Hour one of Bioshock 2

From Jon Chambers

February 28, 2010 22:07

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I started playing Bioshock 2 today. Drew had started a couple weeks ago, but told me he had a hard time working up the enthusiasm to continue putting time in. Of the two of us, Drew tends to be the less willing to stick things out (and that’s not a dig at all!) to get to the good parts of games. With that in mind, I set out with modestly reduced, but still high, expectations for the game.

I’ve played about one hour of the game. I’m having a hard time working up the enthusiasm to continue putting time in.

Why the struggle? Drew observed that he can spend hours actually enjoying the in-between-action moments in EVE, but struggled with Bioshock. I’m contemplating playing Mass Effect 2 a second time just to see how the same situations might play out differently with different choices, but I utterly failed to get hooked by the new experiences of Bioshock 2. How could such a pretty game in such a fascinating world fail so completely to draw either of us in?

When I started playing Bioshock 2, I felt something very familiar, and it took me a while after I put the controller down to put my finger on it. It was the feeling of being in the middle of a game.

I’m going to assert that, in rough terms, the first third of most story-driven games is all about introducing the world, the core problem, and the mechanics of the game. The middle third is about using already-introduced mechanics to slowly expose more of the world. The final third is a race to an exciting climax. Bioshock 2 feels like it starts somewhere in the middle third of most games. The motivation for the protagonist isn’t really explained in any detail, and the introduction of the world and the core game mechanics is (seemingly) expected to be inherited from the original Bioshock.

I have faith that, as in the original Bioshock, things will become clearer as things progress. I’m generally supportive of games that try to do this, and doubly so when there are extra rewards for players who look around carefully. Games like the Marathon series, Deus Ex, and Halo: ODST all do this extremely well (and are among my very favorite games). What separates them from Bioshock 2, though, is that we understand why the story needs to be revealed slowly. Marathon begins in the midst of a surprise attack by an unknown force and evolves throughout the series into a complex meditation on agency, control, and free will. Deus Ex is all about the slow revelation of a conspiracy. Halo: ODST is almost a detective story in that the protagonist is searching for clues that explain the events of the past day (for which he was absent).

Like Bioshock 2, all three of those games are presented from a first-person perspective. We, as the players, are supposed to be in the shoes (or head) of the protagonist. Marathon, Deus Ex, and ODST help us understand why we, as the protagonist, should be confused. Bioshock 2 does just the opposite. Bioshock 2 opens with a scene that is supposed to fill the protagonist with a sense of purpose, rage, and determination. For me, it does none of those things. It’s clear that we, in the role of the protagonist, are also supposed to be confused for the first part of the game just as we are in the other examples. What’s different about Bioshock 2 is that confusion is supposed to exist in parallel with a clear, emotional, and stand-alone drive to move forward. When that emotional drive fails to hit home, as it did for me and Drew, there’s nothing left to drive the player forward.

I’ll almost certainly play through all of Bioshock 2, and may feelings may change as I continue to do so. For now, though, I’m moving forward out of a sense of duty rather than an interest in the game’s story.


Comments

from Chris Murphy

March 4, 2010 08:42

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I haven’t yet worked up the energy to finish Bioshock, so I think I fall on the Drew end of the spectrum there. Guess BS2 probably isn’t gonna be my cup of tea… I hear ME2 is well worth the time though?

from Cagle

March 7, 2010 17:43

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I feel like so many forms of communication fail because they command the player/reader/viewer/participant to feel certain things. Commanding never works, unless the audience is already at that emotional point. Thus, church services leave me cold because I lack the basic assumptions about the world that would make me quake in my shoes at a reference to hellfire.

On the other, the old maxim of show-don’t-tell doesn’t quite seem to apply here. Sounds like Bioshock is doing quite a bit of showing, but in a non-productive way. In order to have the driving force to move forward that you’re talking about here, there must be an impetus behind the showing. Thus, standard action movies also leave me cold because my interest in explosions-for-no-reason lasts about 3.5 minutes.

I’m really starting to believe that there are certain traits of storytelling that hold true across multiple mediums, even those that aren’t obviously telling a story.

from Jon Chambers

March 9, 2010 23:37

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Indeed (and very well said!).

The original Bioshock succeeded (for me) with a very similar introduction and a nearly identical mid- and end-game. The key difference is that the original Bioshock actually made me curious about the world I had been introduced to. You’re very right that the second falls flat because it tells me to feel a particular way rather than making it so.

Bioshock is a first-person game, and that’s really important here. The first game lets the set of eyes you’re looking through be yours. There’s no barrier to letting yourself believe that you’re really the one having the deep-sea Ayn Rand adventure. Bioshock 2 is also a first-person game, but imposes an identity upon the player: that of a father figure out to protect his daughter. In giving the player the burden of an identity not her own, Bioshock 2 also forces the player to carry foreign motivation, values, and even memories. When I get to project my own identity into a game and when that game speaks to me directly, I really feel engaged. When I have to step into somebody else’s mind (and very large metallic shoes), caring becomes somebody else’s problem.

That said, the identity imposed by Bioshock 2 is one that really seems to hit home for some players. Between Bioshock 2 and Heavy Rain, taking on a father’s role in games has been getting a lot of critical thought lately.

I have a lot to say about perspective and the player’s identity in games, but I’ll save that for a separate post. Thanks for the very astute observation!

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