Bioshock - Reviews

(4.5)

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13.5.2011

Underwater Utopia named Rapture, built by brilliant but slightly mad industrial tycoon Andrew Ryan but population descends into civil war and begins to mutate and kill one another in order to survive. Then you show up after a mysterious air crash...WHATS NOT TO LOVE!!! Bioshock may be coming up to nearly the ripe old age of 4 years old, and many of the games on Xbox have progressed quite far and possibly beyond the scope of imagination when Bioshock was first introduced to us, but it still feels as if it was released yesterday and continues to draw me in with its dialogue, settings and game play mechanics. This may be a review that will never be read or given much attention,but I feel it is important that a game of this calibre remain one of the greats, a game we all love to play and can never lose enjoyment in. Seriously just think about it, when was the last time you played a truly magnificent game? A game that you still remember playing and no matter how old it gets, you will still be able to pick up and play it even 10 - 20 years or even longer down the road? That's why Ocarina of Time is, well timeless or Goldeneye on the N64.Bioshock is probably the first Xbox 360 game that totally absorbed my time. I would discover a thought of "I will just have a quick go, to the next save point and go to bed" would turn into 5 hours very quickly, with it now being 2am. After a few weeks of these sessions, I believe and still believe to this day that my silhouette was burned into my bedroom wall where I had not moved for so long in front of the HD TV. Only a few games have ever had this reaction for me. Fallout 3, Assassins Creed 2 and Dead Space being the main culprits.I have owned Bioshock since it came out and though I was impressed with Bioshock 2, I was not totally blown away and felt that the original was still very much its superior. It reminds me of my favourite films or music. I may have seen them hundreds of times before, heard the tracks inside out, but I always find a rekindled sense of enjoyment and appreciate the experience more each time. So where to start?I love the story and how it progresses up to its conclusion. Being given the choice to play the good guy or tear the place apart in the hunt for ADAM seemed at first nothing no other game had done before, mainly because the moral choice was so stark concerning the Little Sisters. It is just entertainment but at times during the harvester or rescue scenes I would always find I would rather rescue. Why? I didn't want to hurt the Little Sisters! Hopefully deep down that means I'm a good person. Or just rather simple as I would find I would never have enough ADAM for all the plasmids I wanted. With a mix of different weapons that you can upgrade and choice of special powers known as plasmids, there is plenty of playability and combos you can make with a variety of weapons and the different ammo you can collect for each weapon. Playing through the game a few times, you certainly appreciate the tactics of upgrading your weapons. Just because you have the grenade launcher does not mean it's the most useful weapon. Think before you upgrade and the same goes with plasmids. The urge is to buy each of them so you have a full arsenal but this is folly. Focus on the essential plasmids which tend to be the elemental ones (you can get extra plasmids which include ice from XBL and are free) and upgrade these. I found the fire plasmid the single most useful in fights and solving puzzles.Now this is a shooter and can be quite frantic at times. Unlike other shooter style games, ammo is not always in abundance and if you go running round Rapture unloading every weapon you have, you won't make it passed the first area. Rapture is HUGE and can be quite unforgiving if you don't plan ahead. The harder the difficulty, the more shots it will take to bring down the enemy, which leads me perfectly onto the enemies and other grisleys that populate the underwater Utopia you are to face. They range from the everyday folk of Rapture who are hell bent on killing you and taking your ADAM to the Big Daddies and Rosie's who protect the Little Sisters. These larger enemies tend to pay you no attention as you walk around the destroyed city but will react if you get close to a Little Sister and can sometimes attack you if you stay around too long. Only ever take these lumbering juggernauts on if you have enough ammo and a decent strategy as they will take you down within seconds. They are super strong and can bolt at you knocking you back. It may not seem like the strongest weapon but I always use the cross bolt on the Big Daddies as it packs a serious punch but is let down slow reload times. The "everyday" enemies are easy to kill but in numbers can be overwhelming. These are the Splicer's and are the residents of what was once a great society, turned upside down by over exposure to ADAM, a kind of drug that allows for plasmids to function. Many of the areas you visit are filled with these and like The Big Daddies and Rosie's, you can hear them usually making noise before you get close to them. They vary in style and appearance allowing you to distinguish them and choose the right weapon. All I can say is when dealing with Spider Splicer's, take them down quickly as they are a huge pain and will tear you apart.The Splicer's are a minor annoyance, the bigger enemies are tough as nails, but the bots that fly and the sentry guns are not only quick, agile and lethal but can re-spawn during alarms. If it was not for the camouflage plasmid, I would be dead 10 times over. Instead of aiming for them to destroy them, you are given the opportunity to hack the turrets and the flying bots to use to your own advantage and can help you in defending areas and yourself. Camera turrets can also be hacked and act as your early warning system. Essentially hack everything as when you return to areas that are patrolled by cameras you hacked earlier, sometimes you will find dead Splicer's and they have left behind some goodies for you. You have the ability to search your enemies but can also search in other areas like filing cabinets, bins and suitcases. These yield some interesting rewards for you to use during the game. At first I did not understand why I kept running out of ammo even when I was trying to be frugal with it. I kept find these random pieces of inventory such as brass pipe or rubbing tubing and just storing them. It was like Christmas as you can covert the odds and sods into ammo and when I left the ammo converter, the floor was littered with shotgun shells and grenades. Admittedly I got carried away.This is a great game, possibly one of the greatest ever made. It produces a fantastic and engaging story, easy to use controls, amazing action and puzzles and is a beautiful modern piece of gaming gold. The price of this title now is a complete bargain. Why would you not want to take up this bargain????

