ic-games Review - BioShock (Xbox 360/PC) - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

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BioShock (Xbox 360/PC)

Information
Reviewer: James Collins
Developer: 2K Boston/Australia
Publisher: 2K Games
Reviewed: PC/Xbox 360
Genre: First Person Horror
UK Release: 24th Aug 2007
Article Date: 22nd Aug 2007
Difficulty: Medium
Retail Price: £49.99
Price Comparison:
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Score Breakdown

Experience:
Game Play:
Graphics:
Sound:
Overall Score: 97%

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Pros

A Next-Gen masterpiece

Stunning visuals

Cons

When its over you'll be gutted.

Screenshots

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Anyone fortunate enough to have played the demo of BioShock would have already tasted the tantalising prospect of what, at first glance, looked like something very appetising indeed. Irrational games, now 2K Boston and Australia, fed gamers a small portion of what they could expect from their forthcoming hit and eager gamers ate up every last morsel. Now, the long wait from the demo’s release is nearly over, BioShock can finally be revealed in all its glory. But were we stuffed full with all the best bits of the game crammed into one small piece, or does the full retail release offer up something truly spectacular?

Released simultaneously on the Xbox 360 and PC, BioShock is obviously a definite poke in the eye for the PS3. Although we are not fans of the exclusive nature of certain titles, it goes without saying that Microsoft have pulled off the coup of the year here, especially on the day that they launch their Xbox Elite unit in Europe. As fans of the PC and Xbox 360 scramble to get their copies this Friday it’s a shame that those that pledged their allegiance to Sony’s console are set to miss out, BioShock is really something that should be appreciated by all.

But back onto the game, and the overriding story, which to be fair is perfect, although at the beginning ‘what you don’t know’ is where the story begins and builds from. You play a simple castaway in 1960, a passenger of a plane that has just crashed into the Mid-Atlantic at night; burning shards of the doomed plane lay scattered on the surface of the sea. You clamber onto a conveniently placed statue that just so happens to be poking out from the sea, if only to escape the flames or the ice-cold water for a brief respite. So, when this safe haven suddenly lights up and your inquisitiveness takes over, you foolishly walk down the stairs and enter what appears to be a glass structure. As the mechanics start powering up and moving, you realise you’re now trapped, suddenly, as if to make things worse, the structure plummets into the depths of the sea at breakneck speeds. It’s here that you finally get your first glimpse of Rapture, the underwater utopia gone badly wrong.

Fortunately it seems you have a friend in Rapture, as not long after arriving you are contacted wirelessly by someone called ‘Atlus’ who is desperately seeking his family and he needs you to get to them. Since he seems to know all about Rapture and the enemies and dangers it holds you listen and take your first steps onto the doomed otherworld. It’s here that you learn that the architecture of this art-deco madness is a great visionary, called Andrew Ryan. Either way you are going to need all your wits about you if you are going to survive all the security devices that have been planted to protect his genius vision. And so BioShock begins and you finally get to explore Rapture in all its glory.

And in such a dangerous environment it’s always good to see so much weaponry around to protect yourself from the obligatory ambushes. Standard weapons are in plentiful supply, from pistols to rocket launchers and flamethrowers, you name it, but where the game really excels is when you use a little brain power and come up with a weapon of your own.

Although dollars are used as cash in the vending machines scattered around Rapture, ADAM, a material that can genetically modify humans, is much more desired and what ultimately caused the infighting that practically destroyed the place. Anyone who had been altered by the drug began to crave more and more ADAM, until a war broke out to control the very last drops of supply. Eventually the remaining supply of ADAM was held in what appears at first glance to be harmless young girls called the little sisters. However these sisters are in turn protected by huge Mechanical guardians called ‘Big Daddy’ sworn to protect them at all costs. Friendly to anyone not posing a threat to the sisters, the Big Daddy aimlessly wait for the screams of the sisters before they attack, and when they do, anyone close by has big problems on their hands. Of course getting your hands on some ADAM of your own soon becomes a mission goal due to the special abilities it grants you. Early on in the game you have your first dose, which alters your left hand and allows you to fire lighting out of plasmids developed into your fingers. Later on you’ll be able to achieve greater things from telekinesis to shooting bolts of fire although you’ll have to work at it to develop these special powers. The 360 controller is utilised flawlessly in this department with the left bumper reserved for your plasmid powers and the right bumper used for more standard weapons.

If you are short on ammo, (or EVE boosters that power your plasmids) you can also opt to hack security bots (which fly around and protect you while you are on the move) and stationary turrets scattered around the map. Hacking is achieved by rewiring the circuit board of any given security unit you wish to hack. This can be either done by ‘purchasing’ a solution/hack for dollars, or manually hacking the drone yourself, thus saving the cash. To manually hack you need to rewire (place tiles) in the correct order so the fluids flows to the correct place on the circuit board. Workable titles can be revealed by pressing (A) over any blank tiles, pressing (A) makes a particular tile ‘useable’ and (A) again drops that particular tile into the new position. If your hack is successful and the liquid flows to the correct place you gain control of the unit, if the hack is unsuccessful the unit turns against you and becomes hostile. There are also bonus tiles that can change the outcome of a hack in progress, for example special tiles can cause the fluid to flow slower, thus giving you more time to hack although ‘negative’ tiles can wreak havoc as well. If you think of the classic game of ‘PipeMania’ you’ll be on the right track although to be fair hacking in BioShock is a lot more fun and more than just a mini-game.

Graphically BioShock is that next-generation title you have been waiting for, no ifs, no buts, Rapture really is a sight to behold. What the developers have managed to achieve with the Xbox 360 will no doubt be talked about for some time to come. The light shading, the neon atmosphere of every section of Rapture really does leave you begging to see new areas and to investigate every nook and cranny of the underwater utopia. If you were impressed with the downloadable demo on the marketplace you’ll be knocked for six when you get your sweaty palms on the retail release, as things only get better.

The attention to detail is what sets the game apart from anything that has come before it. Due to the magnificent way the game has been designed no two areas really look the same. Thankfully BioShock doesn’t suffer from the same problems that have plagued countless FPS’s in the past and that’s the over use of textures and overly similar room layouts, a cheap gimmick often used by lazy developers.

If anyone knocked BioShock it would be because it didn’t have some form of multiplayer but personally we see that as a blessing, it simply wouldn’t have worked. For far too long we have criticised developers for banging on certain aspects of a game as an afterthought just to please a certain section of the gaming fraternity. BioShock does have downloadable content active so it will be left to the developers to see what they come up with, but for now we only pray for more single player missions so we can get our teeth into more of that fantastic, far reaching storyline. If multiplayer comes next so be it, although we imagine that some work will have to be done to make the game as playable online as it is offline.

When summing up, especially with a game so highly praised, it’s very hard to convince the more cynical gamer that us journalists were not promised unimagined wealth for our recommendations. With a game like BioShock however it’s easy; the game simply sells itself regardless of what anyone says. Without doubt, BioShock is truly a next-gen masterpiece, more than worthy of your attention. It simply blows everything comparable out of the water and for now we challenge you to find otherwise.

TAGS: BIOSHOCK, PC, XBOX 360, FPS, RAPTURE

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