I don’t want to go back to Rapture.

05.15.2009

This would be why I’m so against Bioshock 2. I foresaw this.

While I am aware that the gaming industry is a business first, and an art form second, I can’t help but be offended at some of the decisions made. It’s almost a given that a successful game will get a sequel, but at what cost?

Bioshock 2 doesn’t make any sense to me. Now that the game is apparently getting multiplayer it’s become even LESS relevant in my mind. Bioshock wasn’t primarily about giving people what they wanted, it was about delivering an experience people have never had before. The original game didn’t have multiplayer because they felt it was UNNECESSARY, what with the single player experience being so strong. The game was about telling a story, one with a very specific message. If I remember, Ken Levine’s team HATED him by the time development of the game came to a close, because he had to have the game his way. Damn constant revisions and opinions he didn’t agree with, at the end of the day, it was his baby, and the amazing game we all had a chance to experience was the fruit of all that labor. The team may have complained a great deal, but I’m sure the countless accolades, critical acclaim, and increasingly passionate fanbase gained were quite soothing.

It also ended. Didn’t leave room for a sequel. Because of this fact, this game SCREAMS cash-in so much to me that I can’t help but be a raging cynic. The hackneyed story is an excuse to revisit Rapture, but if you played the game to completion, Rapture ISN’T really a place you would want to return to even if it were possible, given the events of the first. They want you to play as a Big Daddy so bad while retaining what made the first one great, you’re apparently a “prototype” that can use plasmids. Why in the HELL does it have multiplayer? The fans? Are you kidding? The game is a sequel so devoid of actual purpose, it’s relying on people’s complaints about the original in order to sustain itself.

I have literally read quotes from the developers saying that a great deal of people who purchased Bioshock saw a Big Daddy on the box of the original and were disappointed. Apparently these consumers felt misled because you spent the majority of the game fighting them instead of being one yourself. So, the main character in the sequel is a means of appeasing the people they “duped”. Then they go on to ramble about how “cool” using the drill will be.

bigdaddy.jpg

Do I even need to explain why there’s multiplayer in the game now? Great job not only pandering to the masses, but also ironically missing the point of the original game, guys. Now you’re just like everyone else.


ExpertPenguin

(Thoughts are being concocted...)

http://actualized-pixels.blogspot.com


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  • http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v521/YuPing/ YuPing

    My ‘You should have known better’ point comes from your own statement: “…the gaming industry is a business first, and an art form second…”

    Any industry is business first, art form second. You only mass produce something if it’s going to make you money or someone is forcing you to. Otherwise it would be art.

    It’s easy to be tricked into thinking otherwise. But when a company puts out a game, no matter how critically acclaimed it is, that simply feels like an older game (System Shock 2) with an art deco, steam punk styled skin on top, you should realize that they were never creating something new, interesting, and artful, they’re just cashing in on the glory of their past achievements. The sequel, or, at least, what the sequel sinks down to, then should not have come as such a surprise.

  • ExpertPenguin

    Bioshock being the spiritual successor to System Shock 2 by using forward thinking in terms of its gameplay template absolves it from the INCREDIBLY cynical label of “cash-in”. I disagree with you, YuPing.

    I disagree, and I disagree with my hands raised. You can beat anything down to its lowest common denominator if you’re cynical enough. Based on your point, everything is a cash-in of everything else, and in this industry, it thrives on being symbiotic. Your “You should have known better” point is moot at best. Bioshock has NOTHING to do with System Shock 2 outside of it’s gameplay structure, and even then, what past achievements? SS2 was a commercial failure, despite being influential to the genre in small ways. To think Bioshock’s success had anything to do with SS2′s reputation is arrogant, even for a fan. You and I are likely the ONLY people on this site who have ever played it.

    I’m talking about taking a a game that had a clear beginning, middle, and end, and artificially extending it for NO other purpose than wringing money out of the same franchise. I’m not surprised, or taken aback. As a fan of the original and it’s carefully crafted story, I’m offended. Annoyed even. That is the point of this post. I knew a sequel was coming as soon as the awards started rolling in.

    But do I think one is necessary? Not in the least. Do I think 2K should keep mining Rapture? No. Do I agree with the idea floating in the air that there should be a Bioshock MMO? No.

    My point still stands.