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Best FPS Campaign: Bioshock vs Halo 3 vs Episode 2
Dublo7
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So three of the biggest and most anticipated first person shooters were released this year: Halo 3, HL2: Episode 2 and Bioshock.
Which one of them had the best single player campaign? Which did you have the most fun playing? Let's weigh them up.
Halo 3 was my least favourite out of the three. The only "Wow moment" I can think of, was
Halo 3's narrative was also boring and stale. The events that unfurled in the "story" were hardly cohesive and were uninteresting.
Also, Mission 8 was a complete and utter abortion. Bungie listened to the shit that was thrown at The Library and made a level that was worse than it? Damn. Not to mention, the backtracking in many of the missions was tedious.
The environments in Halo 3 were redundant and stale. Half of the time, I had no idea where I was, or more importantly, why I was in that current area.
The ending, with the Legendary film clip, was great. A story line was effectively brought to an end, and left possibilities for new ones to emerge with upcoming games.
I played through the campaign once alone on normal, and I've done a few scattered levels on co-op Legendary. To be honest, I don't want to play through this campaign again.
Half-Life 2: Episode 2 was amazing. To be completely honest, I wasn't really a fan of Episode 1. It was definitely the lowest point of the Half-Life series for me. Episode 2 on the other hand, was the total opposite: It was easily the greatest single player experience in the Half-Life series. There were plenty of moments that made you jump, and many times when you had to pick your jaw up off the floor. One great thing about Episode 2 was how cinematic the in-game events were. As Shawn said on the GFW podcast, the game really is filled with Wow moments. When I completed that final battle, I pumped my fists so fucking hard. It was nice to have a variety of environments in Episode 2. We weren't just stuck in City 17 or some other dark gloomy towers that all looked alike. The forest levels were fantastic, and also looked great. The Source engine is still beautiful.
The game definitely set out what it was supposed to do.
Episode 2 so far, is the best of the Episode trilogy, much like Empire was the best of the Star Wars trilogy. It left with a cliffhanger ending, and it left with new story elements to be played out in the final installment.
As much as I loved Episode 2, I don't think it's a game I will go back and play again. I'm quite happy at leaving it at that, and will definitely wait on baited breath for Episode 3.
And last but definitely not least, we have Bioshock. The arguable big daddy of shooters this year (pun intended). Bioshock, simply put, was fantastic. It wasn't only one of the best shooters ever, it was easily one of the greatest games released in recent times. Never before, in a game, have I seen an environment that was put together as well as Rapture was. The atmosphere in the game was always tense, and always had you on your toes. Like Episode 2, Bioshock had plenty of Wow moments.
One thing that was great about Bioshock was, how it told you the story of Rapture's downfall. The leaving of the little audio tapes around the place, allowed the player to be constantly filled in on the events that had unraveled before your very arrival. Even though Rapture was one city, each level had a distinct feel and look to it, which made the campaign just that much more special.
The good ending was totally satisfying, while the bad ending was quite disappointing. If you've completed the game, only with the bad ending, you really should either play through again to achieve the good ending, or at least watch the good ending on Youtube.
I personally played through the campaign twice, and each time was a delight.
I could probably write a tonne more, but I'm sure some more people will come in and pick up things I've missed.
My favourite of the three was Bioshock, followed (extremely closely) by Episode 2, then Halo 3.
Try to keep spoilers to an absolute minimum.
Which one of them had the best single player campaign? Which did you have the most fun playing? Let's weigh them up.
Halo 3 was my least favourite out of the three. The only "Wow moment" I can think of, was
when the first Scarab arrived. Later on when they tried to play on that more, with 2 Scarabs, it wasn't as exciting and was played out.
A plus to the Halo 3 campaign was the 4 player co-op. It added more playtime to the campaign, and even made legendary do-able.Halo 3's narrative was also boring and stale. The events that unfurled in the "story" were hardly cohesive and were uninteresting.
Also, Mission 8 was a complete and utter abortion. Bungie listened to the shit that was thrown at The Library and made a level that was worse than it? Damn. Not to mention, the backtracking in many of the missions was tedious.
The environments in Halo 3 were redundant and stale. Half of the time, I had no idea where I was, or more importantly, why I was in that current area.
The ending, with the Legendary film clip, was great. A story line was effectively brought to an end, and left possibilities for new ones to emerge with upcoming games.
