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Bioshock: Shockingly Disappointing
By Cameron Sorden | August 21, 2007
I admit, I’ve been caught up in the Bioshock hype these last few weeks. Me and everyone else. As Darren mentioned already, the reviews have been rolling in and they’re giving it downright stellar ratings. When the demo for the XBox 360 version came out and everyone was talking about how awesome it was, I got even more excited. A game with a killer narrative, fantastic graphics, innovative gameplay, and totally interactive environment? You can hack robots, burn things, and electrocute people in the water? Awesome!
However, I downloaded the demo this afternoon and spent about an hour playing it… and I decided I’m not buying this game. I probably won’t even borrow it from my friend that’s skipping work today to play it. It’s not that it’s a sucky game. It’s almost everything they claim it is. Why am I not interested, then? Well, let me tell you. Here’s a quick Bioshock review from an experienced gamer and sci-fi fan that spent about an hour playing it.
First, the good. This game is unbelievably cinematic. Even on my laptop, chugging along at low graphics settings, it looked and played great. The sounds and setting are perfect, and the underwater city of Rapture looks absolutely amazing, especially on the initial descent. The individual narrative bits that I experienced, including the scripted theatrical events that happen every minute or so as you plunge deeper into the game, are really great too. Whether it’s a woman hysterically sobbing next to a crib, muttering to herself and cradling a pistol before she turns around and starts screaming at you and attacking, a disfigured man with scythes for hands trying to furiously rip his way into your capsule as you land in Rapture, or a hideously creepy Little Sister playfully stabbing a corpse with a huge syringe and singing to herself, this game nails the creep-you-out what-the-fuck-is-going on aspect that makes survival games such a blast to play.
I also really enjoyed the art style and the 1950’s era style of furniture, buildings, and amenities that the game is just dripping with. As you all should know, I’m a huge Fallout fan, and if you like Fallout you’ll notice plenty of similarity between the two games (although only at a superficial visual level). Even the little man on the men’s restroom sign bears a striking resemblance to the beloved Vault Boy. I love this retro look and thought they did a wonderful job of using it throughout the demo. I got all misty-eyed when part of the game intro was a scratchy black and white movie that talked about a Utopian society, free from the impositions of Government, God, and Society.
But sadly, for me, the game was all set-up and no delivery. After a heavily narrated and scripted opening sequence that seems to set the the path for a fantastic journey of exploration, self-discovery, and wonder, you step out of your sea pod into what may as well be generic shooter X. The first sequence felt very, very familiar: “Move around. Crouch. Jump. Find weapon. Swing weapon. Here’s an enemy! Kill him. Good job! Now lets play with some advanced weapons.” Okay, whatever, you need to have a tutorial.
But the claims of a completely interactive environment? Eh. I didn’t feel like I could do all that more than I could in any other shooter I’ve ever played. Most things can’t be destroyed. Nothing can be picked up or interacted with unless it has a specific purpose. Want to wear the bunny mask the guy you killed just had on? Tough shit. You can shoot it around the floor, but you can’t touch it or move it otherwise. Did you break that concrete block to clear the path? Good, good. You can’t shatter this other concrete pillar, though. And hacking robots is a neat concept, but the pipe-dream rip-off minigame you play to do it is utterly and completely lame.
While the plasmids at least are pretty cool (snapping your fingers and setting people on fire is quite fun), they aren’t really anything cooler than what you’ve seen before. I liked them better when they were called jedi powers. At least then I got a lightsaber too. Furthermore, I get the sense that they’re very much one-trick ponies. Example: Sure, it’s awesome that you can zap water and electrocute the people swimming around… the first time. But after the novelty wears off, you’ll realize these are just another tool to disable and kill your enemies (and bypass doors and obstacles).
