User Reviews (1 - 11 of 187)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

DO NOT BUY THIS GAME - Draconian DRM Warning!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 62 / 86
Date: August 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The PC version of Bioshock is the most DRM'd game ever released, no joke. It runs a new version of the Sony Rootkit known as "SecuROM" and will refuse to run if you have any kind of software installed like virtual drive software, AVG virus scan and who knows what else. It even refuses to run if you have Process Explorer running on your PC. That's right, the MICROSOFT product Process Explorer is some kind of evil big bad program that makes Bioshock refuse to run.

On top of that you are only allowed TWO installs total. 2K claims that if you uninstall the game it will allow you to reinstall somewhere else, but the system is currently bugged. After you install two times the game will refuse to register and you have to take pics of your CD and manual and mail them in.

I'm sure Bioshock is a great game, but DRM is making the PC release a disaster. Even the editors at PC Gamer are having a hard time getting the game working with all the restrictions. If you want to play Bioshock for PC you have to jump through all kinds of hoops and are severly limited as to what you can do with the game you purchased. Therefore I am giving Bioshock a one star rating.

Installs hidden ROOTKIT on your computer...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 129 / 187
Date: August 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The Bioshock DVD installs a hidden rootkit on your system. There is no way to remove it once the installation is complete. The process will run forever and will cloak itself from your task manager.

The game itself only allows you to install the game twice. Ever. You have to have an internet connection and allow the game to "phone home" to get permission to play.

I don't care how good the game is, I'll pass.

THIS IS THE REVIEW 2K Games DOES NOT WANT YOU TO SEE - REDUX...4

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: September 05, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Let's keep this sweet, organized and fair.

UNDISPUTED FACT:
BIOSHOCK will only install for a limited number of times (it was 3 but - after a deluge of eMails and bad reviews - it was upped to 5). So, if you install it you will be reluctant to uninstall once finished and will have to carry those 9GB on your HardDrive for a long time. On top of that, its resale value is down the drain the moment one pops the box open...
One has to ask: even after paying $50 for it, WHO ACTUALLY OWNS MY COPY?

UNDISPUTED FACT:
The game utilizes an overzealous version of SecuROM 7. They either activated all its available options or had a special version custom made. No other game company dared behaving in such heavy-handed way. This means that the game will not even install if you operate virtual drives and will block certain non-DRM certified Drives.

DISPUTED FACT :
It has been widely reported that BIOSHOCK installs a RootKit. Both MICROSOFT's ROOTKIT DETECTION TOOL and AVG ANTI-VIRUS detected either the RootKit or its actions. Recently, AVG was made to release a special update (just for BIOSHOCK) to ignore this alert.
In hacker lingo, to "take someone's Root" means to insert a procedure that "will allow the intruders to maintain root access (highest privilege) on the system without the system administrator even seeing them" (Source: WIKIPEDIA).
Official BIOSHOCK announcements (and their "unofficial" reviewers here at AMAZON) will try to persuade everyone who would listen that there is nothing there, so stop looking and don't even mention it.
Understandable reaction since, the existence of a RootKit would be a solid basis for class-action litigation.
Weight the facts and judge for yourself.

UNDISPUTED FACT:
BIOSHOCK effectively revokes our Administrator rights on our own computers. Here is what happens: even after completely uninstalling the game there is a mystery folder that canNOT be removed, no matter what!
On WinXP it is located here:
"C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\Application Data\SecuRom"
As administrators, we could (unwisely) delete even Windows System folders - yet BIOSHOCK's mystery folder apparently claims a higher authority level? What this folder does and why should it get placed into OUR computers so that we cannot remove it even as Administrators, is beyond me. And I, for one, do NOT appreciate it one bit. (A quick internet search revealed a number of suggestions on how to get rid of it, ranging from clearly unsafe to catastrophic...)
True, almost every game leaves one or two folders behind after uninstalled - but this NEVER REVOKES OUR ADMINISTRATOR RIGHTS to delete them!

I do understand that there are production and publishing costs to get recovered as well as profit projections to be reached. Companies that wish to protect their investment will always try to fight piracy. This is only reasonable and expected.
However, with BIOSHOCK, as it is currently available by 2K GAMES, it gets WAY OUT OF HAND & WELL BEYOND RIDICULOUS!!

No one in the game-publishing industry seems to learn from past mistakes: every security system eventually gets cracked and every "OnLine activation requirement" eventually gets bypassed. So, utilizing an overly intrusive, inconvenient and possibly dangerous security kit only serves in penalizing the people who actually paid good money for their product - and manage to shoot their sales in the foot at the same time.
Look what happened with HALF-LIFE 2: legitimate buyers still have to put up with activating the game every time we want to play - and of course VALVE paid the price: unprotected HL1 had sold TWICE as many units as STEAM-"secured" HL2 ever did (8million and 4million respectively, Source: THE WASHINGHTON POST)

Since I would NEVER install a contraption such as BIOSHOCK onto my computer and wished to have hands-on experience before I reviewed the game, I asked around and a colleague of mine had already made the mistake of purchasing it and installing on his laptop.
THIS IS NOT A BAD GAME.
The environments are well designed and have a pleasant retro patina; the graphics are very nice, even though they do not meet the hype. They are subpar even to older games such as HL2 (not to mention STALKER).
You see, dark is not always moody, and blurry cannot always be mistaken for dreamy.
I did love the music though! Both the collection of happy-go-lucky and romantic 1940's songs (contrasting with the bleak environment) as well as their smart timing, added to the overall experience.