3.3.2008

This is the first time I've taken up a First Person Shooter on my own (only played Halo 3 on coop), and I was a bit nervous. After discovering that I'm actually quite good at shooters, I realised that my nerves were purely down to the atmosphere this game creates. It's completely other worldly which at the same time, having areas reminiscent of horror films. (The hospital and grotesque experiments reminded me of House on Haunted Hill with the sinister doctor)Basically you're the survivor of a plane crash and swim to a strange island. Upon entering a biosphere, you're taken under the sea to Rapture, a city created by Andrew Ryan which he envisaged to be his 'Utopia'. Unfortunately,the occupants of Rapture have become increasingly murderous as they stock up on EVE (a substance which allows the user to evolve their DNA to use various powers such as electiricty and incinerate from their hands). Rapture is basically caving in on itself. Decay is everywhere, yet underneath the rust and leaking walls, there is something completely beautiful about Rapture.This underwater city is where you find yourself, completely disorientated and doing anything you can to survive the murdeous intent of the splicers (humans who have evolved into beings who want only to harm). With the help of the myserious man named Atlas, you complete various tasks to unravel the myserty of where Rapture went wrong and the story behind the ellusive Andrew Ryan.I guess what I found so brilliant about this game was the setting itself. Rapture has so many different areas from lush gardens to blood splattered hospital walls. Each time you find a beautiful area, you're promptly reminded to keep your guard up as you spy a corpse hanging from the rafters, or notice the weight of the ocean dripping through the rust stained walls.I admit this game has made me jump on several occassions. Fantastic use is made of subtle music and sound to create a truly eerie ghost city, littered with corpses. The bit I almost jumped through the roof at was upon entereing the garden area quite near the start of the game. I saw a desk with a strange mask on it. Along I scuttled to have a closer look. As I was looking at the mask, I notice a shadow on the wall of someone standing behind me. Turned around only to be confronted by a splicer wearing a similar mask. Might not sound scary but you can hear that same splicer shouting when you enter that area so you've been trying to find him for a while before that point. I almost hit the roof.The plasmid idea deserves a special mention. This system is fortunatly very easy to control with the plasmids being operated with the left shoulder buttons and your weapons with the right shoulder buttons. Switiching between the two is extremely quick (which is good when you have a Big Daddy trying to drill a hole in you) and combined use of the two is the most effective way to destory most enemies.Morality is also looked at in this game (a bit like Fable). The Big Daddies protect little girls called Little Sisters. These girls are children in looks only. They live only to drain ADAM (a sort of lifeforce used alongside EVE for the plasmids) from corpses. After killing the Big Daddy you have a choice whether or not to harvest the child and the ADAM she carries thereby killing her, or to save her and harvest only a small portion of ADAM. Either way, it's left up to the player but each one will give a different ending and combining the two will give a third ending.The hacking aspect of this game was also a nice touch (even if I am rubbish at it and prefer to destory gun turrets). Hacking involves solving a small puzzle of various difficulties to unlock the safe or machine. Hacking gun turrets and security bots will turn them friendly to you and will attack your enemies. I didn't have the patience for hacking and so bypassed this most of the time. You can also hack vending machines for cheaper prices on supplies.The only thing I didn't like about Bioshock (and this may not be a universal moan, it's probably just me), was the process of listening to the tape recordings. It's a bit annoying to start the tape when the game background noise is loud and you can't hear what's being said. By the time the recording had finished, I was too engrossed in the game to go back into my previous findings and listen to it again.I also found the research camera irritating. Can't help think this it would have been more sensible to place this under a different control instead of putting it alongside the weapon selection. It's very frustrating to switch from plasmid to weapon only to find yourself taking a picture of something instead of shooting it. Placing it under a different button would have made it possible to sneak up on enemies, take a quick picture, and then sneak away. Mixing it up with the weapon button was just annoying.All in all though, this is a truly magnificent game. Visually stunning and hugely atmospheric. Even if you don't usually play FPS games, give it a go. The controls are straight forward and easy to get the hang of.This review is based on playing the game on a bog standard tv. No high definition or widescreen. I would LOVE to play this on HD since it was created for such a screen. The effect would be mindblowing.For those pondering between a PS3 and a 360, this title isn't on the PS3, and this game is one big reason to go for the 360. A work of art.

