Hype Muffin
Deep underwater, on the Atlantic seabed, lies a city of freedom, a city of possibilities, a city of dreams. Welcome to Rapture, Andrew Ryan's utopian society turned nightmarish ordeal. Obsessions with power as well as genetic and cosmetic modification drives the inhabitants of the underwater society to chaos, leaving a desolate and broken city in its wake. After a fiery plane crash, Jack stumbles into the anarchic city, and with the aid of a mysterious man named Atlas, must fight his way out. Bioshock's phenomenal setting is matched with tense and hectic FPS action, mixed in with super-human plasmid powers. Some repetition and frustrating gameplay does little to diminish this extraordinary action adventure.
You may be thinking to yourself that this is just another run-of-the-mill anti-utopian underwater city full of steampunk-esque equipment set in 1960, but you'd be ignoring all the details that really bring Rapture to life. The 50s style artwork and advertisements lining the walls, the abundant brass and glass structures hanging over you, the variety of audio logs and scenery details all flesh out Rapture into a fantastically constructed and truly imaginative city. Adam Ryan and the hellish struggles that Rapture has been through create a genuinely interesting setting that you'll want to jump into, and learn the sordid history that led to the city's downfall. Unfortunately, your character has no character; he never speaks, and for much of the game his presence seems arbitrary and even forced. Shocking revelations bring secrets to light, but the player's character still comes across as fairly lifeless. It may be an attempt on the developers' part to put you in Jack's shoes, allowing you to craft his personality, but there isn't much for you to invest in, and ultimately leaves an unexpectedly weak ending.
Health and EVE (plasmid power) is displayed in the upper left corner, ammo in the lower left.
Bioshock is essentially an FPS, but the introduction of plasmids puts a whole different spin on the gameplay. Injecting yourself with gene-altering plasmids grants super-human abilities, such as shooting fire or lightning from your hand, or moving objects with telekinesis. While some are necessary to progress in the game, many are optional and are meant to assist you in battle, such as fooling enemies with a dummy figure of yourself, or setting enemies against one another. Additionally, you can equip a variety of tonics to grant you other helpful abilities, such as extra health from healing items, or stronger defense. Mixing and matching plasmids and tonics grants you a strong level of customization over how you play; some may be more useful for stealth gameplay, while others are better used when running into the fray, guns blazing. It's up to you how to play the game.
When you do have to fight, though, you'll have plasmids and guns at your disposal. Using both effectively is the key to success, as relying on only one or the other makes for slow progress. Thankfully it is quite easy and simple to transition from a plasmid to a weapon, so the action never slows down. When you're in the heat of combat, you'll be glad you have plasmids to stall enemies while you reload your guns. When you get into serious battles there's a lot happening at once, which can be dizzying if you don't keep your head and use your plasmids efficiently. It's also quite easy to scroll through your weapons by holding down R1, allowing you to switch from an empty gun to a fully loaded one to quickly finish off an opponent. With a variety of guns, there's plenty to switch around when fighting. Outside of boss battles, the most daunting enemies that you'll fight are Big Daddies, the massive diving-suit clad guardians of Little Sisters. Little Sisters possess valuable ADAM which allows you to buy new plasmids and tonics. As such, Little Sisters are invaluable resources, and their overgrown guardians must be dealt with accordingly. You have an option of how to proceed with the girls, though. Killing them extracts more ADAM, but along the more humane route, you can "rescue" them from the sea slug that generates the ADAM inside their body, healing them of the terrible affliction that Ryan and his scientists have beset upon the defenseless girls. Your choices will affect your ADAM availability (affecting your battle progress) as well as the ending of the game, so choose with caution.
Big Daddies are powerful, brutal, and relentless. Don't be afraid to use your best ammunition on them.
There is only one key minigame available in the game, but it repeats itself ad nauseum. It's the hacking minigame, where you hack vending machines, gun turrets, or safes to gain control of them. In a grid of varying sizes, you have to connect one end of the pipe with the other, avoiding hazards along the way. The first few times hacking is a lot of fun, and makes a good break from the gunplay, but with so much stuff to hack, it grows old quickly. Occasionally you'll even run into a grid that is impossible to finish due to overabundant hazards--an absurdly frustrating situation. Thankfully, there are ways to bypass hacking, either through buyouts or using automatic hacking tools, and many machines you don't necessarily have to hack (you can destroy them or swallow the extra expense on your wallet) but the minigame is still rather ridiculously overused.
There's also plenty of exploration elements in Bioshock, though. Rapture is a massive city, and you'll wander through a number of its subsections as you pursue freedom from the underwater hell. As you explore, there's a strong sense of tension and oppression, as you never really know what will come up next. When you enter a new area there are few restrictions on where you can go, but since the objectives are largely linear and most are fetch quests, it's easier to follow the progression that the game lays out for you to avoid retreading the same areas over and over. Even so, many missions will have you going through the same areas over and over, and while the environments are beautiful, it can be tiring to see the same "collect these items" objective pop up again and again. It would have been nice to see a little more variety in the game objectives, especially in the same areas.
Don't get cocky when the hacking grid is small; these are often the most devious grids to complete.
The controls are a little complex, but then there's a lot to learn at the beginning of the game. Once you get the controls down, it's a smooth ride as you shoot plasmids with L2, fire your gun with R2, and heal/reload/interact with the face buttons. As mentioned earlier, holding R2 to quickly scroll through weapons is not only convenient, it's downright necessary once your arsenal starts growing. Unfortunately you aren't able to customize the button configuration, which may irk some players, but ultimately it's unnecessary. The buttons are placed as logically as they can be, given the variety of functions you can perform, and though it's a little annoying when multiple actions are mapped to the same button, the controls work pretty easily.
This game is just gorgeous. In both art direction and technical output, Bioshock is stunning. Light shines and shimmers off of reflective metal surfaces and pools of water, 50s style artwork and advertisements line the walls of the hallways you walk down, and shining neon lights glow in the eerie underwater environment. It's easy to get caught up in the scenery, and forget to watch your back for stealthy enemies. The game is superbly detailed with a 50s atmosphere, largely helped by the sound direction. Decrepit record players drone on with oldie hits or other 50s era sounds, adding just the right haunting ambiance to the trashed and desolate areas you explore. Furthermore, there is some fantastic voice acting; it's varied, distinctive, and communicates each character's personality clearly. With so many little cues via sound, you really need to keep your ears open, and listen to all the audio logs you find to round out your understanding of Rapture. This was once a beautiful city, now turned horrific, and everything in the presentation conveys that idea.
The scenery is gorgeous, amazingly detailed, and haunting.
Bioshock's mileage may vary from player to player, depending on how much side exploring you conduct or how drawn into the ambiance you are. Approximately 15 to 20 hours will see you through the game, depending on how quickly you rush through some scenes, but it's still a very strong length for such an original experience. In addition to the variety of plasmids and tonics to experiment with, the game offers multiple difficulty levels and alternate endings to entice you to play again, though these will likely only draw the most obsessive fans. A few extra bucks will yield some downloadable extra missions, in case you haven't gotten your fill of Rapture. Regardless, there's no question that you're getting your money's worth with this game.
Bioshock is simply an unmatched experience, using an impressively beautiful and captivating setting with a fascinating history. Gameplay is enhanced with plasmids and frantic battles, and the presentation is nothing short of amazing. Though Jack's story feels a little bland and the gameplay has a habit of repeating itself, just exploring the city of Rapture is wondrously absorbing adventure, the kind that truly cannot be missed by any gamer.
9/10
