I played this as a kid and have now replayed it as an adult with the ability to more fully understand its themes and what it's going for (I also have way more immersive sims under my belt).
The headline here is that this story came out like 15 years ago and I'm hard pressed to think of many games that have surpassed it (and that includes everything made after The Last of Us).
BioShock's idea to tackle an objectivist hell world under the sea is such a good freakin' premise SO WELL EXECUTED that it feels ahead of its time a bit even now. It's telling that they announced a new BioShock game like 4 years ago (it is now 10 since the last one) and they seem to be struggling at least a bit to get it out the door. Yeah, yeah, pandemic and all that, but the world of this game is so rich with alternate history atmosphere, everything has a point, and it feels like there's basically no fat, so it doesn't surprise me all that much we haven't seen more than three of these to date.
The game part is really good too, fusing immersive sim gameplay with a linear, accessible first person shooter and the lightest RPG elements in a way where after the 10-12 hours it takes to beat this you really feel like you got a full game. My only criticisms are that it relies a bit too much on fetch quests and the late game enemies are a bit damage spongey to the point where I was running past them some in the back 15-20%. Also, I played the Remastered version on Series X and it crashed twice. The latter lost me about 30 minutes of progress, which feels bad man.
But that story man. I KNEW "the story beat" to some extent from the last time I played it in 7th grade, and with the context of better understanding it honestly felt like I was experiencing it for the first time again. It's just so sharp!!!!
Can't wait to jump into 2 and Infinite (I've played only half of the former).
The headline here is that this story came out like 15 years ago and I'm hard pressed to think of many games that have surpassed it (and that includes everything made after The Last of Us).
BioShock's idea to tackle an objectivist hell world under the sea is such a good freakin' premise SO WELL EXECUTED that it feels ahead of its time a bit even now. It's telling that they announced a new BioShock game like 4 years ago (it is now 10 since the last one) and they seem to be struggling at least a bit to get it out the door. Yeah, yeah, pandemic and all that, but the world of this game is so rich with alternate history atmosphere, everything has a point, and it feels like there's basically no fat, so it doesn't surprise me all that much we haven't seen more than three of these to date.
The game part is really good too, fusing immersive sim gameplay with a linear, accessible first person shooter and the lightest RPG elements in a way where after the 10-12 hours it takes to beat this you really feel like you got a full game. My only criticisms are that it relies a bit too much on fetch quests and the late game enemies are a bit damage spongey to the point where I was running past them some in the back 15-20%. Also, I played the Remastered version on Series X and it crashed twice. The latter lost me about 30 minutes of progress, which feels bad man.
But that story man. I KNEW "the story beat" to some extent from the last time I played it in 7th grade, and with the context of better understanding it honestly felt like I was experiencing it for the first time again. It's just so sharp!!!!
Can't wait to jump into 2 and Infinite (I've played only half of the former).