A mystery that will leave you sleepless until its solved.
Where to begin with this game? Theres so much good about this game and theres so many parts that come together to make this a superb gaming experience. I guess we start from the beginning. You are sitting in an airplane watching some family photos and reading the card that is glued to the nice present you got from your parents. The year is 1960 and you are crossing the deepest parts of the atlantic ocean in a plane that is thick with cigarrettesmoke. You dont know who you are or where you are heading or why. Suddenly your vision blurs out and everything goes dark. The next thing your hear is the airplane security alarm screaming "altitude, altitude" while the plane is rushing towards the dark cold ocean. Boom! You wake up 50 meters below the surface, you hear things exploding up there and parts from the plane and luggage are sinking around you. You desperetaly begin to swim upwards when half the plane suddenly swooshes down into the black abyss right next to you. You´re almost out of breath and are desperetaly trying to hold it for a couple of seconds more. When you finally surface you do it in the middle of burning planefuel. You can see the back half of the plane slowly sinking. But whats that? You can see a huge, very odd lighthouse sticking up out of the water like a giant arm. You are almost freezing to death so you hurry over to the lighthouse and step inside while the last parts of the plane and its other temporary survivors are swallowed by the cold merciless ocean. Further into this lighthouse is en elevator, below it is..Rapture! If you didnt know this already Rapture is an underwater city built by a man in the 50s where he could be free of the opression that is politics and religion and where he and the citys inhabitants could live their lives the way they wanted to. But something went wrong and the huge utopia is now a ghost city, leaking and burning everywhere. This is the beginning of a fantastic game! Why are you here? why did the plane crash here? who are you? what is this city? what happened down here that destroyed it? Who are these giant walking beasts called Big Daddies and what role do the small "Little sisters" have? Who are the people still alive and why do they help you? You carefully take your first steps into this underwater New Yorkish utopia and you take your first steps into a truly unique shooterexperience!
I guess the most obvious comparison to another game would be System Shock 2. This is pretty much a spiritual successor to System Shock 2 made by Warren Spectors old buddy Ken Levine and the game stands on the same basic foundation as the old System Shock and Deus Ex games. Its a shooter BUT its a shooter with freedom, rpg elements and a huge amount of exploring and interaction with your surroundings. Like any other shooter you shoot bad guys and monsters with big weapons like shotguns and grenadelaunchers BUT here you can do oh so much more. First off you come to learn about this "drug" that was a big factor to why this city went to heck. Its called Adam and it gives you the ability to genetically alter your own body to shoot ice, start fires, move things with the will of your mind or send swarms of bees at your enemy. (give this ability to a whole city and you have created the beginning of the end.) On top of this you can use your surroundings to your advantage in fights. So for example you COULD shoot an enemy with your shotgun OR you could set up some traps in a walkway leading to a small area of water and then lure the enemy into your traps and then into the water. When hes in the water you could then zap the water with electricity from your fingertips so he dies of the shock. On top of this you can upgrade your body in a huge amount of areas. Do you want to hack the security system of the city to do your dirty work for you? Then upgrade your hacking skills. Do you want to go in guns blazing everywhere and just shoot and hit stuff? Then upgrade so that you can take more damage, have more health and emit electrical bursts when someone else hit you. If you dont want to play the game like that you can focus on your "splicing" and upgrade all of your genetical abilities. As if this werent enough you can switch out abilities from certain stations all over the place to try different things and go to Weapon upgrade-stations where you can upgrade the weapons you want with different upgrades. OR you could go invent your own ammunition for the weapons to make them more effective versus the thing you desire. I could go on all night about this but I guess the point here is that you play the game the way you want to. You could blast open a locked door or you could hack the lock OR you could go through the vent beside it OR you could hack the security system OR you could find the correct keycode to the door by searching some nearby apartments. Apply this formula to exacly everything in the game from combat to moral choices and you really get a game that you play the way YOU want to play it. 2 people will have 2 completely different experiences depending on how they choose to play the game.
