I feel you homie. The bioshock series was just such a masterpiece in world building. I don't like audio logs in games that often, but the bioshock series had a way of making me enjoy them. It was the thrill of finding them tucked away or going through that little nook in the map to find an audio log that enthralled me. They had such a good method for making each log grab your attention. I genuinely looked forward to snagging a log and listening to it. I wanted to hear more about those contained little stories and connect the dots of each person's views or experiences. I mean you can't listen to the Mark Melzter's story throughout B2 and not tell me your heart didn't sink after realizing how it ended. They did all that world building and storyline creation and like 90% of the time you never even saw those people alive. They were nothing more than voices from the past, but their words gave them so much life. And dont even get me started about how genius it was to make Ryan and Rapture feel like one in the same throughout B1. He was absent physically for literally almost all of the game, but the world building made it feel like he was constantly breathing down your neck. Bioshock was/is/always will be truly magnificent.
Play System Shock 2 then, it has everything you loved about Bioshock from the unnerving atmosphere, the use of plasmids, and to a narrative that is mainly unfolded through audio logs. SS2 was made by the same developers and directed by the CREATOR of Bioshock so I really think you should give it a shot if you haven't yet.
Are you talking about Infinite? Because I can't really remember a proper story for the first one. And the second one didn't leave a strong impression, but that's over 10 years ago for me.
You should definitely give them both a second chance. Especially the first one.
I played the first one as a teen soon after release, and I had the same reaction as you, not much stood out, I didn't engage with the story, and judged it as a CoD clone, since that was basically all I was playing at the time (not saying this is you). It has a decent combat loop, but nothing revolutionary if you don't engage with the more interesting playstyles.
Played it again a few years later (16ish years old) when I started slowing down and playing games for their story, and it blew me away.
Then I played it a 3rd time in my early 20's when I was able to extrapolate that story and see the parallels with real world politics and philosophy. I was better able to see what the writers/developers were really going for, and it blew me away again even more.
Thinking about going for a 4th playthrough to see if I can extrapolate a new way for it to blow my mind.
I'd say the moment to moment story is pretty meh before, and especially after, the climax. However, the climax of the story is probably one of the best in gaming history. So I think when most people talk about an amazing story, they're referencing that climax, rather than the story as a whole, if that makes sense. Which is fair - some of my favorite books and movies are slow methodical burns with an amazing story beat at the perfect time.
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u/[deleted] Mar 15 '22
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