Bioshock Review

As the spiritual successor to System Shock, Bioshock was subject to a great deal of hype and anticipation leading up to its release. With its superb setting, unpredictable story and varied gameplay, Bioshock will surely be remembered as one of the finest games of this generation.

Set in 1960, Bioshock transports players to the underwater city of Rapture; a place free from the bounds of government and religion. Built and designed by the enigmatic Andrew Ryan, it was supposed to be an idyllic utopia but when the main protagonist Jack descends into the city from a crashed plane it’s clear that the dream has turned into a nightmare. The city is falling apart beyond repair with its citizens butchering each other left and right in a genetically fuelled rage. Jack resolves to escape the city with the help of a few allies. From the beginning Bioshock oozes intrigue, mystery and themes; drawing the player in better than perhaps any other game ever released. The setting is developed further by diaries that illustrate what Rapture was like before catastrophe rained down. Add to this the many varied and interesting environments to poke around in and Rapture always makes a considerable impact throughout the game. Rapture is the star of the story but the story itself is also incredibly personal and filled with twists; moral issues come into play and the player learns just as much about Jack as they do about the other characters over the course of the game. Suffice it to say that Bioshock could well be the most immersive and absorbing video game ever created and that’s even before the proper gameplay begins.

At around ten to twelve hours Bioshock’s story mode takes Jack on an intense and blood-soaked journey through the crumbling city. The task at hand is to explore areas, kill murderous Splicers, uncover secrets and deal with the Little Sisters and their hulking Big Daddy guardians before jumping into a bathysphere to repeat the process among other occasional objectives like defending an area or crafting an invention. The little sisters carry Adam, the genetic material that allows Jack to purchase special abilities called plasmids and with this comes a significant moral choice; will you be kill them selfishly and take all the Adam you can spare or will you be selfless and rescue them, being patient for a bigger reward later? This decision impacts the game’s conclusion, making an already deep story that much more emotionally engaging. The Plasmids themselves mark a striking difference from other shooters in that they offer a wide variety of gameplay styles. Players could be a master of the elements, letting loose with electricity, fire, ice and wind on one play-through or they could seek to be more devious with abilities like enrage (makes enemies attack each other), cyclone trap and target dummy (creates a fake doppelganger). Plasmids can be swapped out at any time for experimentation and in some cases they aid in exploration as well as combat. The winding street corners and dank alleyways of Rapture aren’t huge but they do offer plenty of avenues for exploration, be it breaking through a vent or finding a hidden switch. Ammo, weapons, healing items or sometimes even gene tonics are waiting to be discovered with the latter falling into three categories; combat, engineering and physical, resulting in an even more customisable experience. Some tonics are more passive like security evasion (security systems take longer to notice Jack) but some can result in new abilities like the invisibility granting Chameleon. The city of Rapture has an abundance of gizmos to interact with as well; cameras, drones and turrets can be hacked to fight at Jack’s side, environmental hazards like electrified water and oil spills add another dimension to combat and about halfway through the game Jack can invent new ammo types and equipment and upgrade his weapons at one-time use machines. It all adds up to an incredibly deep design which offers tons of replayability without the need for a multiplayer component.

Wielding a variety of plasmids and weapons the combat in Bioshock like the role-playing elements, is plenty deep with lots of room to experiment. The weapons at Jack’s disposal include the usual suspects; a wrench, pistol, shotgun, machine gun and grenade launcher are available earlier on but later the player will gain access to some more awesome implements of death including a chemical thrower, crossbow and even a camera which adds yet another dimension to an already solid combat system. Taking pictures of enemies allows Jack to do increased damage to that enemy type or even receive new gene tonics. The enemies in question range from the lowly thuggish splicers who swing their melee weapons with reckless abandon to the heavily armoured big daddies, all of whom have solid artificial intelligence, forcing you to adapt on the fly. The spider splicers will crawl along walls and ceilings whereas Elite Bouncers (tougher Big Daddies) will toss bombs in addition to firing their powerful rivet guns. The last aspect of the gameplay, a hacking mini-game is handled through directing flow from one point to another via pipe tiles; it gets challenging in a hurry as more electrocution and alarm tripping tiles pop up though it doesn’t change very much throughout the game. Regardless players can either buyout machines or use a hack tool if the mini-game becomes too tiresome so this isn’t too much of an issue. Dying doesn’t really have much consequence either as Jack is revived at the nearest Vita-Chamber though this works for the better as it maintains the player’s immersion in the world.

Bioshock’s technical presentation is suitably atmospheric and all around eerie; the sounds from the mad babbles of the splicers to the groans of the big daddy’s helps to create a feeling of uneasiness that pervades the player’s journey through the city. Water and fire effects can look near photo-realistic in the way they spread and obscure Jack’s view whilst the environments from a dilapidated medical centre to a lush plantation gone astray go far to develop the city of Rapture and how it would have functioned before things went wrong. The voice acting is excellent, especially that of Andrew Ryan who holds an element of fascination in the way he ponders over his philosophies, the city he built and Jack himself. Despite the game being fiction Bioshock takes many steps to ensure the game is grounded in the time period, be it through the old music playing from the jukeboxes to the style of propaganda and posters that were common through the fifties. Rapture may be torn apart by violence and destruction but it’s still an incredibly detailed and beautiful piece of art overall.

Bioshock is a fantastic game in every way; Rapture alone continues to be one of the most immersive and detailed game worlds in recent memory but the fact that both the gameplay and story are on par with this allow the game to remain a brilliant experience years later.

Rating: 9/10