It was the gameplay I was the least impressed.
Totally linear - as it is has come to be expected from any FPS today I am afraid. To be fair, I cannot imagine a Single Player holding a storyline without being more or less linear (even "free"-roaming FAR CRY did not escape this curse) - but then again, that is why I am not a game designer. And unless the publishers release their creative suffocation of the true game artists, there is no hope for a worthy successor to SYSTEM SHOCK 2.

The controls are not hard to get used to; if not, they are remapable; nevertheless, I would love to have an inventory: cycling between which plasmid and which ammo for which gun can get pretty frustrating. Fast.
And, finally: dying. Regeneration chambers turn the game into a check-point one - and I hate checkpoint-games. Most often than not, they are chosen in order to artificially augment the gameplay duration (having us replay the same segments over and over - instead of saving wherever we feel like it). Moreover, when progressing, you usually end up getting killed just before the next regeneration chamber (and having to repeat quite a distance from the previous one) whereas, when facing a Boss, regeneration takes away all the suspense. Keep respawning, you will eventually get him, his health does not increase if you do.

So, all in all, BIOSHOCK IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH WORTH ITS TROUBLE.
It is only a slightly above-average game; and if 2K GAMES did not have the guts to publish it for PCs (and is hiding it within an intrusive security Kit) it should have stuck with X-BOX.

Even BIOSHOCK designers acknowledge there is a serious issue with the security measures forced upon them by the publisher. These measures are hurting their game and, so, THERE IS AN UPDATED VERSION COMING IN THE NEAR FUTURE TO FIX THIS!
Don't take my word for it. Google for "Ken Levin-Interview" and "BIOSHOCK-Fixed-Version" and see for yourself. (I tried to add links but Amazon, apparently, does not allow them)

BIOSHOCK has it all: temperamental and Limited number of Installations, overzealous Drive-Blockers, possible cloaked RootKits, irremovable folders...NONE of which is Clearly marked on the product description!!

As it is, it will come NOWHERE NEAR MY SYSTEM!

I would advise waiting for 6 months, they will either clear it up or it will find its way to the clearance bins...Just last week I bought RISE & FALL: CIVILIZATIONS AT WAR for $2.99 (less than 8 months after its release) - and that nugget featured STARFORCE of all things!

Game cannot even install

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 37 / 57
Date: August 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This review has nothing to do with the game content, as I have not been able to even load the game. The low rating is my complaint against 2k and the "install" procedure. I spent fifteen minutes waiting for the game to load itself onto my PC. The game then attempted to auto-update itself. Since the 2k servers are down, and have been for hours, the game failed to update. As a result it totally removed itself completely from my hard drive without notice. What sort of nonsense is this? I buy an expensive game and it can't even install itself? The 2k web sites are down. Fine. That should be irrelevant to the install process. In the future I will boycott any game that requires that it contact the company before it can even install itself.

Windows Vista is poison for this game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 27 / 52
Date: August 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I got this game and was unable to run it because of Windows Vista. The sound was choppy and full of static, although they list Vista as a supported OS. Forget it.

miserable experience trying to get the game to run!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 27 / 44
Date: August 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is not a review of the gameplay, because I can't play the game!

The "online activator" application does not accept the serial number printed on the back of the manual. I sent email to their support department yesterday and still do not have a response. I called their USA tech support number (800)638-0127 and receive a strange phone company message "this number can not be reached from where you are calling".

This is ridiculous. I don't expect to pay almost $50 for a game and have it not work.

Fun game but annoying as hell to install properly

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 44 / 72
Date: August 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The game is fun but only if you are able to get it to install properly. My PC hangs after trying to install and run this. It took me a day to get the activation working after trying to contact 2k/securom. I have heard reports of other gamers with similar problems because of the rootkit/securom affecting their system. The game looks great but all this BS they put around it to prevent legit users from playing it is really a shame. I hope they can learn from their mistakes (and Sony's a few years earlier) and fix it. Until then it's going back to amazon.

SecurRom is not for me

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 24 / 36
Date: August 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

As much as I enjoyed the Bioshock demo, (Which installed SecurRom in C:\Documents and Settings\...\Application Data and my registry) I won't be buying this game. If I buy something I won't be told how I use my property. Sorry.

Very Cool Game, but one with some serious DRM issues

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 37 / 58
Date: August 29, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Take a look around at Tom's Hardware Guide as well as the company's game forum. They are in the middle of a very large DRM screw-up that is locking alot of customers out of their games. I'm not saying don't buy the game, it's a kick-butt game, but make sure you go check things out so you understand what is going on and can avoid the problems these people are having.

Good game, but too many quality issues in windows version

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 16 / 24
Date: August 28, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I bought the windows version of the game. In terms of production quality, its a total failure. There seems to have been little (if any) testing and no quality control on the PC version at all. Meeting the system specs does not ensure that the game will (a) start without crashing and (b) be playable without crashing. The publisher didn't do even basic checks for system compatability within the software. Now if I mess around with it long enougn, I could probably have got it to work. But why bother? The easy solution was to ditch the PC version and go to the 360 version.

The game itself is really good. Its a game with a great story and its highly playable/replayable. The graphics and attention to design detail in the game are probably beyond anything else out there at the moment.

The only places where it falls short is that it was over-advertised in some respects. For example, "moral" choices in the game don't mean as much as I was led to believe by the ads and some previews/reviews.

In short, its a great game. A game of the year contender for sure. But forget the PC version.

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next 

Actions