The story works the same way. Its really up to you how much of the mystery you uncover. The game never forces you in a certain direction. You have an arrow that tells you where your next MAIN objective is but nobody is forcing you to go there. You can roam around freely in the "hub" of the city you are currently in to uncover stuff about the city and the huge mystery that is resting in it. Bioshock manages to really draw you into its story and make it so that you really really want to go off exploring every little corner you can of the city. And its always rewarding. You will always find some ghosts whispering to each other or some audio diary explaining something that went on before the city went under. The story in Bioshock is one of the most mysterious, engaging and disturbed stories I have ever witnessed in a game. There is sooo much backstory, explanations to everything and clues to everything that everything feels extremely alive and believable. All things have a reason and an explanation down there and its up to you to figure it out. Before you are done with the story theres also some twists in it that really blow all other "story twists" away. there are moments of Bioshocks story where it feels alot like the TV series "Lost". You really dont know what is going on..or do you?! And when you think you know they twist it around and you go "Wow, ok so THAAT S why! thats cooool". It also feels very grown up and mature and the game makes use of its M rating all the time. You thought Silent Hill was twisted? Wait until you get deep down into the bowels of Rapture!
The graphics are awesome and the graphical design is even more awesome. The engine they are using is the Unreal 3 eninge wich can be seen in Gears of War (aka the best looking game ever made). Maybe the most technically awesome part of the graphics is the water. Whem developing the game they had a group of very skilled programmers working ONLY on the water for the whole development process. In a game where water is everywhere around you its kind of important that the water looks good, and it does. This is the best looking water effects in a game ever. Period. The design is over the top 50s Art Deco and its sooo gorgeous. The whole city is this temple of superb graphical design. I dont think I´ve ever before stopped to watch the surroundings as many times as I did when playing Bioshock. Every new room you enter is filled with art and details in the environments that you really cant help but stop and stare at. Everything from posters to the total chaos of an abandoned apartment. Everything is so carefully planned and detailed I have yet to see another game ever that has the same amount of detail and care to the world.
The sound design is just the same. Its insanely detailed and with a 5.1 system you truly are IN this world like no other game.
Another element worth brining up is the Little Sisters.Probably one of the greatest gaming elements ever to be put in a shooter. All over the city there are these young girls in little cute dresses running around. They stick needles into dead bodies and draw out the "Adam" in them and then drink it themselves. They are little ghouls and only shadows of their former selves. They are the source to the huge amount of moral choices you will have to make throughout the game. To survive in this crazy city you need this drug to upgrade your genes. But the only way to get "Adam" is to get it from these "little sisters". And they have it in their bodies. You have 2 people guiding you through the city through a comradio. 1 of them gives you a special medecine that can CURE these little sisters. The other one think you should just kill them. If you cure them you wont get as much adam as if you were to actually "harvest" them but you will feel better about yourself and you wont commit a cruel deed. But if you kill them you get a huge amoun of Adam but you also get more addicted to the stuff. Will you save the little girls or will you harvest them for more power? It will affect alot of things before the game is over. And before the game is over you will also have figured out just what these girls are and how they were put into this state of bodyharvesting.
I guess Bioshock is the result of all these things put together in a very sharp package. You have freedom, the ability to play how you want. You can explore, find clues to the great mystery that is Rapture and you can upgrade yourself and kill stuff how you want to. In thix mix we have this great visual and audiodesign and this deep, twisting story that will leave you breathless. Theres plenty of cinematic moments, scary sequences, change in pace and straight up crazy shooter action. Sometimes it feels like Doom 3 and sometimes it feels like a deep RPG. Bioshock drives you to get to the bottom of all the questions that the city throws at you and you wont get any rest before you have figured it all out! Bioshock will leave you scared, on the edge of your seat and with tears in your eyes. It stirrs up strong emotions and it deliveres on every part of the gameplay. its this huge sandbox where you are dropped down and are free to do what you want. Theres actually this whole economy system so if you want you can gather money from an abandoned clothingstore and then go to the casino to try and get a jackpot on the one-armed bandit. Or you could go do a "dead rising" in the shopping mall of the city. Throw hats as enemies from the hatstore or visit the stripclub to figure out the mystery of the dead hooker you find in there and then proceed to drink some coffee in the coffeeshop before you kill the psycho that resides in the part of the mall you are in. I could of course go into details with all the pshycotic people you will run into but Ive gone on long enough about this game now. I can tell you this much. You will run into ALOT of twisted personalities down there. An artist who tries to make one last sick masterpiece and doctor thats never satisfied with only "fixing" his patients.
