Is There a Better Story then Bioshock?

[JaymesFogarty]

I dont think you really understand what im talking about. You explained the story which I already knew but you completely ignored the fact that untill the end his motivation is completely unknown, so assumed their is none. While playing the game I felt like the guy was just making one incredibly stupid choice after another, starting with getting in the sub to go to rapture.

Also Fontaine or Atlas`s actions where incredibly suspisious. In order to keep me interested which a good story HAS to do I need to feel that the character has some sort of motivation. Him just blindly following orders due to mind control which you dont know about isnt enough. Because of the fact that you dont know about it. If a game makes me think how retarded is this guy within the first 5 mins its not a good sign.

Once you beat the game and then take a step back it starts to make sense. But not while your playing the game, which is when it matters the most. If you dont know anything coming into the game for the first time its extremely poorly set up.


Let me ask you one more question. If you were playing the game for the very first time halfway through say and somebody asked you to explain jacks motivation for doing what he was doing. You couldnt do it because he has none, all he has is a series of incredibly stupid decisions. Now since hes being mind controlled he has an excuse for that but you dont know that at the time. So before you learn the fact he has no motivation.

Well now hold on, don't go and put words into my mouth. I don't think like you must obviously, cause if I was asked to give Jacks' motivation behind doing what he did during the course of the game halfway through, I wouldn't say nothing cause there is none. I would say survival would be at the top of the list, cause you know, BioShock is a SURVIVAL HORROR GAME. The point of it is to SURVIVE. And Rapture was a world that isn't considered to be the most pleasant place to visit (or at least when you arrive there).

Atlas, or rather Fontaine, leads you on to believe that helping him recover his "family" will give you a way out of the hellish wasteland that was once a beautiful paradise. I'd say that plenty motivation right there.

And before you start up again telling me that you simply followed orders, making one stupid decision after another, think of it through Your eyes. Put yourself in his spot. What would you do. You just crashed a plane into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, would found your way to an underwater city you never knew existed, greeted by insane superhumans who are ALWAYS trying to kill you, and the only piece of hope you have in surviving and getting the hell out is ONE GUY, who does know this world and how it works. Following him and his plans would be your best option, considering there isn't any other.

You can call it a disconnection between your actions and the plot, but once you learn that you weren't in fact controlling your actions, that disconnection isn't there, it ties the events together. The end brings about your need to know what happened to the world your are exploring, the drive that motivates your actions, even if you had no real choice, it's still the reasoning behind everything you hold.

I'd say my point is proven. The game had structure, your character DID have motivation, and the plot was expertly written. Call me out on it all you like, but it's all there, I'm sorry to hear you don't see it like the rest of us do.

I agree. I also love the way the game makes you question the very nature of the media. Why did you play the game doing what Atlas told you? Because they were presented as objectives, it was natural that you had to do them. When the nature of the instructions is truly revealed, it definitely makes you think. No more mindless slogging through objectives in games anymore.

 

[bynacular]

I'll start off by saying that System Shock 2 has been one of my favorite games since i played it at release. It was one of the few games that focused on gameplay the way GTA focused on sandboxyness. I played bioshock... i liked it. i liked the enemies and the environment was original and gorgeous. But in many ways it was a sidestep or even a step back from what system shock was, as gameplay was less... "sandy" and honestly so was the story. the suprise ending wasn't so much, and being so similar to system shock's i found it a bit lazy. I couldn't have been the only one who suspected the guy on the earpiece from the word go... could i? In system shock 2, you are stuck in a ship and only see live people in the throws of death, yet the exposition of the story occurs through a person on your radio who has an incredibly deep story, audiologs that do not seem conveniently placed that drive the primary story ahead, contribute to mission goals, and paint the many stories before, during, and after the unknown disaster in appropriate slices of time. When you hear a woman leaving a message for her lover, sounding genuinely afraid... gunfire in the background... sounds of her running or being chased... then you look around where you are and seen bullet casings and drag marks, what you just heard had real impact. When you hear a man slowly change into an immoral beast, speaking about the "seductive voices" inside his head only to later find a self mutilated corpse of this once proud man along with his last testament announcing that he would tear this sickness from him or die trying, you have seen something far more interesting than even the main story of bioshock.
System Shock 2 told many stories that made the world feel much much deeper by revealing characters, politics, love, betrayal, conflicts not just between good and evil, but humanity and morality, military and science, forced unity or genocide.

Alot of the other games people havelisted i definatly agreed with, i would just add The Longest Journey.

 

[bladax]

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.

You Sir ought to be commended. And Adding on to the list
(As much as people will hate me for it) Indigo Prophesy/Fahrenheit

 

[Beryl77]

Yes and no. It's mostly just a matter of opinion. Just like there isn't the best story in a book there isn't the best story in a game. I for example think that the Half-Life series has the best story but some others don't. If you think that Bioshock has the best story that's just fine but don't expect everyone to agree.