Everything's better, down where it's wetter. Under the sea.
Bioshock, by now, is a game that really needs no introduction. It's a game that absolutely knocks the door down and brings about the real "next-gen" that both Microsoft and Sony have been touting about since 2006. Easily one of (if not the) best games of 2007, and worth the purchase of a 360 in order to play it.
The game is a first person shooter that puts you in the role of a man in search of his lost identity, and a man that gets dropped into the fantastical underwater world of "Rapture" after a freak airplane accident. What he discovers in Rapture is a deteriorating utopia built by Andrew Ryan, corporate elitist and megalomaniac. As the story progresses our "hero" discovers that this new world is crumbling under the weight of its own greed, corruption, and just a little genetic experimentation. And with the help of one desperate Rapturian citizen named "Atlas" our hero learns about a mysterious substance called "ADAM", that not all is what it seems, and that he just might have a vague connection to it all of it.
The thing that immediately pops about Bioshock is its visual and audio depth. The game looks absolutely fantastic, and sounds even better. The amount of care that went into things like water effects and the intricate architecture of Rapture is only heightened by a sound design that is completely bar none. Every turn around a new corner brings a new discovery. The overall theme stays the same (wet, 1940-ish art deco), but somehow no two levels look quite the same. Throwing in a sound design where I found myself locating enemies via sound more often than I did sight is just icing on a very delicious audio/visual cake. By the time the game is finished it really sinks in that you've been exposed to one of most original and cohesive game worlds and stories of the last 10 years.
It would also be an absolute crime to not mention one of the most original sets of (enemy?) characters in the Big Daddy/Little Sister combo. The very first time you run into this pair, and try to take down the Big Daddy, is the kind of stuff ripped from video game legend. The sense that your hands just wrote a check that your controller can't cash is almost palpable and will go down in my mental library as one of the greatest video game moments of ALL time. The look and feel of the Big Daddy and Little Sister is so unique, and so rewarding, that I have a feeling that their image is the new "icon" of the next-gen. Big Daddy and Little Sister are this generation's version of Mario and Master Chief, they are now part of video game's history and legacy, and game players are all the better off for them.
The game also has it going on in the control department too. It's the standard FPS set up, but with a plasmid twist. Plasmids are this game's version of elemental and psychic attacks. The left hand is used for these attacks which include elemental attacks like ice, fire, and electric shock, to psychic attacks like mind control, levitation, and the ability to mark enemies to be attacked by Rapture's various security systems. The right hand is used for the standard inventory of guns and weapons. Things like a wrench, pistol, and machine gun, all the way up to big guns like a rocket launcher and quasi-flame thrower. All items are also ultimately upgradeable via things like Weapons Upgrade stations, ADAM stations, and various tonics discovered throughout the game. It's all quite solid with a very fluid weapon changing setup by holding down the left and right bumpers on the 360 controller.
The game has a nice setup of optional quests too, which end up tying in pretty heavily with the game's achievement points system. Most involve collecting things like tonics, or taking pictures of the various enemies within Rapture, after acquiring the camera that is. The achievement I seemed to enjoy the most though was the collecting of "Audio Diaries" that are scattered throughout the doomed city. Not only did I enjoy collecting them all, but listening to them really added to the back story of Rapture and makes the world feel all the more tactile. It's also a bonus that most points are given during the natural progression of the game, through normal play, with only a couple of them requiring that you pay massive attention or do things in a particular order.
*cough*Sander Cohen*cough*
With all of that, Bioshock has very little to complain about. The difficulty, with the inclusion of the Vita-Chambers, tends to blunt the overall challenge due to the fact that it kind of eliminates any penalty of dying, but I'm told that the latest patch allows you to turn off the Vita-Chambers, so it's really a non-issue. I've also heard some complain about the lack of multi-player, but in the end I can easily sacrifice a so-so multi-player experience for a single player campaign with the magnitude of Bioshock's. It can also be said that after all the build up in Bioshock's story, the final boss fight and ending cinema feel a tad bit anticlimactic.
But again, like I said at the top of the review, regardless of a couple of minor quibbles, Bioshock is still one the best games of 2007 regardless of platform or lack of a multi-player. A must play for anyone with an Xbox 360, fans of FPSes, and fans of really solid, twisted, dystopian sci-fi stories, and Bioshock is my personal pick for Game of the Year 2007.
