I didn’t know that. But then, for me, the game would probably be way too hard. I had a hard enough time killing the very first BD with plenty of room to dodge and hide, but it would be nigh impossible in the more crowded areas.
I think the game does not balance the hard and easy parts very well.
I did this a few months ago - you get a nice 100 pt achievement for it on the 360. It still wasn’t terribly hard - the first Big Daddy is very frustrating, since you don’t really have any specialized ammo/weapons/plasmids to take him out, but once you’ve done that the rest of them are straightforward.
The 100 point achievement for finishing the game on hard with Vita-Chambers off is called “Brass Balls”. Just thought that should be mentioned.
I hated the very idea of the Vita-Chambers and never used 'em. If I died, I reloaded from a previous save, like a good gamer.
Bioshock was okay, but I’m going to have to recommend Fallout 3. To me, Bioshock devolved into your typical Doomesque shoot and scoot once the novelty of pretty graphics wore off.
actually that’s not what I said. I said Dead Space was never created to be System Shock III (and was made by a different team than the Godfather team, anyway). But that’s good news, it’ll def be interesting. Unfortunately I’m not terribly fond of the Godfather team. I tested that game for ps2/xbox and it was total crap, especially with all the stuff that simply got cut out of the game that was in the original design doc. Still, it’ll be interesting to see what happens with it.
I actually just purchased Bioshock yesterday and finished playing it today, on Normal, and I killed the end boss straight out. For the record, the PC version cost me $20 from Game Crazy.
It really sucked me in the way few games do: I was home sick and planned to do some laundry or read a book and I just played Bioshock straight through the day. BDs gave me some trouble until the second half of the game: I just riddled them with armor-piercing rounds, though the electrogel would have been a good idea. VERY atmospheric, VERY probably going to give me creepy nightmares tonight. While I understand Fontaine’s angle –
Basically, he discovered that the Fountain of Youth was also as physically addictive as heroin times a billion. ADAM could do pretty much anything: make flesh malleable as clay, give people super powers and psychic abilities and the power to shoot bees out of your arms – Lord, I loved that power – and the more you had, the more you wanted. He really could have ruled the world if he could get out of Rapture.
Some things I didn’t quite get, though:
[spoiler]If I understand it right, ADAM is harvested from sea slugs. The Little Sisters have these slugs inside them in a creepy and symbiotic relationship so they can… generate more ADAM? Obviously it is possible to harvest the stuff without being tiny and creepy. If they are tiny ADAM factories, why do they have to go around in unsafe places to harvest it from corpses? Is this some really sick form of recycling? And was Rapture such a violent place even before the rioting that the scientists decided that not only did they need to graft big huge steel suits onto “volunteers” to be the girls’ bodyguards, they also had enough corpses lying around in the street that the girls were kept reasonably busy going corpse hunting? Some Randian utopia.
Also, why did Ryan order Jack to kill him? My only guesses are that A) he refused to kill his own flesh and blood and hoped that the same tie of blood might play on Jack’s sympathies or B) override the mental conditioning of his genetically altered offspring, or – my favorite, because despite the fact that he was an incredibly self-centered egotistical sociopath I kind of LIKE Andrew Ryan – C) he knew he was dead no matter what at that point and wanted to make the point to Jack that his actions were not his own, relying on either his own stubbornness being passed on to his son in the hope that he would take vengeance on Fontaine for using him or relying on Tenenbaum to take him in like a really violent lost puppy.
I also don’t get where EVE comes from, but I might just not have been paying attention.
[/spoiler]
All in all, I enjoyed it and may play it again if I feel I am sleeping too peacefully. 
Pretty much. Originally, ADAM came from the slugs alone. However, they couldn’t keep up with the demand from the slugs alone, so Tenenbaum figured out a way to graft them into little girls so that the amount of ADAM produced could increase considerably. The girls were kept in confinement while they produced the ADAM and it was extracted in some undescribed but not malignant way. However, when the civil war started, they were then tasked with extracting ADAM from the corpses and they would ingest the blood, which the slugs could then repurpose into more ADAM, so now the little girls were even bigger ADAM factories.
It wasn’t until the civil war and the repurposing of the Little Sisters as ADAM harvesters as well as ADAM producers that the Big Daddy’s were created.
