Hostile Face/Off S2 Round 2: BioShock vs Mass Effect 2

[Mickmrly]

Welcome to the 2nd Round of the Hostile Face/Off series, where DPAD members vote in a series of 1 on 1 face/offs.

Each vote will close after 48 hours, with new face/offs released every weekday.

The 2 games facing off in this thread are:

BioShock (2007)

Mass Effect 2 (2010)

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[Kadayi]

Mass Effect 2. Not perfect in any way, but the combat was a step up from the first game and the overall experience felt more polished. The ending was a bit abrupt and in retrospect kind of dumb (shades of Lexx ) but the journey to it and choices over who gets which role was quite good.

For some reason I just never gelled with the Bioshock games, despite repeated attempts to get into them. The initial grand reveal of these skyscrapers underwater at the beginning, just never manifested itself when it came down to the reality of the gameplay environments. I just never got the sense of those spaces ever being functional versus combat arenas waiting to happen. I guess for me they lacked a degree of verisimilitude, which the storyline required you to buy into. I acknowledge that I'm definitely an outlier in this regard though.

 

[Pyrate]

Bioshock is just kindergarten System Shock.

 

[DonDonDonPata]

Hmmm. I have my gripes with ME2 but it's still a great game. It didn't expand everything from the first Mass Effect but kinda zig-zagged into Nathan Drake territory. After Dragon Age Origins and ME, I expected BioWare to push the RPG elements further but instead…. Dialogue trees and romance options… YAAAAAY.

Bioshock was pretty good. Kinda clunky by today's standards, and definitely not a worthy successor to the Shock name, but still worth playing. The city of Rapture was done really well. Bioshock fanboys were as insufferable as the Portal fanboys… "Would you rather? Hahah get it?! Omg le epic plot twist XXXXDDD" Bioshock 2 is much better aside from the fact that you're retreading the same city as the first game.

 

[regawdless]

ME2 way epic, it gets my vote. One of the rare games I completed multiple times.

 

[Asmonius]

A really close one for me, but Mass Effect 2 edges it. Both games end pretty flat, but BioShock's shooting mechanics definitely aged worse for me. Bonus points for how much replay value ME2 has playing as both good or evil (or neutral) Shepard and playing different classes, while BioShock just has different ending scenes based on how you treat the Little Sisters.

 

[Arkam]

Mass Effect 2

Excellent game that had a fantastic story with decent choices and engaging gameplay. The class & gender choices gave one a lot of variety and replayability of quality content. I know I played it though four times to see some alternative events and gameplay experiences.

 

[Polden]

BioShock's setting was just too cool to not vote for.

 

[TaySan]

Bioshock was a once-in-a-lifetime experience at launch. Seeing Rapture for the first time blew people's minds. Mass Effect 2 on the other hand perfected the gameplay of the trilogy and is much more replayable today. I will give the edge to Mass Effect 2