MiracleOfSound said:
Also, OP ya might wanna put some paragraphs in that post. It's kinda hard to look at.
First of all, thank you for the advice Miracle man. I will try to keep that in mind in future posts... I hope this one is easier to look upon
Second of all, thanks to everyone for their thoughts and opinions. I do not seem to stand alone in my opinions. However, I am obviously in the minority. Even those of you who disagree with me and commented I would like to thank. If nothing else you challenged my own opinions and reinforced or made me rethink my stance, which I do appreciate. I would also like to greatly thank each and everyone of you for not pointing out my horrific grammar.
On a more defensive note, some have you well meaning fellows have made several sum what unfair assumptions about how I played the game. Personally, I feel that everyone should be allowed to play a game however they wish. However, I accept that many of you disagree and that discussion would not be appropriate here. Thus, here is some clarification.
1.) I listened to every single audio file in the game. I even hit the interwebs to double check that I hadn't missed anything.
2.) I explored a great deal of the game. There were occasionally some cool things in there and I didn't want to miss anything.
3.) I did not play Bioshock 2 or read any supplemental material. I would argue that such a thing should not be needed to appreciate the game. Anything that needed to be explained should have been within the confines of the game without the aid of an outside source,
4.) I get that the game was shooting for ambitious themes, largely a very simple "extremism, in almost any form, is bad." However, no matter how grand the atmosphere or glorious the themes if the story fails than all that effort is for naught.
5.) I am always right. Or at least I think so. I mean it's kind of hard to operate under the opposite assumption.
6.) I did complete the entire game.
7.) I used all the guns... I find it surprising that this needed clarification. I preferred the crossbow if you care (you know you do).
8.) Yes, the game did end badly and basically blew it after the meeting with Ryan.
9.) I do not hate the game. I thought it had some fun moments. I simply feel that it doesn't live up to its reputation.
I would now like to talk about characters once again (don't worry this will be short...ish). The biggest problem with the character's is that they are fairly one demential. However, I will say that often they are well designed and thought out. The reason they fall short, at least in my eyes, is that they never interact with each other or you. Yes, Ryan does talk at you from time to time and Atlas and Tenenbaum tell you what to do, but that is the extent of it. The rest is audio files. The audio files are cool but are only useful as a bonus add on and not a good stand alone method of character development or storytelling. The thing is that the audio files tell you about the characters. You are painted a picture, but rarely anything else. Basically, Bioshock broke the rule of "Show, don't tell" with its characters. If you are unsure about what this rule means then I think Hemingway put it best,
"If a writer of prose knows enough of what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an ice-berg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water."
p.s. Ok yeah Halo 4 isn't a giant, but I did feel a lot more attached to Cortana than anything in Bioshock. Basically, it is a little fresh on my mind so I mentioned it.
