Bioshock
After the children had gone to bed last night, I started playing Bioshock on the XBox 360. It's the first time I have played any kind of story based video game in years, so I thought I would write a few thoughts down. Yes, I know I'm about four years late with this post, and yes, I know it will be of no interest to anybody but myself, but as usual I'm not about to let any of those concerns fill the next ten minutes with recording quite possibly the most boring post in the known universe (or at least the most boring recorded in the last few minutes).
So. The game starts, and you appear to be swimming among the wreckage of an aeroplane that just crashed. I would have noticed the pre-amble, but was busy adjusting the volume on the television set, and chatting with my other half. As the first few events started happening while I was swimming, the software developer in me kicked in, and I started thinking “oh right – so if I cross these invisible areas, it triggers more things to happen – and oh look – they're trying to guide you to those steps over there...
I really am my own worst enemy when playing games.
After another few minutes of scripted back-story (no doubt while the game loaded the first level in the background), I was thrown into a rather creepy art deco world, filled with nightmarish zombies and robots. A few minutes in I figured out how to hit people with a metal wrench, and how to inject myself with a huge syringe – so thought “1920s Grand Theft Auto under the sea” – which pretty much sums up the game, to be honest. I played for another hour, and got more and more annoyed with the scripted elements of the story.
I'm not sure I will play it again (of course I will).
Some people like scripted games. Some people like a narrative, and to play a part, but I hate them with a vengeance – because no matter how “open” the world, it's never reallyopen at all. Grand Theft Auto V has the best open world so far, but even it has limits – places you cannot go, things you cannot interact with. Thinking back, “Second Life” had a lot more potential, but was perhaps too far ahead of the game. There was an even better virtual world called “There”, but nobody really knew about it, so it became a ghost town.
Of course what we all really want is The OASIS from “Ready Player One” – a true online world, replicating much of the real world, and allowing free roaming throughout. Facebook look like they might be en-route to building it with their acquisition of Oculus VR, but it could be many years away.
In the meantime, I guess we play games in tightly scripted environments that hoodwink us into thinking we have more freedom than we do for a short time.