Bioshock is Extremely overrated.

Thank you allot for taking time in accepting the challenge and replying. The most important element: Firstly i have come to agree that its partly a matter of personal preference, many people enjoy delving into a rich universe such as that of halo's while some may simply move on to the multiplayer component(ignorant COD fans I'm talking to you). But in the end, there is a sole reason why we call Bioshock, Halo and Call Of Duty video games, because they are obviously made to be played. Which brings me to what you focus on the most, which is story and theme. Now If Bioshock was a blockbuster film, then i would whole-heartdly agree with you, but it's not. Its a video game, and in essence, the gameplay is what a reviewer (IGN, Game spot, Eurogamer e.t.c) should focus on the most, personal preferences aside. The Weapons: Now I will have to agree with the fact that Power to People upgrades can make these guns more lethal but about half way through the game, once you have acquired the more powerful plasmids, are they really important enough to upgrade? Sure lets say you're in a heated fight, and you've ran out of ADAM, you'd instinctively switch to your Thompson SMG. So these guns, unless upgraded heavily, tend to become more of last resort sidearms than front-line weapons. Because of their tendency to quickly burn through ammo, i don't think anyone would go toe to toe with a big daddy, and spray him with SMG bullets only to watch his health bar dwindle by one millimeter every half a clip. Enemies: Firstly what i meant by "classes" is not the individual two enemies Thuggish Splicers and Lead heads, but what i meant is every non-boss enemy in the game can easily be brought into these classes.( Big Daddies would go in to Melee.) Whether they are insane or not, the AI has very... "narrow scripting". Their mental state should not give the developers an excuse for simply giving each of them a single set of traits, such as strafing and shooting, or rushing and bashing. Iv'e seen more versatility in a Grunt form Halo than i have from the infamous Big Daddies of Bioshock. Jack: In many games these days, we are giving a silent protagonist to control, with the developers intending that the player would feel the character is completely under his/her control and its up to them to decide their ethnicity, morals e.t.c... Games like Halo Reach gave you a fully customizable character Noble Six, right down to gender. Or Soap in COD4, which up until the sequel MW2, remains completely free to the player. I fell that the Dev's intending the same thing, and succeeded until the whole "would you kindly" was brought into it. After realizing that the phrase is a method of mind control, i felt that the already linear game became more or less a forced exercise, of objectives that in the end were never a matter of choice for Jack. Which is why i mentioned the "Play and Pause buttons" on a DVD remote. These previous points, and mainly my emphasis on what truly is the most important component of a video game, are the simple reasons I believe, that the very flawed and overdone gameplay, sadly overtake the artistic direction of the narrative and effectively ruin what could have been an influential and ground breaking master-piece. Therefore, Bioshock is indeed overrated. I look forward to Con's reply. Sources: Regrettably owning the game.