A Masterpiece of Interactive Fiction
Irrational Games (now 2K Boston/Australia) has been around for a long while. While the company has a nice track record as far as critical acclaim goes, it wasn't until they released Bioshock that the company met with commercial success and was bought by Take Two subsidiary 2K Games. Of course this isn't a review of Irrational but of their glorious underwater epic, Bioshock.
Bioshock tells the story of a nameless hero whose plane crashes in the ocean next to a mysterious lighthouse. Of course the lighthouse isn't your standard ship beacon but instead is the entrance to the underwater city of Rapture. You quickly realize that Rapture has gone terribly wrong. Instead of a bustling metropolis, the city lies in ruin, its inhabitants addicted to a drug called Adam and its leader hidden in a fortress mourning his loss. As the game starts you are befriended by Atlus, a resident of the city who is trying to save his family from dictator Andrew Ryan's fist of destruction. I'll let you figure out the rest of the story by yourself, but suffice to say this may be one of the few games where you wont guess the ending within the first five minutes. It's also one of the few blockbuster games this year that actually comes to a conclusion rather than a cliffhanger "ending".
While the story in Bioshock is really one of the best in recent memory, it pales in comparison to the ambience that the game exudes. What's more, the ambience plays into the gameplay and vice versa. For example Bioshock's weapons look like they were created from the remnants of a submarine and bare little resemblance to modern weapons. After all Rapture was created in the 50's and the weapons show that. The pistol is a revolver, the machine gun a Tommy and so on. Building this into gameplay, since the guns were pieced together already it only makes sense that you could mod them further and this is possible. What's more, you can really feel the upgrades, especially the ones that lower recoil or increase clip size.
Augmenting weapons isn't your only means of improvement. The other comes from that drug everyone is addicted to called Adam. While I'll leave the how for you to figure out, suffice to say that Adam lets you not only increase your strength and agility, but also gives you access to powers called plasmids. These spell like items allow you to "cast" things like fireballs, electric bolts or ice blasts. There are even more inventive ones that can turn your enemies against each other or tap into the city's security system.
While all of these improvements are great and add a lot of variation to the game, there is a drawback. Essentially the game becomes too easy, especially on the lower difficulty settings. For instance I literally beat the entire game on easy without dying. That's right not a single time. While upping the difficulty obviously adds challenge to the proceedings, the truth is that death sets you back absolutely nowhere. You respawn within 10 feet of where you died and continue fighting your enemy, who remains weakened. This means that you can slowly chip away at an opponent's health without using any of the plasmids or weapon upgrades. Why you wouldn't want to use your fancy weaponry and slaughter everything in sight in moments is beyond me, but then again there isn't much tension either way. Regardless I suggest anyone with even the slightest gaming ability start on at least the normal difficulty level, and that skilled gamers start at the highest difficulty possible.
Combat itself is enjoyable and feels great. I never died to an enemy because of poor controls, but then again I never died period, for any reason. Point is that the game controls as well as a shooter can without a mouse. Combat generally devolves into your standard point and shoot frag-fest, but the plasmids add a lot of variation. It's great to shock you enemies with an electric bolt and then follow up with a shotgun blast to the head. It's all enjoyable and never gets old, even in the final moments of the game. This is surprising because there are only a couple of different enemy types in the game. Essentially there are the melee enemies, gun toting enemies, crawling enemies, grenade toting enemies and those with the ability to transport. In addition there are the colossal Big Daddies. These beasts protect the invulnerable little sisters. These mutated children collect Adam from dead bodies and are essential to the survival of the remaining citizens of Rapture and are one of the most interesting and haunting aspects of Bioshock's incredible fiction.
