BioShock, Further Reflections
September 17, 2007
After having finished BioShock last night, I'm ready to go out on a distant limb... one that traverses into some of my deepest sanctities and inner truisms... BioShock the pirated edition* may very well be one of the best video games of all time. Technically, the game is a modern marvel with lovely and luscious environments... but that's nothing new or even interesting. What makes BioShock such a stellar title worthy of all the praise that it's getting? It's the incredibly well thought out, morally compelling and thought provoking storyline.
Throughout the game you are posed with moral dilemmas and you, as the player, are forced through a set of hoops that leave you wondering... did I, as a character, do the right thing? More than a few times you'll find yourself thinking, what have I done? The culmination of your expedition to Ryan will be one of the gaming moments that stands out in my mind as a perfectly written turn of events that left me jaw-dropped, heart broken and betrayed. Now, would you kindly continue reading?
Once you've freed yourself of the shackles of Rapture (however you've freed yourself)... you're left actually contemplating what you left behind. You won't just put the controller down and say "Ah, another game beaten.". Instead, you wish that you could go back and change things to have made it out better than you did... but you can't. You're as much a part of the world of Rapture as those still living in it and you can't just go back guns blazing from your last save-point to fix things. Your character learned who he was down there, and that can't be changed.
In the end, BioShock was a mediocre shooter. There was nothing terribly novel or interesting about the gameplay mechanics. What's really shined through was the storyline, the characters and Rapture itself. Irrational so masterfully crafted an exquisite plotline that you will end up wondering what would have happened if you could have resisted those three words?
* Why, oh why 2k did you have to kill your game so completely? You can never hope to achieve any long-term glory if the game is rendered obsolete upon installation by your overly draconian copy protection. If only pirates can play your game a few months from now, how will your game achieve anything but utter technical failure? For the record, I purchased my copy and cracked the seal before realizing what evil you had visited upon your customers.
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| Tagged: BioShock, VideoGames
