User blog comment:MegaScience/A New Art-Deco Contender/@comment-2250991-20101216061522

I wouldn't say BioShock fell far; it's just Bioshock 2 being the shadow of the original. BioShock 2 was the example of what Ken Levine didn't want to do for a BioShock sequel. There were more notable cons than pros, that it wasn't enough for most people to love it like they did with the first game. It's what everyone wanted, and didn't want at the same time. People disliked the lack of Multiplayer in the first game, and when BioShock 2 had it, everyone hated how glitchy and limited it was. There was DLC, but it was mostly for Multiplayer levels and only a single-player Protector Trials minigame and a single-player Minerva's Den level, with the latter being the only highest reviewed DLC for the game. It had extraordinary environments, but you can only go through them once before leaving to the next world. As much as the characters had some significance to Rapture, they lacked any depth that the first game's characters had for the players. There was more info about Rapture from Audio Diaries and character interactions, but it felt like filler to keep in continuity with the first game. There were custom plasmid attack combinations, but were limited to using Plasmids on upgraded Cyclone Traps. There were powerful Big Sister enemies, but spawned predictably as a "Level Boss". The hacking games improved, but the security locks were simple enough that you can see the combination number. The fighting mechanics improved, but it felt like it was more necessary to kill everything than to leave some alone. Guarding Little Sisters was challenging, but repetitive. It sucks that it had limited nominations and no wins from both X-Play, Spike TV, and 1up.com, but that also had to do with it competing with a lot of top title games this year (COD, Halo:Reach, Mass Effect 2, etc). Just because Art Deco is used in the first two BioShock games, doesn't mean it's limited to those games. Even before BioShock went through the Art Deco style, the only other franchise to have used it was Batman: The Animated Series. Art direction will always be one thing notable in presentation, but the gameplay will either help it or hinder it. Siberia was a bad title for control and gameplay, but the art direction was what got it noticed. Better games, like Psychonauts and BioShock, have a better balance of both art and gameplay for the player to engage in those worlds, while having a better sense of interaction in gameplay. The upcoming BioShock Infinite may have a different art direction than it's predecessors, but with the creative team of the original game, they will hopefully revitalize this installment and the franchise.