All That is Good Flows Into This Game
BioShock is an amazing game that will not disappoint.
If there was one game that really made me go "Wow." it was BioShock. Once you've got this game installed and running, prepare for an amazing trip under the sea into this genre defining game. Now, would you kindly follow me into the rest of this review?
Start to finish, BioShock has some of the best storytelling out there. The game starts you off in the middle of a plane crash, and even though you seemingly crashed in the middle of the ocean, an enormous spire is just a few yards away from where you land, and immediately you are greeted by a golden bust of Andrew Ryan, one of the game's main antagonists and a banner declaring "No Gods or Kings. Only Man." The art direction of this game is top notch. The world is so masterfully crafted that it will pull you in and won't let you go until it is all over. And even though the game takes place in Rapture, a city utopia-turned-dystopia, the short breaks for ads whenever you obtain a new plasmid or the charm of the vending machines: their jingles echoing through the halls of the city under the sea that is Rapture.
BioShock is a First Person Shooter with Role-Playing elements. You will collect Plasmids throughout your exploration of Rapture which are either special abilities like shooting lightning or telekinesis, all of which have their own unique look when you have them active, or passive abilities, like gaining health whenever you hit something with your wrench, or being able to resist damage. The system isn't all that deep- it is mainly mix and match to your liking, so you won't be bogged down or overwhelmed by the system. On the flipside, there are quite a few weapons in the game, all of which can be upgraded at the correct vending machine and have three different ammo types to pick from. And even the weapons illustrate the attention to detail, some of which look as though they were clearly built from the limited supplies the citizens of Rapture had. You'll be able to get everything from a Magnum, to a Chemical Launcher (IE, Flamethrower) and much more. There is another "weapon" you will pick up, the camera, which allows you to photograph your enemies. Each photograph is rated and then raises your research against that particular foe, increasing your effectiveness against them or unlocking new plasmids for you to use.
Going back to the visuals and sounds, Rapture looks and feels like a city that has gone to Hell. There are fragments of the world that once had been amongst the ruins, like a banner saying "Happy New Year 1959!" or the masks the various splicers, the insane inhabitants of Rapture that stalk the hallways, and some of the most powerful scenes for setting the mood and environment of the city come from the splicers themselves. In one early scene, you can notice the shadow of a splicer over a baby carriage singing a lullaby, a shadow of her former life, and it isn't until after you dispatch the splicer that you realize there is nothing in the carriage itself. At the same time, Rapture is falling apart mechanically. Many times you are restoring systems or just in the wrong place at the wrong time, like when a tunnel partially shatters, and ocean water starts flooding in. Everything about the environment just keeps you in and makes everything just seem so alive.
One complaint is that while the game touts multiple endings, they are two extremes and it is too easy to fall into one of the endings with only one action governing which you get. Throughout the game, morality steps in when you are confronted by the ever-present Big Daddies who are escorting ADAM (the "currency" used to buy plasmids) harvesters, the Little Sisters. Upon killing the Big Daddy, you are presented with the choice of either Harvesting all the ADAM the Little Sister has, or releasing her from her servitude to Rapture (yielding less ADAM upfront), returning her to her child-like innocence. In the end, the main bearing this choice has is on the ending: harvest at least one Little Sister and it is the "bad" ending for you, but if you don't touch any of them and let them all go free, you get the "good" ending. Other than that, the main difference is if you choose the "good" path, the Little Sisters will reward you with gifts, effectively making up for the ADAM you don't get by harvesting them and yielding a few extra plasmids as well. We can only hope BioShock 2 has a more fluid morality and ending system.
If you like shooters or a good story, get BioShock. You won't go wrong owning this game. It is quite possibly one of the best games released in recent years, and my only gripes are minimal. There is the deal where you can only activate your copy three times apparently, but that has yet to affect me, and I believe you can contact THQ to free up activations. So buyers beware, you may need an internet connection to activate this game prior to playing.
If there was one game that really made me go "Wow." it was BioShock. Once you've got this game installed and running, prepare for an amazing trip under the sea into this genre defining game. Now, would you kindly follow me into the rest of this review?
Start to finish, BioShock has some of the best storytelling out there. The game starts you off in the middle of a plane crash, and even though you seemingly crashed in the middle of the ocean, an enormous spire is just a few yards away from where you land, and immediately you are greeted by a golden bust of Andrew Ryan, one of the game's main antagonists and a banner declaring "No Gods or Kings. Only Man." The art direction of this game is top notch. The world is so masterfully crafted that it will pull you in and won't let you go until it is all over. And even though the game takes place in Rapture, a city utopia-turned-dystopia, the short breaks for ads whenever you obtain a new plasmid or the charm of the vending machines: their jingles echoing through the halls of the city under the sea that is Rapture.
BioShock is a First Person Shooter with Role-Playing elements. You will collect Plasmids throughout your exploration of Rapture which are either special abilities like shooting lightning or telekinesis, all of which have their own unique look when you have them active, or passive abilities, like gaining health whenever you hit something with your wrench, or being able to resist damage. The system isn't all that deep- it is mainly mix and match to your liking, so you won't be bogged down or overwhelmed by the system. On the flipside, there are quite a few weapons in the game, all of which can be upgraded at the correct vending machine and have three different ammo types to pick from. And even the weapons illustrate the attention to detail, some of which look as though they were clearly built from the limited supplies the citizens of Rapture had. You'll be able to get everything from a Magnum, to a Chemical Launcher (IE, Flamethrower) and much more. There is another "weapon" you will pick up, the camera, which allows you to photograph your enemies. Each photograph is rated and then raises your research against that particular foe, increasing your effectiveness against them or unlocking new plasmids for you to use.
Going back to the visuals and sounds, Rapture looks and feels like a city that has gone to Hell. There are fragments of the world that once had been amongst the ruins, like a banner saying "Happy New Year 1959!" or the masks the various splicers, the insane inhabitants of Rapture that stalk the hallways, and some of the most powerful scenes for setting the mood and environment of the city come from the splicers themselves. In one early scene, you can notice the shadow of a splicer over a baby carriage singing a lullaby, a shadow of her former life, and it isn't until after you dispatch the splicer that you realize there is nothing in the carriage itself. At the same time, Rapture is falling apart mechanically. Many times you are restoring systems or just in the wrong place at the wrong time, like when a tunnel partially shatters, and ocean water starts flooding in. Everything about the environment just keeps you in and makes everything just seem so alive.
One complaint is that while the game touts multiple endings, they are two extremes and it is too easy to fall into one of the endings with only one action governing which you get. Throughout the game, morality steps in when you are confronted by the ever-present Big Daddies who are escorting ADAM (the "currency" used to buy plasmids) harvesters, the Little Sisters. Upon killing the Big Daddy, you are presented with the choice of either Harvesting all the ADAM the Little Sister has, or releasing her from her servitude to Rapture (yielding less ADAM upfront), returning her to her child-like innocence. In the end, the main bearing this choice has is on the ending: harvest at least one Little Sister and it is the "bad" ending for you, but if you don't touch any of them and let them all go free, you get the "good" ending. Other than that, the main difference is if you choose the "good" path, the Little Sisters will reward you with gifts, effectively making up for the ADAM you don't get by harvesting them and yielding a few extra plasmids as well. We can only hope BioShock 2 has a more fluid morality and ending system.
If you like shooters or a good story, get BioShock. You won't go wrong owning this game. It is quite possibly one of the best games released in recent years, and my only gripes are minimal. There is the deal where you can only activate your copy three times apparently, but that has yet to affect me, and I believe you can contact THQ to free up activations. So buyers beware, you may need an internet connection to activate this game prior to playing.