Ok, Im gonna try and make sense of all this. Its like Doom 3 meets Deus Ex meets Dead Rising meets insanely well written detective story meets survival horror meets Sci-Fi horror movie. Yea, damn, Bioshock would make such a good movie! Theres certainly enough Political and religious aspects to why Andrew Ryan built his city to make it feel very important for the movie audience today!
Dont miss out on this game. The background to this city on the bottom of the ocean is enough to warrant a playthrough, then u have this insane crazy masterpiece of a game on top of it! Game of The year? maybe so! One thing is for sure. I know a couple of more big shooters that comes out this year, and I know that none of them will be THIS insanely immersive!
I guess the most obvious comparison to another game would be System Shock 2. This is pretty much a spiritual successor to System Shock 2 made by Warren Spectors old buddy Ken Levine and the game stands on the same basic foundation as the old System Shock and Deus Ex games. Its a shooter BUT its a shooter with freedom, rpg elements and a huge amount of exploring and interaction with your surroundings. Like any other shooter you shoot bad guys and monsters with big weapons like shotguns and grenadelaunchers BUT here you can do oh so much more. First off you come to learn about this "drug" that was a big factor to why this city went to heck. Its called Adam and it gives you the ability to genetically alter your own body to shoot ice, start fires, move things with the will of your mind or send swarms of bees at your enemy. (give this ability to a whole city and you have created the beginning of the end.) On top of this you can use your surroundings to your advantage in fights. So for example you COULD shoot an enemy with your shotgun OR you could set up some traps in a walkway leading to a small area of water and then lure the enemy into your traps and then into the water. When hes in the water you could then zap the water with electricity from your fingertips so he dies of the shock. On top of this you can upgrade your body in a huge amount of areas. Do you want to hack the security system of the city to do your dirty work for you? Then upgrade your hacking skills. Do you want to go in guns blazing everywhere and just shoot and hit stuff? Then upgrade so that you can take more damage, have more health and emit electrical bursts when someone else hit you. If you dont want to play the game like that you can focus on your "splicing" and upgrade all of your genetical abilities. As if this werent enough you can switch out abilities from certain stations all over the place to try different things and go to Weapon upgrade-stations where you can upgrade the weapons you want with different upgrades. OR you could go invent your own ammunition for the weapons to make them more effective versus the thing you desire. I could go on all night about this but I guess the point here is that you play the game the way you want to. You could blast open a locked door or you could hack the lock OR you could go through the vent beside it OR you could hack the security system OR you could find the correct keycode to the door by searching some nearby apartments. Apply this formula to exacly everything in the game from combat to moral choices and you really get a game that you play the way YOU want to play it. 2 people will have 2 completely different experiences depending on how they choose to play the game.
The story works the same way. Its really up to you how much of the mystery you uncover. The game never forces you in a certain direction. You have an arrow that tells you where your next MAIN objective is but nobody is forcing you to go there. You can roam around freely in the "hub" of the city you are currently in to uncover stuff about the city and the huge mystery that is resting in it. Bioshock manages to really draw you into its story and make it so that you really really want to go off exploring every little corner you can of the city. And its always rewarding. You will always find some ghosts whispering to each other or some audio diary explaining something that went on before the city went under. The story in Bioshock is one of the most mysterious, engaging and disturbed stories I have ever witnessed in a game. There is sooo much backstory, explanations to everything and clues to everything that everything feels extremely alive and believable. All things have a reason and an explanation down there and its up to you to figure it out. Before you are done with the story theres also some twists in it that really blow all other "story twists" away. there are moments of Bioshocks story where it feels alot like the TV series "Lost". You really dont know what is going on..or do you?! And when you think you know they twist it around and you go "Wow, ok so THAAT S why! thats cooool". It also feels very grown up and mature and the game makes use of its M rating all the time. You thought Silent Hill was twisted? Wait until you get deep down into the bowels of Rapture!
