Where Bioshock and Bioshock 2 were set in Rapture (underwater), this is a sky city. You won't have to have played 2, to my understanding.
But it sure might help. I wrote this a while back, but it's pertinent so I'll share it here.
You know how some books will sometimes have "recommended reading" so that if there are certain topics or concepts discussed that aren't fully explained in the book, you can read the recommended reading books to get a more thorough explanation? Well I've come to the conclusion that video games need to have a "recommended playing" screen where they list all those games that you should play or at least become familiar with prior to playing. I came to this conclusion after reading recently about the game System Shock.
System Shock was a PC game created in 1994 that was kind of a first-person action role-playing adventure game. The basic premise was that you played the role of a computer hacker (a common theme in 1994) who has been caught attempting to hack into a top secret space station. You are consequently taken to that space station and given an ultimatum, hack into the stations security computer SHODAN or face the consequences of your actions. In return for your services you'll be given a valuable military grade neural implant. From there the game gets bizarre. I mean REALLY bizarre.
System Shock was something of a niche game that appealed to a small subset of gamers, I however was not one of them. A sequel System Shock 2 was made in 1999 that expanded on some of the ideas in the original game including the bizarre plotline and again garnered a small audience of which I was not one. Hold on, I'm getting to the point.
In 2007 the same company that made both System Shock and it's sequel came out with a "spiritual successor" to those games called Bioshock. Bioshock, unlike it's predecessors was a huge hit. The game was praised for it's immersive qualities. Many game ranking systems listed it near the top of their ratings. This is where I come in. Naturally, I'm curious what all the fuss is about and read a little about the game, but no where do I read that it's the "spiritual successor" to System Shock 1 or 2, I'm under the impression that this is in fact a brand new game and I figure if I ever see it on sale that I'll pick up a copy and see what it's like.
So one day I'm going through the games at half price books, yes they have games too, and come across Bioshock and figure what the heck. So I take it home and start to play and I realize right away this is one messed up game. The basic plot is that you have ship wrecked in the ocean and find the entrance to an entire world that's under the sea that was created by some rich gazillionaire. Only the world has gone haywire because all the people that were there could get these neural implants that would allow them to do all sorts of crazy stuff and ultimately caused them to go insane and then the security system started having problems and all hell breaks loose. Well if you had played System Shock or System Shock 2, this would have been exactly what you expected, simply swap the under water city for the space station and basically you have Bioshock. The problem is that this isn't explained to you in any way, you just kinda have to figure things out as you go. I'm sure that anyone who played SS or SSII had no problem figuring out the plot of Bioshock, whereas I on the other hand was completely lost. Strange robots trying to kill me for no apparent reason. Weird neuro implants that allow you to do all kinds of messed up things. Vending machines with ammo and neuron upgrades that can be hacked into of all things. Strange little girls with teddy bears? I'm telling you, this was more messed up then Pee Wee's playhouse!
The game did manage to keep me intrigued for a little while, but ultimately I got borred trying to figure out what the heck I was supposed to be doing and quit. I just realized after reading about SS on Wikipedia that had I actually played SS, I probably would have had a better grasp of what was going on or at least how Bioshock came to be the messed up game it is.
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