Bluepixie
14th September 2008, 15:38
http://pausegaming.com/niall/reviewpics/bioshock/1_bio_cover.jpg
BioShock – PC - 2007
Developer: - 2K Boston/2K Australia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2K_Boston/2K_Australia)
Publisher: - 2k games (http://www.2kgames.com/)
Review System:- PC
Previously, on Citadel Station:
You’ve fought your way down through the Medical Level, surviving your first Cyborg Assassins and cautiously exploring the Cyborg conversion chambers. Suddenly you come to an opening looking out into a larger room, there’s a drop of at least 3m and a platform to take you down. You’re suddenly at red alert, a huge Cyborg Warrior is standing guard, its twisted flesh and metal body groans as it sees you. You duck into cover, quickly pulling out your Magpulse, setting it to maximum power, praying you have the firepower to take this thing down. Diving out, you start lacerating the monster with the deadly laser beam, a harsh streak cuts through the battle as the weapon begins to overheat. Fortunately the Cyborg’s weapon arm explodes first and it collapses face down with a sickening crunch.
Breathing hard from the lighting strike battle, you ride the platform down. To your left the room leads to some sort of control room, probably with the Control Node you need to destroy. Checking your health and weapon, you stride confidently to the entrance.
Suddenly, a piercing hiss of static is transmitted via your Cyber Implants. An inhuman voice, but unmistakably female, slurs and stutters out the words,
“Enter that room, insect, and it will become your grave.”
A shiver goes up your spine, you hesitate in the door way, looking around for danger like a frightened rabbit. Was the threat real? Seconds pass, as you weigh up the odds. Gripping the mouse you gingerly step forward.
All hell breaks loose.
Oh Shodan, how I miss you.
BioShock, is Ken Levine’s most recent title, the spiritual successor to the cult FPS/RPG System Shock 2, developed by the late Irrational Games (now 2K Boston/2K Australia) and Looking Glass Studios. System Shock 2 was a direct sequel to the original System Shock released in 1994 which is widely considered to be the benchmark for intelligent first-person gaming and has influenced the design of countless other games. Now, I don’t know about you but considering the nature of reviewing and the gaming industry, comparisons are inevitable and logical. You can’t rationally analyse a media or subject without having other results to differentiate with. If you have a problem with me relating BioShock to SS1 or SS2 I’m sorry, but I’m a scientific lad, and that’s just the way it is.
On first impressions, BioShock is light-years away from its older siblings. Set in an alternate history 1960, the game takes place in a previously utopian underwater city which is now populated with unspeakably deformed humans and deadly steam-punk inspired machines. You play as Jack, the sole survivor of a plane crash at sea, now trapped in the now dystopian city fighting for his life. The setting is a unique, incredibly conceived location and is easily the most impressive aspect of BioShock. The opening of the game while being one of the most memorable and intense of any computer game, is also gob smackingly beautiful, almost beyond words. The city is laid out before you as a rail guided submarine auto pilots you to an unknown location. Huge art deco style, Metropolis like towers loom from the seabed, with numerous tunnels linking sections together. Neon signs and other advertisements clamber for you attention as shoals of fish pulse between squids and other sea life. The submarine docks, the lights flicker, violence ensues, welcome to Rapture.
http://pausegaming.com/niall/reviewpics/bioshock/3_bio_rapture.jpg
It's a WHALE! There's a whale, there's a whale there's a whale fish he cried, the whale was in full view.
