infinite. The overall number of Vigors is down from BS1 and BS2 and they all sort neatly into "AoE damage" or "AoE stun" with a couple exceptions.

BS1 had somewhat antiquated gameplay that was nonetheless structured beautifully. BS2 applied some inspired tweaks for a greatly improved experienced. I really would've loved to see further improvements on Bioshock 2's formula but Infinite just missed the mark so thoroughly. I really hope whoever Take Two gives the Bioshock license back to goes back to the roots.

Credit where credit is due though, Burial at Sea episode 2 at least tried something pretty cool by giving you a less tanky character, bringing back health kits over that stupid shield, emphasizing stealth and melee takedowns and the crossbow was well-implemented and had three different kinds of ammo (something Infinite as a whole missed the boat on). Peeping Tom made the stealth pretty much a joke but they gave it a shot at least and you can play the game different ways because they ditched that stupid two weapon limit and brought back the weapon wheel. It was cool that they tried to get back to Bioshock's roots while making Elizabeth feel like a unique character to play as.

I love this anon, too.

Oh, hell, I'm basically just slathering this entire BS2 thread in love.

Totally agreed.

In addition, changing the camera into a video recorder and turning it into a combo-based minigame was a stroke of genius. There's something so satisfying when you hear the "ch-ching!" at the end.

Infinite just lacks the sheer creativity that Bioshock 2 did. B2 was all about taking control of an area; Infinite is plowing through an area. Infinite gives you options (open a tear to "cover" or open a tear to "sentry gun") while Bioshock 2 gives you tools (the hack gun, proximity bolts, trap plasmids, environmental hazards...).

WHOA THERE SON

you don't diss the bee tornadoes

but no, you just perfectly articulated a lot of my feelings about bioshock infinite's gameplay vs bioshock 1 or 2. personally i preferred the wrench to the drill, which i'm distinctly unfond of, but YES-- i love the sheer number of ways you could dominate an area in bioshock 2 using any combination of weapons or plasmids (trap rivets, mini turrets, summon bots, bee tornadoes, firebombs) and how the gather missions were perfect setups for the player to go wild and have fun with it. bioshock infinite's gameplay wasn't even streamlined, just stripped to the bones, and wasn't even half as fun as a result.

i have a whole 'nother slew of issues with elizabeth's gameplay in burial at sea, but most of them are centered around the fact that i think they implemented the stealth element incredibly poorly and inconsistently

Okay

Re: BIOSHOCK

Re: BIOSHOCK

+1

Re: BIOSHOCK