You can photograph them when they are triggered from a hacked camera even though they are friendly to you.
I find the whole camera thing annoying. It’s like they just threw it in without giving it a whole lot of thought. It’s great in theory, just poorly implemented.
Of course, the game that immediately came to mind when the camera showed up was Fatal Frame. Too bad they didn’t take a page from that game and make the camera a kind of weapon or something; make it stun enemies with its flash maybe.
“Yeah, baby, show me RAGE! Let it all out! POUND that dummy! Good, now show me FRUSTRATION! Oh, that’s brilliant!”
I wish the camera had a dual purpose, such as a flash that would temporarily blind the enemy. As it is, I completely forget to use the camera unless I accidentally select it.
Camera was my main “weapon”. Every time I came across something I snapped it’s picture first, then switched to another weapon and chewed it up. I didn’t bother taking repeated pictures (unless accidentally) of anything. I’m halfway through the game, though, and just discovered today that you can take pics of Little Sisters. I thought only “enemies” were targeted by the camera.
I got a kick out of a Nitro Splicer dropping down practically on top of my invisible self. Got a nice snap of it just looking around while standing on my toes (if I have toes; do I have toes?).
Some sort of research tracking in the interface would have been really helpful. And it probably would have been more compelling as a mechanic if film were a more limited resource, much like ADAM or Power to the People stations. That way in a given playthrough you’d have to choose what you bought with your ADAM, what you researched with your limited film supplies, and what weapons you upgraded. Making for quite a few different ways to play.
Of course, if your film was limited it would be best to dramatically simplify things: no photo grades, much faster progress through the research levels. Something along those lines. Make it a defined cost.
I like this feature of the game, I wonder though if it was in the game before Dead Rising came out? It acts very similar.
Beyond Good & Evil also has a camera, and rewards for the quality of the shot, as I recall.
I might have tried to come up with another conceit rather than a camera that seemed more science doo-dad like. That said, I like the idea of research.
I saw someone mention that they were glad to be rid of the chemical rooms from SS2 that were required for gathering research chemicals, but one good purpose for those was having you revisit areas of the ship. While you can go back in BioShock, I never had a reason to, so I didn’t feel like it became “my” space as much as the Von Braun did.
I don’t remember BG&E grading shots; I think they either counted or they didn’t.
LOL! Funniest thing I’ve read in months! Thanks, unbongwah :)
Correct: if it’s not close enough or poorly framed it’ll say so and won’t let you take the shot.
MILD SPOILER!
Once you successfully level up your research vs turrets and bots, you’ll automatically succeed hacking attempts. It skips the minigame altogether, just flips the switch.
Yeah, the research grinding thing is another reason I am hesitant for the replay, although I enjoyed the hell out of the ridiculous amount of hours I sank into my first playthrough. I just finished it after picking it up on release day, so I mean ridiculous since I’ve been playing it nonstop.
The first game I’ve seen this mechanic in was Zelda: The Wind Waker. Some Fatal Frame game may have been released earlier, though.
Pokemon Snap, duh?