Inside, the incredible visuals continue to out stand. The art style of the game has clearly been worked on for more man hours than I can imagine. The era has been faithful reconstructed from the carpets and lamps, to the wallpaper and posters. Not that it’s perfect, far from. Ratpure is collapsing in on itself, the walls are war ravaged, water gushes from broken pipes flooding rooms, corpses litter the floors and hang from ceilings. Water has never been seen or felt like this in a game, it’s everywhere and completely devoted to claiming back its seabed. It runs down the walls pooling on the floors of bars, spurts out of smashed toilets, steams down stairs and even breaks a tunnel flooding it spectacularly.
http://pausegaming.com/niall/reviewpics/bioshock/4_bio_flood.jpg
Darn it, I didn't bring my wellies. I hate having wet socks. :(
Nothing in the game world has been neglected; every crumbling wall, gushing water pipe and bloody smear has been lovingly placed. Walking through Raputre is a feast for the eyes with beautiful statues, strange machines and even stranger inhabitants. Mutated humans scavenge the rotting halls for anything, in particular ADAM (the resource needed to buy new plasmids, the games only RPG element). The atmosphere is dark and oppressive with shafts of neon light glowing eerily from thick windows, highlighting scenes of unspeakable horror. Exploring Rapture is a creepy, lonely experience intensified by an excellent ambient soundtrack worthy of its SS heritage, with creaking walls from the intense pressure of the sea, echoing service announcements, twisted steam driven machines and the haunting muttering words of its insane dwellers. Period pieces being played from phonographs both original and new add massively to creating this oppressive world and adding even more layers to this rather grim, but tasty visual/audio treat.
http://pausegaming.com/niall/reviewpics/bioshock/5_bio_hall.jpg
Mummy mummy! That man hasn't got any clothes on! Not much to hide either.....
Thankfully, BioShock has more to offer than just pretty graphics but also serves up a decent plot with fleshed out characters. Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged has clearly made a large impact on Ken Levine, her objectivist philosophies are rife through the basis of the game world and plot. This comes across not only through the main story line, but in the game world; ammo vending machines, products of a free market gone mad and the symbolic relationship between the Big Daddys and Little Sisters to point out a few. The main plot is advanced through action and radio communications (emails) from other characters in the game world. As in SS, the history of Rapture is learned through audio recordings (e-journals) and occasional dramatisations of specific events through ghostly apparitions. So far so SS, with the main difference being that the seeking of these audio logs is rarely needed to progress the game. Sure, you get the odd password, but they’re not there as a practical device, they’re there for people more interested in the story. On the most part they are extremely well voice acted, you really get a real sense of the characters and a snippet, some times more, of their experiances of Rapture. The intricacies of the many stories of people that lived in Rapture each with their own hopes and fears are unfurled extraordinarily for those interested in the history and the commentary of objectivism. There are also many more opportunities for meeting these people face to face, unlike SS2 which is an interesting tweak to the formula. These meetings often provoke a stronger emotional response than if you’d been face to face during the interactions leading to it. The writing is also pretty good, with some of them achieving the terrifying heights of SS2, my personal favourite involving a Big Daddy and a scientist……
http://pausegaming.com/niall/reviewpics/bioshock/6_bio_ouch.jpg
I wonder who she pissed off? Hope it was quick, I'll just take this shotgun. "YAAAAAAAAA!", oh crap.
http://pausegaming.com/niall/reviewpics/bioshock/7_bio_couple.jpg
One of the more emotionally jarring stories of Rapture told through this grisly scene
However, my praise is going to be taking a trip down, straight into the inky blackness of space, or maybe up, or left, depends how you look at it. Let’s get this straight out in the open, BioShock gameplay is severally lacking in imagination. There, I said it. Justification? Right, here we go.
Going back to SS2, gameplay and story were well mated. The game challenged you, questioned your ability, struck you when you were least expecting it, pulled the rug from under your feet then opened the trap door. It kept you on the edge of your seat, sweating and swearing in equal measure as you crept along ghostly corridors, scaring the crap out of you with well placed monkeys. That’s how good it was. The RPG elements kept the shooting form getting stale, difficult choices had to be made in regard to skills and tactics, spending of resources was never taken lightly, inventory management and stashing loot in safe places was a guilty pleasure, and combat was avoided unless it was absolutely required to advance.
http://pausegaming.com/niall/reviewpics/bioshock/8_bio_plasmid.jpg
Plamids eh? Which one? Just buy them all.
