BioShock opens with you on a transatlantic flight in the 1960s when tragedy strikes. The plane goes down in a fireball and crash lands in the middle of the ocean. What caused this crash you might ask? Well that is the first story element that really starts to get you thinking about the game. As you are swimming in the water, being the lone survivor that you are, you come across a lighthouse. But who would build a lighthouse in the middle of the ocean? As you enter it, a bathysphere, a small submersible, waits to take you down below the water where you discover the city of Rapture, presumably built around the 1940s. A prerecorded message, from Rapture’s creator Andrew Ryan, explains that the city was built to enable complete scientific and evolutionary freedom. Freedom that is taken away on the surface world by politics and religion. Seems like a paradise city. Once you actually arrive in the cities gates, you realize that something has gone terribly wrong, and it is up to you to figure out what has caused the city to take a dive. The story manages to make the gamer emotionally involved in the game which really makes for an experience unlike any other game.
While you will want to be using the plasmids as much as possible because of their cool effects, you will also have more conventional weapons such as a hand gun, machine gun, grenade launcher. The weapons in this game are probably one of the biggest draw backs to the game. Although they look graphically impressive, they are really just unsatisfactory to use, and seems like they do a lot less damage then what would be expected. Even though you would think a shotgun from close range would just rip a guy apart, it will still take a few shots to take him down. Not to mention that you only have about 8 or 9 weapons to ever use in the game, and the fact that you will have seen almost all of them at the half way point, it just makes the combat feel a little weak at times.
To be able to purchase the plasmids from the vending machines, which will be your primary way to obtain such items, you will need Adam. You acquire Adam from these little girls call Little Sisters. These girls have been genetically altered to seek out and harvest Adam throughout Rapture. Since every single thing in Rapture needs Adam to evolve itself, these little sisters become very sought after targets. Good thing they have the Big Daddy to protect them. The big daddies are basically just these lumbering giants who are really one of the toughest foes you will encounter in a game, and in order to get to the little sister and her Adam, you have to deal with these guys first. The big daddies will do anything it takes to protect these girls. If you are good enough to take a big daddy out, you get to deal with the little sister, and this is really the part of the game where you have to choose to be selfish or selfless. You have two options when dealing with the little sisters, you can essentially kill these little girls and harvest all the Adam they posses, or you can save them and release them from there hellish state. If you choose to release the girls they will reward you with a bit of Adam which will leave you with less then had you killed them, but it also leaves you feeling good about yourself and your actions. This sense of morality comes into effect with ever single little sister you encounter and really makes you become emotionally involved in the game.
In the game’s focus, it has a linear goal structure and list of tasks you must complete. However, if you just follow these tasks you will really miss out on what Rapture really has to offer you. Every single level you visit has exploration possibilities. Every where you go, every thing you look in, everything will reward you for your exploration, whether it be money you pull from dead bodies, or audio logs left behind form the population of Rapture that help unlock the mystery of what really went on down there.
While you are on your adventurous romp through Rapture, your nerves, especially at the beginning of the game, will always be kept on end. The atmosphere of Rapture is absolutely amazing. You will feel as though you are actually in the game, and that sense of bringing you into the experience is a really powerful thing. All of this is possibly because every environment, every bit of voice acting, the suspense in the air, it really is convincing to the gamer. The environments in this game are exceptionally well done. All levels have their own unique style to them, while still staying true to the formula Rapture puts forth. The only draw back from the environments in Rapture is that for a game based on a city in the water, the water mechanics are very scripted, so don’t expect to see interactive water that you can splash through or make waves in.
Some gamers might be offended that this game is strictly single player meaning that there is no multiplayer component to its game. This however seems down played because of the fact that it presents such an amazing story and single player experience. However, that little nasty fact is still sitting there buried beneath a great experience.
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OVERALL: 9.1/10
Game Play: 8.4/10
Graphics: 9.2/10
Sound: 9.5/10
Presentation: 9.6/10
Value: 8.4/10
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