This Post Brought to you by the Letter “A”
The “A” in this case is for asinine. As seen here. For those who read my blog regularly you probably notice that probably 4 out of 5 times I highlight something another person wrote it is to agree, or to generally agree and throw a different spin on it. This is different. This time I disagree, and I plan to rant about it. As in all things an opinion is an opinion and it doesn’t have to be liked but I certainly mean no disrespect by what I am about to write.
I also played the Bioshock demo and had an entirely different experience with it…or not. I had the exact same experience I suppose I just came out of it with entirely different conclusions.
This game is unbelievably cinematic. Even on my laptop, chugging along at low graphics settings, it looked and played great. The sounds and setting are perfect, and the underwater city of Rapture looks absolutely amazing, especially on the initial descent. The individual narrative bits that I experienced, including the scripted theatrical events that happen every minute or so as you plunge deeper into the game, are really great too.
So, let’s look at what is good so far: graphics, sound, and setting of the game. The mention of the cinematic feel, I assume also means the general storyline is a plus as well. Or at least that’s what I’ll assume for the moment if that isn’t the case, it doesn’t really affect the rest of this post one way or another. But wait, it’s not all happy fun times in Bioshock let’s take a look at all the negative points this game has…
After a heavily narrated and scripted opening sequence that seems to set the the path for a fantastic journey of exploration, self-discovery, and wonder, you step out of your sea pod into what may as well be generic shooter X. The first sequence felt very, very familiar: “Move around. Crouch. Jump. Find weapon. Swing weapon. Here’s an enemy! Kill him. Good job! Now lets play with some advanced weapons.” Okay, whatever, you need to have a tutorial.
Great Scott, man, Bioshock has single-handedly taken us back to the stone age with their adding in an element to allow you to familiarize yourself with the game. It’s almost as if they realize that non-FPS players could pick up their game. Those sick, twisted little bastards at 2K. Alright, I’ll admit it, Cameron did then say that the game needs a tutorial so he’s giving them that one but the very premise of the statement just seems ridiculous. If a game isn’t allowed to introduce itself to you with an opening experience where you figure out what is actually going on and how things work than there can never be any innovation, we can only continue to do the same things over and over. With this introduction we’ve now afforded every player the opportunity to understand how the basics work and from there move on to more advanced features.
But the claims of a completely interactive environment? Eh. I didn’t feel like I could do all that more than I could in any other shooter I’ve ever played. Most things can’t be destroyed. Nothing can be picked up or interacted with unless it has a specific purpose. Want to wear the bunny mask the guy you killed just had on? Tough shit. You can shoot it around the floor, but you can’t touch it or move it otherwise. Did you break that concrete block to clear the path? Good, good. You can’t shatter this other concrete pillar, though. And hacking robots is a neat concept, but the pipe-dream rip-off minigame you play to do it is utterly and completely lame.
So…you’re angry you can’t put on a bunny mask? No wait, think about that. You’re angry you can’t put on a bunny mask in a (wait for it) first-person shooter. Notice the italicized text. In a game delivered in a first person perspective wearing a bunny mask is akin to getting a tattoo on your ass, you can’t see it so it serves no purpose (and don’t get me started on the ass tattoo rant, which is an entirely different animal.) Fine, fine, fine. I get it. I know what he’s saying. The environment isn’t really interactive. The marketing team made some very general statements about unique features making them seem much better than they actually were and people were taken in. You know what? That’s kind of their job, and if you expect everything to be exactly like you hear about it from the people that will make money when you buy the product then I too wish to market you something. I’m going to market you a real-time, active scrapbook complete with digital storage capabilities. Oh yeah, by the way, it’s just a digital video camera I’m selling but I’m not going to tell you that because it sounds less exciting. Hell, maybe my product even comes with a proprietary scrapbooking type software designed for use with this video camera but that doesn’t really change the fact that what I am selling is still just a digital video camera.
While the plasmids at least are pretty cool (snapping your fingers and setting people on fire is quite fun), they aren’t really anything cooler than what you’ve seen before. I liked them better when they were called jedi powers. At least then I got a lightsaber too. Furthermore, I get the sense that they’re very much one-trick ponies. Example: Sure, it’s awesome that you can zap water and electrocute the people swimming around… the first time. But after the novelty wears off, you’ll realize these are just another tool to disable and kill your enemies (and bypass doors and obstacles).
Now, I must be missing something here because I can’t be reading this right. His problem with the special abilities you get are that they are just another tool in your arsenal to help you solve puzzes and kill enemies. This in a game where the objective is to solve puzzles and kill enemies. HAVE I LOST MY MIND? What the hell else are these powers supposed to do other than help you complete the objectives in the game? What is the expectation here? Are these powers supposed to magically begin to affect things outside the game? Are we asking that developers figure out a way to let us actually light someone on fire through a computer screen when they kill us in a multi-player match?
