Interesting Times

Looking back, it's notable that BioShock's much-lauded narrative mostly occurred off-screen; Rapture's rise and fall, the fracturing of its society and infrastructure, are all over by the time the game starts. (Perhaps to Ken Levine's chagrin, as he's been trying to re-invent interactive storytelling ever since.)

It nailed that retrospective exposition, though - with dramatic audio diaries and poignant environment-art details - and the action-ey, adventure-ey flow of the game was really well-served by having that narrative as its background.

Experiencing those dystopian socioeconomic events in real-time would not be very fun.