Bioshock revisited

I finished Bioshock yesterday. Last month I gave it a grade of 9/10, and I'm afraid I have to downgrade that to 7/10.

On the one hand, Bioshock is a great game, and one that I'm sure I'll remember for a long time. On the other hand, it's kind of boring. Seriously. The game consists of something like eight levels, and from like the third one onward, it's just the same stuff.

And as for the vaunted "plot", it's necessary to make some distinctions here. In gaming, when people say plot, they usually mean either the plot, the backstory or the setting. Bioshock has no backstory at all, a fairly humdrum plot and a great setting. Seriously, the whole survival-horror-evil-genetic-manipulation-people-going-insane thing is getting more than a bit old.

I liked playing it, but sadly, it became a bit boring toward the end. Also, at times they were laying it on pretty thick, and the plot really doesn't live up to the hype.

I still liked it, and I guess my final recommendation is to get it, but not for full price. Frankly, I thought Mass Effect was better.

**

As it stands, Take-Two is making a franchise out of Bioshock. Wikipedia:

"In response to the game's high sales and critical acclaim, Take-Two Chairman Strauss Zelnick revealed in a conference call to analysts that the company now considered the game as part of a franchise."

The way I understand that, later this year we'll get Bioshock 2010, which will be exactly the same game, only with improved machine gun controls and some roster updates, and this time Houdini Splicer will get to be on the cover.