It's A Two-Hand Job
https://basementmtl.blogspot.com/2014/04/its-two-hand-job.html
Plasmids and vigors are this week's topic
and what better way to tell you about them then to countdown my top five powers
from my favourite series: BioShock. These are the powers I found myself
gravitating towards and using the most. Time for some back-story: plasmids are
serums made from Adam, which are basically stem cells which mutate the human
body giving people what equate to super powers. Using plasmids costs EVE which
is effectively mana now. Most plasmids are in each game or at least a version
of them, so I just stuck with my favourite types and now that you're up to date,
time for the list.
5. Insect Swarm
Have you ever seen an old cartoon where a swarm of bees chases someone and turns into different shapes? Well this is nothing like that, this is a horrifying swarm of murderous bees whose sole purpose is to hunt down and kill you, your family and everything you hold dear. Oh and after the murdering, they burrow into your body and create bee-mines, which isn't a tender Valentine's Day pun, they are literally corpses full of bees. Now I found this power to be particularly useful whenever I was in trouble because the bees seek out and swarm any nearby enemies and cause them to flee which allows you to get your bearings in most fights. That and the fact that it's freaking bees man, murderous honey barons.
4. Murder
of Crows
3. Incinerate
What's better than watching your hand slowly melt away and then staring at the charred bony remains? That's right, nothing! Incinerate is a staple in the BioShock series with slight differences from game to game. In the original game you would snap away, setting anyone and anything in your path ablaze. In the sequel they turned your palm into a flamethrower and in Infinite, you lob a flaming grenade that explodes like a Molotov on your enemies. All in all, fire powers are pretty much in every video game, from Mario to Call of Duty, but in BioShock it's always satisfying and the way the enemies use it is pretty inventive. I remember how cool it was when I realized the Spider Splicers from the first game were using Incinerate to heat up their claws and that's how they were climbing around the walls.
2.Electro Bolt
5. Insect Swarm
Have you ever seen an old cartoon where a swarm of bees chases someone and turns into different shapes? Well this is nothing like that, this is a horrifying swarm of murderous bees whose sole purpose is to hunt down and kill you, your family and everything you hold dear. Oh and after the murdering, they burrow into your body and create bee-mines, which isn't a tender Valentine's Day pun, they are literally corpses full of bees. Now I found this power to be particularly useful whenever I was in trouble because the bees seek out and swarm any nearby enemies and cause them to flee which allows you to get your bearings in most fights. That and the fact that it's freaking bees man, murderous honey barons.
Have you ever seen Alfred Hitchcock's The
Birds? Well this is the video game equivalent of that, only said birds are
either electrified or flaming homing missiles; aren't birds awesome. In essence,
Murder of Crows is very similar to Insect Swarm but the combo system from Infinite
really took it to the next level. How do you improve on perfection? Well it's
pretty simple: a liberal sprinkling of fire. They're also used primarily by one
of the creepiest enemies in the game, the Zealots of the Lady, an order which
was created to protect Lady Comstock and seeing as she's dead, they weren't too
great at their jobs. Now they roam Columbia with massive coffins and summon
crows to teleport around and generally screw with you.
3. Incinerate
What's better than watching your hand slowly melt away and then staring at the charred bony remains? That's right, nothing! Incinerate is a staple in the BioShock series with slight differences from game to game. In the original game you would snap away, setting anyone and anything in your path ablaze. In the sequel they turned your palm into a flamethrower and in Infinite, you lob a flaming grenade that explodes like a Molotov on your enemies. All in all, fire powers are pretty much in every video game, from Mario to Call of Duty, but in BioShock it's always satisfying and the way the enemies use it is pretty inventive. I remember how cool it was when I realized the Spider Splicers from the first game were using Incinerate to heat up their claws and that's how they were climbing around the walls.
2.Electro Bolt
Electro Bolt is easily one of the most useful
power ups in the series. It doesn't take a genius to figure out when you are
surrounded by water and the ability to throw lightning is pretty invaluable
especially on the harder playthroughs of the game. See a group of enemies
standing in a pool of water, or even a puddle, zap em and then there's the one-two
punch: shock the enemy and bash their face in with a wrench, easy peasy! In the
sequel you can eventually upgrade it to shoot a giant tesla arc of doom that fries
anything in sight. It's honestly the power most people use as a go to and it's
easily the most useful. Electro Bolt deserves the number two spot and most
people would consider it the best, but I'm not most people.
I know what you're thinking "Telekinesis!? The hell is this shit?" and normally you'd be right, but in BioShock, it's probably one of the best powers there is. One of my favourite ways to fight a Big Daddy was to take an exploding barrel and load it up with proximity mines. I would then pick it up with my newly developed mind powers and hurl my newly formed murder ball at the Big Daddy, which I did for nearly every fight. That's what I love about the power, whether it's catching my enemies' projectiles and launching them back at them or just hurling exploding death left, right and center. BioShock 2 is really where this plasmid hit its stride and was easily one of the best parts of the game, once fully upgraded you could literally pick up your enemies and throw them wherever you wanted, allowing for some pretty fun interactions.
