BioShock - Xbox 360

BioShock is kind of a conundrum to me. Everyone seems to love this game; it currently has a 96 on Metacritic. It is almost universally loved by fans and critics alike. It seemed like a game I should enjoy. A story driven FPS with a very interesting setting? Sign me up!

When I first played the game a year or so ago I was underwhelmed. I didn’t dislike the game, but on the other hand I didn’t really like it either. I never quite got into the game, it was decent enough but I didn’t find it as compelling as everyone else seemed to. The story was good, the setting was good, but I just couldn’t get engrossed in the game. The problem is that I can’t really tell you why. Everything tells me it should be a good game, but I never found it more than just somewhat entertaining.

After beating it the first time I thought it was just me; maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood. I had just beaten Fallout 3 a couple days before, maybe I was kind of burned out on first person shooters the first time I had played it. Maybe I was unfairly comparing the two games… who knows? I just felt like I should give it another chance, another try.

I started it up and for the first couple hours I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the ambiance of the game, I enjoyed the writing, I enjoyed the music… and then the enjoyment just kind of stopped. I still liked all of those things, I still thought they were very good, I just wasn’t enjoying myself. I felt like I was trudging through the game, I wasn’t having fun, I was just playing it to beat it.

And I did. I stuck around long enough to beat the game. I felt the exact same way the second time around. I didn’t think it was a bad game, but I didn’t think it was a good game… but again, I couldn’t tell you why I didn’t enjoy it. I don’t know what it is about BioShock but I just can’t seem to get into it.

I appear to be one of the few who didn’t think that BioShock was an absolutely amazing game, and I don’t understand why. BioShock appears, even to me, to be a very good game… it’s just a very good game that I don’t seem to enjoy.

Squid.