BioShock

Shocked doesn’t even begin to describe how your going to feel when you enter the world of Rapture. A world where the limits of humanity and science are not restricted in how far they can advance, or go out of control.  Ken Levine has sunk us to the bottom of the sea and instead of finding an aquatic utopia, Bioshock has delivered a chilling vision of what man is capable without limits.

            You enter rapture to the narration of Andrew Ryan, visionary and founder of this underwater city.  During your journey to the sea bed you immediately start to become swallowed in the narrative and story of Bioshock as whilst Mr Ryan explains the basic ideological principles and philosophy behind his creation, you cant help feeling like your getting deeper not only in fathoms, but also in the amount of trouble you’ve been landed in.  Upon docking after getting a truly breathtaking view of Rapture, your suspicions are confirmed as everything is far from Rosy (you’ll meet a Rosie later though so don’t worry). In front of you a man is gutted by something that looks human, but has scythes for limbs and is covered in blood. After disembowelling the first person you’ve met, the creature springs from wall to wall screaming and howling and eventually scampering off into the dank shadows.  This is your introduction to Bioshock and you wouldn’t be blamed for turning back now, but what awaits you is not merely the horror of the situation, but also the story of why this has happened and how you are going to fix it.

            The characters and development of plot is one of the many things that set Bioshock miles ahead of its competition. Its narrative is rich and atmospheric in its presentation, which is told not through the usual cut scenes but through the environment, soundtrack and action. In fact the entire game is played start to finish in first person with the one exception being a cut scene at the end. The affect of this is that you never feel disconnected from the world and are constantly living (or dying) in the moment. The musical score adds to the experience with dramatic overtures, effective use of subtle piano pieces and an overall creepy vibe that makes the world of Rapture that much more realised. To complete the emersion, the world itself is beautifully depicted in extraordinary detail and the animations of each character and enemy are smooth and organic. Overall the look and feel of Bioshock is a presentation of the highest level. With the production quality so high, it really is hard to find any fault with Bioshock’s appearance and you’d be hard pushed to find a more enveloping experience.

            So its looks amazing, sounds amazing, and tells an amazing story, so how does it play?  Simply put, Amazingly. Its roots are in first person shooter territory but where Bioshock differs from the usual run and gun shooter is that it’s not just an FPS, it’s also kind of an action-RPG as well. Throughout the game you will be learning new abilities which will allow you to do things like set people on fire, shoot bee’s from your arm, hypnotise your enemies and so on. Sounds weird right? Well it’s certainly not normal but then again not a lot about Rapture is.  The premise is that Rapture is a city where science has free reign to make any advancements whatsoever in the interest of a free economy.  The result is that people can now buy genetic upgrades (called plasmids) which have various applications, usually with a generally destructive theme. You can buy these, find them or get given them, each having its own use and there’s enough variation with them to stay fresh throughout the games length.  They’re genuinely well thought out and range from simple projectile uses to environmental and situational applications.  Using the plasmids in conjunction with both melee and projectile weapons is the key to Bioshock’s core game play and also it’s what makes it a game with some of the most engaging game play of the year.

            The enemies you will come across are in fact the inhabitants of Rapture who have gone mad through ‘splicing up’ which basically means that they couldn’t get enough of a good thing. These guys are fast, have the same plasmids you will come across and are generally completely bonkers. Scattered throughout rapture are also a few characters that serve as bosses and are generally more twisted than a slinky that’s been through a tumble dryer.  Really good characterisation in both the main characters and also within the standard weirdo’s brings the whole game to life and can be genuinely terrifying. However terrifying doesn’t even begin to explain the sensation you’ll get when you first come across a big daddy. These hulking guardians are spliced up individuals who have been placed in a diving suit and complemented with various industrial tools such as pile drivers, drills etc. What are they guarding? Little Sisters. These girls have the sole job of harvesting ‘adam’ which allows people to accept plasmids and so are in high demand. However getting to them means you going to have to deal with the Big Daddy. Just the sound these guys make is enough to think twice about going anywhere near them let alone their sheer size and power. Beating them requires you to make quick decisions with your plasmids and stay on your toes but get the big boy down and the bounty is yours.

Now comes he dilemma. Bioshock has created true moral choice in the game that doesn’t rely on good and evil meters or generic dialogue trees. The choice is that you can either harvest the girl and claim the ‘adam’, or let her go and get half the ‘adam’. The obvious choice is take it all but once you’ve harvested a little sister you really wont be able to look at yourself in the mirror quite the same again.  A genuine heart string puller, the depiction of the little sister in your hands is enough to make you really consider if making yourself more powerful is really worth it.

Bioshock does have very few things that could be better, but it does have its faults. The few niggling blemishes on this otherwise amazing game don’t detract from the overall experience but are worth mentioning. Despite it looking beautiful for instance, there is some texture pop-up, but it’s rare. Also the final person (whoever they may be) that you will fight is a boss who is more generic than a pencil and can be beaten by merely circle strafing whilst gunning him down. The only other thing that some may find annoying is that when you die you don’t actually die. You get revived in a chamber but once you get back to the enemy you were fighting, you realise that he hasn’t regenerated. Simply running into enemies, getting one hit off, and then repeating the process once you’ve been revived can therefore beat the game.  The aspect of challenge could therefore be said to be slightly removed, but for in reality it just means that there is no excuse for not finishing this amazing game.

A must buy, Bioshock raises the bar for shooters and for story driven games in general. There is no multiplayer which would have been fun but the single player is so substantial that if a tacked on multiplayer had been featured then it might have tarnished an otherwise near perfect experience and multiplayer has been promised for the next instalment. One of the best games to hit the 360