Bioshock Review

The story to Bioshock is a simple one, at first. Your character is in a plane over the Atlantic Ocean when turbulence hits and the place crashes right in the sea. You make your way to a lighthouse that is situated nearby and find a sphere waiting to take you down to the murky depths of Rapture, the city under the sea. The city must have once been a great place with all the world’s leading doctors and scientists working down in a private setting doing whatever they wanted, however it is now a wreak as all of the inhabitants are high on a substance called ADAM that gives great power. You must traverse through this wreckage and try to find your way out.

Basically the people of Rapture have turned into some form of half humans; they have morphed their body with Plasmids and ADAM turning them into beings that are not quite human. Plasmids, of course, are this games major draw as without them it would have just been another shooter with a great story. Plasmids are things, powered by EVE, which you inject into yourself to genetically modify your being so that you can do extraordinary things. These powers can range from shooting bees out of your hands to blowing the denizens of Rapture away with a huge force of wind. There are loads of plasmids to choose from but you can get through the whole game with just a select few which are the ones that you have to get at the beginning. This is one of the game’s biggest flaws; it gives you a large range of powers to choose from but still makes you use some in certain situations. When you come across a door with a fried control system you have to use the ‘electro-bolt’ Plasmid. When you come to a big hunk of ice, you have to use ‘incinerate’, it gives you choice but at times takes it away from you.

Along with the Plasmids you pick up there are also a number of weapons that you can use. You start out with a wrench and later get a number of guns like in other games (machine-gun, shotgun etc) but the weapons towards the end of the game are what really make up for the lacklustre starting weapons. Near the end you get a great big flamethrower which, while consumes a load of ammo, is amazing to wield. You also get a grenade launcher that can fire RPG missiles and a crossbow. What set’s this apart slightly from your usual shooter is the different types of ammo you can stick into these weapons. Every weapon in the game has three sets of ammo it can use (except the wrench of course). With the revolver you get antipersonnel rounds and armour-piercing rounds, with the shotgun you get exploding bucks and electric bucks and with the aforementioned Chemical launcher (flamethrower) you can also get electric gel and liquid nitrogen. The different types of ammo add a small layer of depth to the proceedings. Do you take out this turret with the armour piercing rounds or do you wait for the next Big Daddy?

Ah, the Big Daddy. The most prominent enemy of the game is the creature featured on the case, the massive diving-suit clad protector of the Little Sisters. When you have gotten past one of these things you feature a moral choice with the little sister. Do you take all of her ADAM, thus making yourself more powerful, or do you rescue her from her torture and turn her back into a normal little girl, getting only a small amount of ADAM? Although this choice features very prominently in the game, it only gives you two endings, one of which is good, very good in fact where you are some angel and never do anything wrong, and the other is a extremely evil ending where you are the complete opposite, a devil from hell. The difference between them is rather jarring and when you think about it, it could be one little sister that turns you either way.

The difficulty in this game has been somewhat morphed by the fact that when you die you get revived at a ‘vita-chamber’ that returns you to half heath and half EVE, no matter what you were at before. There is no cost to use one, you have all of the ADAM you had before and all of your weapons have the same amount of ammo they had before you died and all the things you attacked have the same amount of health as they did before you died, meaning it becomes only a minor inconvenience rather than a large setback like it is in most games. When you realise you don’t have to put your full effort into things you realise that you can do anything to anyone, attacking things with just a wrench if you wish. While this allows you to experiment more with different weapons on different creatures it is still very annoying that, even on hard, this game doesn’t provide too much of a challenge. The ability to turn vita-chambers off would have been welcome as you would have been more careful and the game would have been more atmospheric as you would have jumped at every shadow or movement.

Not that the game is atmospheric without this feature. It is one of the scariest games I have played and is brilliantly atmospheric with lights flashing out at the worst times and people jumping out of cupboards in front of you. If you aren’t freaked out by the opening scene then you are either a psycho or someone who has played the game before, it is a brilliant set up for the game. The mumblings of splicers and Little Sisters just add to the atmosphere. When you hear a Splicer singing ‘Jesus loves me, this I know’ you cannot help but laugh then scream (well not scream but I couldn’t think of anything else) as he spots you and launches himself at you.

If you love shooting games, you’ll love Bioshock. If you enjoy scaring yourself then you’ll enjoy Bioshock. If you are a person who likes story in a game, you’ll love Bioshock. Basically if you like games, you’ll LOVE Bioshock. Despite its faults this is one of the best games I have EVER played, it is simply outstanding and deserves to be in your collection.

For the record, one of the patches includes and option to turn vita chambers off (Needed for an achievement).

Eh? well i was review the GAME not the DLC

I didnt get scared in bioshock at all. It was eery over 'scarey' so to speak.

i get too immersed in a game i guess.

Nah. I dunno. I finished it the same day i got it, i got highly addicted.

I think its alot like Re4 - its got that creepy, dark and atmospheric 'air' to it, but very rarely makes you jump out of your seat screaming in fear =p

Well no, i didn't do any jumping out of my seat, but it did make me jump quite a bit.

harvestsmoons wrote:Eh? well i was review the GAME not the DLC

Its not DLC, its a patch.

And yeah, it had me on the edge at times, but rarely took the plunge into making me jump. Especially in later levels when you had all the best weapons (just like RE4) and could kill all the enemies easily.

Great review. Bioshock is the best FPS ever IMO. Everything about just seems right. I'm definatly getting this on PS3 =]

Broken_Pixel wrote:Great review. Bioshock is the best FPS ever IMO. Everything about just seems right. I'm definatly getting this on PS3 =]

Ta, it is a great game. Loved it all the way through.

Me too. =)
I don't love it enough to get teh fetch quest achievements though. >.<