This review contains spoilers
Finally got around to playing Bioshock after so many years of hearing its praise. Overall though, I came out mostly disappointed.
The gameplay was pretty dull overall. Enemies were never particularly challenging and, as the game proceeded, they got more annoying rather than more difficult. Greater numbers, more health, etc. The combat was functional overall, but it was neither fun nor engaging.
But the gameplay concerns are secondary to the story. Plenty of people have told me that the gameplay was mediocre but the fantastic story made up for it. And, while Bioshock did do some interesting things in that regard, it really isn't enough to leave a strong impression.
The game's core twist is interesting when viewed from afar, but I don't feel the game did much with it. Prior to the reveal, you're never restricted in your actions or otherwise forced to do something that you wouldn't want to do already. Had the game actually made me do something I found undesirable then there may have been some meaningful impact. And after the twist was revealed (and the conditioning was broken) I still never had any greater choice than I did before. The twist is neat, but it feels like it could be removed from the game without changing anything at all. It's just not impactful.
The exploration of Objectivism and learning about the downfall of Rapture is a lot more interesting. It's just a shame that all the interesting parts were only in the first half. Once Ryan is dead and Fontaine takes his place as the main villain, the story really lost its grasp on me and didn't do anything interesting to replace it.
I feel that a lot of the praise Bioshock gets is just overcompensating by how bad some of its peers are. If your only experience with stories in video games was from the other FPS titles being released at the time, its easy to see why Bioshock would look like a masterpiece in comparison. But that's setting an incredibly low bar.
The gameplay was pretty dull overall. Enemies were never particularly challenging and, as the game proceeded, they got more annoying rather than more difficult. Greater numbers, more health, etc. The combat was functional overall, but it was neither fun nor engaging.
But the gameplay concerns are secondary to the story. Plenty of people have told me that the gameplay was mediocre but the fantastic story made up for it. And, while Bioshock did do some interesting things in that regard, it really isn't enough to leave a strong impression.
The game's core twist is interesting when viewed from afar, but I don't feel the game did much with it. Prior to the reveal, you're never restricted in your actions or otherwise forced to do something that you wouldn't want to do already. Had the game actually made me do something I found undesirable then there may have been some meaningful impact. And after the twist was revealed (and the conditioning was broken) I still never had any greater choice than I did before. The twist is neat, but it feels like it could be removed from the game without changing anything at all. It's just not impactful.
The exploration of Objectivism and learning about the downfall of Rapture is a lot more interesting. It's just a shame that all the interesting parts were only in the first half. Once Ryan is dead and Fontaine takes his place as the main villain, the story really lost its grasp on me and didn't do anything interesting to replace it.
I feel that a lot of the praise Bioshock gets is just overcompensating by how bad some of its peers are. If your only experience with stories in video games was from the other FPS titles being released at the time, its easy to see why Bioshock would look like a masterpiece in comparison. But that's setting an incredibly low bar.