Filched this off Morgoth's links:
"So that moment, the dark contortions of the plot at large, is the third and final triumph that makes BioShock an instant classic. But it also precedes the third and final problem. This is a short sequence and not a very difficult one, but its mediocrity is hard to stomach because of when it occurs. It's the end. After a game so singularly smart and beautiful that it makes others seem laughable, we get a final level that could have been pulled straight from the tripe BioShock puts to shame elsewhere. Imagine Citizen Kane ending, after you find out what 'Rosebud' means, with zombie Orson Welles fighting a giant Agent Smith made of smaller Agent Smiths. It doesn't negate how wonderful the preceding experience has been, but it does rather spoil the mood.
Regardless, Bioshock is a dark and astonishing masterpiece. It might not be as flawless as Half-Life 2, but it bites off so much more and accomplishes it all magnificently. Even if you've soaked up every preview and trailer with relish, you haven't scratched the surface of how deep this unsettling meditation on hubris and insanity actually goes. If it were just a thrilling ride through a twisted and remarkable plot, BioShock would eventually get old. But there's a physicality and openness to its richly systematic combat that suggests it'll stay fresh for a very long time.
This is the really bewildering thing about it: it succeeds so stunningly on three different fronts. Not esoteric ones, either, these are the big challenges developers have been struggling to master for decades: narrative, emergence, a sense of place. If another game did just one of these as well as BioShock, it would immediately qualify as a classic. When a game comes along that does all three, we can only be baffled and thankful.
I spend my career, and my gaming life, waiting for a moment when a game just astonishes me, when I can't believe what I'm seeing, what I'm doing. BioShock has five.
- Tom Francis"
I believe the word is awesome.
Edit: I pre-ordered a game for the first time in my life.