Outside of the setting and the narrative, you’ve played this game before. Whether it was called Doom 3, Half-Life 2, FEAR, or Jedi Knight, Bioshock is pretty much more of the same. As some have speculated, it is just another FPS. It’s just another FPS with great narrative style, granted, but you may as well play the games you have and watch a good movie. The developers themselves have been very careful to stress time and time again that this is a first-person shooter, so don’t be fooled by the hype you might hear. If your cup of tea is the MMOG and the CRPG, this is not a game for you.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Mindless violence and killing in games does not “do it” for me, nor does it “do it” for many adults. That’s one of the many reasons why we can’t get away from the concept of “games are just for kids.” I’m still waiting for the game that gives me an interactive, thrilling experience that allows me to do whatever I want, lets me solve challenges with violence without forcing me to do so (and provides realistic repercussions for making that choice), and forces me to think about something more complex than “I’d better shoot that thing.”
Bottom Line: Bioshock is basically Doom 3 with some extra bells and whistles, as far as I’m concerned. If that’s what you wanted, you’ll love it, but if you were looking or hoping for something more, don’t waste your time. It seems like a great FPS, and that’s all it is.
Topics: first person shooter, reviews |
August 21st, 2007 at 3:06 pm
[Quote: Mindless violence and killing in games does not … “do it” for many adults.]
Get off yer high-horse! Almost every successful video game has “mindless violence.” How do you explain the success of Grand Theft Auto or Diablo or World of Warcraft? If you don’t like FPS games, don’t waste your time writing up biased reviews of them.
August 21st, 2007 at 3:23 pm
That’s a fair point, and you’re right… it was a little preachy for someone who likes lots of violent games. I should clarify what I was trying to get at. It’s not that mindless violence is necessarily a bad thing in my opinion. I like mowing through baddies in Diablo or ganking people in WoW as much as the next guy.
But the reason I was excited for Bioshock was story, not violence. People were talking about the great narrative, the huge range of things you can do within the game, and how deep the story was. Also, the opening ten minutes of the game made me think that the rest of the game would be significantly heavier concept-wise than the subsequent 50 minutes of gameplay were.
If I was expecting it to be a run-of-the-mill shooter, I would have passed it and moved on like I do with most of them. But I was expecting more, and was disappointed. I wasn’t trying to write an unbiased review. I played it for an hour, didn’t like it, and wrote about why.
August 21st, 2007 at 3:35 pm
To clarify further: The reason I don’t like shooters in general is that I feel like they lack complexity. Everything is kill or be killed. There’s not usually a lot of middle ground, moral ambiguity, or alternate methods of progression.
Also, unlike games like Diablo, WoW, or even GTA, FPS games tend to not have any reason for the violence beyond the act of violence itself (ie, “it’s cool to blow shit up and kill people in interesting ways”). You eliminate your opponents without any purpose other than to get from point A in the level to point B. Once pulling that trigger gets boring, you may as well stop playing.
A thin plot which periodically rears its head (which is all you often get in an FPS) is not a good enough motivation for me to keep playing, nor is it the point of such games. I understand that some people dig them… they’re just not my thing.
August 22nd, 2007 at 7:43 am
“Everything is kill or be killed. There’s not usually a lot of middle ground, moral ambiguity, or alternate methods of progression.”
You need a hit from the old Deus Ex bong. It’s not all you said, but comes close.
re: Bioshock. Never got interested in it myself since it was announced. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a special place in my heart for System Shock, and another for Fallout, but spiritual successor my ass. This one ain’t.
August 22nd, 2007 at 9:43 am
[…] “A” August 22nd, 2007 by Brandon The “A” in this case is for asinine. As seen here. For those who read my blog regularly you probably notice that probably 4 out of 5 times I highlight […]
August 23rd, 2007 at 8:59 pm
I just played the demo today on my 360. I was reluctant to buy it before, and now I’m officially on the fence…leaning toward buying it.
For one thing, it’s rare to see an FPS with such great atmosphere. Doom 3 had atmosphere, Half-Life had atmosphere, but how many others? The setting and story have me intrigued.
The big question for me is whether or not the strategic plasmid combinations is represented well at all in the demo. The clips at the end of the demo show some pretty cool combos — like setting an NPC on fire, then watching her run to the water to douse herself, and electrocuting her the moment she jumps in the water.
