Bioshock (FPS)
Pros- load times are great. play for an hour between loading
Able to hack or convert turrets/cameras to your team.
Research camera makes it fun to fight same enemies over and over. The research camera is probably the best idea in the whole game. You become so cocky that you take the guy’s picture before you kill him. The rewards given by it are very useful. The bonuses give you damage increases against that type of enemy. One of the bonuses actually makes your guy faster, which is helpful in any game ever made.
Able to see enemy’s health, which makes it easy to tell what is effective against them.
Can save anywhere, anytime.
You can use weapons and special elemental powers to cause damage.
Cons- weapon upgrades are limited (only 1 per category per weapon - damage, capacity, etc.) and power upgrades are not quantified
Money can’t be used for weapon upgrades and wallet can be maxed out.
Can’t look through sights on weapons
Can’t control inventory (can hold specific amounts of each type of ammo, but can’t discard 1 type to focus on collecting preferred types. Can hold predetermined amount of first aid kits. Can’t sell extra stuff. Many items are left scattered around the floor because you don't have room.)
Not a lot of weapons – just 1 of each type
No bonus games after you finish the game, or incentive to play it again.
Not very much customization on your character. My best end game character will be very similar to anyone else’s (same weapons and abilities). At the end of the game you’ll have a very good all around character. I prefer to have a character that excels at my play style. (ie. I don’t need that drill hand, I’m not gonna melee when I have full ammo for every gun)
Other – Some extra areas to explore, but certainly not free roam. Have to follow a certain path to complete the game, but can make choices for multiple endings.
An area is never completely clear of enemies, 1 or 2 always come back when you leave the room, but you can hear them talking so you are aware of them.
No teammates that fight with you, but no escort missions either.
What makes the game unique - right hand uses weapons, left hand uses special powers like lightning, fire, ice, or telekinesis. You also get passive abilities that you can change, although most of them are mediocre.
Research Camera is cool.
The little girls you find are so creepy and you can sort of kill children in this game, though it’s not shown on screen. You will have a moral dilemma each time you have to choose whether to save or harvest them. If you try to get the evil ending in this game, you will feel evil when you finish it.
RE4 (over the shoulder camera)
Pros - Load times are good. Decent size areas between loading
No hacking or lock picking, but there are puzzle minigames for you to solve and shooting ranges during the game that give you money.
Quicktime button press events give a good change of pace from shooting guys.
Enemies react differently to where you shoot them. After hitting certain spots, the enemy stumbles and you’re able to do a knockdown move that can hit anyone nearby. Including a suplex that explodes their head.
Good selection of weapons even within their class(handgun, rifle, shotgun, magnum) with different advantages for each.
Money can be used to upgrade weapons.
Weapon upgrades are very detailed. Multiple upgrades per weapon per category and bonuses for upgrading a weapon in all categories completely.
Can sell items that you don’t want and completely control your inventory based on total space taken up by items. No max amount of any items. Can even have multiple guns of the same type (ie. 2 magnums).
Bonus games, new guns with infinite ammo and costume changes unlocked after finishing the game, also can replay the game with everything you finished the game holding. Bonus game completion adds more guns to the normal game.
Areas can be completely cleared of enemies for easy searching.
The story is pretty good, good enough that my wife watched me play the whole game. The main character has a personality and actually speaks, from hitting on girls to being cocky as hell to bad guys.
Cons – would be nice to see enemy’s health, especially on bosses
The camera can be a little tough to get used to, your character’s head blocks your view sometimes.
There are parts of the story where you have to escort helpless NPCs.
Only 1 ending and you have to go through the story in order. No free roam.
You can control your weapons very well, but the defensive gear is lacking.
Other – Can only save at typewriters and at the end of sections, but they are frequently found and you can save at them more than once.
Some of the death scenes are pretty gruesome. You can be completely decapitated by a chainsaw, or have your face burned down to the skull by acid.
What makes the game unique – It does everything so well, nothing really disappoints. Even the difficulty scales the entire game, so that it’s pretty challenging throughout. Many times there is a smarter solution to fights that make them easier. Upgrading your weapons is very fun and starting the game with your nearly fully upgraded weapons is a great reward. This game begs to be played through a second time.
You can’t move while shooting. This is a staple of the series and adds to the tension. The enemies aren’t fast, if you could move it would be too easy.
It’s the only zombie game where you can hit a backflip on a jetski, and be called a pervert for looking up a girl’s skirt. This game's got everything.
Fallout 3/New Vegas (3rd person/ 1st person)
Pros – multiple endings that are nearly opposites of each other. You can be the good guys or bad guys or someone in between. You have complete free roam to walk anywhere you want. Literally miles to explore in any order you want.
Extreme customization of your character that allows you to play to your strengths.
Can save anywhere, anytime.
Can see enemy’s health.
Radar for detecting enemies.
Able to hack/lockpick/repair weapons/ talk people into things /make ammo based on your attributes.
VATS targeting system for turn based fighting or use your own fps skills using the sights.
Can choose teammates who all give different advantages
Complete control of your inventory based on total weight of items being carried. Can sell items you don’t want.
Besides the near infinite types of weapons, you can also equip tons of different armor for your head and body to increase defense.
You can switch between 3rd person or first person view with a button push.
Cons – Frequent loading; pretty much every time you go into a building and sometimes multiple times in a building. Loading times seem to get worse with each DLC.
Difficulty doesn’t really change. Your character can become extremely over leveled and able to kill bosses in 1 or 2 hits. Maybe not a bad thing, but the game isn’t as challenging at the end as it is in the beginning.
Story isn’t great, it’s easy to lose track of with the dozens of side quests you can do. Although they do get some good voice acting. (Liam Neeson)
No rewards for finishing the game. Nothing to entice you to play through again. Why would you want to start over with base stats when your character is unstoppable. It’s like when superman wanted to become human.
Other - guns don’t have many upgrades, but can be repaired to better working condition for max damage. In New Vegas you can add a scope or silencer to some guns.
Enemies don’t rush in behind you after a cutscene. If you clear a building to reach a switch that is critical to the mission, the building is still clear after you press the switch.
What makes the game unique – Character customization is fantastic and free roam gives you complete independence. This game has options on top of options.
The targeting system is a great idea for FPS games. you can target specific areas on an enemy to lock onto. It can almost play like an RPG with turn based attacks.
Depending on what choices you make and how your character is created, 2 playthroughs of this game could have totally different experiences.
You haven’t exploded a guy until you’ve played this game. Shooting an enemy's head clean off in slow motion is satisfying and sometimes humorous.