None of the above, but C comes closest. Ryan knew he was dead when he finally figured out who you were. He knew he did not have the strength or ability to stop you. Especially since you took a down a large part of his splicer army already. He knew that you had been ordered to kill him, and that you would not be able to stop yourself from doing it. But rather than hide and wait for death, he chose to go out on his own terms. As a free thinking man who can make his own choices, unlike you. He had realized the truth too late. So he accepted his fate and even chose when he would die. The whole game is one big philosophical tribute to Ayn Rand (from whom Andrew Ryan got his name).
I don’t think the game really explains it. It’s just some way to unlock the power of ADAM. Ryan’s scientists probably came up with it.
Sure, I just find it pretty coincidental that EA redwood shores is simultaneously developing two survival-horror sci-fi shooters that feature the protagonist wandering through the levels of an abandoned spaceship, fighting off the re-incarnated ghouls of the infected crew with scarce ammo, seeing ghosts, destroying the gigantic bio-mass taking over the spaceship, picking up audio and text logs left behind to flesh out the story, and upgrading health and weapons in the shops.
And if they are still working on SS3(we’ve seen nothing recently released to indicate SS3 is still in development, even though it was announced in 2006), you’re telling me that at no point in time did the two teams ever share concepts, ideas, etc?
Anyway, true or not, it’s a pretty widespread rumor (try a google search for “Dead Space System Shock 3”).
So…enjoying Bioshock in the little time I have to play (an hour or two every couple of nights) but just encountered my first Big Daddy and christ am I having trouble with him.
Part of the problem is that I’m a button masher and not used to FPS’s (last one I played was the original Halo many years ago) so I freak out and start spinning in circles wildly firing off whatever weapon or plasmid I’ve managed to temporarily cycle to whilst panicking.
The other problem is that I’ve looked online for clues/help and everyone’s like “oh it’s easy just use these mines or that electro-gel” or whatever fancy tool that, well, I don’t have yet!.
Side note - I don’t use the Vita-Chambers, tend to reload from my last save point instead.
I’ve died like 6 times and have no idea how much if any damage I’m inflicting in any given encounter. Any hints as to strategy? RIght now, I’m armed with the inferno (?) plasmid and telekenisis, and have the standard weapons so far (pistol, machine gun, shotgun - each w/ two types of ammo).
The first Big Daddy is the hardest, followed closely by the second (just wait til you meet Rosie, bucko. hehe). Anyway, here are a few ideas:
You should also have the electro-bolt plasmid, since that’s the very first one you got. If you have lots of Eve, and you should, you can make the fight a whole lot easier by shocking the Big Daddy with an electric bolt, then dealing your damage. Keep alternating them (bolt - shoot - bolt - shoot, etc.) and you’ll avoid a lot of damage. Just make sure you time your Eve injections so you’re not caught helpless after you piss him off.
As far as the weapons go, by the point you’re at in the game you should have a few explosive shells for the shotgun, and those, IMHO, work better on the Big Daddy than armor-piercing shells. Also, isn’t there a turret nearby? If so, lure the Big Daddy near it after you’ve engaged him in combat (you did hack the turret instead of destroying it, right?); it’ll recognize him as an enemy and help you out a bit.
Later in the game, you’ll want a plasmid called “Security Bullseye”. After you get that, you’ll hardly have to fight the big daddies anymore. Now, would you kindly kill the bastard and move on?
Max Torque has excellent advice. All I’ll add - have the max num of health kits (9?) before the fight, and use them any time you get at/below 50% health. Don’t try to wait until you’re below 25% - a single smash from a Big Daddy takes a lot of health away. There should also be a few health stations nearby - use them as well. If you wind up with no Eve, no health kits, and a dead Big Daddy, you’ll be fine.
And don’t get discouraged by how hard this one is - once you get some new weapons & ammo & plasmids, and get the tactics down, they get easier.
Maybe I don’t understand the game enough, but I replaced the electro plasmid when I got the Telekenesis (other slot was for Inferno or whatever it’s called). I can only hold two at a time, so I assumed the electro was gone forever.
Never seen any explosive shells, only the electric shells.
And no, I did the newbie thing and blew up the RPG turret I came across (using Telekenesis, I was so proud of myself and now you’ve shamed me )
I’m trying…
You replaced the electrobolt with telekinesis, but only until you swap it back out again. Go find a gene bank swapper thingy (open your map and it will show you where they are.) You can then put the electrobolt back.