In BioShock, practically all of these game elements have been stripped out, leaving a rather skinny looking thing, kind of like a sheep after sheering. Yes, indeed the game does have its fantastic looks and sharp storyline with philosophical introspection for those that can be bothered pulling it out, but they don’t do enough to insulate the poor gameplay. Everything in BioShock is advanced through shooting guns or plasmids (i.e. psi-powers or magic), stealth is rarely an option, the plasmids that help your stealth are fairly useless and the hiding in shadows mechanic is laughably poor. This would be fine if the actual combat stood up to scrutiny, but it sadly doesn’t. Combat is a hollow and mostly dull affaire with the exception of the wrench which makes a welcome appearance from SS2. Whacking fools over the back of the head is remarkably satisfying, particularly with the Frozen Field plasmid, but that’s about it. The other weapons feel very “meh” and that includes all of the plasmids. The rate of opportunities to employ tactics and stealth is low, with the exception of the Big Daddys (basically boss’s you can fight any time you feel like) were picking a good spot for your fight and getting the upper hand makes a big difference, especially at the start of the game. Hacking cameras and turrets to fight for you is generally handy but a total no brainer. There are no costs or real risks to hacking other than that if you fail you might sound the alarm, or get some health taken off you. Big deal, I have a full wallet, full med hypos and electric bolt, bring it bitches.
http://pausegaming.com/niall/reviewpics/bioshock/9_bio_turrent.jpg
Rocket turrets are brilliant though, oh the epiclolz
Also, the mini-game which you initiate is probably up there with the top 10 worse mini-games including Oblivion’s persuade game and Teenage Zombies extra life game. You have to connect up the pipes so that water can flow from one part to another. That’s it. I swear, I started taking off my engineering plasmids to give myself a challenge, and even then only messed up when you had to change the first pipe straight away. Thing is, you didn’t have to do it, the hacking I mean, but I just couldn’t help myself, even though I knew I’d achieve nothing other than wasted time, because my inventory was full practically the whole time. I know the principle is that a civil war has been on and that Rapture operates in a free market, sure ok, I can understand why there is ammo vending machines, but I found myself tripping over ammo pretty much the whole game. There is definitely no aspect of survival in BioShock, they practically hand feed you the whole way through, that is if you’re not turning yourself into a fat pie, stuffing your face full of cream buns and wine. Removing the inventory was a slick thing to do for the console crowd but for crying out loud, making the character eat anything in his path due to having no pockets is just silly, regardless of health. Oh, and spending time choosing which plasmids, ammo to buy/create, weapon upgrades to pick is a complete waste of time as by the end of the game you’ll have all of them anyway, even if you have opted to choose the moral high ground and not kill the Little Sisters.
http://pausegaming.com/niall/reviewpics/bioshock/10_bio_little.jpg
Kill or save? Moral choice or just cheap marketing tool, you decide, would you kindly.
On that note, the AI and enemies are not spectacular either. I remember hearing about BioShock years ago and got all excited about an evolving game world with natural prey, workers and soliders, instead we ended up with a very static selection of bad guys and some bad ass Big Daddys. As you progress through the game, the Splicers will get stronger, become immune to certain types of attack (fire, lighting, ice etc) and posses their own elemental attacks, but that’s it. I mean come on. Granted, they are a horrendous looking bunch and the Spider Splicers are pretty creepy to begin with. However, once you’ve have anti-personal bullets in high supply (so, like after the 2nd level) and you’ve done some research (i.e. taken photos) you utterly destroy them with one or two pistol rounds. For the record I was playing BioShock on hard, I don’t want to imagine what playing it on medium was like. The final boss of the game was a push over and the end sequence (I saved all the Little Sisters) was sickly sweet and left me with a bad taste in my month.
http://pausegaming.com/niall/reviewpics/bioshock/11_bio_daddy.jpg
Who’s your daddy, and what does he do? BigDaddys are amazingly powerful, but once you get the chemical thrower, it’s a cake walk.
