Retrospective Review: BioShock Posted by, Daniel. June 23rd, 2010. Filed under Reviews

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In our first ever retrospective review we go back and review the first chapter of this underwater utopia gone wrong. As we dive back in we meet little sisters, big daddies, mutated splicers, and a plot filled to the brim with betrayal and deception. Ladies and Gentlemen; welcome to Rapture.

Story

The story begins aboard an airplane during the 1960s. You are flying off to meet someone but are interrupted as your plane crashes into the Atlantic Ocean. Looking for refuge you head towards a lighthouse which actually houses the entrance to Andrew Ryan’s utopia; Rapture. However not all is as it seems as you arrive to see it in ruins with splicers (Mutated Humans) roaming all around the place. Soon you are contacted by a bunch of people; Atlas (You’re guide), Tenenbaum (A scientist who picks on your morals), Andrew Ryan (The twisted man who created Rapture), and many others. Following other games, Rapture leaves in its wake a bunch of recorded diaries for you to pick up. These detail the rich history of the city and the characters themselves. Memories also appear as ghost like apparitions that show you some of the people in their daily lives before they were either taken by the mutation or lives destroyed. The driving force behind Rapture itself is a source known as ADAM which allows the use of abilities such as lightning and fire. A special slug that creates ADAM was implanted into small girls known as “Little Sisters” who are then guarded by “Big Daddies” who both play an integral role in the story. It’s very rare that a video game is released that contains a narrative that explores the minds of the insane. It’s also even rarer to find one that delves this deeply into the minds of so many characters. BioShock just happens to be one of those games that have the ability to drag you into its atmosphere with its campaign and leave you guessing at every turn and then wanting more when it’s over.

Score: 9/10

Design

Rapture is huge. It’s easy to note that it was built as an entire city and not meant to be linear. Somehow things went askew as the final product does feel mighty linear. Players can call upon a giant arrow which will tell the direction you’re supposed to be going in. This icon will mostly be kept up by many the entire game which cuts off a bunch of Rapture, however those that do venture off the trail will find audio logs, weapon upgrades, and new plasmids. The game itself is primarily a shooter with some light RPG elements strung in, such as upgrading plasmids and looting from bodies. The real stars in the game are the plasmids. Plasmids are like powers. These will allow you to do incredible things such as send volts of electricity into water, light an enemy on fire with a snap of the fingers, freeze and enemy on the spot and then smash him into tiny pieces. There are many of these plasmids throughout Rapture, though favorites will quickly emerge. The problem with all this is you can’t dual wield even a pistol and a plasmid. You’ll have to continually switch the two which can be a real problem in the later levels when swarms of Splicers attack and have skin as thick as a rhino.

Of course as Rapture is a city it should have lots of things to do there, and it does. There’s a whole level basically dedicated to gambling machines for goodness sakes! There’s a whole photo mini-game set up which grades you on how well you take photos of the different enemy types. The more research points you get for each type of enemy the more you’ll learn about them and their weaknesses. It’s a cool concept but in-game they’re usually rushing at you and you’ll more then likely want to blast them out of the way. The other mini-game that dominates is the hacking mini-game where you take tubes and arrange them so the liquid can get from one end to the other. This is a serious weakness in the whole design because it really just isn’t much fun at all and you’ll find yourself paying to auto-hack the machines.

BioShock is filled to brim here with much to do, see, and find. Sure not everything inserted is fun but it still feels extraordinary to wonder the halls of rapture learning its secrets and defeating its civilians.

Score: 8.5/10

Gameplay

BioShock, as stated above, is a blend of the First-Person Shooter and the RPG. The gunplay here is pretty average at best. You press the normal trigger button to fire and you can aim down the sights by pressing down on the Left Stick. The shooting is generic even once you upgrade your weapons, but the real fun comes in the plasmids. The game really rewards you for the way you use your plasmids. For example the trophy/achievement “Toaster in the Tub” is rewarded for shocking a bunch of splicers in the water. Plasmids can be upgraded up some levels which allow for new effects and more damage. It’s satisfying to just snap your fingers and have fire spring up from where you were aiming, or to use telekinesis on a rocket just blasted at you and send it flying back at your enemy.

In a fight all the pieces work well together. BioShock forces you to think how you approach a fight. Use the environment is a big one as the water seeps through cracks or as flammable gasoline pours across surfaces. Set mines and lure enemies to their deaths. Or even brainwash a big daddy into aiding you in a fight. As you get farther into the game the enemies become very very hard. Even on Easy you will die. Ammo may seem a plenty at the beginning but the enemies begin eating up so much lead that you’ll be emptying magazine upon magazine into them. Plasmids begin taking up more ADAM as you upgrade them and First Aid Kits also become scarce with them.

There is one final boss fight but he’ll be such a pushover after fighting off all those Splicers. The next best thing to a boss would be the Big Daddies. You’ll have to be very careful of them as they have some very thick armor and some very killer weapons. They’ll smash you, drill through you with their drill arm, or blast you to pieces with a Rivet Gun. And like every other enemy they become seriously hard. Fighting them though is worth it because you can capture the little sisters. This here lays the only morality aspect that is in the game. You can either choose to save or harvest the sisters. Saving them will gain you a good portion of Eve (Plasmid currency) and warrant you the “Good” ending and favor with Tenenbaum. Harvesting them will give you loads of Eve but also earning you a bad reputation. Any way you play BioShock you’re going to have a blast. Just don’t expect much from the actual gunplay.

Score: 9.4/10

Presentation

BioShock is a game of atmosphere and it hits everything perfectly. It can be terrifying at times to hear the splicers talking like deranged lunatics or sneaking up on you in a bunny mask. To fit this tone 2K has crafted a wonderful soundtrack and filled the roles with an excellent voice cast. Every line is delivered perfectly and the era crackling as you listen through the radio or to an audio log is just so perfectly on the mark that you wonder if these were actual people.

The game uses the Unreal 3 Engine which is good in spots. Water effects look absolutely fantastic as it slithers down the walls or gushes from the sea to fill in a room. Weapons, plasmids and their effects, Big Daddies, and the machinery that litters the city all look crisp and gorgeous on all 3 versions. Splicers and humanoid models don’t. Like many other games the textures come out like they are plastic. While mutated they are, they are certainly not a Barbie doll. This little annoyance though can hardly stand in the way of a very good looking game in 2007, and still holds up well in 2009.

Score: 9.2/10

Final Thoughts

BioShock was such a great game in 2007 (PC and 360) and then in 2008 (PS3), no other game in 2007 gave you such a great plot with some cool powers to play with in an apocalyptic under-sea playground.

Final Score: 9.1/10

The Good
Perfect Atmosphere
Plasmids are fun to play with
Excellently crafted story

The Bad
Average gunplay
Lackluster Morality and RPG elements
“Barbie” Effect