So the original BioShock seems to be a divisse title nowadays. I still remember its release being full of floored reactions, holding it as a masterpiece of interactive storytelling. I suppose a decade plus of essays holding it up as the greatest piece of video game art ever was inevitably going to lead to a whiplash effect in the other direction. People have indeed come out in greater and greater numbers to decry Bioshock as highly overrated in both its gameplay and writing. And now, after my obligatory playthrough I seem to do every 1 – 2 years, I can still firmly plant my feet in the ground and say: I think BioShock is still a masterpiece.
The first 10 minutes embody everything BioShock is about. You're presented with this impossible city, a facade of endless freedom and possibility. Andrew Ryan's words really do sound like the ultimate utopia. A City where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, Where the great would not be constrained by the small. And much like I can imagine the new citizens of Rapture felt when they first stepped out of the bathysphere, the reality of the situation quickly sets in. Rapture is no utopia, it's a rotten monument to one man's petty ego. Your journey takes you through what Ryan calls his Great Chain of Industry. Simply taking you through a tour of the lowest class places like Fountain Fisheries up to the high society luxury of Olympus Heights makes Rapture feel like such a believable setting. Every level fells like a vignette that explains the greater inner workings of its place on the great chain, as well as its inevitable downfall. I will say, as believable as Rapture manages to present itself, it does often suffer from beeing less a city and more a carnival ride. Giant neon signs point to important places, and levels have the occasional tendency to loop around into spots that make no sense at all. That issue isn't helped by the fact that BioShock has a really obnoxious guide arrow turned on by default. The Guide arrow completely kills any exploration, and I never understood why it's even in the game. Trust me, turn it off, it will do so much for BioShock's immersive qualities and Rapture isn't exactly an impossible maze to navigate.
On the gameplay front, BioShock is as prototypical a immersive sim as it gets. You get a standard arsenal of upgradable FPS weapons in addition to the now famous plasmids, basically Raptures version of magic. They are the genetic substances that lead to Raptures great downfall and what gives combat its edge. If guns are the slightly chewy bread of combat, plasmids are the butter that gives it flavor. There's a huge variety of Plasmids from throwable Lightning bolts to shooting straight up Bees, that mix well with a large enough pool of enemies, that all have dominant strategies to take them down faster. Combined with the frankly ludicrous amount of tonics, the game's version of body modifications, I would do the game a huge disservice by claiming there is no variety in its gameplay. I frankly reject the much heard criticism that Bioshock lacks variety since all you do is kill enemies and not much else. I don't see how that applies here, since Raptures 100% presents itself as hostile. It's a corpse at the bottom of the ocean, and basically everyone except for one person is out for your blood. And given how the plot eventually just flips everything on its head, I think it would be quite unfitting to break the very isolated and hostile atmosphere. The only real gameplay fault I can find is, once again, like the unnecessary guide arrow, the vitae chambers. Infinite checkpoints that revive you without punishment, that both break the believability of the setting and the general gameplay loop. Turn them off and set your own quick saves. At least on normal, Bioshock posses not much of a challenge anyway and by the end you'll be an immortal combat wizard anyway, with enemies not even getting close enough to touch you before you snap your fingers to set them on fire.
Lastly, since I choose to play the much hated remaster, I might as well say some words on the topic. Basically, I didn't have any real issues this time. There was the occasional looping audio and at one point in the research labs the sound just stopped working for some reason, forcing me to close and open the game again. Other than that, I had no crashes or anything of similar ilk, totally smooth sailing tbh. I do know about many of the really bad issues and have experienced them as well in the past. I can of course only speculate as to why nothing happened this time, but maybe it's an issue similar to what the original PC version of Dark Souls or Resident Evil 6 suffered from. Where piss poor optimization lead to weaker hardware basically breaking the game, so do look out for that if you're planing on playing BioShock with hardware that isn't state of the art. And play it you absolutely should, since it's still a deeply fascinating FPS deserving of all the praise thrown its way. Settle in, get cozzy with a blanket, step inside the bathysphere so you get to experience an evening with Sander Cohen.
