BinarySwan
Registered: 07/05/09
Posts: 39
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| Posted 02/15/10 at 08:43 AM | Reply with quote #1 |
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This post most definitely contains spoilers and announcements in large fonts. Please, please, please don't read through unless you have finished the game
I wished to bring this up because this moment is what changed the game for me completely. It wasn't a twist but rather a clarification through gameplay of one of the central figures in the Bioshock series in general and Bioshock 2 in particular. This is the moment that Eleanor gives you the ability to take control of the Little Sister and the sequence that follows. The simple choice of making Rapture a beautiful and serene dream world from the eyes of the Little Sisters brought home all the elements outside of the story of Delta that are most definitely a part of the narrative of Bioshock 2.
It showed me how like many games I was constructing my narrative through my gameplay and not just the pure narrative elements of scripted events and dialog. Presented with a vision of Rapture opposite what Iexperienced to be it's true form it ground home how much I knew of the city from the spaces that I moved through. This became apparent immediately as I returned to the room where only moments ago I had learned the minutia of it's layout and architecture through the Double Big Sister battle.This section also reinforced the relationship I had with the Little Sisters. This golden world of the Little Sister turned every uncomfortable piece of contextual dialogue into a string of tragic sentences. When I saw my first Angel in Rapture it really did move me, because I have heard the words "Look Daddy, Angels!" and "Who watches over Angels? I do" many times over hours past. It really did move me and make me consider the relationship that I had to Little Sisters in both Bioshocks and the type of character was playing. I am really interested to see if this moment plays different if someone took the Harvest path.
How did this sequence feel for you? Were you like me and felt that it stood out or was it something of a gameplay palet cleanser before the final section?
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Gerard Delaney
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LouisF
Registered: 07/07/09
Posts: 117
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| Posted 02/15/10 at 11:49 AM | Reply with quote #2 |
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I also thought the sequence was brilliantly realized, absolutely crucial to the theme (and also a bit of palate cleanser, but in a good way). It was the stark contrast briefly established between this idealized perception and "reality", when plunging a needle or collecting an armor piece, that really drove the point home in my opinion. I'm not sure if it changed my relationship to the Little Sisters on the whole, but by making it so immediate, I appreciate the empathy they were aiming for. It just... feels right, whether or not it makes physical sense.
I will take the harvest path on my second run, and am definitely looking forward to any variance in narrative.
I spoke of Mark Metzer's death in another thread, and that would probably be my decisive moment with the game.
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callguinness
Moderator
Registered: 02/28/09
Posts: 36
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| Posted 02/15/10 at 02:33 PM | Reply with quote #3 |
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Funny, I couldn't get past the fact that the splicers weren't attacking me. One who is behind bars tries to but the ones standing in the open with you don't. Completely ruined the mood and immersion.
There were also a couple of bugs on the PC that pulled me out of the experience. My plasmid icon remained on-screen in the top left and acquired audio diaries couldn't be played. The audio diaries probably shouldn't have been there in the first place.
I think the technical term for this is clusterfuck. I might have enjoyed it in a more polished form. |
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Tellurian
Registered: 02/13/10
Posts: 13
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| Posted 02/15/10 at 06:01 PM | Reply with quote #4 |
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My decisive moment was quite simply put Pauper's Drop. As a level. When the straight railway part of the game stopped and opened up beautifully.
Story wise... There were a lot of really neat things going on. But those were to me just toppings on the leveldesign and gameplay.
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Bus
Registered: 08/26/08
Posts: 164
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| Posted 02/16/10 at 03:03 PM | Reply with quote #5 |
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Quote: Funny, I couldn't get past the fact that the splicers weren't attacking me.
This strange detente filled me with incredible amounts of dread. I approached rooms with living people in them like it was a stealth game.
