Bioshock made a lot of noise in its time – the vast majority of both reviewers and players sang its praises, putting the game on par in terms of innovation with Half Life 2. And in fact, if you look at the project through the eyes of an ordinary player from 2007, then there really is something to praise for. Behind the screen of an ordinary shooter, in an unusual setting, an interesting plot was revealed, full of philosophical ideas, and a full-scale criticism of the philosophy of objectivism (although Levin himself denied the fact of criticism, calling it a rethinking), and a cool, well-developed world, and, most importantly, immersiveness! In general, everything looked so cool that most easily turned a blind eye to the mediocre shooter mechanics, as well as the obvious lack of development of the last levels (well, you can really forgive it, considering that the project, like many others in those years, was forcibly accelerated by the publisher). And in general, all of the above is true for the perception of modern players, and for some the game has also acquired the enchanting flair of a classic, concreted for centuries in the video game hall of fame. What can we say, and for me this is a living classic that has not lost its appeal 16 years later. But there is one thing.

In that glorious time, in 2007, even then there were those who scolded the game for being secondary, contrary to the opinion of the absolute majority. They were looked at as arrogant aesthetes, or as idiots. But these brave people were united by one thing in common – they all played System shock, the second part of which, by the way, was made by our good old Ken Levine. Well, it turns out that if we take into account the fact that Ken repeated his own masterpiece very, very close to the text, while removing from it a good share of interesting mechanics and, in fact, immersion, then this bunch of arrogant aesthetes no longer become idiots, but frustrated fans who expected something more.

But what does modernity have casinojokabet.uk to do with it?? The glory of System shock has long faded, it is remembered only by nostalgic retro lovers, but Bioshock, on the contrary, resulted in a trilogy that is quite playable to this day. The problem is that now we know what an immersive sim is quite well, and it turns out that if we consider Bioshock along with other legends of this concept, it will inevitably fade. I can already see the hand reaching for the dislike button, but wait, I’ll try to explain, and also note: what I write next does not make Bioshock a bad or even an mediocre game, I still consider it a living classic and a great game. But a bad immersive sim.

Let’s start with the definition. I am inclined to assume that an immersive sim is primarily an autonomous system that provides the player with many different paths (including those not provided for by the developers) to creatively solve a given problem, and which, without player intervention, functions in such a way that a world that is logical and alive, as far as possible, is created around. T.e. there is an entry point, there is an exit point, between them there is a small but reliable world, the player entering there should feel that he is not on an excursion, does not press buttons at prepared stands that make him look beautiful and interesting, but that he is at a party that is already in full swing, which would have continued without him, but with him things will be much more fun. But the player is free to figure out how to make it more fun: go over and overturn the table with punch, pour water on the girls’ breasts, or walk between groups and listen to all their dirty secrets. And the greatest thrill from all this will be when the player finds out that everything he did at the party will have consequences. The standard for this approach is, predictably, Deus Ex and Dishonored, although many serious competitors have now appeared on the indie scene (Shadows of doubt, for example). So, in Bioshock you come to a party, only the decorations suddenly fall down and you find yourself on a regular tour, which actually takes place in a large apartment, and the tour guide will humbly wait while you run through all the rooms before going to the right one (and will probably consider you an idiot, because he will definitely take you to the other rooms too). Well, that is, we have open locations where we are free to go as we please, but the fact that we first go somewhere other than where the task leads, nothing will change. At most, we will simplify our further path by killing enemies in advance (and not always, sometimes enemies will automatically respawn). It turns out that we are again in a linear action game with backtracking thrown in. No, I’m not saying that there is no point in research, great audio diaries (without irony) really provide not just an expansion of the plot, but often full-fledged additional stories, without which it is much more difficult to penetrate the world and fall in love with it, but this is still not the level of immersive sims, here we can simply retreat to a couple of neighboring closets, which are sometimes locked or hidden behind some obstacle. And in the end, this concept is no longer even masked by a non-linear level, offering us, excuse the boiling, a godless segment accompanied by a little sister. After all, how cool it would be if there were just some simple side effects at the locations that change the state of affairs at the level (I helped the same sister, she would open a shortcut). The situation could also be saved by complexity, as in other immersive games: a lack of resources, more attentive and intelligent enemies would force you to really survive and search every corner. Indeed, there is even a difficulty level called Survivor, but the trouble is, all it does is increase the HP bar of enemies (well, or reduce damage from weapons). There are enough supplies in abundance if you just carefully pass, especially when you decide to put together a synergizing build on a wrench (which literally suggests itself after three machine gun clips were inserted into a regular splicer for the hundredth time). With a wrench, the game as a whole turns into a bit-map that doesn’t require any special tactics, except that the mechanisms can be hacked for greater ease. And I’ll add separately, I’m not a fan of games where you need to min-max stats by choosing the perfect build, usually I play as varied as possible, trying all the possibilities provided, but here, in combination with imperfect combat, this is literally a way to not start getting annoyed with the game.

By the way, about sponges for bullets, that is, enemies. Here we can already notice signs of immersion. Enemies are collected into a single system, interact with each other and with the environment. From time to time you can see how splicers are killed by the big daddy (they are killed, for some reason they always prefer to attack one at a time), or, for example, in battle a mutant can run to be treated at the same machine gun where the player is being treated. However, that’s probably all. The daddies just wander around the level, the splicers mostly do the same, only occasionally triggering on the divers. After all, it would be possible to add dialogues for them that reveal the world or, at high difficulty levels, teach them to fight with daddy in crowds (everyone needs Adam so much), or even with each other (after all, here we have those who obey Ryan and those who obey Fontaine), or let them use the environment in the same way as the player does (electrify water, set fire to oil). All this would greatly add believability and would allow the game to be forgiven for its disguised linearity.

Well, the cherry on top of all this is the choice and consequences. After all, even Ryan in the game shouts “The slave obeys, but the man chooses”. There is a choice in the game, but it depends on one variable, and only the final pre-rendered scene is subject to it. And even then, this is a banal choice between bad and good, and the advantages of bad are not that noticeable (440 Adam for three sisters when saving and 480 when killing, if you count gifts). The same stalker, a monument to unfinished immersion, sported a much more extensive set of decision-making, although there was a production hell such that Levin could not even dream of in his nightmares (remark, otherwise I consider Bioshock a much better game than stalker).

This is how it turns out that Bioshock is not an immersive sim at all, although it tries very hard to pretend to be one. It requires you to play yourself as an immersive game, exploring everything around in search of interesting things and unusual solutions, however, apart from new layers of the plot, it does not give any reward for exploration. And at the same time, if you play Bioshock like an ordinary joker, there is a risk of not understanding the game at all. But with all that, I had fun playing Bioshock in 2023, and I enjoyed it a lot, I got high from the world, from the stories, and even from this choice without a choice (saving my sisters somehow actually pacifies me). And most importantly, Bioshock awakens a craving for knowledge outside the game – after completing it, I became seriously obsessed with the philosophy of objectivism and all sorts of interviews with Ayn Rand (it’s funny how sometimes the ideas of an ordinary journalist, crumbling from one breath of logic, turn into a whole philosophical movement), and after that I respected Levin even more for how deftly and juicily he breaks down her ideas, simply placing them in a living and logical environment. So it’s a great game, but somehow trying to seem like something it’s not.