It's because it was fresh at the time. I remember playing the demo, sitting in a plane and then when it went down and I was swimming in the ocean, fire all around me, looking for a way to survive, I found this little cement place with a door...it was pretty pretty different.

Because it sucked you into it's world in a way that very few games can. Obviously not everyone feels this way but it's defiantely in my best games of last gen category. I thoroughly enjoyed bioshock 2 as well, even the multiplayer. I think people were too hard on the sequel for not giving them that same wonderment that the first one did.

The sun is a wondrous body. Like a magnificent father! If only I could be so grossly incandescent!

No option to vote on you being a hipster?

Thought of it, but it didn't fit on the poll options after exhausting all others. And I wasn't going to sacrifice "praisin' the Sun" option. ;)

I liked how the game had shades of System Shock in it, coupled with updated graphics and an interesting world are what helped suck me into Bioshock 1. Going back to it now kind of does it a disservice though, doesn't age well (imo, mostly because plenty of other games you may have played drew from its influences, as well as the twist loses its bite and decreases it's replay value for me).

I thought it was pretty good at the time. It was something different,from your typical bro shooters.

Problem is, by the time Bioshock 1 arrived, there wasn't the huge amount of so called "typical bro shooters". Call of Duty 3 had just released, if I am not mistaken. We were still on the WW2 shooters era.

Well,it was that way for me. I played it probably a year after it came out. I remember getting it for $20. I thought it was pretty good. I did'nt think it was the second coming of anything,but I thought it was solid. 

No one overlooks those. Bioshock isn't perfect, but it's praise is justified.  I've never played Bioshock 2, so I can't offer any help there.