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De85 on 06 March 2008
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Smash_Brother said:
Onyxmeth said:

Secondly, videogame stories are horrific judging directly to other mediums like literature and films. I'm not actually sitting here thinking Bioshock is better than The Squid and the Whale, just that it's better than the crap most other games consider a narrative. Bioshock has a heavy advantage over many story driven games from the past, because the extra power of today's 360 and PCs allowed it to tell it's story better. The voice acting was terrific, the confrontations with adversaries were realistic and intimidating, and the themes, while being good for only VG standards were among the best.

 


I can agree that it's better than what we're used to, but the game just had such a weak finish that it was saddening.

The scene with Andrew Ryan was easily the best in the game, but I once again have to cite the fact that we weren't playing the scene, we watched it like a movie. In fact, we watched the whole game like a movie.

And here's why that kills me: the same people who made System Shock also made Deus Ex and Bioshock. I've seen what these people are capable of and as a result I can see where Bioshock was more than likely stripped down so it would be more easily swallowed by the console market.

And that really, REALLY sucks, and this is why I hate it when I see people praising it for the story when the story was only a shadow of what it could've been. There's no reason to play as a character who is a voiceless, nameless drone in a linear start-to-finish storyline when the team behind it was so clearly capable of creating an immersive, empowering story with a likable protagonist for the player to control.


 I personally think that the decision to leave the charcater nameless and faceless was done on purpose, and not just an oversight by the devs.  Given the philosophical and moral content, not just the snuff/save aspect, but Ryan's speech on how "a man chooses. a slave obeys" having a faceless character makes it more relateable.  It's supposed to make it feel like you're being taught by Andrew Ryan, and you should be in control of your destiny.   I think that if the cutscenes showed the player from a third person view the atmosphere of the game would have suffered.

 @ the OP, no I don't think it was overrated.  So far it's the best I've played this gen.