BioShock Review
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Critiques: the obvious ones I've skipped over chances to criticise some gameplay elements previously, so I'll be handling them next. First up are critiques you'd find valid for the game even if it hadn't been hyped.
First, and most obvious, is the hacking minigame. I'll have to admit I'm not fond of minigames to begin with, so it (might just be me,) but the whole experience is frustrating for a number of reasons. First, there's the puzzled initial reaction of (what does plumbing have to do with hacking)? Then, after a couple of times, you might start to think it's slightly frustrating to play this somewhat simple or even childish mini-game every time you hack something (though this is partially avoidable by plentiful use of the research camera). The fact that time apparently freezes as you hack to the point of leaving your character floating in mid-air makes this minigame even more absurd.
Then there's the fact that this game is simply too easy. Now, there's nothing wrong with a game being easy and BioShock does offer various difficulty options at the start of a new game. It's just not enough. The problem with BioShock is that every level is absolutely strewn about with upgrades, medicinals, and ammo. Worse, the free-to-use Vita-Chambers mean that you'll resurrect at no cost, so you can return time and again to any fight, often with the opponent's hostility suddenly disappearing. This means that there's actually no conceivable way to lose this game and, unlike System Shock, no point where you can make it too difficult for yourself to finish (short of not picking up any Adam or shooting all your EVE and ammo into a wall). If there's any textbook definition of a game being too easy, BioShock is it.
Next is the game's extreme linearity. This is kind of one foot in an obvious critique and another in the hype-related ones, but it's not unfair to state that the gameplay of modern shooters, such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. somewhat raises the bar. It would be fine that BioShock does not fulfill these demands if it weren't for the many promises that were made that the game isn't linear, such as the oft-reported choice of killing a Little Sister or not. The details are, as said, quite good, but you can't really claim it helps replayability that at the end of the day all of your in-game choices change very little, as you end up completing the same objectives and squashing the same opponents at the exact same trigger points. Isn't it ironic that BioShock, touted to be setting a new standard for FPS titles, is actually a step back in non-linear design? If the game had incorporated more RPG elements, perhaps this wouldn't be such an issue.
Critiques: the oblique ones
BioShock was promised to contain a lot of moral choices and consequences, first and foremost through the harsh moral choice of how to treat the Little Sisters. In a moral sense, this choice is treated in a laughably childish matter. It presents you with a rock-solid dichotomy of choices to (be evil) or (be good), which is kind of an odd representation of reality. And in this case, being evil or being good automatically means you're the personification of that characteristic, (evil made flesh) or (good incarnate). There's no middle way available at all, even if you try to, say, save half the Little Sisters and destroy the other half. The option to avoid all Little Sisters is not only impossible, but even if it were possible, it'd make your time in the game frustrating and practically impossible to play due to lack of Adam. To offer such a limited range of choices and sticking to two extremes is disappointingly narrow.
