Just finished up my first playthrough and felt like voicing some complaints. I'll get the spoiler ones out of the way first.
Now for some non-spoiler, basic mechanic gripes. For starters, I didn't like the fact that you couldn't save your game at any point. This means that if you're part-way between checkpoints and have to leave, you've got to start over from the last checkpoint you reached. I liked being able to save where I wanted and when I wanted, like in the first two games.
Also...what the hell happened to the map? One of those would have come quite in handy...especially when trying to find all the locked chests and Vox Secrets.
Maybe it was just that I was playing on Medium, but it seemed like you pretty much have infinite ammo during combat. I was able to take the first sniper rifle and first RPG you find in the game all the way to the end. I only changed my sniper rifle for the shotgun in Comstock house because I discovered the joys of Charge-Shotgunning people, up until then I had been using the Bronco and easily sniping the helpless fools out of the air. But no matter what gun you're using, whenever you get low, Elizabeth is there - for the most part - to throw you some more ammo. Same thing with health, though it doesn't necessarily save you if you're getting your ass handed to you, but if you're hurting here comes a free medkit out of nowhere. Just seemed that it made the combat a little easier to deal with than it was in the first two games.
And finally, I miss Booze Hound and having an ice power.
All in all, I loved the game. As most people rave, it's got absolutely fantastic story telling and the world is truly beautiful. My favorite thing about the game is that it's a living, breathing world, and a damn beautiful one at that. You get to see the city BEFORE the shit hits the fan, unlike arriving in Rapture to find an already dead and destroyed world. The funny thing about the ending is that I feel like I don't understand it...and yet at the same time I do. If you've beat the game you should know what I'm talking about...I think my nose is bleeding...
P.S. The most money Elizabeth flipped to me in a single coin was $275...that's a big coin.
P.S.S. Fucking hate those god damn Sirens.....
I enjoy a good mental warp as much as the next, but good god did that ending come out of left field. Maybe it's because up to that point I had read the foreshadowing well enough to predict pretty much every major plot point in the game...that is until you get to Comstock Home. Truly that is THE place of nightmares!
But seriously, can't say I was expecting a good ol' Darth Vader "No, Elizabeth....I am your father!" moment. Well, it's the same type of revelation, just a different delivery on it. But if you ask me it was a bit contrived...I'm still not entirely certain how Comstock and Columbia came into being at all. My biggest question is specifically what sins was Booker trying to rid himself of at the Baptism? When you first arrive there during the ending, Booker says it was right after the Battle of Wounded Knee. That leads me to believe that he was washing away all the horrors he committed during the wars. But if that's the case, then he was reborn as Comstock before Booker had Anna. And if THAT'S true, how could Booker have Anna for Future-Booker/Comstock to rip open a hole and steal? Or am I simply thinking too hard about this and just fill in all the blanks with "quantum mechanics, they just found one of the infinite worlds in which Booker never became Comstock" which - since I fully admit I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to such things - basically equates to good ol' fashioned magical science.
Alright, that's more of a question than a ccmlaint. Just something I couldn't really wrap my head around, but hell, that was one doozy of an ending. A genuine gripe is that they never reveal just what the hell the deal is with Elizabeth. Why is she able to see and open tears?
Also, for that matter, I wish they would have explained what the hell the deal was with the Vigors. I'm not saying they had to do like the first two games and have the entire story revolve around the developement of super powers, but just as it was nice to know that plasmids came from a substance secreted by sea slugs, it would have been nice to know what technology or discovery led to people being able to throw flocks of ravens, do a good ol' vanguard charge, levitate everything in front of them, and catch frickin' bullets. Just a simple recording of some scientist describing the discovery would have sufficed, just for a "Well now you know" type of deal.
And this one can't really count because I've only beaten the game once and therefor don't yet have a basis for comparison, buuuuut it seems to me the choices you make don't really matter. Yeah, yeah, that good ol' ME3 complaint. But honestly, does it make a difference if you pick the Bird or Cage pendant?