In relation to the final boss, I make my final point. My nostalgic description at the beginning may have seemed a trifle pretentious and I realise this. However, it is important that I explain this experience to realise my reasoning for this point. While the atmosphere in BioShock is dark and oppressive and employs effective shock tactics and horror, the game itself and its villain never deliver the frightening experience of the original SS or its younger sibling. It may seem unfair to compare but considering how much of the gameplay is lifted directly from SS it would be ignorant not to. The crux of the matter it that in BioShock, you play an almost super-human killing machine facing an understandable and very human opponent. The game never puts you in any real danger, you never really feel unsafe and vulnerable, it constantly replenishes your resources and leads you by the nose through your visit of Rapture. The resident villain is twisted but ultimately a known factor. You can understand the mind of your enemy and therefore any fear you have of him evaporates. In SS however, you lived every minute in fear of Shodan and her creations. She was an evil, twisted machine, an inhuman omnipresence and completely insane. You felt her presence every were, taunting you, playing you as a cat does with a mouse, you had to survive not tour the ship. BioShock attempts this with its incredible setting and villain but it never delivers. You ultimately feel much more like a tourist, never truly feeling the immersion and sense of belonging in the game world.
http://pausegaming.com/niall/reviewpics/bioshock/12_bio_dance.jpg
Fancy a waltz? Just don’t grab the shotgun shells like I did, they get mad if the music goes off…..
All in all BioShock is not a bad game, by any stretch of the imagination. In actual fact, I really enjoyed it despite its new streamlined feel but if it weren’t for the extra content I kept pulling out of it, I wouldn’t have come back. It looks amazing, has wonderful art direction, boasts an interesting plot with philosophical introspection, a brilliant soundtrack and it just drips with atmosphere. It’s just a pity that all of this brilliant work has been thrown over the now, rather thin looking skeleton of what used to be SS2.
"Look at you, hacker. A pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?”
She’s got a point.
8/10
- Niall Macdonald 14/09/08
BioShock – PC - 2007
Developer: - 2K Boston/2K Australia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2K_Boston/2K_Australia)
Publisher: - 2k games (http://www.2kgames.com/)
Review System:- PC
Previously, on Citadel Station:
You’ve fought your way down through the Medical Level, surviving your first Cyborg Assassins and cautiously exploring the Cyborg conversion chambers. Suddenly you come to an opening looking out into a larger room, there’s a drop of at least 3m and a platform to take you down. You’re suddenly at red alert, a huge Cyborg Warrior is standing guard, its twisted flesh and metal body groans as it sees you. You duck into cover, quickly pulling out your Magpulse, setting it to maximum power, praying you have the firepower to take this thing down. Diving out, you start lacerating the monster with the deadly laser beam, a harsh streak cuts through the battle as the weapon begins to overheat. Fortunately the Cyborg’s weapon arm explodes first and it collapses face down with a sickening crunch.
Breathing hard from the lighting strike battle, you ride the platform down. To your left the room leads to some sort of control room, probably with the Control Node you need to destroy. Checking your health and weapon, you stride confidently to the entrance.
Suddenly, a piercing hiss of static is transmitted via your Cyber Implants. An inhuman voice, but unmistakably female, slurs and stutters out the words,
“Enter that room, insect, and it will become your grave.”
A shiver goes up your spine, you hesitate in the door way, looking around for danger like a frightened rabbit. Was the threat real? Seconds pass, as you weigh up the odds. Gripping the mouse you gingerly step forward.
All hell breaks loose.
Oh Shodan, how I miss you.
