The only real *issue* with Bioshock is the lack of difficulty. All other *faults* mentioned are very subjective, yet that doesn’t stop the author of the review from shouting OVERRATED. 75% NO MORE! System Shock would get about 50% from this reviewer. :/

I think when something is highly-anticipated, that impacts the score, as odd as that is. It’s a good, solid FPS with branching non-combat puzzles; it’s a good graphical showcase for current-gen tech; it’s got some interesting Libertarian themes. : )

All in all, I agree with what Ryan’s said here, and I’m glad to see someone say it.

A very well written counter review

Unbelieveable…are talking PC or 360 version? What rating would you give Halo 3? If it is above Bioshock, you need to breathe some air. Halo 3 SP is WAY overrated. Is there anything even challenging about the last 2 levels?

Beyond that, you are missing what makes Bioshock better – if you followed anything about the story, you actually CARE about what is going on. Halo 3 – I could care less. Out of all the FPS games that I have played thus far in 2007, Bioshock has (by far) THE BEST storyline of all of them.

Were there things about it I did not like? Sure there were, but I am glad to finally find a game that I actually wanted to go back to playing because I was interested in the story. I cannot say that about too many games in the SP realm.

Score Halo 3 SP versus Bioshock SP. If Halo 3 scores better, someone is lacking in judgement or sleep deprived. I’m not calling Bioshock the best FPS, but it is the best SP FPS in a long, long time.

Mar, you’re absolutely right, everything I wrote is subjective. I won’t argue that. I don’t believe I shouted anything, though, as I was just stating my opinion in a matter of fact sort of way.

Erik, people fall into the hype trap because they probably want to justify all the emotion they’ve devoted to a game prior to its release. No one wants to walk away from a new gaming experience, at least, one that was highly anticipated, feeling like they wasted their time. I think that goes for consumers and reviewers alike.

ExK, I appreciate the kind words, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s very well written. More like the jumbled opinions of an outspoken gamer.

Jb, I was speaking of the 360 version. Believe it or not, I haven’t played Halo 3. I hated the single player experiences in both Halo and Halo 2 (never finished Halo 2 so I still have no idea what the ‘cliffhanger ending’ is that pissed so many people off). Those campaigns are dreadful, and I actually nodded off one time while playing co-op with my brother. I doubt I’ll even bother with H3.

BioShock isn’t a bad game by any stretch of the imagination. It’s most certainly good, and it’s most certainly one of the better FPS to come out this year, although not many good ones had come out prior to BioShock this year. I’ll be writing up a review of The Orange Box in the coming week, so look for my opinions on that and you’ll see where I stand in FPS-dom.

Bioshock was not that good. I played systemshock 2 when it came out and it was great but nowadays that is just not good enough. Bioshock started off great and just went downward from there for all the reasons metioned by “ryan asher”. Halo 3 wasn’t all that good either. I played Bioshock on the PC on hard and was extremely disapointed at the ending. In fact I didn’t even think it was over yet. Also I sure as hell not gonna go through the whole game again just to see the good ending just because the first time around I killed 1 girl.

I was just thinking today how with how far the PC and consoles have come why do I still have to be held back by silly things like a fence when I am a highly trained special ops guy or why when I am a super human gene enhanced muscle guy I cant get through a simple light wood door. Not even with my bazooka. I personnaly don’t think we are getting our monies worth out of these games. I beat bioshock within 20 hours. At $60 CAN for a game That is just not enough gaming for my money especially when they are using a leased game engine. That means they saved at least a year in programming and didn’t even at least add any realistic dimensions to it just the same old stuff we saw back in 1999. That is 8 years ago which in the computer industry is a lifetime.

I could go on and on but the jist of it is that we deserve better than a twist on something nearly a decade old.

