NOTE: This game is also available for the PlayStation 3 and for the XBox 360. Developers - 2K Boston and 2K Australia Publisher - 2K Games Platforms - Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Mac OS X Genres - First-person shooter, Action-Adventure Mode - Single-player, no online Ratings - ESRB: M / PEGI: 15+ One man. One city. Hundreds of maniacs. A single fate. This game was one of the super-hyped ones in 2007. But, unfortunately, many of these games end up not corresponding to their expectations. But, fortunately, Bioshock is not one of these games. Instead, it mesmerizes you, being it with the highly detailed graphics invading the game, or the unusual (for the better) gameplay, or even the deep storyline. Well, then, be ready... and "Welcome to Rapture". This is Rapture, the underwater city Bioshock is set in Bioshock starts off in an airplane, in 1960. Jack, the protagonist, whose face we never get to see, is relaxed, smoking a cigar, thinking about his family, while flying over the mid-Atlantic. The trip is going on as expected; and suddenly, a loud bang, flames everywhere, screams galore. You are projected from your seat into the freezing ocean in the middle of the night. Fighting for some air, you struggle to get to the surface, debris and other objects sinking in front of you, running out of oxygen to breathe. You finally reach the top of the water, and just then you truly see the great effort 2K made to create these breathtaking images. Fuel from the plane ignited with the explosion and so you are surrounded by a scorching fire. There is, however, a pillar in the air and a gap in the burning circle. With the last of your energies, you swim there. It is, after all, a lighthouse. Just a regular and simple lighthouse in the middle of the sea. Or so you think, before you entered. It soon becomes clear that the lighthouse you just entered is no ordinary lighthouse. Why, you may ask? Because the door is open and no one is near; because when you enter the door closes by itself; because everything is dark and, in a split second, everything is visible; because of the statue of a man looking right at you, standing before a cloth strip saying "No God or King. Only Man.". A few steps further and there are stairs. But, instead of going up, as in regular lighthouses, these go down. At the end of these stairs, you see, displayed on the wall, a gold plate saying "Science". Near that one stands another looking alike, but saying "Industry". And, lastly, another one saying "Art". But what would these words mean? And, even more intriguing, why is there a sphere right in the middle of the room? You are then driven by your curiosity into that sphere. But it keeps going down, right into the middle of the ocean! In the end, it is a submarine, leading you through pipes. And soon enough, a man starts talking, entitling himself of Andrew Ryan. His photograph is familiar: he is the same man as the one in the statue. He is the one who owns the lighthouse. He is the one who owns Rapture. According to him, Rapture is the city where the artist would not fear censor, where the scientist would not be stopped by petty moralities, where the great would not be strained by the small. That was the city where freedom prevailed, where parasites would not be accepted, where everyone works for everyone. That was the city where geniuses could be geniuses, where they would not be questioned by the society they lived in. Rapture was their escape place, for him and many others, who would not stand those who opposed evolution. As he says, "It was not impossible to build Rapture at the bottom of the sea. It was impossible to build it anywhere else.". And suddenly, those words from before come to mind. That is, literally, fire at your fingertips. Though, not a good attack against a fire enemy. But this ideal city for the great men is now destroyed by those very same ideas they defended. Not long before the events you are living take place, ADAM was found. ADAM is the material that allows the genetic code to be rewritten as one sees fit. Before ADAM, a person born and died the same. After ADAM, people would choose whether they wanted to be tall or short, fat or thin, muscular or skinny. Once Rapture’s inhabitants took it for the first time and experienced its fantastic effects, they started craving for more. However, there is a catch: ADAM was very unstable. And, even though that instability was what gave it its amazing properties, it also caused people to suffer mental and physical alterations. In other words, they would become insane. Soon after ADAM was discovered, plasmids started to be made. Plasmids are something of the likes of superpowers. If people wanted, they could have “fire at their fingertipsâ€, or a stunning shock to shoot at their will. Sadly, people overused these Plasmids and before long, they only presented a small resemblance to humans. A physical one. Their mind was deteriorated, and now, Splicers are their names. And they are your enemies now. You are, for them, an intruder. However, something much bigger than Splicers, Plasmids and ADAM is going, and your only way out of this city is by solving this mystery. That's the gene bank, where you store your Plasmids and Tonics and set new ones to be used Bioshock could stagger anyone just by its remarkable graphics. While the first contact (the plane) is not particularly out of the ordinary, the second (the crash) is splendid. The designers back at 2K did an amazing job: the images have a great quality standard, but the game does not eat your graphic card. Right in the beginning, there are a few things to point out: starting off with the water, which, nonetheless, looks good; then onto the fire, which looks more than good. Physics are another thing that was very well done: flames, explosions and the smoke, all of them look very nice. But why look at small things like those when we have a whole city to criticize? Rapture, as enormous as it is, needed an architecture that made other cities pale in comparison with