The graphics are awesome and the graphical design is even more awesome. The engine they are using is the Unreal 3 eninge wich can be seen in Gears of War (aka the best looking game ever made). Maybe the most technically awesome part of the graphics is the water. Whem developing the game they had a group of very skilled programmers working ONLY on the water for the whole development process. In a game where water is everywhere around you its kind of important that the water looks good, and it does. This is the best looking water effects in a game ever. Period. The design is over the top 50s Art Deco and its sooo gorgeous. The whole city is this temple of superb graphical design. I dont think I´ve ever before stopped to watch the surroundings as many times as I did when playing Bioshock. Every new room you enter is filled with art and details in the environments that you really cant help but stop and stare at. Everything from posters to the total chaos of an abandoned apartment. Everything is so carefully planned and detailed I have yet to see another game ever that has the same amount of detail and care to the world.
The sound design is just the same. Its insanely detailed and with a 5.1 system you truly are IN this world like no other game.
Another element worth brining up is the Little Sisters.Probably one of the greatest gaming elements ever to be put in a shooter. All over the city there are these young girls in little cute dresses running around. They stick needles into dead bodies and draw out the "Adam" in them and then drink it themselves. They are little ghouls and only shadows of their former selves. They are the source to the huge amount of moral choices you will have to make throughout the game. To survive in this crazy city you need this drug to upgrade your genes. But the only way to get "Adam" is to get it from these "little sisters". And they have it in their bodies. You have 2 people guiding you through the city through a comradio. 1 of them gives you a special medecine that can CURE these little sisters. The other one think you should just kill them. If you cure them you wont get as much adam as if you were to actually "harvest" them but you will feel better about yourself and you wont commit a cruel deed. But if you kill them you get a huge amoun of Adam but you also get more addicted to the stuff. Will you save the little girls or will you harvest them for more power? It will affect alot of things before the game is over. And before the game is over you will also have figured out just what these girls are and how they were put into this state of bodyharvesting.
I guess Bioshock is the result of all these things put together in a very sharp package. You have freedom, the ability to play how you want. You can explore, find clues to the great mystery that is Rapture and you can upgrade yourself and kill stuff how you want to. In thix mix we have this great visual and audiodesign and this deep, twisting story that will leave you breathless. Theres plenty of cinematic moments, scary sequences, change in pace and straight up crazy shooter action. Sometimes it feels like Doom 3 and sometimes it feels like a deep RPG. Bioshock drives you to get to the bottom of all the questions that the city throws at you and you wont get any rest before you have figured it all out! Bioshock will leave you scared, on the edge of your seat and with tears in your eyes. It stirrs up strong emotions and it deliveres on every part of the gameplay. its this huge sandbox where you are dropped down and are free to do what you want. Theres actually this whole economy system so if you want you can gather money from an abandoned clothingstore and then go to the casino to try and get a jackpot on the one-armed bandit. Or you could go do a "dead rising" in the shopping mall of the city. Throw hats as enemies from the hatstore or visit the stripclub to figure out the mystery of the dead hooker you find in there and then proceed to drink some coffee in the coffeeshop before you kill the psycho that resides in the part of the mall you are in. I could of course go into details with all the pshycotic people you will run into but Ive gone on long enough about this game now. I can tell you this much. You will run into ALOT of twisted personalities down there. An artist who tries to make one last sick masterpiece and doctor thats never satisfied with only "fixing" his patients.
Ok, Im gonna try and make sense of all this. Its like Doom 3 meets Deus Ex meets Dead Rising meets insanely well written detective story meets survival horror meets Sci-Fi horror movie. Yea, damn, Bioshock would make such a good movie! Theres certainly enough Political and religious aspects to why Andrew Ryan built his city to make it feel very important for the movie audience today!
Dont miss out on this game. The background to this city on the bottom of the ocean is enough to warrant a playthrough, then u have this insane crazy masterpiece of a game on top of it! Game of The year? maybe so! One thing is for sure. I know a couple of more big shooters that comes out this year, and I know that none of them will be THIS insanely immersive!