Early in the game you learn how to harvest or save little sisters. Again I will leave the details for you to discover, but these creatures give you the ability to buy new upgrades and plasmids once you take the Adam they have collected. To harvest the little sisters you must first defeat their Big Daddy guardians. Big Daddies are by far the strongest enemies in the game but that doesn't mean that much speaking most other enemies can be taken out in one or two hits on the easier difficulty settings. Move up to the hardest setting though and the Big Daddies will require you to use all the weapons and abilities you have to eek out a marginal victory. It is here that you can truly appreciate the depth that Bioshock offers. Using the right ammunition from the right gun, combined with the most effective plasmids is the only way to take out a Big Daddy. Irrational has claimed they wanted to make fighting Big Daddies a truly difficult experience and at times this is surely the case. Returning to ambience, an important thing to note about Big Daddies is their look and sound. They resemble divers whose heads have been enlarged and this again keeps with the theme of the game. Better than their look though is their sound. In fact the sound design of this game is utterly flawless.
There are few moments in gaming when you can say that a certain sound brought fear or anticipation to the player. The sound of the Big Daddies do just that. They walk with these heavy footsteps and heavy breathing that makes them almost surreal. They are not alone though, the creeks of the decaying city, the flow of water forever flowing around you, the cling of machinery and the echoing sounds of your weapons all build on the feeling of being in the game. Helping with this is the classic 50's soundtrack as well as a haunting original score, which will leave you with tears or chills long after you turn the system off. To round out the audio package, the voice actors in the game are fabulous. Honestly they are in my book the standard that other voice actors should aspire to. This is one incredible audio package, but don't forget the visuals.
You'd think an underwater city would look unique, and it sure as hell does. Irrational claimed it was going for a classic art deco style and they have succeeded wonderfully. While I could go on about the sharp textures, HDR lighting, particle effects and so on, it is really the art style that makes the game, not the laundry list of admittedly impressive technical feats. Bioshock looks glorious. From the morbid characters, to the aforementioned Big Daddies, to the incredibly animated Little Sisters, all the way to the shockingly diverse and realistic environments, every aspect on the visuals is built almost flawlessly. Special mention must go to the water effects, which are seriously the best you have seen in a game.
Overall Bioshock is one of the greatest gaming experiences of the year. The unique RPG/Shooter gameplay mix, the mind-boggling audiovisual package, the beautifully told and hauntingly powerful story, and the stellar ambience combine to ensure that Bioshock rocks like few other games this year. If the game weren't so lenient when it comes to difficulty then I would call this game the perfect single player experience. As it is, Bioshock is the best new IP I have played this year and in a year of such massive success that is quite an achievement.
Bioshock tells the story of a nameless hero whose plane crashes in the ocean next to a mysterious lighthouse. Of course the lighthouse isn't your standard ship beacon but instead is the entrance to the underwater city of Rapture. You quickly realize that Rapture has gone terribly wrong. Instead of a bustling metropolis, the city lies in ruin, its inhabitants addicted to a drug called Adam and its leader hidden in a fortress mourning his loss. As the game starts you are befriended by Atlus, a resident of the city who is trying to save his family from dictator Andrew Ryan's fist of destruction. I'll let you figure out the rest of the story by yourself, but suffice to say this may be one of the few games where you wont guess the ending within the first five minutes. It's also one of the few blockbuster games this year that actually comes to a conclusion rather than a cliffhanger "ending".
While the story in Bioshock is really one of the best in recent memory, it pales in comparison to the ambience that the game exudes. What's more, the ambience plays into the gameplay and vice versa. For example Bioshock's weapons look like they were created from the remnants of a submarine and bare little resemblance to modern weapons. After all Rapture was created in the 50's and the weapons show that. The pistol is a revolver, the machine gun a Tommy and so on. Building this into gameplay, since the guns were pieced together already it only makes sense that you could mod them further and this is possible. What's more, you can really feel the upgrades, especially the ones that lower recoil or increase clip size.
Augmenting weapons isn't your only means of improvement. The other comes from that drug everyone is addicted to called Adam. While I'll leave the how for you to figure out, suffice to say that Adam lets you not only increase your strength and agility, but also gives you access to powers called plasmids. These spell like items allow you to "cast" things like fireballs, electric bolts or ice blasts. There are even more inventive ones that can turn your enemies against each other or tap into the city's security system.
