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Lately, I have read story after story about Bioshock and how it should be taken down a peg because it included no multiplayer. What shocks me even more is the fact that people hand over foot seem to agree with the editorials and forum posters that the game is lacking a bit due to this problem. They still say it is a great game, but that it will be forgotten because of the lack of multiplayer.

Well, I have to disagree on this one. I think one of the reasons that Bioshock was so highly regarded and had such a well thought out single player campaign is because it was single player only, without the distraction of a multiplayer mode taking away from the game. And Irrational/2K Boston has some history with adding multiplayer support in its games and it is interesting for those that may be unaware.

Let’s go back a little under a decade ago to a little game called System Shock 2. It was considered by most, to be one of the best games ever, with the greatest villain of all time, Shodan. The game was released without multiplayer support. Did it need it – absolutely not. Irrational felt the game stood on its solid single player story that was rich and engrossing without taking you out of the action. It gave you several ways to play, so the game could suit your style, things we take for granted today, but highly unique for its time. But the public and some reviewers while giving the game high scores, also focused on the fact that the game lacked multiplayer, which was an exploding area of gaming in 1999.

So what does Irrational do? They go through the process of adding a multiplayer component to the game and release it in a giant patch, patch version 2.03. It fixed a lot of little bugs in the game, while adding a brand new multiplayer section of the game. So you have to figure that the game was a huge success in the multiplayer community. It was the exact opposite. The game was a huge bust online. People did not get the same experience they had with the offline single player that they got from the newly minted multiplayer. So all of Irrational Games invested time and money went for nothing as it was sparsely played by John Q. Gamer. In 2007, we look back at the game and do we remember it for its stunning multiplayer – no, we remember it for its dazzling single player story and that evil, rhymes with witch, Shodan.

A few years down the road, Irrational makes another game, and this time they decide to add multiplayer from the get go, so they do not have to go back and add it at a later date. The possible reasoning by Irrational for the failure of System Shock 2′s multiplayer woes could have come from it not shipping in the game. Freedom Force comes out in 2002 to rave reviews. But the single player game is where it was at for this game, because no one played the online component. You could go on and find a few people here and there, but for the most part, it was a pain to play online, and when you could find someone, it just wasn’t the same experience as the offline single player.

Now to be fair and look at the other side of the coin, they garnered a lot more success with Tribes: Vengeance on the PC, in regards to multiplayer. And it was the first Tribes game to have a solid, fully fleshed out single player, on top of the already popular multiplayer. But I think the success of the Tribes multiplayer component was always there though every incarnation, which helped with the success of the multiplayer.

I think a lot of the clamoring for a multiplayer component in Bioshock comes from the people that think it would be great. But really look at the game. Would it benefit from a multiplayer component? The environments and levels that are in the game would not be suitable for multiplayer. Also, I get the feeling that everyone would want to be a Big Daddy, basically pigeonholing the game to a single player class, due to play balancing issues. What happens if they include the little sisters in the multiplayer? I am sure that would go over nicely with the news media.

So I am happy that there is no multiplayer component in Bioshock. It has made my single player experience more enjoyable. And I have already played through the game a couple of times to try different strategies, and to find things I may have missed. I may be in the vocal minority, but I still feel that the game stands quite nicely and benefits by only having a single player mode.