BioShock, is Ken Levine’s most recent title, the spiritual successor to the cult FPS/RPG System Shock 2, developed by the late Irrational Games (now 2K Boston/2K Australia) and Looking Glass Studios. System Shock 2 was a direct sequel to the original System Shock released in 1994 which is widely considered to be the benchmark for intelligent first-person gaming and has influenced the design of countless other games. Now, I don’t know about you but considering the nature of reviewing and the gaming industry, comparisons are inevitable and logical. You can’t rationally analyse a media or subject without having other results to differentiate with. If you have a problem with me relating BioShock to SS1 or SS2 I’m sorry, but I’m a scientific lad, and that’s just the way it is.
On first impressions, BioShock is light-years away from its older siblings. Set in an alternate history 1960, the game takes place in a previously utopian underwater city which is now populated with unspeakably deformed humans and deadly steam-punk inspired machines. You play as Jack, the sole survivor of a plane crash at sea, now trapped in the now dystopian city fighting for his life. The setting is a unique, incredibly conceived location and is easily the most impressive aspect of BioShock. The opening of the game while being one of the most memorable and intense of any computer game, is also gob smackingly beautiful, almost beyond words. The city is laid out before you as a rail guided submarine auto pilots you to an unknown location. Huge art deco style, Metropolis like towers loom from the seabed, with numerous tunnels linking sections together. Neon signs and other advertisements clamber for you attention as shoals of fish pulse between squids and other sea life. The submarine docks, the lights flicker, violence ensues, welcome to Rapture.
http://pausegaming.com/niall/reviewpics/bioshock/3_bio_rapture.jpg
It's a WHALE! There's a whale, there's a whale there's a whale fish he cried, the whale was in full view.
Inside, the incredible visuals continue to out stand. The art style of the game has clearly been worked on for more man hours than I can imagine. The era has been faithful reconstructed from the carpets and lamps, to the wallpaper and posters. Not that it’s perfect, far from. Ratpure is collapsing in on itself, the walls are war ravaged, water gushes from broken pipes flooding rooms, corpses litter the floors and hang from ceilings. Water has never been seen or felt like this in a game, it’s everywhere and completely devoted to claiming back its seabed. It runs down the walls pooling on the floors of bars, spurts out of smashed toilets, steams down stairs and even breaks a tunnel flooding it spectacularly.
http://pausegaming.com/niall/reviewpics/bioshock/4_bio_flood.jpg
Darn it, I didn't bring my wellies. I hate having wet socks. :(
Nothing in the game world has been neglected; every crumbling wall, gushing water pipe and bloody smear has been lovingly placed. Walking through Raputre is a feast for the eyes with beautiful statues, strange machines and even stranger inhabitants. Mutated humans scavenge the rotting halls for anything, in particular ADAM (the resource needed to buy new plasmids, the games only RPG element). The atmosphere is dark and oppressive with shafts of neon light glowing eerily from thick windows, highlighting scenes of unspeakable horror. Exploring Rapture is a creepy, lonely experience intensified by an excellent ambient soundtrack worthy of its SS heritage, with creaking walls from the intense pressure of the sea, echoing service announcements, twisted steam driven machines and the haunting muttering words of its insane dwellers. Period pieces being played from phonographs both original and new add massively to creating this oppressive world and adding even more layers to this rather grim, but tasty visual/audio treat.
http://pausegaming.com/niall/reviewpics/bioshock/5_bio_hall.jpg
Mummy mummy! That man hasn't got any clothes on! Not much to hide either.....