7.9.2007

Until about a week or so ago I'd heard very little of Bioshock. I rarely follow the release dates of games, and prefer to experience a game than read about it online or in mags. However, I noticed it when browsing Amazon and decided I'd buy it as the Big Daddy grabbed my attention.Now, it's my most played game on the 360.I'm not going to talk about how much hype this game got as I was honestly not aware of it and don't know the limits. But what I will say is that Bioshock is amazing. And not just amazing - as most games are described - this is THE game for 360 owners.If you're reading about this game then you know already what the basic plot of the game is,and I won't say anything more in order to preserve the great twists that you'll find within the game. However, it's important to know that the story to Bioshock is a roller-coaster of a ride that will leave you wanting to know more each and every time you lay down the controller.Gameplay wise, Bioshock is a step above most FPS games on any console. The Darkness was a great game with it's unique abilities, Halo was (and hopefully will remain) a fast action shooter, but this game takes the gameplay from all of the best shooters and mixes it all up, before throwing in a handful of fantastic new features to leave you in awe.The game claims that no player will be the same, and it's probably true. There are plenty of ways to kill an enemy within the game, from indenting their skull with a handy wrench to pumping them full of lead, but how about creating a bit of chaos and forcing each enemy to attack another - whilst you dodge around them taking them out one by one. Or if that's not your thing, and you find groups of enemies a handful, you could hypnotise a Big Daddy and go into battle with a huge diving-suited, drill-armed warrior at your side.The weapons that are found in Bioshock are also fully upgradeable, with each weapon being given the option of two upgrades that enhances their abilities. Depending on your favourite weapon you can upgrade each weapon once at a 'Power To The People' machine - but beware, as the machine closes after a single use (there are multiple machines however in each area).Another great attraction are the PLASMIDS. Inject them into your arm and you can possess the elements, swarms of wasps, and mini-tornados that are each useful for wiping out groups of enemies in a few seconds.However, and this is a great catch, in order to upgrade your PLASMIDS and buy more slots to place your new found should-be-lethal injected friends, you have to find and 'release' the Little Sisters within the game. The great thing about this is that you can't just 'get' to them; you must first take out their hulking protector: the Big Daddy!Aside from being the most iconic character within the game, the Big Daddy has the unusual characteristics of an innocent enemy. That is, to say, they will not attack you unless you attempt to harm them or their Little Sisters. It's your choice entirely whether you fight the Big Daddies or not, but you essentially have to unless you plan on facing the tougher enemies, later on in the game, with weapons alone.Then, if you can power your way through the increasingly-strong Big Daddies, you must make the choice of sacrificing the Little Sister in order to gain a large amount of power (which is needed to buy more PLASMIDS and more slots for your abilities) or save the child from the possession and gain a smaller amount of power. It's all psychological; do you feel guilt for killing a small girl when they consist only within a game, or will you feel better for saving them and letting them flee?This is the effect that Bioshock has; it absorbs you into the action and forces you to make choices that you wouldn't expect to have to make.Bioshock is also the owner of some of the most beautiful graphics in any game. The locations within Rapture are a combination of natural beauty - looking out into the ocean around you - and sheer destruction. There are a good number of character designs, and whilst you will find yourself facing an enemy that you are sure you killed an hour before in a totally different area, it's not as annoying as you may expect.The water itself is possibly the most realistic in any game I've ever played - the first few minutes of playing leave you wondering just what is to come.The game is also quite lengthy, and has great replay value as there is always other ways to complete the game. Lasting between 10-20 hours (depending on your ability), and with several modes of difficulty to present easier or more difficult challenges to those who require them, you'll find yourself restarting the game just minutes after you've finished it the first time around.Bioshock is a game that introduces you to the idea of 'survival of the fittest', and leaves you longing for more as you become submerged in the ocean depths that is Rapture. With fantastic voice work, you feel as though you have become the newest citizen of the fallen city. Are you a man or a puppet? Would you kindly buy it now?

19.1.2010

Bioshock: (4/5)Beautifully portrayed shooter set in a steampunk-esque 50s enviroment, graphics are fantastic and don't require a supercomputer to run (I had this working with full visuals on an older dualcore 2.1Ghz AMD system with 2GB of RAM and a mid-range ATI 256MB card). Enemy AI is challenging, weapons are varied and the inclusion of puzzles (though not necessary for the majority of gameplay, just beneficial) makes for a cracking experience. Not great re-playability as you know where enemies are, solutions for puzzles etc. Definitely a good game thoughOblivion: (3/5)You will need a supercomputer for this one. Graphics are spellbinding (especially with some user-mods that tweak wilderness visuals and lighting),though I often get the feeling with this (as well as with Morrowind and other Bestheda games) that a little more time in production would have turned a very good game into a phenomenal one. It's only little niggles; minor bugs, the occasional AI glitch, remainders of abandoned ideas (usually in the form of discovered quest items that aren't implemented at any point) and the vocal acting.The latter is actually quite a major niggle. This could have been an incredibly immersive game, if only for the wholly inconsistent dialogue. Efforts have been made for NPCs to converse "spontaneously" but with a limited bank of dialogue, they are often nonsensical and you can hear the NPCs switch voices like a schizophrenic with head trauma most of the time. You'll have walked out of a particularly hard dungeon, walk into a town feeling like a triumphant hero with enough loot to start a small colony of your own...then have this moment of immersion unwillingly tugged away by having a beggar switch from gravelly street urchin to well-schooled peasant with a couple of clicks of the mouse.Character customisation is bananas, you can sculpt a persona as you please. And with the amount of enchantable armour and weapons in this game, this is a continuous thread.One huge huge huge problem with this game though is the levelling system. It is frankly bonkers. In order to create a strong character you have to jump through some serious hoops. Let's say a sneaky archer type in this instance. If you simply chose skills and attributes to support this initially, playing through (not surprisingly) as a sneaky archer type, you'd assume that the game would allow you to build up your character suitably and although you wouldn't be a tank, you would still be on-par with enemy NPCs in terms of attack and general survivability?No, you would wind up at around level 30 (with no more scope for character growth) with far lower health/attack than enemies and have an initially fun game turn utterly infuriating. In order to not end up being repeatedly eaten alive by frickin wildlife, you have to take your stealthy character and spend a multitude of in-game hours endlessly buffing their meleé combat statistics so they have slightly more health than a passing gnat ("but I thought I was a sneaky archer type?!" I hear you think), which makes for some serious tedious gameplay. Worse than that, this sneaky archer type is now brandishing an axe and clumping about in heavy armour; forcing you to play distinctly differently to how you wanted to...until you've maxed your warrior skills THEN you can carry on with your notions of being a stealthy character...which rather defeats the idea of choosing any attributes in the first place, as you'll have to go completely against them initially to make any headway.This was, thankfully, resolved in Fallout 3...but until a mod comes out that fixes this reliably, I would have to say this was a major downer on this otherwise good game.The two together are a steal at this price, both are good fun and despite my grievances against Oblivion's inane levelling system, it more than makes up with a compelling storyline, more quests and playable environment than you can shake a stick at.

