jakefongloo said:
HT_Black said:
Because what Bioshock did was emulate the scripts of so many games before it and hurl subtlety out the window. The deconstruction of linear gameplay in HL2 was discreet, subtle and overarching; and in Bioshock it was grand, in-your-face, and succint. Personally I prefer HL2's take on the matter, but each to his own.
I don't think subtlety means what you think it means. Or, maybe I don't know what it means... When bullets are flying through the air and explosions are going off, that's and example of activity such as adrenaline neccessary to survive. Where as if you experience adrenaline in expectation of what's coming even though you have no idea what it is and then it happens in a completely different way or doesn't happen at all is subtlety, to me anyway.
Never at any point did that game feel "In your face" Call of Duty is in your face. Bioshock is not. HalfLife has way more grand moments then bioshock. You never shoot down helicopters in bioshock,you never take on 80 foot tall walkers, you never experience explosions at the top of towers... No offense I think you might be a little bias based on fandom.
Subtlty, in this instance, has nothing to do with the grandness or scale of the games' narratives, but rather how they approach the deconstruction of linear gameplay. Half-life 2 is more subtle than Bioshock in this regard, because it never directly calls attention to how the player character is nothing more than a figurative puppet. Throughout the campaign in HL2, you are funneled through vast cityscapes and countrysides, under constant surveillance by the omnipresent G-man. The message is simple but subtle: whatever you may think you're doing, the G-man knew you would be doing it first. This culminates in the finale section, where you step into a metal sarcohpagus to be shuttled around the villain's lair and directly into his waiting arms. Dr. Breen himself notes how stupid you were to do so--that's the game poking fun at your blind faith that whatever way you go is the right one. That's as direct as the game gets about the matter; while the hidden layer of depth is still there, it takes some thought and effort to find.
The plot twist Bioshock, however...well, it was the plot twist in Bioshock. It was built up to, directly adressed, and unimaginatively narrated by an antagonistic NPC. It leaves nothing to the imagination and spells out the "you were my pawn all along" aspect plainly and simply. As I said earlier, some people may prefer such an approach, but I don't.
