Is There a Better Story then Bioshock?

Recommended Videos

SL33TBL1ND

Elite Member
Nov 9, 2008
6,467
0
41
Celtic Predator said:
The story to Bioshock has to be one of the most interesting complex stories and even though it was the "spiritual predecessor" to System Shock to, was original in every right. So many twists and turns (one especially), memorable characters, and the best writing and voice acting I've seen in a video game thus far. Does anybody have an think there's an equally or unforgettable turn of events in a game (writing, story, premise, ect.)?
You mean spiritual successor, predecessor would mean Bioshock came before System Shock 2.

OT: I love my Front Mission 3 plot more. But that's mostly because of Dennis.
 

lacktheknack

Je suis joined jewels.
Jan 19, 2009
19,316
0
0
Erana said:
The Path.
Just... It wallows in artistic territory that few other games even make decent use of. I'm not sure if its appropriate to even compare it to other video games; its just so extremely different.
This. It's really weird and interpretive, but taken as a whole, it's a really creepy story about growing from a child to an adult. Doesn't get much more expansive then that.

And also, I enjoyed the first two thirds of Indigo Prophecy quite a bit... It officially went beyond redemption at the museum, however.
 

SL33TBL1ND

Elite Member
Nov 9, 2008
6,467
0
41
Father Time said:
poiuppx said:
Not sure how it came to be that you assumed Atlas's actions didn't make sense.
Ok here's something

Why did he set up his nonexistant family's murder to convince Jack to kill Andrew when he could literally order him to do it?
To keep up appearances, my man! Us (the player, not player character) would be able to see his
inevitable betrayal
much easier if it weren't for some perceived human motives on Atlas' part.
 

lacktheknack

Je suis joined jewels.
Jan 19, 2009
19,316
0
0
Father Time said:
poiuppx said:
Not sure how it came to be that you assumed Atlas's actions didn't make sense.
Ok here's something

Why did he set up his nonexistant family's murder to convince Jack to kill Andrew when he could literally order him to do it?
GAH! Fix your post!
 

Terminate421

New member
Jul 21, 2010
5,773
0
0
You'd think someone would notice the lists and send me angry hate mail with better stories than those.
 

Oliver Pink

New member
Apr 3, 2010
455
0
0
While I've definitely seen better stories - I've NEVER played a game that caught me off guard as much as Bioshock did.
 

Vigormortis

New member
Nov 21, 2007
4,531
0
0
I'm gonna go ahead and assume you've either not played many games or read many books. There are many, many better stories out there. Most of those in literature form.

Now, as for game stories (as you seem to be alluding to), there have been stories told more dramatically and with better narrative skills, but Bioshock is still in the upper echelons.

However, based on opinion, Bioshock wasn't my cup of tea. I didn't find it that deep or dramatic. In fact, it was somewhat predictable. Not necessarily a bad thing, but for me, it was a point against it.

That being said, I can list a number of games I felt had better stories. (and in some cases, told their respective stories better than Bioshock)

Homeworld
Half-Life series
Freespace series
Mechwarrior series
Dead Space
Deus Ex
System Shock (though, it was about on par with Bioshock)
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Beyond Good & Evil
Metroid Prime

Anticitizen_Two said:
Thank you very much. Someone needed to clear this up. So many people get it confused. Bioshock had a fair enough storyline, but it was the atmosphere of the setting that made it great, not the actual plot events (although they were quite good as well). This problem also comes up a lot with Half-Life 2 - a lot of people claim it has a great story despite the fact that the story is pretty much "save the world from evil aliens." Where Half-Life 2 wins is in the storytelling and how it presents its fairly simple story.
This is pretty much what I was going to say at first. I've always said, "It's never really just what your story is about but how you tell it that makes it great." This is why games like Half-Life, Deus Ex, and POP:SOT stand out to me. Their stories, at first blush, don't seem that complex. However, the expert way the developers tell the story through gameplay and interactive exposition makes them more epic then most other game stories.
 

cannot_aim

New member
Dec 18, 2008
392
0
0
HL2, Fallout 3, KoToR, Mass Effect, Warcraft 3.

