easily some of the best fps I've played, super fast, super short but give you an amazing well made campaign along with some incredibly fun traversing mechanics and brilliant set pieces in each levels. Even when the campaign is really short the game does a good job at establishing the relationship between cooper and BT. It's constant action with very few cutscenes and each level introduces you to a new weapon or ability and keep up at that fast paced action going. Playing this on the master difficulty isn't fun all the time but I still enjoyed it for it is.

This game is over a decade old, and I’ve seen so many people get wrapped up in the meta and politics of the game to the point where that is the dominating discussion point when speaking on this video game- and I feel, more often than not, people focus too much on these things that they put blinders on to the rest of the game.

BioShock, like most games, is a flawed experience. Its shooting is only passable and most of the abilities you get in the game are outclassed by any electric element ones you get your hands on- Playing the first borderlands game is a vast improvement over any installment in the BioShock franchise.

What really matters to me in this game is the characters- I know when people talk about BioShock it’s always about the world of the game, about the atmosphere, and while I do love the city of Rapture and the underwater aesthetic, what’s better is following the story of the characters by following their logs throughout the game. You could argue that is part of the city, but BioShock Infinite showed us it's possible to have a beautiful city that lacks any depth because of the lack of a supporting cast.

Whenever I replay this game there are always audio diaries I have to go out of my way to get. Getting to hear updates from people you know are dead as you follow the timeline to their grave gives so much dramatic irony which is something that I love so much. It creates this strange relationship with the player and these ghosts as you listen to their woes and ideas just to find their corpse and know exactly what caused their death.

Then when shifting to the present and the characters that are alive and acting currently in the story- they all just play off each other so well. The parallels and foils just make each character feel like they’re working together for a cohesive narrative. I’m not going into details because then I would literally be talking about this game forever, but the overlap and contrasting of the main cast means so much to me and their relationships are going to stick with me.

You can debate whether or not this game is intelligent, and honestly, I wouldn’t really defend it in that context- Considering almost everything is an accident because Ken Levine really had no idea what he was doing with this game- admitting he was only drawing from “The Fountain Head” for BioShock and never read “Atlas Shrugged” along with saying he didn’t know Ayn Rand was politically relevant.

And while I would be more than willing to fistfight Ken Levine in a parking lot, that doesn’t change how this game affected me. I’ve found my own meaning in it and it’s going to be a part of me forever.

A fantastic game that builds off of the first game in every way possible. The only thing you lose between games is the mystery of what’s going on. The choice to remove all the mechanics from the first game that make you wait around and replace them with far more immediate tools, like swapping from energy pellets to lasers, makes the game so much smoother and engaging to play. And they way the gameplay slowly escalates from learning a new mechanic to have to juggle everything they game has taught is so seamless you probably don’t even realize it’s happening.

They even give you more behind the scenes levels, since that was where the first Portal really started to shine, and they really add to the feeling of the facility. Giving the science lab your trapped in more life and history.

And the characters???? Despite having like, five named characters they do so good with them all. The contrast and overlap between them thematically is so good. You get attached to every single one in different ways which makes following their stories and seeing them in action that much more engaging.

The Co-Op is also great, the plot line for it is good and getting to yell at your friends while you intentionally try to kill them cannot be replaced with anything else.

Honestly really satisfying to play, the presentation and atmosphere is stellar and the mechanics and inventory management keep you always thinking about what items you need, and what you can stash away for later.

Zombies are an obstacle you have to learn to work around- conserving your ammo is one of your upmost concerns in this game and you’ll never have enough. So you have to decide which zombies you need to kill and which ones you can kite around and run past. This gets muddied as the game adds in other enemy types, then you’ll have to deal with lickers which will attack you based on sound so you can’t just run around a zombie or you’ll give your position away to a licker and then they have Mr. X who stalks the halls hunting you and you start hearing those heavy footsteps while walking around a licker you have to cut your losses and make a break for it. Coupled with trying to navigate the maps and puzzles which are also satisfying to complete, and once you find out where to go it feels great.

Mr. X is interesting as he does follow a path around the map, but he moves super fast when not in loaded rooms so its very likely that he’ll make a round back to you quicker than you’d expect. I think he’s a really good mechanic, but I think he also struggles with stairs, because there were times I would hide in the dark room, which is a safe room, and he would just keep going up and down the stairs and never leave the area, so I’d have to run past him to the STARS room to get him to walk by me.

But the look of the game, than handling of guns, the way zombies react make fighting super satisfying and constantly add to your stress as everything feels very realistic. The improved a lot of stuff to make the game fun and playable while still holding onto some of that old RE narm- you could do a drinking game solely based around Leon saying “what the” and get smashed by the end.

Really the biggest down grade is that they managed to give Claire and Leon even less interactions than they did in the original game, which is a bit disappointing despite the fact all the improved gameplay mechanics make it enjoyable to engage with.

I've basically known the plot of this game for years, so I knew the general way things would go in this game and I KNOW people have been sucking this game's dick so much to the point where I feel its a bit overhyped (I suppose its fair to say I like this game, not the attitude people have towards it) but all I wanted out of this game was gruff video game dad and his daughter bonding time while exploring abandoned and overgrown buildings enjoying the melancholy of the world and some good zombie noises- and that's what I got.

What I DIDN'T expect was 100% of the PoC to die which WAS a bit distasteful- like cmon I know some white people die too but not ALL of them do- meanwhile every black person we meet dies which is :/

My Naughty Dog experience is mostly Uncharted games, which I love a lot- so seeing how they tweaked the gameplay style to feel more survival horror was fun- along with having quality presentation.

I enjoyed playing the game, I enjoyed hearing the characters banter and following their story, I liked the locations we went through and I liked how it was shown to me. Maybe just don't kill every non-white character off next time.

My first experience with this game was watching my friend play through 90% of it struggling the whole time through, and then dropping it close to the end of the game.

So now maybe 2ish years later I've come back on my own to wrap this game up! And! I couldn't tell if my friend was just bad at this game, or if only using the plasma cutter makes the game that much easier because I only died to an enemy once (and it was the first time you you encounter those hoards of little dudes that jump on you and drain your health so quick there's nothing you can do).

Really tho I just love hanging out in derelict space stations so no matter what I was going to like this game. The atmosphere was on point and the controls are floaty enough that you can still fight without too much hassle but you always feel a liiittle out of control, which adds back to the mood.

It was a good time, I might revisit it later, at least after i finish the rest of the Dead Space games, to see what extra parts of the lore I can pick up on with a second playthrough.

This is the best mainline Uncharted game. This game right here. Not 4, this one. Among Thieves. One of the games that make me happy to own a PlayStation. It has its flaws, sure. There is a couple of points where the ludonarrative dissonance gets a bit wacky and a moment where Nate could've ended the story three chapters early but decided not to. But despite this, it's one of those games that stand the test of time. Not only is it a significant upgrade from the mediocre first game, but this one elevates the world, characters, and stakes in a way that feels like you're watching a summer blockbuster. I have never seen any game in 2009 do setpieces the way this game does it. Hell, even compared to some games today. This one feels like one of those games they just don't make anymore. The intro is one of my favorites in all of gaming. The pacing of this game is perfect. I wouldn't change a thing about it. The humor is also great, best in the series even. The writing is also good and although the story isn't going to win awards or anything, it gives off that old school adventure movie vibe with some great action to go along with it. This game is the one that put Nathan Drake on the map as one of the best video game characters of all time for me. This easily goes down in history as one of the greatest video game sequels and one of the best games ever made. If that doesn't convince you to give this one a shot, I don't know what will.