In honor of Bioshock coming soon to the PS3, I'm reviewing it for the 360. See how it stacks up over a year later!

Bioshock Review:

As a rule, I'm generally skeptical of any game that promotes itself as being inspired by Ayn Rand, but Bioshock is the exception. Winning numerous E3 awards both in 2006 and 2007, Bioshock was to be the game for the Xbox360 (and over a year later, the PS3). Combining elements of first-person shooters, survival-horror-games, and action-RPGs, Bioshock sought to transcend genres altogether and be nothing less than the greatest game ever made. Not that game creator, Ken Levine was ever that cocky, but it was hard not to buy into the enormous potential that came with Bioshock. Of course, having that much hype is as much a curse as a blessings, as there's little to no way a game could possibly live up to such lofty expectations. But does Bioshock have the chops to what so few games have done and live up the its' enormous hype train? Read on, dear reader, and find out.

Bioshock begins with what is possibly the greatest opening hour ever in a videogame. Okay, maybe I oversold it. Now you're going to be disappointed. Sorry. Let me rephrase. Bioshock begins with one of the greatest openings in a videogame. After the 10 second opening credit cutscene depicting the protagonist going down in a plane crash, you'll start the game out in the water surrounded by flaming debris, and it may well take you a few seconds before you even realize you can move because the graphics are just that real. But move you will to an abandoned lighthouse full of brilliant art deco plaques and statues as a scratchy instrumental rendition of "Beyond the Sea" plays on. You'll then find a submarine that'll take you 40,000 leagues under the sea to the decaying ruins of a city called Rapture. It's here that the game begins proper.



The most memorable thing about Bioshock is its' setting and Rapture does not disappoint. The idea is that all manner of artists and scientists rejected the world of the common man and rather chose to build their own society with their own rules. They also chose to build it underwater. (Perhaps they were fond of aquariums?) Of course, everything went horribly wrong and now it's full of genetically-mutated, mentally unstable murderous psychopaths, but it's clear that things weren't always this way and figuring out what went wrong is half the fun.

The greatest thing about Rapture is that though it lies in ruin at the bottom of the ocean, it was clearly a wonderful sprawling metropolis at one point. Built in the 1950s, it looks a bit like the works of Jules Verne crossed with Raymond Chandler as depicted by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. From the fake movie posters to the oppressive political propaganda, to the clothes the enemies wear (such as their creepy papier-mâché masks that are depicted on a flyer for a New Year's Eve masquerade early on), every detail is pitch perfect. Clearly the fine folks at 2K went to a lot of effort to research this era, and it shows. Rapture feels like a real place with a real history. It's also just bloody gorgeous to look at.

Special mention should go to the soundtrack, employing a mix of orchestral scores and established music from that era such as: The Ink Spots, Django Reinhardt, Bing Crosby, and more. The soundtrack of Bioshock is among the best and most atmospheric I've ever heard.



So we know the game looks and sounds great, but how does it play? Quite well as a matter of fact. Strange as it may sound, the game reminded me of a mixture of Half-Life and Oblivion. The first-person storytelling and linear progression give it more in common with Valve's groundbreaking FPS saga, yet the game controls much more like Oblivion. You'll have conventional weapons in your right hand (like pistols, shotguns, etc) and then use what are called "plasmids," which are genetic enhancements i.e. special powers you can buy and inject into yourself (basically "magic" in any other game) with your left hand ala Oblivion. The similarities don't stop there as you'll use the different attacks with the Left and Right shoulder buttons respectively, and you'll be able to level up your different attacks. You'll also spend a lot of time scrounging for supplies off dead foes and crates lying around. So yeah, it's a lot like Oblivion, but scaled down to fit the Half-Life mold.

Which is not to say that game is not original. There's a lot of innovative ideas at work here. For one thing, the game has a unique, controversial way of dealing with death. When you die, you merely respawn at the nearest vita chamber (usually within a few rooms of your current location) with a new bit of health and magic blue plasmid juice (called "eve" in case you wanted to know), but the enemies who you just faced will have the same amount of health as when you died. In essence, there is no penalty for dying and you could take down even the toughest foes through simple repetition. But where's the fun in that? Even though you can die with no consequences, it's more fun to try and stay alive as best ye can if you really want to get the most out of it. And if you're truly hardcore, you could just reload your last save after every death.



But the truly genius thing about Bioshock is just how damn scary the whole thing is. A lot of games have scared me in the past, but never for the right reasons. I'm usually scared because I'm worried I'll get a game over and have to restart at the last save point long ago. Heck, the last hammer brother in Super Mario Bros is scary for that reason. But Bioshock scares you the right way. Even though you know there is no penalty for dying you'll still be terrified simply wandering about and that's quite an achievement. Much of this has to do with the brilliant sound design where you can hear enemies long before seeing them.

Another brilliant move is the way the game handles respawning enemies. Usually a pet peeve of mine, Bioshock circumvents this by making it so no specific enemies respawn, but enemies will respawn randomly in random locales. So even if you die and are just making your way back to where you left off, there may still be a nasty surprise in store for you in the form of a wondering enemy. It even makes logistical sense too as this is a full city after all and it would be silly to think that no one new would come stumbling about the same areas as you. This sense that everything is playing out in real-time goes a long way in immersing you in this subterranean world.



And while the game looks and sounds great, has an intriguing premise, and solid, scary exploration, there are some flaws with the game; two rather huge ones in particular.

One is that the game has some pretty severe weapon balancing issues. By the end of the game, a powered up wrench is way more powerful than a powered up shotgun. For the last several hours of the game I had full ammo with every gun as I rarely had reason to use them between my plasmids and my magic wand of death (i.e. wrench). Also, not all plasmids are created equal. Some are really cool ideas, but not all that effective. Plasmids were perhaps Bioshock's biggest selling point as the idea was that you'd be able to craft your own unique strategies for dealing with foes such as: setting them on fire, then electrocuting them once they jump in water to douse said fire. Or using telekinesis for moving tripwires and setting traps. Or setting up a decoy then turning invisible. You can still do all of these things, but all too often it's just as effective to use brute force and stick to the tried and true one-two plasmid/wrench punch.

The exception to this is the wonderful Big Daddy fights. These scuba armored brutes will not attack you unless provoked either by attacking them directly, or attacking their "Little Sister" who they're committed to protect. Since you have all the time in the world to scope out their patterns and the surrounding terrain, you can really get creative in how to take them out. It's here that the combat really shines. Even the aforementioned weapon and plasmid balance issues seem more balanced when dealing with these beasts. Truly great stuff!



There was one other major flaw in Bioshock and I shudder to go into too much detail about it here, but lets just say the ending is anticlimactic. In fact the game's plot, great though it may be, sort of peters out at the 75-80% mark and there's not much story left after that. All off a sudden the levels lose their mystique as you plow on towards the end, which is sure to disappoint (no matter which ending you get).

But even though the game loses much of its' narrative steam in its' final act and there are some balance issues with the combat, Bioshock is still an amazing achievement in immersion. This is what videogames tourism is all about. You get to go through a unique, gorgeous setting, discover a strange and interesting tale, and feel the dread of being hunted in a place that you do not belong. It's far from perfect and a bit aggravating in how much better it could have been with just a few details changed, but it's still what I would consider a flawed masterpiece.

9/10

Pros:
+Unique, beautiful, haunting setting.
+Fantastic soundtrack.
+Intriguing narrative.
+Real scary, without being cheap.

Cons:
-Anti-climactic final quarter
-Weapon/plasmid balance issues
-The occasional cheesy voice-acting/dialogue