Probly some more that I can't remember right now.
 

poiuppx

New member
Nov 17, 2009
674
0
0
Kagim said:
The problem with the twist that i don't like is that every event up to the twist loses its impact. All the way up to the twist where you find out your a slave Atlas is trying to convince you he's just a man trying to survive. He builds a sense of relationship with you. When Andrew Ryan forces you to kill him and Atlas is revealed to be Fontaine my piss off points come to light.

1. Why did he lie about a family, your under his mind control. Why couldn't he have made it seem like Atlas was trying to work with you to escape. The Creation of a fake family doesn't make sense. If flat escape was his goal then fine i can understand that, but if he was planning on still taking over rapture then the absence of his family would be notable.

2. Why would he try to kill you now that ONE enemy is gone. Tenenbaum is still out there and clearly a threat. If not a threat then she has the little sisters. Either way Fontaine still needs you to at least deal with her. As well if flat escape WAS his goal in the beginning with the sub then he has no reason to kill either of you as he could just leave now. If domination was his plan the whole time then once again the family thing doesn't make sense. If he just changed his mind he still has no reason to kill you, which leads to....

3. Why would he try to kill you at all? Your under his control, he doesn't need you to even like him in the first place. The fact he tries to establish some kind of relationship with you would assume that he wants to be sure that if you somehow break control you won't come after him because of the bond created. So why does he even try to kill you after creating this mass illusion. After Andrew Ryan is dead why not keep you as his grinning guard dog? You have a super human who would be willing to fight and die for you! When Fontaine gives the order to kill yourself he clearly still thinks your under his control so why do it at all?

4. Why pretend to be Atlas at all? Since he clearly was planning on just killing you at some point why pretend to be someone else. Andrew Ryan knew who he was, Tenebaum knew who he was. There was no actual reason to hide himself from you. Only to hide himself from the player. This is kinda a bother to me because it breaks immersion. The characters lack motivation outside of fooling the Viewer. That's bad practice to me. If Tenenbaum and Andrew Ryan actually didn't know who he was a)What's the point of hiding who you are NOW. b)Tenebaum at least sure doesn't act to surprised, or like she even cares. c)Any foreshadowing that was loosely present is stripped of its meaning.

What this adds up to is the narrative is lying to the viewer. I don't feel like Atlas lies to me or obfuscated facts. I don't feel like Andrew Ryan Lied to me or obfuscated facts. I feel like the game lied to me directly, not my character. What it seems like after the twist is that Atlas didn't know he was Fontaine, that he has NO motivation. That he is somehow an idiot despite all he has done to survive up to this point.
1. Because the radio isn't just being listened to by you. Remember An Evening With Sander Cohen? If folks figured out that Atlas was not a wronged man, or indeed a noble man, and was just a reskinned Frank Fontaine attempting to kill Ryan for personal gain, they'd have turned on him HARD. Post-take over, he obviously had no intentions of remaining Atlas- he dropped that persona almost instantly, once he had total power. He wasn't in this to keep the con going, just to keep it going long enough to seize total power over a heavily addicted population and be the sole option they had for ADAM.

2. You're expendable. Fontaine makes it clear from the reveal onwards, he considers your 'relationship' transactionary at best. Worse still, he trusts no one and thinks of others as either tools, rubes, or obstacles. The former and the latter, he disposes of as soon as he's done with them, which leaves just Frank and the rubes. Or in this case, Fontaine, his ADAM stockpiles, and the people of Rapture who by this point almost to the last are heavily addicted. Once he became their sole supplier, he junked you, assuming he could just tell the Splicers 'Okay, there's a 500 ADAM bounty on whoever brings me her head.' And as a side note, you're basically the only TRUE threat he has left; who else has the genelock sequence to use damn near everything and be able to get to him, plus carries enough various plasmids and supercharged weapons to make even Big Daddies a joke? Getting rid of Jack is the best way to make sure nothing can challenge him, and he TRIED to do just that... Tannenbaum just got to you first.

