Is Bioshock a Scary Game?

A game is scary from threat of death, which entails having to re-do a certain part. Little ammo, no allies, no weapons, dark environment- those all create a situation where you are very vulnerable, and that's what a horror game plays on- the vulnerability of the player.

That's why Doom 3 wasn't scary, except for the occasional 'zombie jumps out at you etc.' moment. In Doom 3, it couldn't be scary because you've got a chaingun with 900 rounds.

SS2 (system shock 2) was very scary. It gave you few weapons (they break quickly), no allies, limited ammo for the more effective weapons, and a very dark, oppressive atmosphere. This was the driving theme that the logs and messages expanded upon.

In a game with quicksave and quickload like Bioshock, the scare comes from the possibility that something will jump out, shock you, and eat you alive, and you'll have to restart. But with a vita-chamber, ok, you got mauled- but now you can go back and show him what you're made of.

The difference is that while with a quickload you have to do it over again- and get jumped by the baddy a second time- an instant respawn means you know where he is, and he's out in the open where you died, ready to be sniped. That just removes the scare entirely.

And again, using a wrench on the 'two evil red glowing eyes in the shadows' is the logical option- you won't waste ammo on panic firing or with the wrong kind of ammunition, and if you die then you can just go back, only this time you'll have the element of surprise.

So all the people who found it scary are somehow incorrect? Or just illogical? The game is scary because of the sound and the tension and the atmosphere. That's like saying how can you logically be scared of a horror movie when you can logically exit afterward and go step out into the sunshine. Or how can any game be scary if you can just quicksave and quickload? And if your answer to that is to choose NOT to quicksave and quickload, then by that logic you could just play ironman in Bioshock- and if you die, you restart on the level.

Honestly, the only thing SS2 did that was fundamentally different was to force you to activate the respawn units, and once you were familiar with the game they didn't take long to get to on each level. The nanite cost from dying was inconsequential, since you could usually just find that amount on a couple mutant corpses or else use a recycler.