And you might also, at least for just this once, forgo the “don’t use the vita chambers” policy you have. If you die while fighting him, his health will be what you managed to get it down to when you come back to life. It still might take you a few deaths, but you will get him eventually.
And since you said you’re a button masher (which means I assume you have the 360 version?), try to just step out of his way as much as possible. This Big Daddy can’t shoot you (wait till you get to the ones that can) so as best you can just side step around walls. When you see him step from behind the wall, shoot him a few times then run behind another wall. Rinse and repeat.
Some spoilered info for those that have finished and are maybe playing trough again:
Fontaine is really easy once you realize there is both a gene bank swapper and a first aid machine in his lair. My strategy was to shoot a few bees at him (with Insect Swarm 3…a very underrated plasmid, IMO) and then just smack him with crossbow bolts. It is a VERY powerful weapon, especially once you’ve upgraded it. It only takes four or five hits to get him to go back to his chair and let you drain his ADAM.
You’ve got to find a Gene Bank machine. It lets you swap out your active & inactive plasmids (& gene tonics). Electrobolt isn’t gone, it’s just inactive. As you find more Adam, you can buy more active plasmid slots at Gatherer’s Gardens.
I don’t remember if there is a gene bank in the Medical Pavilion Level. Look for a DNA symbol on your map.
Thanks for all the advice - now I need to get home and start mashing some buttons!
Oh, heavens no, it’s still available, you’ll just have to either buy a slot for it later or replace one of your active plasmids with it. You can change which of your plasmids are active at a Gene Bank, or you can buy a new plasmid slot at a Gatherer’s Garden with your Adam. Additional slots will let you have more plasmids active at the same time.
Ah, my memory failed me, the explosive shells come later. Electric buck is fine, though you probably should save it if you’re using the electro-bolt plasmid (no sense doing things twice), and regular 00 buck will work okay, just not quite as quickly as the explosive stuff. After that, your next-best option is armor piercing ammo in the Machine Gun.
Don’t forget to use your environment. He’ll want to run straight at you from a distance, so corners are your friends. Duck out of sight the instant he looks like he’s gonna charge.
No worries, just an idea that would have helped a bit. Even on the hardest difficulty setting, the first Big Daddy is beatable. Hell, I’ve seen people beat him with the wrench! Shock him, run up and smack him, shock him again, and so on. Takes a while, but it can work.
Now that I know a bit more about your situation, here’s another thought: use the telekinesis plasmid to throw explosive things at him. Your best option here is gas cylinders. Grab a bunch, stash them where you can grab them quickly, and go to town. The downside is, you’ll be facing a pissed-off Big Daddy who is covered in flames, which can be unnerving, but keep your cool and you’ll be fine.
heh heh heh…
My turrets never survived long enough to aid me against the big daddy. Some random spawning nitro or leadhead typically took it out before I got to that point.
But yes, the first big daddy (Bouncer) is the hardest of all, and the first Rosie is the most annoying. The rest of them aren’t too bad. I never even used the bullseye against them.
Incidentally, the reason Rosie’s are called that is because they are armed with a rivet gun. It’s a tribute to Rosie the Riveter.
Interesting, I always did things very differently.
I’d argue that electrobuck is the single most perfect weapon to smack the Big Daddies with. Each shell will hit and paralyze the fucker, giving you time to chamber another and hit him again. (Make sure you do it at extreme close range). Then just back off and reload before moving in again to shoot him. Once you get the shotgun upgraded, you should manage kills in 10-12 shells, max.
I never killed a BD using anything else.
Yeah, but I found that the Big Daddy’s broke out of the electric shock too quickly when I was reloading the shotgun. Even with the backing off they caught up to me before I could finish the reload.
With electrogel, they’re in a constant state of shock and once you upgrade it to reduce the consumption, you can take even the boosted Big Daddy’s in normal when you employ it after 4 electric buck. (Haven’t played in on hard yet, so I don’t know if the same can be said for hard.)
Remember, too, that you don’t have to let the shotgun finish reloading. As long as you’ve already slotted a shell into the magazine, you can fire, start reloading again, fire… Also, once you upgrade your shotgun to a faster rate of fire, you should have no problems at all.