The first 10 minutes embody everything BioShock is about. You're presented with this impossible city, a facade of endless freedom and possibility. Andrew Ryan's words really do sound like the ultimate utopia. A City where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, Where the great would not be constrained by the small. And much like I can imagine the new citizens of Rapture felt when they first stepped out of the bathysphere, the reality of the situation quickly sets in. Rapture is no utopia, it's a rotten monument to one man's petty ego. Your journey takes you through what Ryan calls his Great Chain of Industry. Simply taking you through a tour of the lowest class places like Fountain Fisheries up to the high society luxury of Olympus Heights makes Rapture feel like such a believable setting. Every level fells like a vignette that explains the greater inner workings of its place on the great chain, as well as its inevitable downfall. I will say, as believable as Rapture manages to present itself, it does often suffer from beeing less a city and more a carnival ride. Giant neon signs point to important places, and levels have the occasional tendency to loop around into spots that make no sense at all. That issue isn't helped by the fact that BioShock has a really obnoxious guide arrow turned on by default. The Guide arrow completely kills any exploration, and I never understood why it's even in the game. Trust me, turn it off, it will do so much for BioShock's immersive qualities and Rapture isn't exactly an impossible maze to navigate.
On the gameplay front, BioShock is as prototypical a immersive sim as it gets. You get a standard arsenal of upgradable FPS weapons in addition to the now famous plasmids, basically Raptures version of magic. They are the genetic substances that lead to Raptures great downfall and what gives combat its edge. If guns are the slightly chewy bread of combat, plasmids are the butter that gives it flavor. There's a huge variety of Plasmids from throwable Lightning bolts to shooting straight up Bees, that mix well with a large enough pool of enemies, that all have dominant strategies to take them down faster. Combined with the frankly ludicrous amount of tonics, the game's version of body modifications, I would do the game a huge disservice by claiming there is no variety in its gameplay. I frankly reject the much heard criticism that Bioshock lacks variety since all you do is kill enemies and not much else. I don't see how that applies here, since Raptures 100% presents itself as hostile. It's a corpse at the bottom of the ocean, and basically everyone except for one person is out for your blood. And given how the plot eventually just flips everything on its head, I think it would be quite unfitting to break the very isolated and hostile atmosphere. The only real gameplay fault I can find is, once again, like the unnecessary guide arrow, the vitae chambers. Infinite checkpoints that revive you without punishment, that both break the believability of the setting and the general gameplay loop. Turn them off and set your own quick saves. At least on normal, Bioshock posses not much of a challenge anyway and by the end you'll be an immortal combat wizard anyway, with enemies not even getting close enough to touch you before you snap your fingers to set them on fire.
Lastly, since I choose to play the much hated remaster, I might as well say some words on the topic. Basically, I didn't have any real issues this time. There was the occasional looping audio and at one point in the research labs the sound just stopped working for some reason, forcing me to close and open the game again. Other than that, I had no crashes or anything of similar ilk, totally smooth sailing tbh. I do know about many of the really bad issues and have experienced them as well in the past. I can of course only speculate as to why nothing happened this time, but maybe it's an issue similar to what the original PC version of Dark Souls or Resident Evil 6 suffered from. Where piss poor optimization lead to weaker hardware basically breaking the game, so do look out for that if you're planing on playing BioShock with hardware that isn't state of the art. And play it you absolutely should, since it's still a deeply fascinating FPS deserving of all the praise thrown its way. Settle in, get cozzy with a blanket, step inside the bathysphere so you get to experience an evening with Sander Cohen.
2 Comments
Strange I never noticed people saying Bioshock is overrated. I do know people say Bioshock Infinite is and I can see the flaws in that one. I should look at the arguments sometime but I find it hard to belive they are any good. Great review btw!
@Z02X Thank you so much. Well from my limited perspectiv people seemd to adore Bioshock, they hated Bioshock 2, adored Infinite and now its gone kind of all over the place. 1 seems to be regarded as just ok, 2 has ermeged as the fan favorite and infinite seems to pretty universaly seen as "Ok this is the worst one by a landslide". And theres some valid criticism for BS1 like too many audio tapes, really boxy level design or the quality of the final boss. But theres other stuff where people are just reaching like how everything after the big twist sucks ? Eventough nobody ever seems to be able to express why and it always comes down to to "I was bored. Fountaine sucks. Its just bad". Wich means basicly nothing therefore Im not going to accept it as legit criticism.
Z02X
2 months ago