While all of these improvements are great and add a lot of variation to the game, there is a drawback. Essentially the game becomes too easy, especially on the lower difficulty settings. For instance I literally beat the entire game on easy without dying. That's right not a single time. While upping the difficulty obviously adds challenge to the proceedings, the truth is that death sets you back absolutely nowhere. You respawn within 10 feet of where you died and continue fighting your enemy, who remains weakened. This means that you can slowly chip away at an opponent's health without using any of the plasmids or weapon upgrades. Why you wouldn't want to use your fancy weaponry and slaughter everything in sight in moments is beyond me, but then again there isn't much tension either way. Regardless I suggest anyone with even the slightest gaming ability start on at least the normal difficulty level, and that skilled gamers start at the highest difficulty possible.
Combat itself is enjoyable and feels great. I never died to an enemy because of poor controls, but then again I never died period, for any reason. Point is that the game controls as well as a shooter can without a mouse. Combat generally devolves into your standard point and shoot frag-fest, but the plasmids add a lot of variation. It's great to shock you enemies with an electric bolt and then follow up with a shotgun blast to the head. It's all enjoyable and never gets old, even in the final moments of the game. This is surprising because there are only a couple of different enemy types in the game. Essentially there are the melee enemies, gun toting enemies, crawling enemies, grenade toting enemies and those with the ability to transport. In addition there are the colossal Big Daddies. These beasts protect the invulnerable little sisters. These mutated children collect Adam from dead bodies and are essential to the survival of the remaining citizens of Rapture and are one of the most interesting and haunting aspects of Bioshock's incredible fiction.
Early in the game you learn how to harvest or save little sisters. Again I will leave the details for you to discover, but these creatures give you the ability to buy new upgrades and plasmids once you take the Adam they have collected. To harvest the little sisters you must first defeat their Big Daddy guardians. Big Daddies are by far the strongest enemies in the game but that doesn't mean that much speaking most other enemies can be taken out in one or two hits on the easier difficulty settings. Move up to the hardest setting though and the Big Daddies will require you to use all the weapons and abilities you have to eek out a marginal victory. It is here that you can truly appreciate the depth that Bioshock offers. Using the right ammunition from the right gun, combined with the most effective plasmids is the only way to take out a Big Daddy. Irrational has claimed they wanted to make fighting Big Daddies a truly difficult experience and at times this is surely the case. Returning to ambience, an important thing to note about Big Daddies is their look and sound. They resemble divers whose heads have been enlarged and this again keeps with the theme of the game. Better than their look though is their sound. In fact the sound design of this game is utterly flawless.
There are few moments in gaming when you can say that a certain sound brought fear or anticipation to the player. The sound of the Big Daddies do just that. They walk with these heavy footsteps and heavy breathing that makes them almost surreal. They are not alone though, the creeks of the decaying city, the flow of water forever flowing around you, the cling of machinery and the echoing sounds of your weapons all build on the feeling of being in the game. Helping with this is the classic 50's soundtrack as well as a haunting original score, which will leave you with tears or chills long after you turn the system off. To round out the audio package, the voice actors in the game are fabulous. Honestly they are in my book the standard that other voice actors should aspire to. This is one incredible audio package, but don't forget the visuals.
You'd think an underwater city would look unique, and it sure as hell does. Irrational claimed it was going for a classic art deco style and they have succeeded wonderfully. While I could go on about the sharp textures, HDR lighting, particle effects and so on, it is really the art style that makes the game, not the laundry list of admittedly impressive technical feats. Bioshock looks glorious. From the morbid characters, to the aforementioned Big Daddies, to the incredibly animated Little Sisters, all the way to the shockingly diverse and realistic environments, every aspect on the visuals is built almost flawlessly. Special mention must go to the water effects, which are seriously the best you have seen in a game.
Overall Bioshock is one of the greatest gaming experiences of the year. The unique RPG/Shooter gameplay mix, the mind-boggling audiovisual package, the beautifully told and hauntingly powerful story, and the stellar ambience combine to ensure that Bioshock rocks like few other games this year. If the game weren't so lenient when it comes to difficulty then I would call this game the perfect single player experience. As it is, Bioshock is the best new IP I have played this year and in a year of such massive success that is quite an achievement.