I played through the campaign once alone on normal, and I've done a few scattered levels on co-op Legendary. To be honest, I don't want to play through this campaign again.
Half-Life 2: Episode 2 was amazing. To be completely honest, I wasn't really a fan of Episode 1. It was definitely the lowest point of the Half-Life series for me. Episode 2 on the other hand, was the total opposite: It was easily the greatest single player experience in the Half-Life series. There were plenty of moments that made you jump, and many times when you had to pick your jaw up off the floor. One great thing about Episode 2 was how cinematic the in-game events were. As Shawn said on the GFW podcast, the game really is filled with Wow moments. When I completed that final battle, I pumped my fists so fucking hard. It was nice to have a variety of environments in Episode 2. We weren't just stuck in City 17 or some other dark gloomy towers that all looked alike. The forest levels were fantastic, and also looked great. The Source engine is still beautiful.
The game definitely set out what it was supposed to do.
Episode 2 so far, is the best of the Episode trilogy, much like Empire was the best of the Star Wars trilogy. It left with a cliffhanger ending, and it left with new story elements to be played out in the final installment.
As much as I loved Episode 2, I don't think it's a game I will go back and play again. I'm quite happy at leaving it at that, and will definitely wait on baited breath for Episode 3.
And last but definitely not least, we have Bioshock. The arguable big daddy of shooters this year (pun intended). Bioshock, simply put, was fantastic. It wasn't only one of the best shooters ever, it was easily one of the greatest games released in recent times. Never before, in a game, have I seen an environment that was put together as well as Rapture was. The atmosphere in the game was always tense, and always had you on your toes. Like Episode 2, Bioshock had plenty of Wow moments.
One thing that was great about Bioshock was, how it told you the story of Rapture's downfall. The leaving of the little audio tapes around the place, allowed the player to be constantly filled in on the events that had unraveled before your very arrival. Even though Rapture was one city, each level had a distinct feel and look to it, which made the campaign just that much more special.
The good ending was totally satisfying, while the bad ending was quite disappointing. If you've completed the game, only with the bad ending, you really should either play through again to achieve the good ending, or at least watch the good ending on Youtube.
I personally played through the campaign twice, and each time was a delight.
I could probably write a tonne more, but I'm sure some more people will come in and pick up things I've missed.
My favourite of the three was Bioshock, followed (extremely closely) by Episode 2, then Halo 3.
Try to keep spoilers to an absolute minimum.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Dublo7 on
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Half-life 2 E2 so far is wonderful.
Not played Halo 3 (but didn't really like the first 2 games)
But, the real answer is Portal.
but seriously folks
Bioshock has the best story, Half Life 2 has the best presentation, and Halo 3 has the best epic moments.
and of course, Portal has the most innovation/best comedy
Definitely the best single player experience I've had on any system for many many years.
(final fantasy X's ending made me cry - the only game to EVER have done that, so it wins)
the atmosphere and storytelling are unparalleled.
If we're just talking FPS, next down I would say Portal and BioShock. (Pretty hard to compare the two so I'm not going to say one is better than the other.) BioShock does that passive storytelling and "emergent gameplay" shit better than any other game I've played, and had incredible atmosphere. It kind of fell apart after the plot twist though. Portal is just totally unique and fucking brilliant. And really funny.
The Half-Life 2 series of games I've never been able to get into. I played the first hour or so of Episode 2 and quit.
edit - I also played Metroid Prime 3. It looks gorgeous and the controls are excellent but other than that it didn't do much for me. I'd say it's a good game and worth buying if you have a Wii, but it's not on par with Portal, Halo 3, and BioShock for me.
still though, halo was so ho-hum for me it wasn't even funny. With bioshock I was constantly being impressed.
I completely loved Portal, I just don't think it belongs in this category.
granted the story was every sci-fi cliche you can think of, but those were just amazing moments to me.
Also Portal.
Bioshock and Halo 3 were both done better before. (SS2 and Halo:CE)
Episode 2 is more of the same.
MP3 is like metroid with better controls and a dash of everything that makes Halo good.
Portal is in a league of its own.
But yeah, great gameplay and creepy, atmospheric storytelling.
Halo 3 I stopped playing after about 3 days of my rental. 4 player co-op was fun, but 4 player co-op anything is fun, really. Boring gameplay, boring story.
Episode 2 was grand. Rich world, fun battles, good pacing, short and sweet. Obviously my favorite of the three.
Portal was of course grand. Very short, but I feel just the right length and wrought of concentrated awesome.
