OMFG BIOSHOCK DEMO FTW
I disagree with most of your 'bad' analysis, Owl. It sounded like you expected more of a survival horror vibe and less of a shooter. There were bad guys in virtually every room, yeah, but I didn't feel like most of them were trying to surprise me- they were just bad guys who needed killin'. If I thought the game was focused more on surprises I'd agree with your "it stops being creepy" analysis, but since I think it's equal parts shooter and survival horror, if there were only bad guys every five or six rooms I'd have been pretty bored. Instead I expect lots of 'no surprise' enemies with the odd 'surprise!' enemy mixed in to make me jump when I become complacent, whereas it sounded like you thought every single bad guy was trying to be surprising. I mean, come on, splicers are basically crack heads. How many crack heads do you know with the self control and stealthiness to launch a TERRIFYING AMBUSH!? Actually I can't really think of any bad guys that I thought were supposed to be surprises in the classical sense. Most of the horror and ambience came from the world.
And yeah, it was linear, but it was the demo. They were trying to introduce the world, the combat system, the inventory, and all the pretty pictures. There isn't exactly a ton of time for a branching and expansive world in a half hour demo. Lots of things (size of the city, quest management system, good maps) make me think it won't be linear at all in the actual game.
As for the alarm, well, no offense, but it sounds like you noobed that up to hell and back. Did you read all the info about the security systems in the help menus? I tripped that thing once then I unloaded into it with the pistol. No more alarms. The little flying robots come at you one at a time- shock one with your lightning bolt and it's usually stunned, then run up to it and hit 'x' and you can hack it. Hack it successfully (which is pretty damn easy, I gotta imagine it will be more complicated in the real game with stats and suchlike) and it follows you around shooting at your enemies. Little flying machinegun bodyguard? Yes please. I will call him George.
In the real game you'll be able to use magic or hax on cameras/security stations to shut them off or put them on your side or sneak by them or do whatever else you want. I thought the security system was pretty badass.
Than's Verdict: I'm gonna buy this bitch the day it comes out and I can barely wait.
edit: The one thing that did irritate me is that when you're carrying around the wrench he keeps fucking waving it around and smacking it against his palm. I felt like my guy had ADD. Just hold the fucking thing still until you need to crush somebody's brains with it!