I suppose it makes sense that they wouldn't attack a random Little Sister anymore because of the particular ethics that Sofia Lamb has drilled into the vast majority of the Splicers in her domain which we were in the heart of at this part. I'd see the capture/harvest of a Little Sister as a great crime in Lamb's eyes. Capture enough of them and you'd rise up the food chain enough to have a Big Sister after you. However, the Splicers would certainly attack a Little Sister that you were using to gather just to slow your advance and buy Lamb time. And if random Big Daddies were being attacked by Splicers throughout the game, one could handwave that as the actions of individual Splicers not yet converted to Lamb's way of thinking.
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ChrisDunkley
Registered: 02/12/10
Posts: 9
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| Posted 02/20/10 at 11:18 PM | Reply with quote #6 |
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Quote: Originally Posted by callguinness
Funny, I couldn't get past the fact that the splicers weren't attacking me. One who is behind bars tries to but the ones standing in the open with you don't. Completely ruined the mood and immersion.
I was happy when they didn't attack me. The game is mostly comprised of intense combat so I was happy to have a break. I think people would have HATED the Little Sister scene if it was a bad stealth section rather than an oppurtunity to relax and soak up the presentation.
Since you're completely unarmed having the enemies attack would have only resulted in bad scripted scenes that required trial and error to work out the safe path. Glad they didn't go that direction.
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MostEisley
Registered: 01/06/10
Posts: 18
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| Posted 02/22/10 at 09:33 AM | Reply with quote #7 |
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I completely agree with Chris, here. This was a beautiful sequence and I would have hated not to be able to just gawk at the little sisters' world. Definitely one of the most memorable sequences of the game for me.
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CrashT
Registered: 08/19/08
Posts: 327
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| Posted 03/04/10 at 06:52 AM | Reply with quote #8 |
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Given the presentation of the scene I'm not even entirely willing to accept that what looked like people were actual real Splicers at all.
I'll admit I didn't actually realise what was happening until the first time the world changed back to the "normal" Rapture. I was actually convinced Lamb was so screwed up and isolated from the world that she had managed to keep her part of Rapture looking pristine. When I did realise what was happening I think I actually cheered, though in part that was because it bore out part of an idea I had concerning how BioShock 2 might play out.
I've talked about my reaction to Pauper's Drop in another thread, but the moment when I realise I was hooked on this game was probably Fontaine Futuristics, receiving the first message from Gill explaining how I would have to kill him and how he'd help me do it was probably the "Woah" moment for me. Also the entrance to Persephone with it's slow build up to the reveal of Eleanor was really impressive, the level felt like this weird combination of Rapture, Butcher Bay and the Shalebridge Cradle.
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Loberto
Registered: 01/14/10
Posts: 10
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| Posted 03/09/10 at 05:31 PM | Reply with quote #9 |
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It was when I realized I had killed Mark Metzer that the game got to me. At first I thought the 'mouseover' was a glitch. Then I searched the body and saw the audiolog. I thought that was cool - wondered if I'd somehow missed the name of the last BD I'd slain. At that point the name hadn't registered with me (I'm horrible with names). After I listened to the audiolog I just sat there and stared at the body, realizing what I'd done in my procedural ignorance. I felt much more protective of the little girl on my shoulder, knowing her name was Cindy. It really took me a few moments to parse it all and decide what I should be doing next.
Everything after that has just been better and better. I thought the little sister scene in Persephone was great. I loved discovering the angels and the aggressive splicer in the cell. I gazed upon the statues wondering if I had made different choices with Lamb's lieutenants if the sculptures would have been depicted differently. But when Eleanor donned her suit, and took the little sister I inhabited in her hand, and pronounced that I had taught her how to handle the girls, I shuddered, even as she liberated the child. I shuddered because I could so easily see how brutal that scene would have played out had I harvested the little sisters. I thought it was awesome that the game could affect me so.
I'm actually dreading playing a harvest game now, but first I have to finish this play through, and then I'll probably play some multi-player to whet the bloodlust... But the experience of playing this game has definitely been worth the price of admission.
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