A great, original FPS that suffers from only a few flaws.
Reviewed by CommanderVideo on or around 13th Dec 2007
Bioshock was a great game that didn't deserve the perfect 10s that it got from the majority of its reviews. Yes, it was an excellent game. But honestly, it had some flaws that kept it from perfection.
I loved the scenario and the themes that permeated Rapture. I loved the plasmid powers, and almost all of them served their purpose well. The weapons were acceptable, but nothing too special, and the voice acting was excellent. I will probably never forget my first battle with a B...ig Daddy, all ill-equipped to take on such a formidable foe, yet persevering and finally taking him down (albeit with a load of poo in my shorts). That moment alone could have swayed me to score this game higher"if I had stopped playing shortly thereafter and reviewed the game before completing it.
As much as I loved the environment and the set up/scenario, I felt that it was limited in its vision. It seems like the horror of the medical/plastic surgery stuff stole the spotlight. So many more horrors in Rapture could have been given as much attention as those of the medical monstrosity variety. Furthermore, the enemies were repetitive and after a while, seemed unimaginative. In actuality, there were only about 5 different enemies in the game (not counting the Big Daddies/Little Sisters). Fighting those enemies became rather banal pretty early on.
I kept waiting for the next unspeakable horror to be revealed only to find that, oh, it's another doctor in a mask. The hacking mechanic, while totally awesome in concept became boring and tedious, since I felt the desire to hack almost anything/everything I came in contact with, which took time and again, became boring. By the last level of the game, though, the economy totally broke down and my wallet was constantly full (as was my ammo, and my health/eve power ups), so I stopped hacking to get deals on equipment. Without going into too terribly much detail, I want to touch on the plasmids as well and point out the fact that not all of them are upgradable, which bummed me out. My favorite (and most often used) plasmid was one of those. Here I am, upgrading all my other plasmids, saving my Adam for the point in the game when I get to upgrade my favorite, and then realizing that that moment is never coming. It felt inconsistent and unexplained through the story.
I also had some problems with the story/ending. When the story takes a twist, and you find that you've been double-crossed, it wasn't a surprise in the slightest, and had little to no meaning. Defeating Ryan, while a cool cutscene could have been slightly more interactive, by, oh I wonder'?what? Having you as the player actually do the action of killing him? Maybe that would have given that scene a little more meaning. Also, the ending (I got the "good" ending) was such a letdown after such a wonderfully artistic adventure that lasted somewhere around 15 " 20 hours. The final cutscene was probably at most 1 " 2 minutes long and offered nothing too unique or meaningful to the overall game experience. On top of that, it ended rather abruptly, dropping you to the Main Menu without even rolling the credits.
I don't know about you, but I enjoy sitting there, pondering a game while the end credits roll. The whole ending package just felt rushed in its execution and too easy/obvious of a conclusion story-wise. All in all, It was a good game that left me feeling disappointed that there wasn't more that was super-cool about it. The whole time I was playing, I felt like I was waiting for it to get better and blow my mind. I kept thinking "Oh, man, that was kinda crazy. I bet that I'm going to find out something awesome the next time I play".
But that feeling was never justified. Bioshock sets a fantastic stage for you in the first 3 hours of gameplay, but then doesn't really up the ante from then on.
Show Full Review >
