[fooqux]

I think what you're stating as fact is actually more a matter of opinion. Take the differences between Mass Effect 1 & 2. One of the big differences is the lack of an inventory system in the sequels. I happen to feel that the inventory in Mass Effect 1 was a bolted-on mess, a wart in every sense. Removing it from the sequels, in my opinion, was a step forwards, not backwards.

Basically, less stuff doesn't always mean worse design.

[Pxtl]

There are a subset of gamers that seem to think there's no such thing as a bad feature - that cramming more stuff to do into the game inexorably makes the game better. When a feature that is completely orthogonal to the best parts of the game is removed, they cry foul.

[angersock]

So, we're talking about the various Shock series here, not Mass Effect--I'm not commenting on them, so let's dispense with wasting our time there. Game design is also a matter of opinion, so yeah, that's where I'm coming from, although every thing I mentioned is a plain statement of fact about their design elements.

From a design standpoint, removing the inventory and skills system (and replacing it with a clunky plasmids/tonics/hat system) removed the ability to permanently change your character and evolve them, and also to easily temporarily change out your skills and abilities. Cybermodules (skillpoints) in SS2, once spent, never come back. You can't respec, and so if you decide to build a melee or stealth character, you really have to develop it.

In Bioshock, though, you can switch out components and plasmids and upgrades, and in Bioshock 2 you can do much the same--in effect, an extended inventory system like the chests in Resident Evil, and a clunky mechanism to use. The character never undergoes irreversible build changes, and you can't just drop into inventory and switch out tonics if they're not what you want, like you could in SS2.

Speaking of inventory management, there is never a point in Bioshock where hoovering up random shit off the ground is a bad idea, so why even make it an option? It might as well just be an automatic pickup ala Doom. SS2 had things that were junk or weren't useful--it was a richer, more interactive world in some ways.

In both Bioshock games, you end up with a limited number of weapons to use, wheres in SS2 you can carry around as many or as few as you'd like, depending on how you decide to allocate your inventory. Weapons in SS2 have more pronounced damage types. Melee weapons in SS2 require a dedicated character build, whereas you can bumble into an endgame-useful game-breaking wrench build very quickly in Bioshock.

The removal of text fallbacks for logs in Bioshock made it harder to rapidly review events and piece things together, and overall there were many fewer logs than in SS2.

The inability to use stealth to bypass fights and the relative surplus of ammunition meant that cinematic combat was the main workhouse of the Bioshock games, whereas SS2 played more similar to a survival horror RPG.

~

Those are just some of the things that streamlining of the design did to the games, with the end result that the Shock lineage devolved into fun and competent cinematic shooters. I'm not saying that they're bad games, I'm saying that their design has regressed so far that it is basically not worth mentioning in the same breath as their predecessors.

System Shock 1, for what it's worth, was an amazing example of design ideas that never got much love, and likely represent another evolutionary dead end. :(

[cwyers]

The original article makes a point of contrasting Mass Effect with System Shock, which is I think why parent mentions it. I don't agree with everything you say here, but it's a lot more interesting and useful for the sort of point the author was trying to make than what the author actually wrote.