it. And so, the dominating style is a very classic one, made by the best and craziest artists from 1960. On the other hand, something Bioshock lacks are cutscenes. When we no longer have control over Jack, we simply cannot press any button, but the view remains in the first person. If, during those said cutscenes, the view would let go of our man and let us see his face, presenting everything like in a film, it would certainly be a plus. In contrast, this lack of cutscenes can also be taken into account as making the experience deeper, making us feel even more in Jack's shoes, making it personal taste above everything else. And, even though the graphical experience is very good, playing the game is the only way to feel how 2K has worked on the game. The game was based on Epic Games’ engine, “Unrealâ€. But what the hell does that mean? It means that moving around and such is similar to moving in Unreal Tournament. But no one is looking for how smooth movement is. Everyone is looking for that spicy bit of originality and uniqueness in a game. And Bioshock has won a few points in that very requisite. It is not every day that we see a game where we get hold of a wrench, a few guns and blasts, a camera and a bunch of superpowers. Well, we did get a crowbar back at Half Life, some guns and blasts during Crysis and a Camera in Beyond Good and Evil. But combining all of these, plus Incinerate!, ElectroBolt and Winter Blast is simply genius. As you may have already found out, these three are simple examples of Plasmids, where the first one burns someone to death, the second one stuns an enemy, leaving them open for attack, and the last one freezes someone who you can easily kill. There are so many other Plasmids, but the striking point is neither the quantity nor variety: it is what you can do with them. For instance, if on the ground are a few fuel barrels and some oil shed by those same barrels, Incinerate! will ignite the oil and barrels and soon cause an enormous explosion, damaging all around. Or, if a large group of enemy stands on the water, ElectroBolt will deliver a massive shock to the entire group, eventually killing them. Each Plasmid has an obvious use, but the rough environment presented to us and the variety of items on the scenario give us a whole lot of different choices. As we use them, our EVE meter goes down: EVE is what allows us to use those Plasmids, meaning that if we do not maintain a large stock on EVE Hypos, someone will have a nasty time against those Splicers. The hacking mingame, a "Reveal and Replace" type of game. A click on a tile shows another tile you can use to drive the fluid into the other edge of the circuit Yet, the battle remains the same: one man against hundreds. And not even Plasmids are enough to battle the hordes of enemies. Fortunately, we have another ADAM present: the Tonics. These, unlike the Plasmids, have a passive use. Meaning that while Plasmids are used on the spot as we invoke their power, Tonics are equipped and then used as long as they are equipped. For instance, Armoured Shell provides a greater protection against physical attacks; but we do not choose when it takes effect. Once it is equipped, we have a second skin to battle the Splicers. Nonetheless, Tonics have a wider range: they can be Physical, Engineering or Combat Tonics, each with their use in different occasions. But what use would Engineering Tonics have in Rapture? Well, as a matter of fact, they are of the utmost importance. In Rapture, most of the items come from either scavenging the dead, searching around the city or even buying them at vending machines. There are many, scattered all around the place, each focused in a specific kind of item. El Ammo Bandito is the place you go to when you are short on ammunition, selling common bullets and rare ones as well; The Circus of Values acts as a general store, selling everything from First Aid Kits (your main health income) to some common ammo to EVE Hypos (your main EVE income). Both of these machines, along with more, require you to pay a fee for any of the items they have for sale, being it with dollars or raw items. However, neither of them is something very abundant, and that is when hacking those machines comes into play. It is a simple minigame, in which you have to link an edge of a circuit to the other using pipes. Problem is, if you are not fast, the machine will short-circuit, delivering a damaging shock. Also, apart from those pipes, there also are Alarm Tiles that will trigger an alarm, hence sending security bots after you for a specified time, and Overload Tiles, causing an explosion that leaves little to no Health. And lastly, the most important machine: The Garden of Eden. This is where you spend all the ADAM you find, whether it is on new Plasmids/Tonics, some free Plasmids/Tonics slots (you only have six per category, so prioritizing is crucial) or an upgrade on both your Health and EVE. However, ADAM is not very common. When the inhabitants of Rapture noticed that they were running short on ADAM, they started researching for a solution. After some time, only one solution was presented: reusing the ADAM. Once people were dead, all the ADAM they used could be extracted from them and given to people again. And so, the Little Sisters were created. These are but children infected with a parasite and equipped with a long sharp needle. As they find a corpse, they stick the needle in its chest, sucking all the ADAM from the victim’s body. But the Little Sisters are still little girls, and, being such, they require protection, just as any child requires from their dad or mom. And just then the Big Daddies took place. These big stinking brutes act as a personal bodyguard, armed with grenades, a drill and superhuman strength, and they will give up their lives on behalf of the Little Sister they were assigned to protect. And they do a very good job on protecting the Little Ones; nevertheless, only the girls have ADAM, and if you want ADAM (something you really need), you will have to