Or do all roads lead to Comstock living unless Booker kills himself?
But seriously, can't say I was expecting a good ol' Darth Vader "No, Elizabeth....I am your father!" moment. Well, it's the same type of revelation, just a different delivery on it. But if you ask me it was a bit contrived...I'm still not entirely certain how Comstock and Columbia came into being at all. My biggest question is specifically what sins was Booker trying to rid himself of at the Baptism? When you first arrive there during the ending, Booker says it was right after the Battle of Wounded Knee. That leads me to believe that he was washing away all the horrors he committed during the wars. But if that's the case, then he was reborn as Comstock before Booker had Anna. And if THAT'S true, how could Booker have Anna for Future-Booker/Comstock to rip open a hole and steal? Or am I simply thinking too hard about this and just fill in all the blanks with "quantum mechanics, they just found one of the infinite worlds in which Booker never became Comstock" which - since I fully admit I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to such things - basically equates to good ol' fashioned magical science.
Alright, that's more of a question than a ccmlaint. Just something I couldn't really wrap my head around, but hell, that was one doozy of an ending. A genuine gripe is that they never reveal just what the hell the deal is with Elizabeth. Why is she able to see and open tears?
Also, for that matter, I wish they would have explained what the hell the deal was with the Vigors. I'm not saying they had to do like the first two games and have the entire story revolve around the developement of super powers, but just as it was nice to know that plasmids came from a substance secreted by sea slugs, it would have been nice to know what technology or discovery led to people being able to throw flocks of ravens, do a good ol' vanguard charge, levitate everything in front of them, and catch frickin' bullets. Just a simple recording of some scientist describing the discovery would have sufficed, just for a "Well now you know" type of deal.
And this one can't really count because I've only beaten the game once and therefor don't yet have a basis for comparison, buuuuut it seems to me the choices you make don't really matter. Yeah, yeah, that good ol' ME3 complaint. But honestly, does it make a difference if you pick the Bird or Cage pendant?
I just wonder if the decisions affecting the ending take place much earlier in the game than you'd think, since during the entire ending sequence you're not given any choices at all (I'm assumin that no matter what way you go when you're walking between the lighthouses, you'll always find out that you're Comstock and therefor have to kill yourself to save Elizabeth). The reason I think this is because ater picking Bird and calling Songbird to destroy the Siphon, I got the achievement "The Bird or The Cage?" Which leads me to believe that if you pick the Cage pendant, you'll instead preserve the Siphon and quite possibly lead to an alternative ending.
Also...what the hell happened to the map? One of those would have come quite in handy...especially when trying to find all the locked chests and Vox Secrets.
Maybe it was just that I was playing on Medium, but it seemed like you pretty much have infinite ammo during combat. I was able to take the first sniper rifle and first RPG you find in the game all the way to the end. I only changed my sniper rifle for the shotgun in Comstock house because I discovered the joys of Charge-Shotgunning people, up until then I had been using the Bronco and easily sniping the helpless fools out of the air. But no matter what gun you're using, whenever you get low, Elizabeth is there - for the most part - to throw you some more ammo. Same thing with health, though it doesn't necessarily save you if you're getting your ass handed to you, but if you're hurting here comes a free medkit out of nowhere. Just seemed that it made the combat a little easier to deal with than it was in the first two games.
And finally, I miss Booze Hound and having an ice power.
All in all, I loved the game. As most people rave, it's got absolutely fantastic story telling and the world is truly beautiful. My favorite thing about the game is that it's a living, breathing world, and a damn beautiful one at that. You get to see the city BEFORE the shit hits the fan, unlike arriving in Rapture to find an already dead and destroyed world. The funny thing about the ending is that I feel like I don't understand it...and yet at the same time I do. If you've beat the game you should know what I'm talking about...I think my nose is bleeding...
P.S. The most money Elizabeth flipped to me in a single coin was $275...that's a big coin.
P.S.S. Fucking hate those god damn Sirens.....