Thankfully, BioShock has more to offer than just pretty graphics but also serves up a decent plot with fleshed out characters. Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged has clearly made a large impact on Ken Levine, her objectivist philosophies are rife through the basis of the game world and plot. This comes across not only through the main story line, but in the game world; ammo vending machines, products of a free market gone mad and the symbolic relationship between the Big Daddys and Little Sisters to point out a few. The main plot is advanced through action and radio communications (emails) from other characters in the game world. As in SS, the history of Rapture is learned through audio recordings (e-journals) and occasional dramatisations of specific events through ghostly apparitions. So far so SS, with the main difference being that the seeking of these audio logs is rarely needed to progress the game. Sure, you get the odd password, but they’re not there as a practical device, they’re there for people more interested in the story. On the most part they are extremely well voice acted, you really get a real sense of the characters and a snippet, some times more, of their experiances of Rapture. The intricacies of the many stories of people that lived in Rapture each with their own hopes and fears are unfurled extraordinarily for those interested in the history and the commentary of objectivism. There are also many more opportunities for meeting these people face to face, unlike SS2 which is an interesting tweak to the formula. These meetings often provoke a stronger emotional response than if you’d been face to face during the interactions leading to it. The writing is also pretty good, with some of them achieving the terrifying heights of SS2, my personal favourite involving a Big Daddy and a scientist……
http://pausegaming.com/niall/reviewpics/bioshock/6_bio_ouch.jpg
I wonder who she pissed off? Hope it was quick, I'll just take this shotgun. "YAAAAAAAAA!", oh crap.
http://pausegaming.com/niall/reviewpics/bioshock/7_bio_couple.jpg
One of the more emotionally jarring stories of Rapture told through this grisly scene
However, my praise is going to be taking a trip down, straight into the inky blackness of space, or maybe up, or left, depends how you look at it. Let’s get this straight out in the open, BioShock gameplay is severally lacking in imagination. There, I said it. Justification? Right, here we go.
Going back to SS2, gameplay and story were well mated. The game challenged you, questioned your ability, struck you when you were least expecting it, pulled the rug from under your feet then opened the trap door. It kept you on the edge of your seat, sweating and swearing in equal measure as you crept along ghostly corridors, scaring the crap out of you with well placed monkeys. That’s how good it was. The RPG elements kept the shooting form getting stale, difficult choices had to be made in regard to skills and tactics, spending of resources was never taken lightly, inventory management and stashing loot in safe places was a guilty pleasure, and combat was avoided unless it was absolutely required to advance.
http://pausegaming.com/niall/reviewpics/bioshock/8_bio_plasmid.jpg
Plamids eh? Which one? Just buy them all.
In BioShock, practically all of these game elements have been stripped out, leaving a rather skinny looking thing, kind of like a sheep after sheering. Yes, indeed the game does have its fantastic looks and sharp storyline with philosophical introspection for those that can be bothered pulling it out, but they don’t do enough to insulate the poor gameplay. Everything in BioShock is advanced through shooting guns or plasmids (i.e. psi-powers or magic), stealth is rarely an option, the plasmids that help your stealth are fairly useless and the hiding in shadows mechanic is laughably poor. This would be fine if the actual combat stood up to scrutiny, but it sadly doesn’t. Combat is a hollow and mostly dull affaire with the exception of the wrench which makes a welcome appearance from SS2. Whacking fools over the back of the head is remarkably satisfying, particularly with the Frozen Field plasmid, but that’s about it. The other weapons feel very “meh” and that includes all of the plasmids. The rate of opportunities to employ tactics and stealth is low, with the exception of the Big Daddys (basically boss’s you can fight any time you feel like) were picking a good spot for your fight and getting the upper hand makes a big difference, especially at the start of the game. Hacking cameras and turrets to fight for you is generally handy but a total no brainer. There are no costs or real risks to hacking other than that if you fail you might sound the alarm, or get some health taken off you. Big deal, I have a full wallet, full med hypos and electric bolt, bring it bitches.
