BioShock

"Worth playing, lives up to most of the hype."

Bioshock is a refreshingly unique FPS experience with a rather unimaginative core to its gameplay. However, the stunning amount of detail and immersive storyline behoove you to give it a whirl.

Graphics:
Top notch. Everything feels exactly as it should with some of the best texture work I have ever seen in a game. The water looks incredible. Best of all, it doesn't take a top notch rig to play it on full detail @ 30fps. Most mid range systems should be able to achieve maximum details, a nice change of pace compared with many other recent entries (Oblivion, etc).

9/10

Sound:
Incredible. Even the voice acting is surprisingly strong. Along with the graphics, the sound really immerses you in the game and provides an creepy ambiance the whole way through.

9/10

Story:
I can sum it up in two words: extremely immersive. Besides the two main "villains" a huge cast of secondary characters flesh out the world of Rapture and what exactly went wrong. You may even begin to empathize with many of them as you listen to their crackly audio recordings that you find scattered throughout the game; their good willed intentions gone awry provide insight into the downfall of idealism that encompasses the game. The only fault here is that many of the games "surprises" are incredibly obvious well before they are revealed, though your mileage will vary. For a generation of gamers growing up on the MGS series and the like, the one "big" surprise is a huge letdown and can be seen coming from miles away. At any rate, though the main story is rather stale, the subplots save the day and really make this one of the best told FPS' in memory, save perhaps Deus Ex.

9/10

Gameplay:
This is where the review becomes awkward. The gameplay is a mixed bag and its a shame, because had it been fleshed out more fully it could have made Bioshock one of the great video games ever made. I will try to sum up the problem as succinctly as possible.

Lets start with the gameplay as a whole. The game is a 50/50 mix of linear elements and free exploration, but in general you are guided down a fixed path with multiple endings based upon certain decisions you make. Very similar to Deus Ex: Invisible War in this way, although not as linear as that title. The decision path is incredibly obvious, not surprising if you have already read my thoughts on the story. Overall there is nothing amazing here that has not been done before, its more of a patchwork of multiple titles that takes all the best features and puts them together. To this end, it works beautifully, but sadly lacks much originality.

The enemies are probably the biggest letdown in this dearth of originality. There are only 5 types of "splicers" (The main enemy you will be facing) and they are all fairly mindless. Their non combat AI is fairly impressive, they will walk around muttering to themselves, speak bible verses, and on the whole act like a pitiful lot. However, their combat AI is generic zig zig and attack you that we've seen in every FPS since DOOM. Given the level of complexity of the enemy AI displayed in other recent offerings (RS Vegas, Splinter Cell series, HL2) and even some older ones (SWAT 4) the AI is a letdown. Functional, but nothing special.

The weapons themselves are a generic lot, with a limited amount of customization and varying ammo types that also have varying degrees of usefulness. The sounds and actions are very satisfying in my opinion, but theres nothing too original here. Some are much weaker than others, ammo availability is widely disparate, you could get through the whole game with just your wrench if you used the right gene tonics.

Then theres the Plasmid and Tonic systems, great to fool around with but ultimately carrying the same flaws as the weapons. Plasmids are similar to magic and use mana called "Eve"; there are not many to choose from and the original ones are sadly the most useless ones. The old mainstays of fireballs and lightning still rule the day, which is sad, because so much could have been done with the flexibility of the Unreal 3 engine. Tonics are Gene upgrades that you can use to customize your character, but like the guns themselves, some are obviously better than others and many are too overpowered or hopelessly useless. On the bright side, the weapon switching between plasmids and guns is seamless and a brilliant bit of intuitive execution on the part of the development team. Similarly the level of customization, while not overly extraordinary, is a fresh mix to the traditional FPS archetypes even with its flaws.

One thing that deserves mentioning neither as a flaw nor a virtue is that it is literally impossible not to finish the game due to difficulty, even at the highest setting. Every time you are killed you are revived with all of your equipment at numerous life pods scattered around the levels. Any damage inflicted to your enemies stays, unless they decide to run to a med infusion on the wall (which they might do 5 times the whole game if you are lucky or a bad shot). The only place where these life tubes are absent is the very final battle, which is incredibly easy in and of itself even at the highest difficulty. I won't mention what the final battle stage is like, but suffice to say, once you make it there, you will realize why it is still impossible not to beat the game even without a life tube present. Perhaps all of this is fitting in that you are assured of completing the compelling storyline and experiencing the full, wonderful ambiance that the game radiates, despite its rather stale gameplay.

6.5/10.

Final score and opinion:

If Gamefaqs allowed it in the tagline, it would be an 8.5/10 instead of an 8. Either way, this game deserves to be played through at least once, because even though its disparate facets are generic, on a whole, it is a truly unique experience.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/26/07