+Great, fresh feeling gaming world to play around in
+Fantastic new video game characters in the Big Daddy/Little Sister combo
+Great "turn you on your head" storyline
+Plasmids are fun to experiment with
-Anticlimactic final boss fight and ending
The game is a first person shooter that puts you in the role of a man in search of his lost identity, and a man that gets dropped into the fantastical underwater world of "Rapture" after a freak airplane accident. What he discovers in Rapture is a deteriorating utopia built by Andrew Ryan, corporate elitist and megalomaniac. As the story progresses our "hero" discovers that this new world is crumbling under the weight of its own greed, corruption, and just a little genetic experimentation. And with the help of one desperate Rapturian citizen named "Atlas" our hero learns about a mysterious substance called "ADAM", that not all is what it seems, and that he just might have a vague connection to it all of it.
The thing that immediately pops about Bioshock is its visual and audio depth. The game looks absolutely fantastic, and sounds even better. The amount of care that went into things like water effects and the intricate architecture of Rapture is only heightened by a sound design that is completely bar none. Every turn around a new corner brings a new discovery. The overall theme stays the same (wet, 1940-ish art deco), but somehow no two levels look quite the same. Throwing in a sound design where I found myself locating enemies via sound more often than I did sight is just icing on a very delicious audio/visual cake. By the time the game is finished it really sinks in that you've been exposed to one of most original and cohesive game worlds and stories of the last 10 years.
It would also be an absolute crime to not mention one of the most original sets of (enemy?) characters in the Big Daddy/Little Sister combo. The very first time you run into this pair, and try to take down the Big Daddy, is the kind of stuff ripped from video game legend. The sense that your hands just wrote a check that your controller can't cash is almost palpable and will go down in my mental library as one of the greatest video game moments of ALL time. The look and feel of the Big Daddy and Little Sister is so unique, and so rewarding, that I have a feeling that their image is the new "icon" of the next-gen. Big Daddy and Little Sister are this generation's version of Mario and Master Chief, they are now part of video game's history and legacy, and game players are all the better off for them.
The game also has it going on in the control department too. It's the standard FPS set up, but with a plasmid twist. Plasmids are this game's version of elemental and psychic attacks. The left hand is used for these attacks which include elemental attacks like ice, fire, and electric shock, to psychic attacks like mind control, levitation, and the ability to mark enemies to be attacked by Rapture's various security systems. The right hand is used for the standard inventory of guns and weapons. Things like a wrench, pistol, and machine gun, all the way up to big guns like a rocket launcher and quasi-flame thrower. All items are also ultimately upgradeable via things like Weapons Upgrade stations, ADAM stations, and various tonics discovered throughout the game. It's all quite solid with a very fluid weapon changing setup by holding down the left and right bumpers on the 360 controller.
The game has a nice setup of optional quests too, which end up tying in pretty heavily with the game's achievement points system. Most involve collecting things like tonics, or taking pictures of the various enemies within Rapture, after acquiring the camera that is. The achievement I seemed to enjoy the most though was the collecting of "Audio Diaries" that are scattered throughout the doomed city. Not only did I enjoy collecting them all, but listening to them really added to the back story of Rapture and makes the world feel all the more tactile. It's also a bonus that most points are given during the natural progression of the game, through normal play, with only a couple of them requiring that you pay massive attention or do things in a particular order.
*cough*Sander Cohen*cough*
With all of that, Bioshock has very little to complain about. The difficulty, with the inclusion of the Vita-Chambers, tends to blunt the overall challenge due to the fact that it kind of eliminates any penalty of dying, but I'm told that the latest patch allows you to turn off the Vita-Chambers, so it's really a non-issue. I've also heard some complain about the lack of multi-player, but in the end I can easily sacrifice a so-so multi-player experience for a single player campaign with the magnitude of Bioshock's. It can also be said that after all the build up in Bioshock's story, the final boss fight and ending cinema feel a tad bit anticlimactic.
But again, like I said at the top of the review, regardless of a couple of minor quibbles, Bioshock is still one the best games of 2007 regardless of platform or lack of a multi-player. A must play for anyone with an Xbox 360, fans of FPSes, and fans of really solid, twisted, dystopian sci-fi stories, and Bioshock is my personal pick for Game of the Year 2007.
+Great, fresh feeling gaming world to play around in
+Fantastic new video game characters in the Big Daddy/Little Sister combo
+Great "turn you on your head" storyline
+Plasmids are fun to experiment with
-Anticlimactic final boss fight and ending
