Bioshock Revisited
by drrandle
Diving Back In a Year Later Last year a game called Bioshock took home a large portion of your general "Game of the Year" awards. It was praised for it's brilliant set pieces, it's remarkable art direction, and because many people believed that it was going to hail a new direction in the narrative of gaming. I, myself, was not so convinced, as much as the game was endearing to me. Something I f...
Diving Back In a Year Later
Last year a game called Bioshock took home a large portion of your general "Game of the Year" awards. It was praised for it's brilliant set pieces, it's remarkable art direction, and because many people believed that it was going to hail a new direction in the narrative of gaming. I, myself, was not so convinced, as much as the game was endearing to me.Something I feel I should note about my opinion, I've never played System Shock 2 (despite many unsuccessful attempts to do so), so don't expect me to give a damn about the comparisons. I am talking about BioShock here. (Warning: Spoilers Ahead!)
Darling it's better, down where it's wetter. It's not hard to like the game. There are so many things going on that are just right. The gameplay is relatively flawless, and incredibly visceral. The environments... well if they're not just some of the best I've ever seen in a game. The writing is quite masterful, and the acting compliments it like ice cream compliments warm apple pie. Big Daddy's like to carry about those big drills on their arm, but I doubt there's a lot of need for deep-sea drilling inside a metropolis. Instead, I imagine the only reason such devices are necessary would be for boring through the absolutely thick, moody atmosphere the game creates. This level of atmosphere is admirable, and is always something any gamer worth their weight in salt should want from a game of this nature.Unfortunately the game faults as it attempts to drive the point home, losing much of it's steam after the dramatic plot twist (you know the one). The game drags itself on in a clear attempt to excuse it's cost after that point, and ends up barely able to execute a competent finish. (If they wanted to excuse the cost, perhaps additional content like the puzzle rooms like the PS3 version would have been nice.) I don't want to have to use the phrase, but premature ejaculation comes to mind: B-Shock blows it's load with it's dramatic reveal and is unable to perform much more afterwords. And at the end I can't help feel more like I need a shower than a smoke. I admit I rather, to some degree, enjoyed the ending cinematics, but they felt incredibly disjointed to the experience as a whole.
Would ya kindly do me a favor and think about those endings. You're either, to paraphrase Yahtzee, Mother Teresa or Baby-Eating Hitler. And that's if you just sacrifice one Little Darling. Just one. Maybe you really needed that Adam. Does that make you so drastically evil in comparison? Is one life not worth the greater good? For a game that wants you to believe you're making these dire ethical choices, the differences are quite extreme. And really, there's a number of other ethical choices that the game puts forth that have have no baring on the whole issue. Does the game care that you have to kill Big Daddy's, which are the most pitiable characters in this game? The only things in this sanity forsaken fortress that have a real connection with life, with the Little Sisters, and you just murder them to do what you need to. Are they really that evil? All they are doing is surviving. I didn't really notice this thought until I had to become a Big Daddy myself. I thought they were, perhaps, just some zombie or robot type things... programmed to do their job and nothing more. But after having to force myself to become one, and subsequently defend a Little Sister, I sympathized with the beasts. Yet there is no punishment for murdering them, and it's not even out of self defense mind you. They don't attack you if the Sisters are left alone.
Whose your Big Daddy? The other problem I have is that the game does not punish you for your willing corruption to the dark force that brought Rapture's society crumbling down."No!, Go ahead! It's fine!" says the game. "Even though everybody else here became totally power-hungry and crazy, you're still fine."
Sure, if you get the bad end, it makes some sense, although there's no real progression shown in game. There needed to be more instances of you becoming malevolent. I suppose the game wants you to put yourself in the game, so instead of personal dialogue, it was all you saying things like "Yeah I'ma kill you and rule this place! Take that Li'l Sisters! Yeah, your power's mine!" but... the fact that all the situations are identical no matter which character path you choose does not balance that out in my mind.
I could make some argument that the whole purpose of this is the big "not being able to choose your destiny, we have no willpower" kind of thing, but in that case the circumstances should play out exactly the same for everyone no matter what, none of this multiple endings thing. It just seems entirely disjointed from the concept either way you slice it.
Mechanically speaking, the game also suffers a lack of difficulty progression. After a while the Big Daddy's are nothing more than a thing that doesn't die as fast as the other things. You grow more powerful, but they stay relatively the same. Also, you can spend a billion hours plotting this over elaborate scheme to dispatch of your foes but in the end a well placed pistol shot to the face does just the same. There is no real reward for people who want a more calm, calculated approach to the game, despite the promise of such a thing. Combined with the earlier complaint that you have to kill Big Daddy's instead of being able to simply trap them, or some such passive measures, just clears the cloud of pleasurable lies that is choice and opportunity for the cold, boring truth: run and gun ftw.
Braid is a better step in the direction of perfectly melding the gameplay with the story, as the main character can reverse time to learn from his mistakes and continue on through life as though they had never been made... which is part of his motivation to finding his princess.
Bioshock was certainly full of compelling characters, breathtaking set pieces, and intense, brutal action. It just serves to look back and analyze the things that make this game less than what the hype wanted you to believe it was. With this kind of knowledge, games can truly evolve beyond Bioshock into even more grand experiences.
What are your thoughts on the matter? Could greater thought have been put into this game? Is it perhaps perfect, and myself daft? Drop me a comment and please let me know what you thought!
The children are all throwing snowballs
instead of throwing heads.
They're busy building toys
and absolutely no one's dead!
Danny Elfman - The Nightmare Before Christmas