3. See the above. Frank Fontaine trusts no one, in spite of his honeyed words near the end claiming he came closest to trusting you. Killing you negated a potential future threat. Besides, he couldn't assure total 24/7 control... if he could, he'd have started off with 'Would you kindly do anything I ask of you', and run from there. Besides, what's to keep someone else from saying 'Hey, Jack, would you kindly shoot Frank Fontaine in his sleep?' Training someone to follow that phrase only works so long as it is a total secret, and Fontaine had no way of insuring it'd STAY a secret. Better to kill you and move on than take the risk.

4. Ryan, as proven at his end, knew NOTHING. By the end, he THOUGHT he knew the story, but never made the final and brutally important connections between Atlas and Fontaine. Tannenbaum was concerned with the Little Sisters and making up for her mistakes; as long as she stayed further down the list of obstacles than Andrew Ryan, she could continue to help them, and eventually was even able to help you. And what about all those others, like Peach Wilkins or Sander Cohen? If he wasn't staying in character until control was his, those men could have realized the threat and turned on him, and you. Hell, maybe that's even what Wilkins did... recall, he claimed before trying to kill you that your master WAS Frank Fontaine, and that was the whole reason he tried. Maybe the bastard wasn't so far gone mentally after all.

The end point is, Frank tried to pull a long con with the Atlas persona- and you -up to one very specific end point; when no one else could endanger his control of ADAM and Rapture, when it wouldn't matter that Atlas was revealed to be a falsehood, because now Fontaine controlled it all, and if you wanted your fix, you could only get it through one man. Once he got there, any extraneous loose ends- again, like you -were to be severed. Immediately. As a man used to deception and backstabs, he expected the same from everyone around him, and sought to insulate himself accordingly. First with the Orphanages, then later with Atlas, and finally with you, both as his tool and eventually in disposing of you.
 

lacktheknack

Je suis joined jewels.
Jan 19, 2009
19,316
0
0
thenoticeableshadow said:
The Real Sandman said:
Psychonaunts
psychonauts really? i mean the game was brilliant but the story was pretty predictable
It was told really well, though. As in, REALLY well. Think about it, in which other game was the main bad guy was evil because he was traumatized by a beheaded BUNNY, and it came across as perfectly believable?

Not to mention, the game is DEFINED by interesting characters with complex backstories that shape their personality, of which you encounter first-hand.
 

quest96

New member
Jul 12, 2010
5
0
0
thenoticeableshadow said:
The Real Sandman said:
I love Bioshock as much as the next dude, but...:

Skies of Arcadia
Ico
No More Heroes
Deus Ex
The Suffering
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2NO NO!
Blood
Grimm Fandango
Brothers in Arms
Psychonaunts
PREY
Beyond Good and Evil
KOTOR 1 and 2
Condemned: Criminal Origins
God of War

...have equally/even more interesting stories and characters than Bioshock.
psychonauts really? i mean the game was brilliant but the story was pretty predictable
PREY?!
 

poiuppx

New member
Nov 17, 2009
674
0
0
Father Time said:
poiuppx said:
Not sure how it came to be that you assumed Atlas's actions didn't make sense.
Ok here's something

Why did he set up his nonexistant family's murder to convince Jack to kill Andrew when he could literally order him to do it?
Because A, his control over you isn't perfect, and B, other people can be, and in fact are, listening in. See again, Sander Cohen. If his loyal minions- including you! -figured out too soon that he wasn't the noble white knight fighting Ryan and was in fact a man FAR more loathed than Ryan ever was, he'd be faced with the whole of Rapture seeking his head, and feeling comfortable in doing so because they can still get their fix from Ryan and his people. The war is still ongoing right up to the moment you inserted the key and turned the reins of power over to Fontaine. Besides, it's pretty obvious Frank gets off to some extent on the theatrics. He loves putting one over on folks, and this way, he gets to pull off the ultimate con, and in his mind get away with it.