For the last decade or so, first-person-shooters have been fairly straightforward and mind numbingly derivative. The repetition and lack of innovation has created countless stale experiences leaving a bad taste in gamers’ mouths. Deus Ex, System Shock and Half-Life added characters whom the players cared about and offered immersive stories to get wrapped up in, while still retaining the basic mechanics that gamers who enjoy the genre are familiar with. What these shooter fans crave is more than the stereotypical shoot-everything-that-moves game that so many others offer. 2K Boston (formerly known as Irrational Games, the crew behind System Shock and its sequel) is here to save the day with the spiritual successor to System Shock 2, offering a wholesome story, deep customization and a bevy of characters with real personalities. BioShock is the game, and it’s a pretty hefty meal for you to consume. Will all of the substance be enough to make you sick?
The first 30 seconds of BioShock are used to (quite literally) throw you in to the action immediately. After your plane crashes in to the middle of the Atlantic, you’re forced to swim away from the wreckage to the nearest form of land: a building with a staircase leading to an underwater city known as Rapture. You learn right away that a man named Andrew Ryan created the city underwater to keep away from the rest of the failing societies of the world. You are instantly presented with a breathtaking look at the city in its entirety, while Ryan rambles on about his dream, and why Rapture is perfect. As schools of fish, whales, and more swim on by, and you see a mysterious figure constructing a hallway, and Ryan talks more about his perfect city, you know you’re in for something really special. You’re less than five minutes in to the game and you’re already totally immersed in the universe.
Then you see a man murdered by a woman brandishing meat-hooks. You start to worry, you become afraid, and you begin to tingle with glee.
BioShock is presented in a number of impressive ways, especially in the 1950’s art-deco style of the first room, which carries out across the entire city. The attention to detail to the tossed tables and bloody chairs resulting from an apparently violent New Years party massacre (which sends a shiver down your spine), the 30’s style advertisements, bloodied hallways of the Medical Wing, and incredible graphical design all mesh together in a horrifyingly gorgeous way that you’ll be totally mesmerized by. As the game progresses, environments change in the way they would if you were to explore a real city, traversing from the hospital to a theater is natural since each area is unique, but never straying away from the relative theme of the game. Rapture feels real. Character models are disturbing, most of them mangled from years of splicing (more on that below) and living in what eventually became a violently chaotic dystopia, others trapped in frightening, titanic diver suits. These famous hulking divers, better known as the Big Daddies, wander across Rapture and are the protectors of Rapture’s second trademark character, the Little Sisters, children who are forced via some sort of experimental possession to harvest ‘Adam’, the life-source across the city that everyone craves.
As you progress through this mind-blowingly beautiful shooter, you’ll not only pick up new (by new, I mean circa WWII) weapons, but what the game calls “plasmids”. Plasmids are Adam fueled powers you pick up and equip throughout BioShock, giving the player a vast number of abilities such as electricity, flame, telekinesis as well as powers allowing you to manipulate enemies to fight each other, or protect you specifically. The more Adam you collect, the more powerful these powers become, as well as the more you can acquire.
Some of the greatest encounters in the game are the conflicts with the aforementioned Big Daddies. As protectors of the Little Sisters, sources of Adam, they’ll make it difficult for you to gain the Adam from the little girls. Any kind of danger they sense against themselves or against the Sisters equates to an enraged Big Daddy, who will hunt out the suspect with his menacing drill or gigantic rivet gun. The larger picture regarding the Big Daddies is that when you finally defeat one (and there are many throughout Rapture) you are given a choice: the Little Sister is now helpless - do you “harvest” the Sister, killing her but gaining massive amounts of Adam, or “rescue” the child, setting her free from her possession and gaining very little Adam? Unfortunately, the choice is ultimately useless. There’s multiple endings depending on the route you choose to take with the Sisters, but the amount of Adam you’re rewarded is nearly the same by the end of the game. It’s a matter of whether or not you’re looking for powers in the short term or the long term, your gameplay experience is nearly the same either way.
BioShock’s story is simply riveting. A story of deceit, betrayal and apparently choices, the narrative is displayed almost entirely over radio conversations with multiple characters, and for those who are interested in the back-story and history of Rapture (and why it went completely to hell) there are audio-logs scattered throughout the city. Why they’re here I can’t really tell, but you learn about these citizens of Rapture and their relationships with people, some who you meet, some you don’t. These diaries offer an incredible amount of detail supplied by incredibly pleasing voice-overs (which are everywhere in this game) and enable you to get the most out of the whole experience.
The climax of the story, the plot twist so to say, will mean so much less if you don’t learn as much as you can–the diaries lead up to the climax in such a way that when the time comes, it hits you hard. The “why” and “how” in BioShock come at the perfect time in the game. However, the game continues for far too long afterward, and after this point, BioShock begins to degrade. While you should be a power-house at this time with really awesome weapons that you’ve got upgraded with a couple optional upgrades and a vast array of Plasmids, you get to do a lot less of the kinds of missions that led you to where you are (all of which were entertaining, stunning, and some of the most memorable sequences ever) so it seems that your immense power is stripped away as you take on the fetch-quests and escort missions, and leave behind the amazing action that you just took part in. It’s difficult to make it clear how everything crescendos to the plot twist, and why the game seems to wane afterwards, even though it’s essentially the same, without completely ruining this once-in-a-lifetime gaming experience.
BioShock is technically astounding with an equally impressive narrative, however I was disappointed in the real lack of choice. Sure, you choose between the Sisters’ life and death, but in the end there’s no real difference except a cinema. The customization options are really just a selection of Plasmids and power-ups, many of which are so useless compared to others. Weapons are also limited in use. You’ll find yourself leaving the pistol behind in favor of the shotgun and rocket launcher, which you can acquire ammo for at nearly any time, since you can buy as much as you need from vending machines. The electric Plasmid is one of few Plasmids you’ll really use aside from maybe the telekinesis, ice, or fire power. The rest are neat, but serve no real purpose a lot of the time. It’s incredible to have the amount of options of enemy disposal, such as electrifying water, or turning an oil slick into a raging inferno, but the charm wears off and you just start hitting splicers (aptly named for over-splicing maniacs) in the head with your wrench, or shooting their faces with the shotgun.
As I mentioned, the Big Daddy fights aren’t the reason this game is so incredible, but they sure help. Every encounter is intense, and the deep moan of the frightening character makes you stop dead in your tracks and whisper “Oh sh*t…” to yourself. In fact, the suspense in this game is one of the most well executed things in the game, with chanting and shouting enemies you can’t see, ominous shadows and cheap jump-at-you scares being the tip of the “scary iceberg”. The gun-play is solid and mixes well with the Plasmids, so swapping between them makes for some entertaining encounters, of which there are plenty. Sadly, you’ll only use one or two of each weapon/Plasmid. The storytelling is well displayed and the lack of cinematics never takes you out of the action, which makes for a pretty surreal experience, something very rare for an FPS title.
BioShock sure does offer a lot for you to enjoy, but a lot of it looks more appealing than it is–lack of any kind of consequence (when you die, you spawn at the nearest spot, enemies still as weak as you left them) can take you out of the engaging immersion, but only briefly before the realism of Rapture sucks you right back in for more frightening intensity.
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