Outside of the setting and the narrative, you’ve played this game before. Whether it was called Doom 3, Half-Life 2, FEAR, or Jedi Knight, Bioshock is pretty much more of the same. As some have speculated, it is just another FPS. It’s just another FPS with great narrative style, granted, but you may as well play the games you have and watch a good movie. The developers themselves have been very careful to stress time and time again that this is a first-person shooter, so don’t be fooled by the hype you might hear. If your cup of tea is the MMOG and the CRPG, this is not a game for you.
So, we are putting this game in the same sentence as some of the best shooters ever, and saying that you have to set aside the great atmosphere of the game to understand that it’s just like a combination of all these other great games features? Bring. that. shit. on. Taking all the best elements from multiple games and combining them into one well designed game that flows and plays well…what exactly is the problem? It’s just another FPS? Well…okay…when did they say it wasn’t an FPS? Who said it wasn’t an FPS? Everything I’ve read and seen has told me that this is an FPS and that FPS fans will enjoy it, as well as others who may play shooters occasionally. They have, in fact, managed to perfectly meld a game to fit their desired market audience but that isn’t good enough. It isn’t good enough because you could get the same effect by playing a different game and then watching a good movie? Why should I do both when I can do one and get the same enjoyment? Since when is wasting money on another game and then a DVD better than wasting money just on a game? Yes, if you are strictly an MMOG player this FPS might not be for you…and guess what…it’s not supposed to be.
August 22nd, 2007 at 10:58 am
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August 22nd, 2007 at 11:16 am
Yeah. Granted, I probably shouldn’t be reviewing FPS games, since the last one I finished was… um… Jedi Knight? But Darren asked for a non-console fanboi to give some impressions, so I did.
I was actually having a huge discussion about the game with a friend of mine yesterday who loves it and played it all day. We discussed it for the better part of an hour. Basically, my dislike for the game boils down to this: I was expecting more than an FPS, and that’s not what Bioshock is. Bioshock is a killer FPS with more options, more polish, more control, better story, and a better setting than any number of any games out there. It totally deserves the high ratings it’s getting. If you like FPS games, you’ll love Bioshock. Which I said on my blog.
AND, if you read the comments on that post I explain more about why I don’t care for the game or for FPS games in general. A lot of the buzz and marketing I was hearing praised the game for its story. Yes, that is marketing’s job. And if they hadn’t done it so well, I wouldn’t have played their demo. Which I did, and then formed my own opinion of the game. I encourage others to do the same.
But I didn’t care for it, and I don’t mind saying so on my gaming blog, and saying why. People who have similar taste in games to me will probably feel similarly about the game, and those who have different tastes will disagree.
August 22nd, 2007 at 12:11 pm
As a primarily MMO gamer I completely agree with the premise behind your post that the game isn’t anything but an FPS, but since I enjoy playing a good shooter as well I think it stands to reason that people that like shooters are going to like the game. It is deserving of the high marks it is getting because these reviews are judging it based on what it is, an FPS.
Just because a game is getting high marks doesn’t mean it will appeal to every person, but it will appeal to those who like games of that genre, and that’s the entire point of a review.
It really is comparing apples to oranges. My post also, of course, is directed to Darren’s post as well in that I dislike the idea of “anti-hype.” If a game is genuinely not good I am more than happy to tell everyone just that, but if a game is simply something I didn’t enjoy but is a well built and executed game in it’s own right, than I believe everyone should just understand that it may not be meant to appeal to them.
A lot of MMO gamers are talking about how there is no need to be “the next WoW” if you can find a niche in the market you can thrive there, which is absolutely true. The problem comes when we still expect that every game that comes out should be custom-fit to our desires. It is possible, and in fact likely, that the niche that Bioshock is trying to get is the FPS gamer market.
Let’s be honest here, every game is a “niche” title. It’s just a matter of how big your niche in the market actually is. A lot of people play WoW, but there is a huge amount of gamers (of which MMO gamers are merely one part) that do not play the game. In that sense, WoW still has potential to appeal to a huge group of other people but they don’t need to in order to be successful in their niche.
I think, as gamers in general, we need to stop expecting things of games. One reason being that developers have never once met or exceeded any expectations that I have ever seen. Why? Because they can’t possibly come up with every possible idea and stick it in their game. Even if they had all the ideas already thought out not all of it could be included so really we all just set ourselves up for disappointments.
August 22nd, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Brandon brings up a really good point in that last paragraph. I know myself, as a hardcore (but lacking in free time) gamer, spend far too much time reading reviews, message boards, and whatnot.
I, and we even, set ourselves up for disappointment from our games because we fill ours heads with all these thoughts on what it is, what it was, what it should be, and what it’s not.
Instead, my new creedo is to play the game and forget everything else I’ve read or heard. It takes a lot of willpower, but ultimately it leads to making my own decision on the game and not basing it off of what I’ve read.
Scarface and Godfather for the Wii, for example. Both got decent reviews, but for the 1st time since I was a kid, I didn’t read up before buying. I tried the demos in the store, and bought them after that.
I’m starting to think that gaming critics needs to “DIAF” because we the sheep can’t make judgments on our own. (being very general here, of course)