Metroid Prime 3 was Metroid Prime with a new coat of paint, nothing new to see here.
Edit: When did episode 2 try to be scary? Spoiler tag please, for the innocent.
I'd have to say Bioshock had the best "experience", whereas Halo 3 has the best campaign in terms of gameplay... as in, I'll remember Bioshock forever as being the most into a single-player campaign that I've ever been, but sitting here right now if I were to choose which one I'd replay I'd choose Halo 3, if that makes sense
You didn't think BioShock was scary? I was pretty damn freaked out for a good portion of it.
Halo will need to beef up its epic to catch up to that.
Nah, i pretty much thought that once i realized that i was basically immortal and that the big daddies were not as advertised i was kinda meh about it.
That's not epic, that's silly.
Not really a spoiler if you've played any of it.. or a spoiler much at all, but..
Yeah, that was more like an awesome movie chase scene then a scary horror movie thing.
I think Bioshock actually had better gameplay, though, because I had a lot of fun trying out the plasmids and stuff, although I prefer HL2's Havok physics as compared to whatever the UE3 engine uses. I am so sick of stepping on a bottle and having it sound as if I dropped an RPG round in the room, making me go "wtf was that". While HL2 is far from perfect in terms of how objects in the world interact, I'd have to say that HL2 has provided me with the most realistic experience so far in terms of overall visual design and feel.
Also, while Ep2's character animation felt mostly flat and over-exaggerated apart from the facial animation system, Bioshock's character animation was definitely much worse (worse being still great but definitely not as up to standard as the rest of the game), characters really looked as if they were straight out of RvS when they ran. Apart from certain enemies like the Spider Splicers and the Big Daddies, animation really looked weird.
Also, why is this thread not a poll?
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It's a first person puzzle comedy
But whatever
you have a gun.
i say portal is in the category. if it was, it would be the undeniable winner.
most of all, most of all
someone said true love was dead
but i'm bound to fall
bound to fall for you
oh what can i do
And Bioshock is technically an RPG.
I think it's silly to compare 3 very different games and try to come up with the 'best', even in regards to campaign. They're each frigging good at what they want to be.
And besides which, you left out TF2, which in terms of hours put in easily eclipses the others. Yes it has no campaign, but who cares.
Alright, Deus Ex then.
Halo 3's campaign is extremely cliche and quite frankly more of the same. Bioshock is great but the tedious "scour everywhere for good shit" mechanic was mind-numbingly boring. There are some cool powerups but I was not as involved in the story as most of it is found in, yawn, recordings. Episode Two at least put you in the cutscenes, where characters interacted with each other in a startingly realistic way. Especially those facial animations. Wow.
Plus, I have to admit that Alyx Vance is just about the best character in an FPS out there.
Edit: On a side note, I agree that System Shock 2 did everything Bioshock did, only much, much better. I quote Zero Punctuation on that one.
Aaaaaand Cue Regicid3
well that is why I gave them all their strong points.
I also think there is no point to the exercise of trying to say one game is "better" than the other
they're all really good for different reasons
There is no inventory management nor stats to deal with. Sure, you have slots you can unlock for your various skills but that's about it.
At BEST I'd call it a FPS with super-super-lite RPG elements.
Now, System Shock 2 was fairly RPG-esque.
As for best FPS?
I've only played MP3 and Bioshock. MP3 was great though it felt like it could've had more to it. Nothing was lacking but at the same time I don't feel fufilled.
As for Bioshock it was a good game (throughout) though the fighting got pretty boring after awhile. I hope to play EP2 someday and I could care less about Halo.
Steam Profile | Signature art by Alexandra 'Lexxy' Douglass
Is there any copyright reason for this? I always forget if gearbox own the character or not.
Nah, he was in Episode 1 after all. The only character I can think of that Gearbox might have is Adrian Shepherd, and IIRC Gabe Newel said they would hopefully like to re-visit that character sometime as well, which implies that they can make use of him too.
No, he was in EP1... Valve just chose not to catch us up on how he's doing post C-17.
I'm pretty surprised at how much credit Bioshock is getting. The whole game felt like a chore to me, with the exception of the first thirty minutes or so. The visuals were great, but the gameplay felt really clumsy for some reason, and the story was like a case study in design by committee.
Given that ninety-nine point eleven percent of everybody else enjoyed it tons, though, I won't defend this stance too adamantly.