Bioshock. Perfection Under The Deep Blue Ocean?

Bioshock has been in the works for a pretty long time. It is kind of like the long-lost spiritual child of the old game System Shock 2 (do you all remember that one?). Well, I remember seeing these beautiful images of the game Bioshock a long, long time ago in a gaming magazine. Just seeing these cool pictures of a large, hulking mass in a oldtime diving suit (Big Daddy) walking with a little innocent-looking child (little sister) in a underwater environment. It looked amazing and I wanted this game bad! As time went on I was intrigued by each image of this game that was released by 2K Games and I was eager to get my hands on this title. It looked like something different, something new...  

I blew through the Xbox 360 Demo of Bioshock and kept playing over and over to get my Bioshock fix. I was like a junkie who was jonesing for a fix, but a Bioshock fix. The day finally came and I had my Xbox 360 copy of Bioshock. I locked my door and dove into this game for 3 straight days without food or water... well, ok.. Not the last part about the food and water. But I did become engulfed in 2K Games amazing new title that sets you on a dark adventure in a underwater city by the name of Rapture. For those of you who have already had played the Xbox 360 Demo, or better yet those of you who already owns this title. You already know how great this gem of a title is... So please read on and I will try my best to make it short, sweet and not give anything away.

Rapture... 

Let me give you a bit of a breakdown to the story without giving anything away. Bioshock  is set in the 1960’s. You know those good old days, a time of NO videogames or computers... In a time when "Leave it to Beaver" was cool... When "Dark Shadows" was scary... When Gilligan got lost on his island... Your character starts out on a plane holding a package. Your name is “Jack”. Your not sure who you really are. Just that on a  sitting pretty on a plane that suddenly crashes into the icy Atlantic waters. Your luck right? Luckily (and also pretty good coinsidince) the place your plane crashed was close to a rusty bathysphere. You emerge from the icy green waters of the Atlantic and swim across the icy water as the remains of your plane explodes from all sides of you. As you make your way up the stairs and into the bathysphere you descend into the deep, dark world of Rapture (I love the name of the city... it fits). Now a little back story for the underwater city of Rapture. Constructed in late 1946 by industrialist Andrew Ryan, his vision was a city with no religion, no war... you get the picture. But something went wrong. And now the city is pretty much in ruins.   

Meet Big Daddy

Rapture is also inhabited with the remains of what once lived and made Rapture a breathing underwater city. The only problem is that these men and women who now inhabit it are deranged and deformed, a mere shell of what they once where. They are creepy as hell. They talk to things like baby carriages and other items. The Splicers alone give the game great atmosphere. You won’t find Spongebob Squarepants in this place, and if you did he’d be torn apart by these freaks. These “Splicers”, as they are called, will act like normal people, yet they are deranged and out of their minds. They wear these spooky masks to hide their deformities. And they will not want to have a conversation with you as well. The will shoot fire at you, come at you from ceilings and do anything they can to protect all that is left of theirs. The splicers are not the only thing you have to worry about. The Big Daddy’s walk around, stomping and moaning as they look for little sisters. The little sisters are little girls who climb out of cubby holes in the walls. They are possessed by a sort of sea leech, making these little sisters twisted and evil. They walk around sucking the sould out of the dead, so that should tell you something. And you have the power (called ADAM) to either set the little sisters free or to harvest the ADAM from them to your own needs. Harvesting the ADAM will make you more powerful, giving you more options to max out your powers. And boy do you have powers in this game. I will get to the weapons that you can possess later in this review. But you can also gain things like hacking experience as well as experience with weapons, taking pictures (you will get a camera during the game, take pix of cool and strange things and gain experience). Bioshock is chock full of goodies. You can also collect various items throughout the game. Drink some alcohol and get drunk (the screen will get blurry and you will stagger around for a bit), smoke a cigarette and kill your lungs. You can even eat things like potato chips and junkfood to refill your life.

Now lets talk about injections. You have the power to not only carry various weapons and upgrade the living hell out of them, but you also can use plasmids to genetically alter your own body. This results in weapons from your own body. You can use fire, ice, electricity, and a whole range of other things like telekinesis and the ability to make Big daddies obey you. Not only this, but you can do things like hacking. This is good for breaking into safes, hacking cameras and weapon systems as well as hacking into vending machines so you can lower the prices of items and weapons. Hacking weapons like the flying machine guns will also help you as well. These little gadgets will fly around and they will attack your enemies. It is a nice added protection against the Splicers, as well as cameras. If you get caught on camera, the guns will go off and attack you. And you will have a time limit to either shut the security cameras down or you can just duck and hide somewhere until the hail of bullets has ceased. I am not going to go too deep into Bioshock because I believe that the rest is up to you the player to enjoy and experience yourself. When you buy the game and do what you want to do you will pretty much see what I mean. Everytime you jump into the game it is something different. My experience might be a lot different from what you will experience. There are so many different things you can do that I would be here for a week (as well as you reading this review for a week) explaining every facet and detail of this beautiful game. So let me get onto the rest of how Bioshock plays.

