BioShock

"An inferior clone of a superior game."

Graphics: This game looks pretty, but in this day and age what games don't? With Direct-X 10, top of the line graphics cards and quad processors in this era almost every game is guaranteed to look good. Water looks nice, lighting is nice, textures are sweet. The only thing that separates games now days is atmosphere and story telling. And this game does have both. The animations are a bit too slick, like your placed all the people's internals with jelly and set them on their way. And the same old environment does get old too. What was your favorite, the dark hall way, the darker hall ways, the dark room or the icy hallways?

Luckily though the atmosphere makes up for the games visual faults. The second the game starts you feel like you're in the past, and that you're in the games world. Then it plunges you into a beautiful ocean and you enter your first dark hallway. Que creepy lights, moody music and ambient noises. I couldn't help but think "System shock 2" the whole way through. Sure some people may praise this game for being like it, but its not like it. It IS System shock 2. Feels like it, has similar monsters, plays like it--Only with updated graphics. And lets end this section. Sure they may look pretty but you can't help but feel like they're similar to plastic surgery.

Wrap up: Good atmosphere, good lighting, bad animations, few environments. 7/10

Sound: This is more then a nod towards its parent. We have disturbing ambient noise, solid gun effects, great voice acting--Good stuff here. And I'm glad they kept the quality from Shock 2. Because the sound in this game is absolutely frightening. Easily some of the best use of sound I've heard in a game. All the guns sound powerful, the voice acting is top notch, and the ambient noises are killer. Though impressive, it is sort of strange that a "video" game's best feature is its sound. Like if we elected presidents based on their hair or something. Anyway, the little things in the sound department make it so good. You can pick up and play guitars, little children laughing in the distance and dripping water spouts are what really hit home. Its just so realistic, and so scary. Though not considered a horror game, this game's sound is horrifying. My only complaint would be you need a good surround sound set up to appreciate it all. Or good headphones. But this just won't work on stereo speakers. 9/10


Story: When I read the synopsis my eyes nearly rolled out of my head. You play a character thats plunged into the ocean from a plane crash. You have to swim to a tower thats practically scratching the Ozone layer then there so happens to be a pod there that takes you to Atlan--Er, Rapture. Rapture is a city built underground for the smartest people, so they can work unhindered from the governments power and influence. Here they made plasmids and Adam and all sorts of things, and it just gets weirder and weirder. Its good, but its strange. The lack of any real cutscenes is disappointing, but immersive. The action never stops. The protagonist is a dull character, who isn't explained that well and honestly I don't care. The other characters are impressive and very well developed. Andrew Ryan himself is one of the strangest characters to come out in a while, but you can't help but feel sympathy for the guy. Overall the experience is well crafted, strange and enjoyable. 8/10

Game play: I found myself having a good time when I first started playing this game. Hitting people with a wrench, finding a Dirty Harry style magnum, running around from crazy inhabitants and doing some quests. And I'll say right now as far as straight forward shooters go this one is good. But what was promises was not what we got. I was imagining RPG elements fused with FPS elements, like promised. Like S.T.A.L.K.E.R or System Shock 2. Instead what we got was one of the easiest shooter experiences made. The RPG elements involve booster type items that boost a certain aspect (Stronger throwing strength, faster running, etc.) but you get so many you'll always be maxed out before the end. And thats it for RPG elements. You also get magic powers called plasmids. These are really cool, and fun to use. You can shoot fire, electricity, launch things with psychic powers, and SO many more. And they interact with the environment too. Light a pool of spilt oil on fire, launch electricity into water. Though this is fun, its too easy. Enemies will purposefully take cover in this places. One time I cornered a few enemies. They ran--into a pool of water. Some people may like the idea of fusing the magical aspect of RPG's into an FPS, but I don't. By mid game I was rich, tripping over ammo and not even scared. Why? After your first boss fight you'll learn all of them are really easy. Each one has a small pattern, and you have to follow it. Not only that but like said you have to swim through your inventory to get stuff you want, and there's a regeneration booth every other room. No need to be afraid or challenged if the game doesn't want you to be challenged. To wrap up this game is fun for a little while, then it gets so easy its boring (Even on hardest difficulty.). There were some sequences where I was getting kicked so hard I was coughing up shoe laces, but most of the time it was like a walk through the part. With guns. And monsters. And fish.

6/10

Replay: None. No reason to play this again. Its really that simple. No unlock ables worth your time, no multi player at all.

Final: Games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R and System Shock 2 do FPS/RPG elements much better. This game merges bland, uninteresting RPG elements with the worst FPS elements instead of the best of the two. Hopefully next time around they'll do it right. Hopefully. An enjoyable game sure, but its not the game of the year material. Everyone else seems to have played a game straight out of King Tut's tomb, but I'd only have rented this if I knew.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/11/08

Game Release: BioShock (US, 08/21/07)