The Videogames Tab

Back when this game was released, I remember its story receiving a great deal of praise, specifically its final half hour which I've seen analyzed numerous times. I'm not sure if it's still held in as high regard now as it was when it was released, but back in the day, I saw plenty of critics and fans describing it as having the single greatest video game story of all time. This is high praise and, while it's important to be careful with your expectations whenever approaching anything with a GOAT status, I do try and see if I can understand where this praise is coming from, regardless of whether I feel the same connection. I like the change of pacing in the final act, some of the imagery (the infinite lighthouses) is striking, and the presence of Rapture made for a cool nod to the original BioShock, but I can't say I share the enthusiasm for the story which some other people do. Initially, I wasn't convinced the game had a great story. Now, I'm not even sure if it's a good story. Over the years, I've come across a couple takes for why the story doesn't work (i.e., it was just competing with the twist in the first game and a few plots holes cause it to fall apart), but while I don't disagree with those people on the quality of the story, I do think those criticisms aren't sound and miss the mark of why the story doesn't work.

When I first played the game, I had a bit of fun putting the pieces of the story together and I did use the game's Wikipedia plot summary to help out with what I missed. After that, however, the story kind of just came and went and didn't linger with me much. Replaying it a couple times since then, I think the problem is the story explains way too much. Aside from the post‐credit scene which I imagine most people miss on their first playthrough (you have to wait through 20 minutes of credits to get to it and skipping the credits skips it as well, at least on pc), it leaves practically no mystery or ambiguity open and wraps up everything into too tidy of a bow for the audience. Once I feel I understand something, I consider it time to move on. After I refreshed my memory on Booker's backstory and his connection to Comstock with my second playthrough, it didn't linger with me much at all afterwards.

Aside from the presentation of the story, the content of the story certainly introduces some interesting concepts (Booker's guilt over his participation in the Wounded Knee massacre, his gambling addiction, and his 20‐year guilt over giving his daughter away), but all I can say about those concepts is they're introduced. The decision to wait until the very end to explore them gives them so little breathing room and practically no time to explore any of them in a significant way. We're told Booker had guilt over the Wounded Knee massacre, but we don't see it. We're told he was a gambling addict, but we don't see that either. We're told he felt guilt for giving his daughter away for 20 years, but we don't even see that. Rather, we're just given a few splices of them. It briefly describes one of his actions, moves onto the next one, then the next one, then it ends. To cut the game some slack, devoting large sections to exploring those story elements in detail might not have been the best idea either, so I don't mean for this to be "They should've made a different game than the one they made" criticism, but what I can say is the approach they ultimately went with didn't work for me either. Compared to some other works of art I love which explore guilt and addiction, this game has far less depth and pales in comparison to them by a long shot.

Therefore, I would say it fails both in regard to the complexity of its story structure and the individual themes of the story.

Back when this game was released, I remember its story receiving a great deal of praise, specifically its final half hour which I've seen analyzed numerous times. I'm not sure if it's still held in as high regard now as it was when it was released, but back in the day, I saw plenty of critics and fans describing it as having the single greatest video game story of all time. This is high praise and, while it's important to be careful with your expectations whenever approaching anything with a GOAT status, I do try and see if I can understand where this praise is coming from, regardless of whether I feel the same connection. I like the change of pacing in the final act, some of the imagery (the infinite lighthouses) is striking, and the presence of Rapture made for a cool nod to the original BioShock, but I can't say I share the enthusiasm for the story which some other people do. Initially, I wasn't convinced the game had a great story. Now, I'm not even sure if it's a good story. Over the years, I've come across a couple takes for why the story doesn't work (i.e., it was just competing with the twist in the first game and a few plots holes cause it to fall apart), but while I don't disagree with those people on the quality of the story, I do think those criticisms aren't sound and miss the mark of why the story doesn't work.

When I first played the game, I had a bit of fun putting the pieces of the story together and I did use the game's Wikipedia plot summary to help out with what I missed. After that, however, the story kind of just came and went and didn't linger with me much. Replaying it a couple times since then, I think the problem is the story explains way too much. Aside from the post‐credit scene which I imagine most people miss on their first playthrough (you have to wait through 20 minutes of credits to get to it and skipping the credits skips it as well, at least on pc), it leaves practically no mystery or ambiguity open and wraps up everything into too tidy of a bow for the audience. Once I feel I understand something, I consider it time to move on. After I refreshed my memory on Booker's backstory and his connection to Comstock with my second playthrough, it didn't linger with me much at all afterwards.

Aside from the presentation of the story, the content of the story certainly introduces some interesting concepts (Booker's guilt over his participation in the Wounded Knee massacre, his gambling addiction, and his 20‐year guilt over giving his daughter away), but all I can say about those concepts is they're introduced. The decision to wait until the very end to explore them gives them so little breathing room and practically no time to explore any of them in a significant way. We're told Booker had guilt over the Wounded Knee massacre, but we don't see it. We're told he was a gambling addict, but we don't see that either. We're told he felt guilt for giving his daughter away for 20 years, but we don't even see that. Rather, we're just given a few splices of them. It briefly describes one of his actions, moves onto the next one, then the next one, then it ends. To cut the game some slack, devoting large sections to exploring those story elements in detail might not have been the best idea either, so I don't mean for this to be "They should've made a different game than the one they made" criticism, but what I can say is the approach they ultimately went with didn't work for me either. Compared to some other works of art I love which explore guilt and addiction, this game has far less depth and pales in comparison to them by a long shot.

Therefore, I would say it fails both in regard to the complexity of its story structure and the individual themes of the story.