Bioshock was an easy enough game to make, in large part because most of its credited staff had already made it several years before. All they had to do was copy System Shock 2's script and do a find-replace to change "claustrophobic space station" to "underwater city covered in art deco decor and shiny brass because it looks nice in the Unreal engine" and "hostile aliens" with "goofy muppet-people that bring less than 1/1000th the level of fear". Then have it appeal to the lowest common denominator by releasing it on a popular console and stripping out all the character building, tension and strategy by making you an invincible superhuman with an unlimited arsenal of powers and weaponry. Top it off with a cherry of pretense by making every plot point and character a straw man of an easy-to-scorn, widely unpopular ideology like objectivism and some cheap emotional manipulation by having young children be the pawns of this lame supervillain take on it, and bam, you've got a hit. Why objectivism in particular? Well, it's not because Bioshock's creators are interested in pushing whatever opposing philosophies they might live by (wouldn't want to say anything divisive and lose potential sales, after all), it's just so Ken Levine can sit on his high horse and conspicuously denounce evil acts any sane, rational person would so he'll be lauded as a hero by twelve-year-olds who mistake moral posturing for actual morality. His scheme must have worked too considering Bioshock's gotten zillions of awards, millions in sales and Ken is still actively canonized by hack journalists who just rebroadcast publisher propaganda and have no actual appreciation for the medium of video games or the storytelling therein. If they did they'd realize BioShock is just digital sociopathy; an outwardly charming façade with no genuine insight, empathy or humanity beneath it whatsoever, only calculated manipulation in pursuit of personal gain.
But when Ken decides to actually face a worthy opponent he somehow does an even worse job, as I'll highlight in my next review...
Developer: Irrational Games
Publisher: 2K Games
Released: 2007
Platforms: XBox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Mac OS X, iOS