28.8.2007

I completely agree with the reviews below and I if you have read them all I guess you know the story but here is a brief overview. Your in a small passenger plane somewhere over the Atlantic ocean. When for some (so far in my game unexplained) reason your plane comes down in to the dark icy ocean below. Luckily (or not) there is lighthouse just near where you have come down, and even as you swim over to it things seem wrong, especially as you step into a small sub that takes you down the beautiful but deadly world of Rapture! The circa 1930's city under the sea, a vision of one man that turned into a nightmare.I won't tell you more than that probably because you already know or if you don't I don't want to spoil it for you.I will just say that this is probably the most gorgous game you will have ever played. The colours and textures are truely amazing, the water effects (and as you can imagine there are plenty) are something else. From the very first second in the game my jaw was open! it was amazing floating in dark sea surrounded by fire and a plane sinking in the background while water was dripping down my HDTV Amazing. I gives me great pleasure to inform you that amazing graphics are just the tip of the iceburg with this game. It has nearly everything and fantastic story that spans over an impressive 18-20 hours of play, wonderful characters, great physics, an endless combination of weapons and plasmids!Plasmids? yes this is a new one! you find out very early in the game that because of a very cool substance called ADAM things have gone a bit messy in Rapture, but don't worry a little bit of ADAM does you the world of good! Adam gives you plasmids this the ability to shoot some truely amazing powers out of your left hand. Such as ice that freezes enemies on the spot, Fire that fries them, Hornets, Telekenisis powers god I could just go one. You can even group these with other specials powers called Tonics, i'm going to stop here because it would take me about 3 pages to describe the hundreds of ways you can despatch the amazing baddies in this game. Yes this game rocks and there is so much in it, stuff I haven't even mentioned like BIG DADDIES! i'll let you find out about these bad boys yourself.So why not the 5 stars that everybody else has given this great game well for 2 reasons. Firstly its a little too easy even on hard, well its not that its too easy I died loads, its the fact there is no or very little penalty for dying. If you do die you start at a respawn point never very far away and you lose no progress, so if you are fighting a BIG DADDY and got his energy down to half then die you will respawn and can then go and find him again and he his health is still at half. So you can just keep running at him shooting him and get killed then reapeat 10 times and you will beat him. Some gamers will in no doubt like this as you will never really ever get stuck, but it does effect how challenging the game is.Secondly my main grumble is how can the finest FPS game I have played in years not have multiplayer!! Again this will only bother the guys and gals on XBOX live but there hell of alot of us (alot more than PS3 online too Ha Ha). Its just a shame and it has even put a few of my fellow Xbox live gamers off even buying this game. Which is real shame as this is a truely beautiful and amazing game, and real change from the run of the mill WW2 shooters that line our shelves. So if your looking for original, amazing, engrossing and spectacular single player experience then look no further than BIOSHOCK, if want a new online multiplayer experience wait for HALO 3 or Stanglehold.Thanks for reading Unluckbauer007 (gamertag)

30.8.2007

I have been an avid PC and console gamer for...well, as long as there have been PC and console games, and have probably played hundreds of the darn things over the last two decades, and I can comfortably say, that Bioshock, is one of the top two or three games I have ever played, and absolutely the best console game.It's one of those rare games, that has all of what you love about a great game, with none of what annoys you. I realized, after about 10 hours of play, that absolutley nothing was ticking me off. If there was ever a game that got everything right, it's Bioshock.Normally, you hear much about a shooter having an "absorbing story", and you're just like: "yeah, yeah, just shut up and let me shoot you".But Bioshock, actually does. The bleak, dystopian world scenario is hardly new in gaming, but Bioshock puts a great twist on things; and the art-deco 1940's sci-fi world is very refreshing and incredibly rendered. If you are as sick as I am of endless hallways filled with crates, you are in for a helluva treat. Not only does this game look amazing, but the design is so good, and so original, that it really does "absorb" you.The biggest suprise to me, was level of literacy, and period detail. This game wasn't really designed for modern kids, and certainly wasn't designed by one. The villian, an obvious nod to conceptual novelist Ayn Rand, ends up being more complex than the average "evil rich corporate Republican" guy we're all so sick of by now, and not only is the voice acting a-list quality, but they even speak pretty authentic 1940's dialogue, with accurate period inflection. If you watch an old movie from the 40's you'll notice that not only was the slang and colloquial language different, but so was the actual style of speech. The characters in Bioshock don't sound like modern mallrats in seersucker suits, they sound like people from the 40's. The sense of period is very accurate, moreso than most Hollywood films (although a "German" lady character has a very obiously Russian accent lol).Even the shooting, was fabulously fun. When I first started playing, I thought "oh no..shooting old revolvers isn't fun." But don't forget, even though Bioshock takes place in the 40's, it's still a sci-fi what-if adventure, and the assortment of weapons are a gas to use. And "adventure" is really accurate. Even though it's an FPS with a fair amount of bloody shooting, it really feels and plays more like an old Sierra adventure game than a Quake-style shooter. The plot matters in this game, unlike many others, and you spend more time exploring the amazing world and solving puzzles than actually shooting, so consider that a mild warning if you are a shooting "rivethead".Bioshock is a very long game, but it was so addicting, that I played it almost non-stop for 4 days and finished it. I actually just rented it, because normally games that are centered on plot don't have a lot of replay value for me, but this one I can imagine playing over and over, so the lack of multi-player doesnt really matter to me here. I'll be buying this sucker as soon as payday hits.In short, the hype around Bioshock is no hype. This game even killed Half-life and Halo for me, and that's saying a lot. Halo3 is going to have a helluva climb to even get near Bioshock, and i never thought I'd say that.To wrap-up, even though much of Bioshock's conceptual nods and references will probably sail over the heads of most modern teen gamers, it won't matter a darn. They'll be to busy being knocked out by the best visual world and gameplay mechanics I've ever seen.

