US, July 11, 2007 - 2K showed off the Arcadia level for BioShock again today, something we'd seen at a Pre-E3 event recently in San Francsico. Ken Levine was on hand to demo all the different ways enemies can be wiped out in the game. The action started off by loading what's known as a Lazarus Vector into an irrigation system. The appropriately named compound would eventually revive a grove of trees that lay beyond the control room in which we were standing. In the meantime, we had to kill quite a few enemies.
This action in the demo was said to be about seven hours into the game so some advanced weaponry was available. A mine launcher, crossbow, and flamethrower were available. Not only will the flamethrower be able to belch flame, but can also be loaded up with liquid nitrogen for flash freezing, and liquid gel, a craftable item that stuns and electrifies enemies. We also saw an upgraded shotgun, with a rotating pulley system strapped on for increased reload speed, as well as augmented shell capacity.
Crafting items in the game is accomplished at special vending machines. They'll list the items that can be constructed and eat up money and items from your inventory. Other craftable goodies include special bolts for your crossbow that are much more resistant to breaking, which are apparently quite pricey to create. We also saw a trap bolt, which is basically an electrified wire that can be slung across hallways to surprise and shock charging foes. Ken was using the Telekinesis plasmid to properly situate the trap.
Then, like we've seen before, Ken demonstrated how enemies standing in water get electrified if you shoot a lightning bolt at the liquid. If you ignite someone or some environmental object, like oil spilled from barrels, with the fire-spewing plasmid, the object or body will set whatever it touches on fire as well. If the engulfed enemies fly to water to douse the flames, you can always shoot an electro bolt into the pool to put them down for good. Telekinesis can be tossed around pretty much anything in the game. Like before, it's clear the amount of variety to this game's combat, in addition to its storyline and slick graphics, of course.
Irrational told us the game is pretty much finished at this point on Xbox 360, and they're still doing some tweaking for the PC. With increased media attention since E3 2006, Irrational is particularly excited about BioShock's release, specifically for what it means for games in the future. "All I want to do is be able to create more games like this," says Ken Levine. "That's all I care about in my career is just make more cool games, be able to break down some barriers, things that aren't World War II shooters. That's what I want for the industry, it's the games I want to play and the games I want to make. If BioShock's successful, that to me is a ticket for making more games like this. We're not going to mention any of the story elements in the game, because honestly, they'd be better to find out for yourself when the game releases later this August.
10/10 in OXM and 95% in PC Gamer
Review scans can be found here
1 comment:
Looking forward to this, will be my first 360 game in a long while.
I always worry when something has as much expectation as this does! don't let me down bioshock =)
Post a Comment