Riddle me this.

Big unreal fan here, so be warned. But, I'm curious - how is it that Unreal II, released a few years ago gets reviewed at a 7.3 while Bioshock scores a solid 9.0. I seem to remember the biggest complaint about Unreal II being that it was "too short, with no multiplayer". Does Bioshock not fall into this exact same category? I'm curious as to how unreal II, a game that still looks impressive even by todays stands got such a low score. In comparison, if my memory serves me, (its been a while since I played U2) Unreal II was longer in duration, had unique weapons, diverse enemy's, and wasn't set in a static environment. Bioshock is relatively shorter, boasts you arsenal of generic weaponry, almost a single enemy (splicers) and to top it all - you're stuck in an underwater city, which while the environment changes, its no where near as dramatic as the different levels in Unreal II. Personally, I think the way we look at and judge games has changed dramatically over the years. A few years ago, we sought length, and replayability. Nowadays it seems like the whole "wow thats neat, it deserves a high score" factor plays the biggest role in reviews.

Just my opinion.

I imagine it stems from the fact that Unreal 2 is a sequel, and most likely didn't live up to its predecessor in terms of nostalgia, as is the case for most sequels, which is why they usually get lower scores than other games (unless we're talking Final Fantasy.) As for comparing Unreal 2 to BioShock, I'm just going to walk around that subject, because I am a rabid BioShock fan and was twitching the entire time I read your post. But that doesn't mean I don't agree that Unreal 2 should have gotten a higher score.

We are changing how we view games, it's part of time, everything changes. The generation that loved and worshipped video games has grown up and now we don't have time for all of the 100+ hour gaming marathons that we used to, thus how long a game is can drastically affect its ratings. We are also sick of seeing the same designs over and over again, you know, the standard "jungle level" followed by the "ice level" and then, you guessed it, it's the "lava level". The reason Rapture is so impressive, is because it is the same environment throughout the entire game, you develope this feeling like you know the city, like you've been living in it. But alas, I said I would walk around BioShock, so I am going to drop the subject now and leave you with this:

Unreal 2 was a good game, so was BioShock, the reason they both got different scores despite the fact that neither has multiplayer and are both heavily based on a story experience is because GameSpot doesn't have one reviewer. I bet if you check who reviewed BioShock and who reviewed Unreal 2, they would be different. Whoever reviewed Unreal 2 probably didn't like BioShock all that much either.