24.8.2007

For ten extra dollars you can have BioShocked the limited Edition. The limited addition comes with the Making of BioShock DVD and a special packaging with original art and Tin Case. The BioShock LE will come with the game's soundtrack and a figurine of a Big Daddy, one of the game's popular characters.BioShock could easy be seen to as an unofficially squeal the System Shock 2. After your plane crashes into icy uncharted waters, you discover a rusted bathysphere. a spherical deep-sea diving submersible which is lowered into bodies of water with a cable. You then descend into Rapture, a city hidden city beneath the sea. Constructed as an idealistic society for a hand picked group of scientists,artists and industrialists. The idealism is no more most of the people are dead or change in to some genetic altered creature. The once great city is now the city of the dead. BioShock is a unique game that mixes a spine chilling sound and music. Sounds of or random half crazy former Rapture citizen chanting, or footsteps of something approaching can be heard ad over all realism effect to a city that is nearly dead. The well design architecture levels are free for you to explore. But most of the time your to busy try to survive as you repeatedly slice your DNA to become more a powerful killing machine to stay alive. A sci-fi theme of biogenetic mutation and self-modification, along with a deep storyline with open-choice along with the freedom to interact with the world as you choose. This unique first-person action shooter requires you to think every time you pull the trigger similar to System Shock 2 which is still hail by many as one of the greatest game of all time. Bioshock holds many similar to System Shock 2 as varies types effect for each weapon, spooky atmosphere, hacking system and superior story line. System shock 2 was a master piece and that not a statement to take lightly. BioShock can also easily be seen as a master piece as well. Bioshock is like a quest of self discovery as you can choose to kill or not to kill little girls for unlimited power. Work against the moral consequences to obtain power or rescue the little girls know as sisters. The implications of the decision to intentionally murdering a ten-year-old girl for your own personal gain cannot be overstated, and BioShock will never let you forget what you've become whether it be savior or heartless super human bastard. Forced to survive in a a hidden city littered with corpses of the dead. Powerful guardians roam the corridors as little girls loot the dead, and genetically mutated citizens ambush you at every turn. Be warned, this game contains game contains Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Strong Language. I recommend for Mature audience. Besides it may scary some kids to death.Buy this game and love it, undoubtedly playing through it at least two or four times. There is a huge variety of choices you can make coupled with the genuine consequences that follow require numerous play throughs just so you can see what happens if you try something different. The game is rather short. It takes around 25 hours to complete more or less depending what you do. You may just be looking around being amazed by the art, sea life, under water effects and detail and all it's haunting artistic glory.Put simply, BioShock is an unparalleled achievement. No other game comes even remotely close to it in terms of raw emotional connection. If you still want more after playing this I recommend System Shock and System Shock 2

4.9.2007

Being a playstation fan boy really i got an xbox360 at xmas 2006 just because i had sum spare cash lying around and then i got my ps3 in march 2007 like everybody else who had one pre ordered for about 3 years. Anyway, i have to say this game is better than anything that is out for the ps3 AT THE MOMENT! I am an avid first person shoot em up fan and i dont play really any other type of game, 95% of my entire game collection is FPS oreintated. I can clearly say we have not seen anything like this before. Yes you can all argue that if we wanted to see a dystopian world we could all go and play half life 2 or even the original red faction games but i dont think really this type of game or the setting itself has been attempted before.The game is set in an art deco 1940's style city built by an avid industrialist at the bottom of the atlantic ocean! You can not beat that! Were have we seen anything like this before? There was a similar setting in one of the missions, or two rather in timesplitters future perfect but nothing comes close to this. The detail of the surroundings and the mind blowing setting is protrayed and displayed wonderfully in this game and i can not fault anything with it. I have had it for almost a week now and have completed it twice and the game is better the second time around. You can really explore for hours the settings of each of the 8 parts of rapture (the cities name) and still be mind boggled at the sheers scale and depth of this adventutre. I really can not stress how deep this game is, you really have to play it and 40 pounds is actually an underprice. As far as the gamplay itself goes i can not fault that either. There are times in the game were your hairs will stand up on end because you become so engrossed and absorbed into it. For example, in fort frolic (a part of rapture) i went into a cellar to explore a safe, there was a mannequin sitting on a chair in the corner of the room facing the wall, when i explored the safe in the opposite side of the room i turned around and there it was standing infront of me waiting to hack me to peices! The shadow, lighting and most importantly water affects of this game really give it an edge of more realism. There will be times were you will be so scared you really dont want to turn around to see what might be behind you, there will be times were you will laugh, there will be times were you will be stunned and there will be times were you cry or feel emotionally drained. It is impossible to articulate the different sensations this game will impose upon you. My advice is, buy it, explore the different parts of rapture when completing your objectives because that i feel is the most important part of the game and basically what you are paying for. There is a considerable amount of action in it but it is not to be confused with other shooters such as doom 3 or killzone or perfect dark, you could call it the final fantasy of FPS, and i dont joke about that either. This is a game that clearly sony has to worry about because if this is what we can expect in more quantity from the xbox, the ps3 has a fight on its hands. However in defence of the ps3, the ps3 is a system that has yet to come out of its shell yet with other titles expected such as turok, blacksite area 51, killone 2 and probably metal gear solid 4, yes ok even if it is a 3rd person shoot em up. Buy this game, play it, sorry let me re-phrase, LIVE IN IT as if u were in it. You wont be sorry, and i mean that. We have waited too long in my opinion for a game like this.

