Irrational Drops a Bomb on Bioshock
Perusing the TTLG forums I decided to check out a topic titled "Exclusive info about the Little Sisters" made by a 2K games exec which I presume was supposed to be another hype thread for their upcoming game Bioshock. However, the revelation contained within made it anything but, and now Bioshock joins the hall of shame along with Deus Ex: Invisible War and Thief: Deadly Shadows as sequels that taint the masterpieces that came before them.
To get to the point, a major character and aspect of the game has been dumbed down "streamlined" in order to make things easier for the gamers of today. The child-like Little Sister characters that was thought were totally killable are now impervious to death during the normal course of the gameplay. According to Irrational this was done for two reasons:
1. To make the game easier because "[Big Daddies] are a *serious* challenge, even when the player can freely use all the tools at his disposal. If the player had to abandon half of those tools due to worrying about the Little Sister and collateral damage, that would make the fight so much harder that it woud be No Fun (for all but the hardest of the hardcore). - Alex Kay, Irrational"
2. To somehow make the death of a Little Sister, which can only now happen after you eliminate her Big Daddy guardian, more meaningful to the player.
Now whether killing the little girl look-alikes is more meaningful while they are helpless and crying over their dead bodyguards or accidentally during the course of the game is completely subjective, and because of that I will argue that one scenario is not better than another. So, why not allow both? Well, apparently it's also too difficult for the gamers of today to handle. I would ask why can't the game be balanced so that these protectors wouldn't be so hard while we try to defeat them and keep the Sisters alive at the same time, but I already know the answer.
The fact is that Kevin Levine wasn't lying when he said that Bioshock was going to be "streamlined" for today's audience. Why so few people took him at his word is another question, but I'm smart enough to know that games aren't made like they used to be and the chances of a new game being made that recaptures the difficulty, complexity, intelligence and greatness of games like Deus Ex, System Shock 2 and Thief are practically non-existent.
It's amazing to me how the this trend of easier, shorter games has escaped so many people. It's sad really, but I can understand how fans of the originals above desperately want to believe that a sequel made today can somehow recapture the same magic. I want nothing more than a worthy sequel to those games, but the difference is that I'm not foolish enough to believe that it's likely. Again, I go back to the difficulty level example where almost every game had the option to choose your own difficulty (easy, medium, hard), when I was a kid. Now hardly any games give you that luxury in this "one size fits all" new generation of gaming.
In spite of the disappointment that Bioshock has become to me, I will definitely give credit to Irrational games for having the balls to reveal this kind of info before the game's release. I don't think they are dumb enough to believe this news wasn't going to have a negative effect so I give them credit for being honest and informing gamers. They could have kept quiet and allowed many gamers to purchase the game under false pretenses, but they did the right thing and told us that things were getting dumbed down before we bought the game.
