BioShock Review - PC

In one of their viewer polls at E3 this year, G4 asked if people preferred single player or multiplayer gaming. Surprisingly, 37% of respondents, the number one response in G4 polls, claimed to prefer the single player experience. If that’s true, then those people are in for a treat; because BioShock provides gamers with one of those truly great first person shooter campaigns, blending creative gameplay with a unique artistic vision, driven by a thought provoking storyline. Playing through BioShock is an experience not to be missed by anyone that loves games.

In An Octopus’s Garden

You begin on an airplane, which quickly segues into crashing into the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Once you regain your senses, and control of your movements, you’re floating on the water, surrounded by burning debris and oil. Looking for an opening in the wall of flames, you soon notice that you’ve luckily, or perhaps a little too conveniently crashed near an island with a lighthouse on it. You swim to it, enter the doors and your adventure begins.

You quickly find yourself in a bathysphere being transported to a vast underwater city, teeming with high rises and neon advertisements, while a recorded voice lays out the quick background of this strange place – Rapture – an underwater utopia built by the best and the brightest minds who were looking to get away from a world that constrained their scientific research with inconvenient things like ethics and morals.

If you’ve ever read any Ayn Rand, you’ll see the influences. It’s no mistake that the evil dude running the place, Andrew Ryan, has the same initials, or that the guy helping you survive is called “Atlas.”

By the end of your opening ride though this submerged “Land of Tomorrow”, it becomes abundantly clear that something in Rapture has gone terribly wrong. The rampant abuse of the advancements in genetics has turned the populace into raving, murderous lunatics in search of the fuel that fires their once-fashionable body modifications. Yes, that juice is called ADAM, but there’s no proof that excessive use instills a desperate need to host a television show about videogames in its abusers. Still checking on that though.

The Splice of Life

In classic first-person-shooter form, you have one main objective: escape this destroyed and desecrated utopia. But to find your way back to the surface it will take more than a pistol, a shotgun and some health packs. You’ll have to modify your own DNA to face these crazed mutants, giving yourself powers and body upgrades that make it possible to face any challenge the game throws your way, especially those big dudes in the diver suits following around the little girls. What’s their deal, anyway?

These powers, called Plasmids, let you do all kinds of neat tricks that people on the surface world sure cant. You can make stuff explode, shock enemies with electric bolts, freeze people, create whirlwinds and the list goes on. There are other body modifications too called tonics, which improve other physical and mental skills. These are more background effects, but the Plasmids actually act like powers or spells that you cast. Used in conjunction with traditional weapons you pick up along the way – which are all upgradeable as well – you become a pretty powerful being, with a fairly diverse repertoire for killing people. Considering everything that BioShock throws at you, you’ll need to be.

You’ll encounter all types of humanity gone wrong. They’re called “splicers” and they’ve acquired all kinds of weird abilities themselves that must be dealt with. And of course, some powers work better with some special kinds of splicers. But even though the world is full of “ADAM-heads” trying to kill you and get that sweet essence out of your body, they’re not all you need to worry about. The city itself is rigged with booby-traps and cobbled together security systems. Security cameras, automated turrets and flying security bots abound and must be avoided. Or conversely, you can hack them – there’s a hacking mini-game that’s the same for any bot, door or turret that’s kind of fun but annoying after a while – and then they’ll attack anybody that screws with you.

Holy Diver

Then there’s another enemy, who’s really not an enemy if you leave him alone. The “Big Daddy” is a well-equipped and heavily armored behemoth, charged with protecting the little sisters – small girls who’ve been trained to walk around and harvest ADAM from the copious amount of corpses on the ground. Ignore this guy and he’ll ignore you. Mess with him or little sister and it’s totally go time. Unfortunately, you have to go at these guys to get to the little sisters, because they are the only ones you can get the ADAM from so you can upgrade your plasmids and powers. Fighting the Big Daddy’s ain’t easy and will take some pretty creative combinations of plasmid powers and just the right gunplay.

But this is where the game shines. It’s not just about running and gunning. You have to think and try things out and use the environment. See an enemy standing in water? Shock him. Got some exploding barrels nearby? Pull them towards you with telekinesis and fling them. Hack the turrets in an area then lure enemies back there. There’s a million ways you can play through BioShock, and every one of them is a ton of fun. 

Destroyed Beauty

The gameplay itself should be enough to sell you on this game. If you were a fan of the original System Shock, or you really dug Deus Ex, then you should get a huge kick out of this game. But there’s so much else to admire. The art direction is outstanding; mixing art deco architecture, classic 1950’s graphic design and tons of great old music from the early jazz era that adds a musty creepiness to the overall atmosphere of the game. It’s definitely not your typical Space Marine fare, and that’s a very good thing. So if you really do believe in what the best games have to offer, then would you kindly play BioShock? 

Article by: Tom Price