3.7.2008

It is very different. What a concept. Your plane crashes in the middle of the ocean and you happen across an underwater city!? What a great idea, because in this concept all rules of the normal world can be extinguished.From the very beginning of the game you realise its not your normal kettle of fish, riding the elevator down from the ocean surface it instantly takes on an eerie feel, and you know this is going to be a self survival mission. Once the elevator door opens you catch a glimpse of your first tenant of the city in the form of a "splicer", of course at this stage you don't know what the hell it is, only that its weird, and completely lost its mind.The game itself is all about self survival in a man created world underwater called Rapture.The city is vast and I absolutely love how it has been created in a 1930's "art deco" style. Rapture's entire occupants who went their to escape the modern world have gone crazy, and are now nothing but scavenger's constantly on the hunt for anything they can get their hands on. You find yourself permanently on edge searching for weapons you can use to fend off the crazed and lethal hordes of psycho's who live there.The graphics are truly superb and the controls are straight forward and easy to use. The weapons are also great, from your standard pistol, to shotguns with armoured piercing rounds and genetic powers....Along the way you must track down individuals in order to take certain posessions to progress the game. Firstly you must take on the deranged plastic surgeon! god what a psycho! You see him operating on what appears to be a woman, before he begins screaming his head off that "yet another has died"...sick. But you can't help but love it. The game also gives you snips of what life was like in Rapture before it all went belly up, a civilised, cultured and elitist place to live. But it also shows you its demise.An interesting twist to the game is the "Little Sisters", whom appear to be little girls protected by the formiddable "Big Daddy's", who appear to be giant men in those really old diving suits. The little sisters carry within them a power known as "Adam", if you can get hold of her and either a) kill her or b) release her she will give up her power to you, which in turn you can use to purchase upgrades from vending machines. These upgrades are in the form of genetic powers such as flame throwers or telekenetic powers from your bare hands! This however is easier said than done because as soon as you try to touch her you must take on the Big Daddy and what a protector he is!! The Big daddy's must honestly be the toughest characters ever conceived on a video game, my god do they take some killing! Absolutely lethal and deadly, and super quick, I felt genuine terror everytime I took one on. The good bit however is that you don't have to fight him, his only interest is in protecting the little sister, if he perceives you as a threat he will let you know, if not he will walk on by....only take one on if you really have to!The game see's you trying to find your way through the twisted and mangled city with the help of a "friend" you have never met via a comms link, who gives you help and directions. And this "friend" is a fundamental part of the game, will he double cross you??The only negative thing I would say about this game is that its really long..By the end you just start wishing it was all over, there's only so much your nerves can take!A really great game.

18.3.2011

I am not a great fan of first person shoot-em-ups, having got to the sort of age where I lack the speed of reaction required to do them justice. I've therefore avoided playing them on my daughter's Xbox 360, and the only reason that I came to the Bioshock party - several years after it started as it happens - was because a friend of mine nagged me into getting it. I thought the premise of the game was a bit ludicrous: an underwater adventure where there is no underwater action, where little girls harvest genetic material from corpses in an Art Deco milieu based on the writing of Ayn Rand. Still I suppose in retrospect it seemed so bloody obvious. Someone just had to get there first,that was all.Enough of the irony. Having played Bioshock through many times now I can honestly say it is the definitive first-person adventure of the past decade. The reason the game works so well is because the disparate plot elements are knitted together by a first-class script and performances (especially Armon Shimerman's), sumptuous graphics and challenging game play. A better name for it would have been `Postmodernshock': today's take on yesterday's vision of tomorrow. Andrew Ryan's dystopian and decrepit `Rapture' is threatening, oppressive, decadent and seemingly fatally flawed, even on the drawing board. If the surroundings weren't menacing enough, the game sets you up against opponents that are mostly corrupted humans, convincingly enough realized to scare one half to death. Walking, talking Pictures of Dorian Grey.The game play is beautifully thought out: survival is constantly challenged by lack of resources, ammo, healthcare, you name it. Its richness is owed in part to the variety of ploys you can use to get around sticky situations. For instance, the act of co-opting some gun turrets or security bots to back you up in a skirmish requires that you hack their workings, which is quite a challenge in itself.As for the game's central quest, it won't be giving anything away to say that you soon become aware that you aren't a hero but a glorified junkie vagrant. There is always a lumbering Big Daddy standing between you and the next fix and you're reduced to scrounging half-eaten candy from waste bins and jury-rigging weapons from bric-a-brac. Survival becomes the order of the day and the quest, when it reveals itself for what it is, is far from heroic. You're even confronted with a profound moral dilemma early on in the game that determines your trajectory thereafter.Bioshock isn't perfect, though. My major complaint is that the gut-wrenching dénouement comes halfway through the game and the action thereafter is the fulfillment of a standard revenge fantasy. But oh, several Hollywood scriptwriters would give their right arms for such a plot twist. The opportunity for some real underwater game play has also been missed which, given the setting, seems either an oversight or laziness.However, Bioshock transcends its initial concept to become something far beyond a video game. Despite its violence and shocks, it is always a thoughtful and intelligent experience, and in an age when rampant individualism seems even more entrenched than ever, it puts the boot in to the whole wretched `philosophy' far more effectively than many films or novels. In fact, we might even be watching the emergence of the Eighth Form of Art.Now, Would You Kindly leave me to my Xbox? I have some deep philosophical issues to grapple with.