http://pausegaming.com/niall/reviewpics/bioshock/9_bio_turrent.jpg
Rocket turrets are brilliant though, oh the epiclolz
Also, the mini-game which you initiate is probably up there with the top 10 worse mini-games including Oblivion’s persuade game and Teenage Zombies extra life game. You have to connect up the pipes so that water can flow from one part to another. That’s it. I swear, I started taking off my engineering plasmids to give myself a challenge, and even then only messed up when you had to change the first pipe straight away. Thing is, you didn’t have to do it, the hacking I mean, but I just couldn’t help myself, even though I knew I’d achieve nothing other than wasted time, because my inventory was full practically the whole time. I know the principle is that a civil war has been on and that Rapture operates in a free market, sure ok, I can understand why there is ammo vending machines, but I found myself tripping over ammo pretty much the whole game. There is definitely no aspect of survival in BioShock, they practically hand feed you the whole way through, that is if you’re not turning yourself into a fat pie, stuffing your face full of cream buns and wine. Removing the inventory was a slick thing to do for the console crowd but for crying out loud, making the character eat anything in his path due to having no pockets is just silly, regardless of health. Oh, and spending time choosing which plasmids, ammo to buy/create, weapon upgrades to pick is a complete waste of time as by the end of the game you’ll have all of them anyway, even if you have opted to choose the moral high ground and not kill the Little Sisters.
http://pausegaming.com/niall/reviewpics/bioshock/10_bio_little.jpg
Kill or save? Moral choice or just cheap marketing tool, you decide, would you kindly.
On that note, the AI and enemies are not spectacular either. I remember hearing about BioShock years ago and got all excited about an evolving game world with natural prey, workers and soliders, instead we ended up with a very static selection of bad guys and some bad ass Big Daddys. As you progress through the game, the Splicers will get stronger, become immune to certain types of attack (fire, lighting, ice etc) and posses their own elemental attacks, but that’s it. I mean come on. Granted, they are a horrendous looking bunch and the Spider Splicers are pretty creepy to begin with. However, once you’ve have anti-personal bullets in high supply (so, like after the 2nd level) and you’ve done some research (i.e. taken photos) you utterly destroy them with one or two pistol rounds. For the record I was playing BioShock on hard, I don’t want to imagine what playing it on medium was like. The final boss of the game was a push over and the end sequence (I saved all the Little Sisters) was sickly sweet and left me with a bad taste in my month.
http://pausegaming.com/niall/reviewpics/bioshock/11_bio_daddy.jpg
Who’s your daddy, and what does he do? BigDaddys are amazingly powerful, but once you get the chemical thrower, it’s a cake walk.
In relation to the final boss, I make my final point. My nostalgic description at the beginning may have seemed a trifle pretentious and I realise this. However, it is important that I explain this experience to realise my reasoning for this point. While the atmosphere in BioShock is dark and oppressive and employs effective shock tactics and horror, the game itself and its villain never deliver the frightening experience of the original SS or its younger sibling. It may seem unfair to compare but considering how much of the gameplay is lifted directly from SS it would be ignorant not to. The crux of the matter it that in BioShock, you play an almost super-human killing machine facing an understandable and very human opponent. The game never puts you in any real danger, you never really feel unsafe and vulnerable, it constantly replenishes your resources and leads you by the nose through your visit of Rapture. The resident villain is twisted but ultimately a known factor. You can understand the mind of your enemy and therefore any fear you have of him evaporates. In SS however, you lived every minute in fear of Shodan and her creations. She was an evil, twisted machine, an inhuman omnipresence and completely insane. You felt her presence every were, taunting you, playing you as a cat does with a mouse, you had to survive not tour the ship. BioShock attempts this with its incredible setting and villain but it never delivers. You ultimately feel much more like a tourist, never truly feeling the immersion and sense of belonging in the game world.
http://pausegaming.com/niall/reviewpics/bioshock/12_bio_dance.jpg
Fancy a waltz? Just don’t grab the shotgun shells like I did, they get mad if the music goes off…..
All in all BioShock is not a bad game, by any stretch of the imagination. In actual fact, I really enjoyed it despite its new streamlined feel but if it weren’t for the extra content I kept pulling out of it, I wouldn’t have come back. It looks amazing, has wonderful art direction, boasts an interesting plot with philosophical introspection, a brilliant soundtrack and it just drips with atmosphere. It’s just a pity that all of this brilliant work has been thrown over the now, rather thin looking skeleton of what used to be SS2.
"Look at you, hacker. A pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?”
She’s got a point.
8/10
- Niall Macdonald 14/09/08