It's just as I feared. I feel so rotten. I'm halfway through Bioshock now and the enthusiasm is waning. It's just not grabbing me in ways that this acclaimed darling of 2007 should be. I glance around apologetically as reviewers tut and call me a charlatan. I'm sorry!
I can admire its brilliance. The stylised art deco aesthetic decaying into madness. A history told in scenery not cutscenes. The clunk and sizzle of messy, brutal combat for survival.
I can't quite stomach the scavenger hunt for items. Every drawer and corpse rifled through for a round of bullets isn't quite my style. Nor is the transparent linearity of the story. Each new location you arrive in predictably locks the exit to the next then puts you on a quest equivalent of killing ten boars, or so it seems to me. I never experienced that artificiality in System Shock or Ultima Underworld, so I wonder why now.
Those design choices are forgivable in the context of the second paragraph, however. No, perhaps the fault lies with me. You see, this being a much talked about game, there are twists in the plot that have provoked much discussion. Me being me, I've tried to avoid them as much as possible, and while I've closed my eyes and covered my ears information has slipped through. I've never heard directly what happens in the end, but so much has been inferred that I can pretty much put the pieces together and know it. It was tragically inevitable, so it appears.
It shouldn't be like that, I should still be able to savour the journey, not the destination. Yet just knowing sullies the experience somewhat, like stumbling upon your Christmas presents and having to act surprised come the day. It's just not the same, is it?.
On the subject of spoilers, the gaming community as a whole has been pretty good in keeping things quiet for those who don't want to hear. Bioshock's an exception, really, probably because it's got a story that deserves being discussed - not something that happens often. As long as you're prepared to keep out of official discussion, you're pretty safe. I mean, can you believe I managed to get around to playing Metal Gear Solid 2 about three years after release without knowing what goes down in that game? That's crazy. I even tend to stop reading previews, sometimes the meat of reviews a few months before release to come into a game pleasantly surprised, just as I do movies. I always like to come into a game fresh. A risk seeing as I'm the type of guy who likes to wait six months for a game's price to come tumbling down. Considering I've heard the final part of Bioshock may be the worst,
I'll be interested to see what my reaction is come that time. More on
this later.