16.10.2008

As the title and the scores might give away, I rather liked this game. Tell a lie, I adored it. I adored it so much that the first time I completed it, I was straight back on the first level trying to go through the game to find anything I missed on the enormous and immersive levels. I'm now playing it through for a third time, and I'm still finding huge chunks of levels that I had missed. So, despite the lack of a multiplayer (which is almost blasphemy on a FPS these days), there is more than enough to keep you coming back.Let's skate over the basics. The graphics are superb and detailed, particularly in the water effects.The voices of the various monsters never get repetitive and the voice acting on the audio diaries that are scattered sporadically (left by the former inhabitants) is absorbing, atmospheric and sometimes even genuinely moving; a vast improvement from the flat and flavourless audio logs in 'Doom 3'. The music is a mix of nostalgic gramophone warbles to chilling eerie violin howls and odd clangs that are almost certainly a direct steal from Kubrick's 'The Shining' and the original 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'. Absolutely nothing wrong with that at all - it just helps to ramp up the tension.Walk down a dark corridor and hear that single high pitched wail getting louder and louder. Then be ambushed by multiple monsters whilst a nearby jukebox happily bangs out 'How Much Is That Doggy In The Window?' Yes, this game does have a black sense of humour.The way the character can use ordinary weapons and his psi-powers is handled easily (using both triggers, one for each). The powers range from fireballs to telekinesis to electro-bolts. As the entire game is immersive, you can kill in almost any way you see fit. You can shock people standing in water, you can set fire to oil slicks and burn them alive or you can hurl explosive barrels, chairs, cash registers, bodies.. well, you get the idea. You can go through the entire game and not have to fire off a single bullet in anger.I don't really want to ramble on too much more, so I'm going to have to skim over the fantastic plot, the impressive AI of the creatures, the moral choices you have to make in the game to determine your character and the way you can hack security cameras, gun turrets and other enemy equipment. You've probably got the idea by now anyway. Forget Halo, forget Half-Life, this is the best FPS I've played since.. well, probably Goldeneye for the N64. And that's just about the best game I've ever played.Faults? Erm.. Hmm.. Well.. I suppose, if I wanted to nit-pick, the weapon reload can be a bit dim. Sometimes, you'll think you've reloaded your gun, then switch to a plasmid, then switch back to the gun and find it is empty. And the ending is a bit.. short. But then, there are three of them. You may even see it as a blessing - a short no nonsense ending means you can get back into the game to do, as I have done, and revisit all the wonderfully crafted levels.So there you have it. If you're looking for an absorbing, moving, challenging, occasionally terrifying, immersive, massive, atmospheric FPS then you cannot do any better than this. If you aren't looking for any of the above, I suggest you change your outlook, alter your tastes and raid your piggybank.I dare you to be disappointed.

27.8.2007

Deciding if this game was worth 5 out of 5 was really a no-brainer. Having played lots of computer games and valued them for things like: atmosphere, intelligence, ability to create suspension of disbelief, graphics, intuitive gameplay, maturity, attention to detail, addictiveness, voice-acting, sound, action, scariness, soundtrack and style it scores at the highest level for each. How many other games can claim that?Basically there are so many things to recommend Bioshock that it's hard to know where to begin. Do you start with the fact that it's one of the best FPS on the market or just talk about the sheer amount of creativity fuelling the whole experience?In this game you pump the buttons like any good shooter while having to think and even make limited ethical choices. Plus there is a dialogue (if you're up for it) between yourself and a story that references everything from Ayn Rand and eugenics through to militant strikes and elitist propaganda. Shoving in the near RPG level micromanagement of your character's abilities you really should be in clover here. Bioshock tries to please everyone and pretty much manages to do so.The story has you plunging into the city of Rapture--a decaying, undersea 40's style vision of the future--following a plane crash. Once in you are initially led around via a radio link to one of its disillusioned inhabitants as you discover genetically altered `splicers' and a technology that seems culled from a lunatic meeting of H.G. Wells, J.G. Ballard and Phillip K. Dick. Going further you also mutate and increasingly depend on bizarre chemicals to survive. Soon it is becomes entirely commonplace to incinerate, freeze or telekinetically slaughter your enemies with a flick of your wrist. Then of course there are the `Little Sisters' leeching from the corpses you've left behind, who you in turn need to leech from, while deciding if its right to kill them or save them.So is this the perfect game? Unfortunately the answer is no. Rather than becoming more interesting (i.e., more creatively challenging) at the crucial pinch-points it runs back to dully launching large numbers of enemies at you and forgetting its IQ. This soon gets to be irritating when you've been fully lost in the world and then frequently thrown out of it by crass stupidity. It tends to leave a bitter taste in the mouth.Similarly the game lacks any element of stealth, there are very few puzzles worth a mention, the respawn points are silly, the environments are often just background (indestructible light fixtures, etc), the AI can be uneven and the whole thing has quite openly begged, borrowed and stolen from other games. If you've played a lot of shooters then you may be taking a tour down memory lane.The final recommendation is that you should buy this gorgeous release even if it is flawed. When playing through Rapture the problems that would sink an average title become niggles and minor complaints in an otherwise rewarding and completely entertaining experience.Bioshock is undoubtedly one of the finest games ever made and it has set the benchmark that other companies will either meet, exceed or get nowhere near when releasing their own product. It is an evolution in gaming such as befits the content that rightfully put it there.

21.2.2008

Rapture (Bioshock's underwater city for mankind's elite) is a brilliantly conceived and constructed edifice of hideousness, full of ego and pomposity. The levels of detail throughout Bioshock are astounding, every corner of the game (and it is VAST) is littered with believeable items and details which I have never seen before, and most of which can be interacted with in some way. From the flooded, eerily lit basements to the trashed luxurious apartments of Rapture's founding fathers (and mothers), it is Rapture itself which is the true star of Bioshock and is the reason I would recommend anyone to buy this game. Its the best, most consistent game world that I think I have ever seen.As for the action,I'm sad to say that this is Bioshock's weakpoint. While there are many ways to kill those around you, you very rarely find any real satisfaction in doing so. The Splicers are repetitive and infuriating, often 'appearing' from no where. There random maniacal screams and shouts soon get tiresome and you are likely to hunt them down just to shut them up as much as anything else. The guns feel soft and useless, especially in later levels when the Splicers become harder - for no other reason than the fact that you are more powerful, so for them not to be so would make the game too easy. There are only 4 different types of splicer (Thuggish, Leadhead, Spider and Nitro), two types of Big Daddy, and the guns and various turrets to contend with, a limitation which ends up leaving the game feeling rather flat and laboured when you are struggling through the same old enemies time after time.The story is sometimes hard to follow, especially when you're receving a vital voice over in the middle of a firefight! I suggest putting on the subtitles if you want to really understand the story. Its sometimes true that you hear a part of the story get played out (always via radio transmissions or recordings) and have an objective as a result that you simply cannot link to what you've just heard, which is annoying. However, again the depth of the story is to be applauded, as it truly makes you examine your motives and morals, even though you have no choice but to continue on the path the game sets you. The only 'moral' choice you have is in whether to harvest or heal the young girls which provide you with Adam.My version of the game was full of bugs in places, and I know my friend experienced similar. It sometimes slows down, even where it is not due to too much action on screen, and on occasion the 'physics' engine goes haywire. My friend at one point lost all his guns and powers but found he was invincible - but he couldn't jump! The only way to solve it was to reset the 360!The finale .... well i won't say too much other than it also left me rather disappointed.Verdict: Bioshock is an incredible example of design and dedication to detail taken to its highest degree in gaming - Rapture is incredible in every way and is a credit to 2K Australia. The rest of the game is compelling and addictive, but can sometimes be very drawn out and dull. It will eat up hours of your life as you search every room for clues and items, but don't expect it to be the most action packed game or adrenalin rush you've ever played. Call of Duty 4 it is not!

