Tuesday 05 Feb 2008

Art Deco is something some of us who studied art at school might have learned about. For those that missed out on it, I present to you: Bioshock.

In this day and age where the First Person Shooter (FPS) genre is milked beyond recognition, it is not very often a case of delving into a FPS without knowing what to expect. Do you feel that FPS games these days are quick cash-ins? I certainly do, but this baby has changed my opinion on a large scale. How 2K pulled this off is beyond me (possibly that it is from the same crowd that brought us System Shock 2?) Valve, eat your heart out!

Whoa, now that I got my point across, let me explain why.

Setting the scene

The menu screen already provides you with an idea of how exceptional this game is going to be. Instead of just having little “bleep” sounds when scrolling through the menu, you have piano notes randomly playing as you press up and down on the D-pad… which, while setting up your games, sets the mood for what is to follow.

It starts off with you being on a plane and someone discussing some details with you, when the next thing you know the plane goes into disarray and plunges into the ocean. You surface and all you see around you is flames from the gasoline of the plane on the water and in the distance you see the tail end of the plane sinking into the ocean. On your right there is a vague light in the distance with a tall building and some steps. You walk up the stairs and the door automatically opens. Inside you find a huge statue with a banner below it stating, “NO GODS OR KINGS, ONLY MAN.” A staircase leads down on either side of the statue but its pitch black. As you walk down, the lights go on systematically. You reach a lift and press the button to close the door and this is where you are introduced to Atlas, a person that needs your help, communicating via an old radio. I guess I should also point out that this game is based in the 1960’s. You then start sinking and the next thing the lift you’re in travels over the most amazing underwater city you’ve ever seen in your life…Welcome to Rapture!

Weird and wonderful things

There you have it, the first 3-4 minutes.

With this setting in mind you realize that this is not just a normal first person shooter, oh no, you are going to learn to do all kinds of weird and wonderful things like using ‘plasmids.’ Plasmids are something that you inject into your body to provide it with special abilities, for example telekinesis and electro-bolt. All in all there are roughly 70 plasmids with many different abilities and you will have to play through the game twice to try everything out as there is only that much space available to carry plasmids. To acquire more plasmids you need to harvest Little Sisters and to harvest Little Sisters you need to kill the Big Daddy that protects them.

The Big Daddy (the star of this game) is a massive creature that has a drill on his right arm and a massive wrench in the other. His face and upper body area consists of a huge round plate with about 9 lights on it (which I guess resembles the eyes) which turn red when you attack him or the Little Sister. Yup, he’s her guardian and the chances of you not dying at least once are minimal.

Once you have defeated the Big Daddy you will be able to harvest or rescue the Little Sisters. If you harvest them you will receive ADAM, the currency needed to buy more plasmids to help you on your journey.

The possibilities are endless

Your enemies also consist of creatures called Splicers who were once citizens of Rapture. They seem to be reasonably clever in that they will run to a healing point if their health is too low, but with all the techniques at your disposal you should make mince meat of them in no time. Let’s say for example they are running towards you and in front of them you see a pool of water – equip ‘electro-bolt’ and zap the water when they run over it. Instant death! That’s just a drop in the ocean of what is possible in this game.

Throughout the game you will encounter all methods of hacking robots, safes or doors, which brings a nice little puzzle element with it. You will also be backtracking as you collect pieces of a puzzle that needs to be solve…there are just so many things one can do that it is virtually impossible to describe them all.

Atmosphere created by texturing and soundtrack

Graphically this game is one of the best looking games that this generation has seen so far, if not the best. The vivid use of colours mixed with some dark atmosphere sets it apart from any game before it in the same genre. When entering Rapture for the first time your jaw will drop. It’s a balance between incredible texturing and a magnificent soundtrack that makes most movies of today blush. Words can unfortunately not describe the feeling you get when playing the game. I will say this though, if you’re not playing this with a decent home theatre setup (5.1 and HDTV) then this game might not shine as much for you, as the atmosphere is what makes this game so exceptional.

There is no multiplayer in this game, which is a good thing. These days’ developers have a tough time putting the same effort into a single player campaign mode and a multiplayer online and offline mode. Much of the time is wasted instead of just doing the single player right or purely multiplayer (like Warhawk on the PS3).

I cannot fault anything in this game. It has been a very long time that a game has gripped me as much as this one has and I hope everyone that owns an Xbox 360 gets to experience this game. It should last about 20 hours or so, seeing that you don’t rush through it, which would be really stupid. There is also a massive twist in the story that I’ll leave for you to enjoy.

After playing Bioshock you’ll feel that video games have been looking in all the wrong places to find the next new, big FPS franchise. Outer space, movies, comic books, the future, Tom Clancy techno-terrorism, historic warfare…it was right under our noses, under the sea!

Pros: Imaginative environments; best graphics in this generation so far; clever new mechanics for combat.

Cons: That there’s no sequel planned yet? I can’t think of anything.

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Contributor:	Dawid

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