Internet Kraken said:
See, I get what you're saying, but I feel a lot of games that people praise infinitely on here such as Bioshock, aren't quite as what I think 'AWESOME!' should be.
I thought Bioshock was average. A little above the norm, but I got more fun from playing, let's say, Halo 3. And again, I understand that everyone has their quirks in which certain things appeal to them, or appall them, but I am told I am very, very good a nit-picking, and analyzing facts about events, objects, and situations, and I can't help but feel that something was wrong when Bioshock got a 'Game of the Year' award from multiple sites, channels, magazines, etc.
I'll break it down a bit. When people say what is the 'life' and 'shock' of Bioshock (see what I did there? xD), they talk to me about graphics, of course, for it's time. And I did get Bioshock on the day it came out. While not being a graphics whore, I don't really care much for this, but I'm not to deny it's pretty. It's very pretty! Even put up against games of the now, it's pretty. However, graphics should only really be noted when a game is good or not, when the graphics collide with the actual gameplay, and hamper how you play it, like when textures are off so you can't see something, or even though something is there, you can shoot through it, etc.
Second, they talk to me about the story. Now, while the story was enjoyable, I was probably less than actually phased. You see, I read A LOT. As another fact about me, I have read every book in my high-school's rather large library. I retain the info, too. That being said, Ayn Rand is a favorite author of mine, and I have read everything she's put out. And while I do get Bioshock's wonderful wink to the very talented and admired Miss Rand and her ideals, it was nothing I hadn't seen before. Yet, just like graphics, I can not dismiss a story just because I do not care for it. For a game, the story was, indeed, good, but only a few parts in it actually had that engrossing effect, I feel (Andrew Ryan's end, Atlas' betrayal, etc.). In a story, every part of it is supposed to be telling you something. Wandering around in a freezer does nothing for me.
Third, people talk about the environment and fiction of Rapture, itself. The retro-style and semi-steampunk elements were refreshing, but the game often felt itself split on what it wanted to be like. Retro, futuristic, fantasy, or realistic, and this burned me something awful. If Bioshock was one of these, I think I would have liked it a lot more. The customization element was nothing new, nor was the magic you could use, even though they gave it a slight twist on how it worked in the game's world. However, this, literally, did nothing more than if your character already had said powers to cast magic.
And don't get me started on the moral-choices. You have to admit, they were kind of bland. The whole point was if you wanted to sacrifice little girls for your own gain, or not, to represent how addicted you were. This doesn't work, I think, based on the knowledge that there are two sub-groups in gamers.
The first, are the people who really like to dive into the universe in the game (like me), and treat everything you do as part of the story your putting your heart into. We are supposed to feel bad about killing this little girl or not, but everything about the little girl being a little girl, is gone. Now, while you could then further think on the aspect of 'outer corruption blocking an inner purity' ,etc, it doesn't help the fact that a perfectly normal, scared, little girl with golden hair and teary, blue eyes, would have been much more chilling to dispose of.
The second, are the power-gamers; people like my best friend. They will do whatever they can in any sort of game or competition, to make themselves as best as they can be, even if it means killing the enjoyment of people you're playing with. (He IS the spawn-camper.) People like this would have no qualms killing the girl, no matter what she looked like.
Before I start to ramble, (Yes, I know, more humor.) I will end this on a brief, summarizing note. If you take apart everything, you might see that the good things are just as average or bad. Those that we take apart, and still find brilliant, are the true treasures.
So, even if I compare Fable 2 to a game such as Bioshock, I find them to be both a little above the norm when it comes down to it.