31.8.2007

I was not really expecting much from this game... I found the Market Place Demo visually stunning but lacking something... Traded in Shadow Run and the Darkness and picked up Bioshock.8pm - Pop the Game inOkay... right back to the Demo... the opening welcome and tuturial sequence is the market place demo and I fully expected to to be turning the game of in 30 mins.... at 08.30 in the morning I did manage to turn it off woith some real reluctance.The graphics are superb and its worth exploring the levels to just to view the detail put into the architecture of the unground city... I mean you occassionly come past shattered aquariums and you have fish twitching in water that drains away...(it even sounds real). Blood pools in the water in a realistic manner.Play this with HD and Surround sound and you become as immerersed in the game as the City is in the sea.Ostensibly your helping an NPC rescue his family and are provided destinations to reach. Along the way you will find tape diarys of the inhabitants of the city as you travel. Pick them up and listen as they provide clues or codes and they add to the immersion in the story.Gene therapy drives this dystopian underworld and as you advance you get to pick up powers... electroshock to overide doors or incinerate to melt ice etc. (incidentally incinerate an enemy and watch them run about setting collegues on fire screaming... very good visually)Weapons abound, however each weapon has its unique characteristics and up to 4 ammo types. In this game it really matters what weapon you use... take for instance attacking a Big Daddy/Rosie/Elite Bouncer - same class of enemy different levels of aggression and strength - try a machine gun with armour piercing rounds or a shot gun with exploding shells ... aim for the head - it works... fry them them with the napalm and your wasting your time.You have enemies - spider splicers - who climb the walls an ceilings and move extremely fast.... use a gene therapy slot to boost your speed.Hack into safe, doors vending machines to get ammo, etcth enemy AI is really quite good and varies from enemy type to enemy type.Every element of this game is well thought out and the plot is enjoyable with an engaging storyline with moral options on whether to harvest young people or rescue them....I tend not to go for games without co-op or online play as the the 360 for me is about sharing our gaming experience with mates but this game is a must to own.Its not an FPS in the run and gun sense and its not Tomb Raider in the puzzle sense... its a game of its own and you will want to explore the large underground city for the scenery, atmosphere and upgrades... you will definitely need the upgrades as each successive level gives you harder and harder enemies... don't worry though as with a research camera you can take pictures and research each enemy and gain bonus's in attack.I would be surprised if you complete the game without research and it does make for some tense moments.. more research points for an attacking or enemy ... so camera in hand gun in your belt ... you have to be quick to point and click and then blast awayBuy this !!!

2.4.2008

A lot of hype has been written about Bioshock - grand claims made by the games' producers before its release and wildly varying reviews made after its release. Some people seem to get it, some don't. But then games are always subjective and all I can say here is what I think.For me Bioshock is one of the best First-person adventures I've ever played. As I've already said there were a lot of ambitious claims made about the game before its release, many of which didn't actually materialise, but don't let that put you off. Playing Bioshock is an experience like nothing else I know - the world of Rapture is a delight to explore. The 1940's/50's art deco environments are beautifully designed,with a real sense of a utopian society gone wrong. Every sign, advert, piece of music - everything - reals right, and makes the world very believable. The background story, picked up from the many audio diaries you can find in Rapture, cleverly develops the story of what happened in this city beneath the sea, in fantastically written and acted audio diaries of Rapture's gradual decline. So firstly - the atmosphere and feel of place in the game is second to none.The gameplay is great aswell. I'm currently playing through the game a second time and have been struck by how different the experience is. I'm trying different things, seeing different reactions from the enemies - it really does demand a few play throughs. The plasmids and weapons are very well balanced and the whole thing is a lot of fun with some real standout moments that aren't scripted. Where else could you freeze enemies solid then fix a mine to them so they blow up when they melt, whilst listening to 1940's jazz playing? There are so many moments that are laugh out loud brilliant.Then there's the story. More twists and turns than in many other games, with believable characters and a very literary feel - you can see where the comparisons with Ayn Rand's writing, or novels like Dostoevsky's 'Crime & Punishment' aren't exagerated. The whole game feels like it came straight out of a novel, and would probably make a superb film.The graphics - they're certainly unique. Not photo-realistic, but better for it. Superb water effects, bizzare enemies and imaginative environments - if you see a screenshot of this game you just know it's Bioshock - it doesn't look like every other generic shooter out there.Anyway - these are my opinions. I recommend buying the game, especially if you like plot and atmosphere in your games. You can enjoy the game just as shooter without thinking too much about the plot, but its also a game you can enjoy on a far more intellectual level, with the theme of Objectivism, utopias and distopias that runs throughout the whole game.One final comment - Ken Levine, I take my hat off to you. Finally, a game producer who has the strength and determination to make a game that doesn't cut any corners or pander to mass appeal, instead making a genuinly intelligent, thought provoking and fun gaming experience.

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