But playing the demo leads me to believe the pace is usually too fast for any but long-experienced players to really make full use of the strategic opportunities… meaning I’d only enjoy the combat’s full depth the second time through, when the story is no longer intriguing.
The tubing mini-game is definitely an odd inclusion. It’s not that it’s not enjoyable, but it seems out-of-place to me.
The demo didn’t demonstrate any of the advertised moral ambiguity. Considering the game encourages you from the get-go to use plasmids, I doubt it speaks very deeply on augmenting the human body. Perhaps a different picture is presented further in, but the ally-voice seemed to suggest that the little girls are no longer human, in which case sparing them or killing them isn’t such a terrible choice. Either way, I’d be surprised if the game actually suggests any sort of judgements or otherwise encourages the player to philosophize very strongly.
Anyway, I’ll probably buy it just to see, from a designer’s perspective, how the story and gameplay are woven together. It’ll have to wait, though, since my money’s going towards Two Worlds tomorrow. =)
August 24th, 2007 at 9:06 am
I was on the fence until I read about the PC DRM issues. I’ll pass on Bioshock.
World In Conflict demo release today!
August 24th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
Im betting this game is better on the Xbox 360 than the PC
October 14th, 2007 at 1:25 am
This game is a huge disappointment. HL2 and Doom3 are much better in every aspect. This is a game that simply sucks in every regard. The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King had better graphics than this. Whoever put this game together was on crack. Find another job!
October 26th, 2007 at 3:24 am
I agree with this review for the most part. I too was expecting something much more emersive, much more diverse. It was all so straightforward, so scripted. You were taken on a roller coaster ride basically, no option to choose where you went next or how to get there. Heres the begining of the level, there is the end. Get from A to B.
Of course, its a great FPS just like we all say. But I also wasn’t as on edge as the official reviews would have me think I would be. The game is so easy to play, and I don’t play FPS alot. I completed this game in two days and basically only used the wrench and lightning plasmid. I didn’t NEED to use anything else on the generic creatures except the Big Dadies. I was never straped for resources, often I had too MUCH of everything and had to leave a majority of ammo and cash behind. Where was the apparant scrimping for resources? The worry that wasting amunition could mean death?
Also enemies are so limited. I counted about six types of enemy, though they vary in appearance not in attack style. They never do much damage, and if they DO kill you? Well thats ok, you spawn on the map again with half your health and eve anyway and no penalty at all. Enemies are so easy to defeat, with so much in your favour.
I was also told about item creation and how you can upgrade your weapons. This is true, in a sense. But its not like you have to upgrade them yourself through clever crafting or collecting certain types of items, researching or finding blueprints then assembling them yourself. Nope, just a machine. That upgrades once. With no cost. Whooptydo. The weapons don’t even have secondary fire modes or particularly inovative designs. Its the usual weapons we’ve seen a million times before, with none of the diversity. The weapons LOOK great, absolutely. They just lack originality. Then theres the item inventor. Again, you don’t event a thing. Its just another seller machine, only this time the cost is in random items you pick up and not cash or adam. You don’t EVENT anything, theres just a list of items to buy that cost different amounts of items. The items aren’t unique in any way. You can’t event mods, upgrades or new tools. You don’t have to DISCOVER recipies, which would have made a huge difference. Its just a list. Then the items just get added to your inventory, or in my case fell on the ground as I was full of all ammo types early on in the game.
Overall, fantastic graphics (and I played on PC on a pixel shader 2 card. Had to patch via an unoficial patch team to even play the game. Seeing that around 20%. by the last count, of PC gamers have inferior cards or PS2 graphics cards this is a major oversight). Immersive and clever storyline. I enjoyed the actors and thats why I played it through. I enjoyed the story. I loved the style, the atmosphere and the concepts and ideas. But it was all implimented in a rather generic FPS with nothing new to offer. I’d rate it at 3.5/5.
November 8th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
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June 6th, 2008 at 9:45 am
I was on the fence until I read about the PC DRM issues. I’ll pass on Bioshock.”
Oh, we don’t fucking care!