Bioshock review

Bioshock is a must play, and a good game, but I've mostly forgotten about in the week since I last played it.

It was too much of a console game, with its resurrection booths, hint button, and ease even on difficult setting. It was too much of a System Shock game, with its everything and the kitchen sink inclusion of so many different ways to do similar things. It was too much of a cultural and technological mash of retro futurism, which makes the Fallout series (and Portal 2) use of it seem restrained.

The Big Daddy and Little Sister are iconic and memorable, and I'll probably never forget them. I like the overall mood and atmosphere of the game, even if most individual components didn't bear much scrutiny. The voice acting was hit and miss but overall OK. The art work and graphics were mostly good. The characters and writing were not very believable, and the world was mostly unbelievable.

The ending seems tacked on, but I like the sentiment a lot. Part of my dissatisfaction might be due to not yet having played the next two games in this series. This is somewhat annoying in that I have to still avoid spoilers, and I can't even go read the tvtropes page yet.

I feel like I can't even properly review this game yet without having played the next two, but as a stand alone product, Bioshock is worth playing once, but I don't think I'll revisit it.

I don't understand why this game received so much praise, or such high scores. It is good, but there isn't really anything in here that hits you with originality or depth. And I do mean even for its day, as even in 2007 this game doesn't do much that hadn't already been covered by the System Shock and Half-Life series. Maybe it helped introduce a new generation to FPS with RPG elements, but that can't account for all the hype. I look forward to more answers as I play the sequels.