Bioshock isn’t for everyone. Obvious this review follows along the lines of John Carmack who doens’t believe in stories, only having things to blast apart. That isn’t what this kind of game is about. It’s not a pure FPS like Halo. Expecting it to be like Halo is a bit naive. The Half-Life series, which is many times better as a FPS, did not use rechargable health. I would counter argue that the rechargable health takes a lot of stress out of the game. Shot up after a battle, just wait and recharge *yawn*. Not much of a challenge.

people heralded bioshocks story, it was very very very boring. Putting children in a story doesn’t make it ‘clever’. having reference to some political ideologies is not ‘clever’, especially when the actual game play is spent shooting, surprise surprise, ‘evil’ people. Wow, that’s a new concept. Really intelligent games are games like dues ex and the soul reaver/blood omen series, games were the plot had some effect on the game play and there was some genuinely morally dodgy characters.

I have to say that Bioshock and Halo 3 were absolutely two completely over-rated games. They brought nothing new to the table, yet they got amazing reviews? I really don’t get it. Both are average at worst, average at best.

I agree with you,i didn’t understand all this fuz around the game,so i bought it,with a nice looking cover and all,first,there’s that damn cd key error,it keeps asking you everytime you launch the game,then after 5times u can’t start it,i think that’s fixed,i don’t even want to know cuz i don’t have it installed anymore! now gameplay,what tormented me the most was the part where he(us gamers) injects himself with the psychic thing needle,and he didn’t even asked about it lol,i agree with you,no more than 75%(sound looks awfull)

I completely agreed with you until you said, “health packs became obsolete with halo”.

I for one really enjoyed bioshock , Bioshock 2 not so much and have to agree that they were NOT on par with the depth and immersion of System shock 2 . OR Deus ex for that matter.
As far as hype etc goes halo takes the crown . I have never seen a more polished Turd in years.. Polished yes, but no matter how much shiny sprinkles and “dressing” you put on it, when you take a big bite you get a mouth full of Turd.

This Trend of Recycled game design and Dumbing down what was orignally PC design for Consoles in general has been well under way for years now. Unfortunately there are very few games being released right now that have the content, pacing and Characters That make a truly immersive experiance.
Im talking about the kind of game you get so involved in its not untill 4 am in the morning you realise you have to go to work in 3 hours!

Unfortunately there are Millions of gamers out there that are more than willing to settle for less and publishing companies know this. Halo is a great example of this from my perspective. I Really think that franchise has done more to hurt the FPS genre than any other To date.

Cut , copy , paste, Hype hype hype, Rinse repeat.. Welcome to games for the recession…

I only got BioShock this year, and after about six hours I couldn’t stand it any longer. The atmosphere and setting I thought were great and had so much potential, but the whole RPG thing just annoyed the hell out of me, as did the plasmid system – was there even any science in this? It’s not the most brainless shooter/action game, so I’d expect some kind of explanation as to the workings of plasmids, instead of just suddenly being able to cast balls of fire and perform telekinesis. I agree, it was deadly easy, even for me, a casual gamer – except the exploration, that is. Everywhere was identical, meaning opening the map every minute or so. To me, BioShock is just a botch job, an RPG/FPS bastard child, with ideas that could have worked out so much better.

Robert’s comment from January of 2008 is something aggravating that I see a lot. Whenever somebody does not like a game that has a focus on story, somebody else chimes in with a self-righteous attitude about how the other person just can’t appreciate a good story and should stick to the brainless games. Just because a game has a strong focus on story does not mean it’s a *good* story, and even if it’s a good story it’s still worthless if the gameplay itself is crap.

Bioshock is different from many of their games.. but I think the things that make it different are the things that make it good..The dark abstract enviroment is great in my opinion, and they put the health pack system in for a reason.. If they didn’t, it would be too easy.. But there are some challenges,and nice “chain reaction” moments in the game… Also, the storyline is nice and there are a lot of scripts that make the game interesting… I’ve been hooked since of course, Bioshock, and I can’t wait for Bioshock Infinite.. It has some new Enemies and Game Mechanics..

Wow, this article is pleasant, my sister is analyzing such things, so I am going to let her know.