Review: Bioshock

Bioshock is one of those rare games that leads you through a wonderfully cinematic experience yet still offers the player an incredible amount of control. When you play Bioshock you come across all these pocketed events that show the world's history and give you a real feel for the mood the developer was trying to create. This includes everything from mumbling, conversing Splicers to the wandering Little Sisters and protective Big Daddies. These events, combined with the scattered diary entries, which contain some of the best voice acting I've heard in a game, paint a real picture of this would-be utopia that fell to the pratfalls of human nature. The best part is, none of this is forced; the game lets you experience everything within it on your own.

As for the game's mechanics, Bioshock takes the standard FPS genre and adds elements from across the gaming spectrum to build a very complex, yet personal game. Plasmids, genetic modifications within the game, are the primary gameplay tweak. These are equipable abilities you earn through dealing with the Little Sisters (i.e. Killing Big Daddies) within the game. These abilities allow you to do anything from throwing fire to burn up your enemies, to trick security systems to attack your enemies. These plasmids are activated by using up your Eve (mana) meter, which can be replenished either by pumping your arm full of the blue juice, or getting drunk. There are also persistent enhancements in the game called tonics. In addition to the plasmid tract, your character can gain combat (more damages, resistances), engineering (better hacking, security avoiding) and physical enhancements (run faster, live longer). As you progress you can upgrade the plasmids and tonics to improve their potency, or purchase new ones through the Gatherer's Garden vending machines.

Vending machines actually play a large part in the game, they are how you get supplies such as ammo and health packs. There are also weapon upgrade machines, health machines, invention machines and security deactivation terminals. All of these can be hacked through a clever pipe game-esque minigame where you have to complete a circuit by swapping pieces on a board, avoiding walls and busted pieces. Once hacked all these machines offer you their services much cheaper or add additional buyables.

You can also hack the various manner of security systems in the game to work in your favour. If a killer security bot flies over and starts shooting you simply zap it with your electro-shock plasmid and hack it to be your friend. It will follow you and fight your enemies. Turrets and security cameras can be hacked as well to attack your enemies when they are within sight. This provides the player with the opportunity to build temporary bases and safezones by putting in the effort to lock down the security systems and have it all work in their favour.

Combat in the game is very intuitive, it works as you imagine it would. There are your guns, ranging from pistol, to shotgun, to grenade launcher that deal the brunt of the damage. However, what makes it fun is how you can mix and match weapon and plasmid combos. If there is a line of gas on the floor and enemies are marching towards you, cast ignite on it to throw up a wall of fire your foes will crisp themselves on before you mow them down with your tommy gun. Can't get a bead on one of the teleporting Houdini Splicers? Cast winter freeze on them and bludgeon them to death with your wrench. The detail in destruction continues as each weapon has several varieties of ammo, each with benefits against certain types of enemies. All of these elements mix well, and provide you with more options when it comes to dealing with your foes than simply having the bigger gun.

Unfortunately though, this well-designed combat seems a little wasted in a few respects. Firstly, there are only a few types of enemies. Thug Splicers (melee), Leadhead Splicers (guns), Spider Splicers (wall-crawling), Houdini Splicers (teleporting), and Nitro Splicers (explosives) are the basics and Bouncers (dill arm), and Rosies (rivet gun) are the only two variations of Big Daddy in the game. These few plus the security systems are the sum of your foes. Even the bosses are only more tough variations of the Splicers, making the final battles seem slightly anti-climactic.

There is also the issue with the game's respawning. Throughout the levels there are Vita-Chambers sprinkled about. These are basically spawn points that, when you die, bring you back to life as close as possible to where you fell. This keeps things fast and fun, but seriously take out a lot of the risk and danger involved with dealing with enemies. The world is also persistent, so if you die and the Big Daddy half a mile away lost a quarter of his health in your last scuffle, he will still be damaged when you catch up. I like how this adds a sense of weight and realism to the world, but if you can theoretically bludgeon the toughest of enemies to death with the wrench over a million respawns, where is the risk?

This does not detract from what the game is though, an interactive work of art. The amount of detail that went into every room of every section of the underwater world of Rapture is exquisite. There is not a moment in the game you doubt this place could have been real, and the bits of history you get through the story line and diary entries only fuel this suspension of disbelief. It's one of those few games that you want to get sucked into and just enjoy. I highly recommend the title, regardless of whether you traditionally enjoy first-person shooters or not. This game steps so far beyond what we thought the genre could offer in terms of artistic style and sensibility within and game as a whole, that it is a crime not to experience one of the few games that truly back the games-as-art argument.