destroy the Big Daddies first. However, that is not the biggest of your dilemmas: the issue comes after that. Once the Little Sister is unprotected, you can either Harvest her or Rescue her. The first one involves an inhuman procedure: destroying the parasite they have, sucking all the ADAM they have and killing them in the process. The second alternative resembles what little of human could happen in Rapture: destroying the parasite but not sucking that much ADAM as in Harvesting, in a way that they will survive. Harvesting results in more ADAM received, but Rescuing results in a gift later from someone who wants to protect the Little Ones. In the end, the choice is up to the player. A Big Daddy, who's still looking for a Little One to protect However, you cannot count only on what those wicked man made. Combined with your plethora of ADAM gifts, you also have a few guns. You start off with the wrench, which is appropriate for the first enemies you encounter, acting as your melee weapon. Soon after it you get the pistol, useful in the beginning but a complete waste later in the game. Later you end up with seven weapons, plus the camera. Even if you think it might be useless, the camera is very important. With it, you do research on your enemies, getting to know their weaknesses, strengths and, sometimes, a few Tonics are given to you. Something else that contributed to the huge success Bioshock was and still is its atmosphere. During the entire game, at every corner, there is a shadow lurking. The soundtrack is composed by many songs from the Forties and Fifties, including very well known titles as "God Bless the Child" (it is particularly kept in your mind when you are among the Little Sisters and it starts playing) and "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?". This creates a rather eerie environment (although there are scarier games) and the fear of an eminent enemy ambush. The originality with which the story is told is also impressive: small tape recorders, with crushing voice acting, dispersed around Rapture, made by many citizens and people with central jobs, tell us how life was before, during and after ADAM. The fast paced gameplay also adds to the excitement, frequently leaving you on the edge of your seat, captivated by the challenge in every battle, for the AI is great. In any battle, your enemies will try to drag you near those enemy turrets or the cameras, creating some more foes. If, by any chance, they are burnt by the flames we sent after them, their first reaction is hunting for a lake or a pool in order to extinguish the flames. However, we will always have the upper hand, for in a lake they are vulnerable to electricity. Also, the enemies always try to get some shelter, still maintaining eye contact. However, they are easily outshined: Rapture is not a battle zone with litter scattered all around, meaning most of the cover available is the casual corner; that very same turret they use against us can also be reverse-engineered, or in other words, hacked. Instead of attacking us, they will then look for our enemies. And the same can be said for those cameras. Battles tend to become confusing sometimes, but always thrilling The greatest sin of Bioshock is, indeed, how easy it can be. Dying is a particularly hard task, bearing in mind that we keep with us up to nine First Aid Kits; and when we carry nothing to aid us, we still have the Health Stations that, once hacked, ask for ten dollars, giving in return a full health bar; and even if those are away from us, we have groceries scattered around or stored in fridges, handbags, storage crates or even that we get from our enemies. These groceries replenish both our Health and our EVE, but cannot be kept with us. Once found, they are instantly used: cakes eaten and wine drunk. Nothing is kept with us, which means there is no inventory whatsoever. However, if you actually manage to die, you are instantly revived at a Vita-Chamber. These give back life to a restricted group of people, and strangely you are included in that group, even though it is your first time in Rapture. Or is it? Presentation: 9/10 – Bioshock comes out with a fantastic and deep storyline, leaving us yearning for a sequel. The menus are old styled, which is not necessarily a good thing, even though it matches the time of the story. Graphics: 9/10 – In general, very good, nice animations and details. However, there are still some things that could be redone and cutscenes would definitely be good. Gameplay: 10/10 – You have guns, you have a camera, you have superpowers, you have challenging enemies, you have minigames and yet you don’t get tired from it. Unquestionably extraordinary. Sound: 10/10 – Very nice ambience, one of the best original soundtracks and an undeniably awesome work done with voice acting. Lasting Appeal: 6/10 – Bioshock gets quite short if you know what you’re doing. There is not much to be done for Rapture once the storyline has been unveiled for the first time. There are two endings, sure, but the changes in the way you play are minimal, if there are changes at all. Still, this is a common score among FPSs. Total Score: 44/50 – Fantastic game, that must be in any FPS fan’s collection. Bioshock won’t last long: 15-20 hours tops will be more than enough to know every secret within. However, its greatness doesn’t lie in how long it is, but how good it is. In my book, it’s far better than Crysis or Far Cry 2 or Call of Duty 5 if you ever come to discuss about a next-gen game. Because there is a big difference between next-gen game and next-gen graphics. And Bioshock certainly is in the first category.
Thanks. I think it's the longest review I've written, but it's the one that took me the least time to write. But I've put a lot of effort into it, nice to see you like it.
Re: [ACCEPTED] [PC] Bioshock - jin kazama Fantastic review Jin as usual I loved this game. The story was great. I loved the choice between saving the little girls or killing them to get stronger. Can't wait for Bioshock 2!!