Presentation:

With games like Halo 3 set to be released in a few weeks, this is a great title to celebrate until we can hop back into the seat of the Master Chief. Why do I mention Halo 3? Because like Halo 3, Bioshock IS a FPS (first-person shooter). But Bioshock is a FPS with a deep, rich RPG element. You can do so many things and alter yourself in various ways and forms, making each time you play somewhat of a different flavor. Mostly all of the game is based on things you have to do. These can be either to find out why rapture failed... or it will be little side-missions that some of the so-called normal people who still live in rapture will send you on. Sometimes you will be going back and forth from one part of Rapture to the next trying to complete your mission. You pretty much have no choice but to complete some of these missions. When your in a underwater city, and some crazy fool is trying to blow the place to rubble, you dont have a choice or you’ll be sleeping with the fishes literally...

Bioshock’s replay value is pretty sweet. I have actually taken the time to play through Bioshock, right to the end and then replay once again to get a different result. The second time around was much different then the first time around... It actually took me about 4 days to sweep through the whole game. You are looking at about 20-25 hours of gameplay to complete Bioshock. But I must say that it was a treat each time I played through to the end. Bioshock has two different endings, which all depends on if you harvest or save the little sisters. You basically choose your destiny while you journey deeper into the depths of Rapture. As you get deeper into the story you will see how twisted Rapture had become over the last few years, with corruption and betrayal as the leading problems to why the underwater city has become total ruins. Bioshock plays amazingly well. The controls are almost flawless as you move around and look at the sights and hear the brooding sounds.

Graphics:

I was pretty blown away from beginning to end with the graphics of Bioshock. I know it may sound weird but I have always been fascinated with water, the ocean and things like that. I guess that is one reason why I made the move from Baltimore to the sunny beaches of Florida. The game is all about water. And it is a beautiful sight which serves as the backdrop to the death and destruction that has overtaken Rapture. From walking through glass tubes to and from various sections of the game, you feel like you are actually in the depths of the ocean. Each part of the game has some sort of water flowing, dripping or splashing around you. Detail plays a huge roll in the look and vast artistic work that 2K Games Boston/2K Games Australia. One part had me walking through a tunnel to the next section of rapture, and if you look out the clear tube you can see the vast underwater city. Neon lights gleaming off in the distance of a city that once thrived and was alive. I also love the way shadows play a part in Bioshock. I am sure you all played the Xbox 360 Demo. There is a part where you are walking down a hallway and you see the shadow of a woman talking to what seems to be a baby in a baby carriage. Beautifully done and well crafted. These shadow parts lay throughout the whole game.

Bioshock has a dark beauty to it as well. It is one of the sweetest-looking Xbox 360 titles I have seen in a while. It ranks up there with Gears of War in terms of looks (although Gears still looks better IMO). I think one of the things that makes Bioshock so attractive is the endless depths of the art and design. Bioshock has a 1960’s feel to it. Each little detail such as posters and signs are a throw-back to that time. Throw into the mix the beautiful water effects and you have a game that will make most PS3 games blush. The character designs are also beautifully done. Seeing a Big Daddy walk around and stomp and moan when a little sister does not come out to play is pretty eerie as well as beautiful in a dark twisted way. Detail my friends... that’s what this game is chock full of.

Dead Splicer or Rapture Town Drunk?

Music and Sound:

Bioshock has some truly great sounds throughout. I will first start with the games music. Bioshock has a dark, eerie soundtrack that is somewhat ambient. It is a perfect fit to the title and it adds the needed atmosphere that you are in fact in the depths of the ocean. Bioshock also has some nice detailed tunes which are from the 1950’s, and 1960’s... Songs like the Ink Spot’s “If I Didn’t Care”... a song that the great Redd Foxx made popular on Sanford & Son. The music department of Bioshock is A+. The sound department is also well-done in every aspect. Little sound details like the moans of Big Daddy, or the sounds of the Splicers talking to themselves. That is another thing I need to touch on. The voice acting is outstanding. You will hear a variety of voices throughout the whole game. You will find tape recordings of various people who are now gone and some who are still around) throughout the whole game. These recordings add more depth to the plot and what was the reason why the city of Rapture had failed. Overall, Bioshock is A+  in the sound and music department. Bravo 2K Games!

The Bottom Line:

What is not to like about Bioshock. You have read and heard the reviews, and this is just another good review of a game that you MUST own for the Xbox 360. Looks like Sony really missed the boat on this title, as it is only PC/Xbox 360 exclusive. And yet another reason why you should own a Microsoft Xbox 360 system. Beautiful rich graphics... a very deep and mysterious storyline... a great of characters and acting... and overall a really awesome, kick-ass game that needs to be had. The ONLY downfall I saw was no multi-player modes. It would have been cool to play online (after all, we are the online generation now) but I can clearly see why 2K Games did not include this. Bioshock is a game for you and ONLY you to play out. It is a game that very well does not need Online Multiplayer to thrive. This is a one-man (or woman) journey through hell and back. I will also add that Bioshock also took a few days for me to beat (20 hours). The replay value is fairly good as well. You can go back through and replay doing different things, and that will add some replay value. Either way, I am sure you will be satisfied with your $60 purchase. And as I write this review 2K Games has already shipped 1.5 Million units of Bioshock (PC/360) so I am sure we will be seeing a sequel down the road for this great game. I honestly cannot wait..

Overall, Bioshock is an amazing title for the Xbox 360. Bravo 2K Games... 

[Review by NLGSean (Sean Foster)]