BioShock PS3 Update: Still Awesome

One of the dumb ongoing jokes we have in the GameSpot office is coming up with terrible nicknames for great games. Despite being a towering artistic achievement and one of the few games able to span the cavernous gap between adrenaline-filled shooter fans and intellectuals looking for a rich narrative, BioShock hasn't been spared from our tyranny. Yes, whenever someone brings up the game, one of us--likely me--will inevitably say, "You mean BioSchlock?" and throw their hands up in forced laughter. I'm not sure how this practice originated, but it's a fun way to take the wind out of someone's sails who's lucked into writing about a great game.

Despite my affinity for using that nickname, I'm a pretty huge fan of the game. So when a virtually complete build of the PS3 version arrived on my desk last week, I was psyched to take a look at some of the exclusive features for this fashionably late port. But as it turns out, the biggest feature--those downloadable challenge rooms that force you to use plasmids in clever ways to solve puzzles--isn't on the disc. Yep, it's just the standard story mode. But still! It's BioShock, and any excuse to play it again is fine by me. I did just that earlier this week, and in the process I managed to pick up on a few PS3-centric features that a few people will probably be interested in.

Install Info
Using the thoroughly scientific method of starting the install process and timing it with my cell phone's stop watch feature, I clocked in BioShock at 10 minutes and 30 seconds to install. The file ends ups occupying 4.98 gigs on the hard drive. It's not a very hefty install, which would explain why load times don't seem noticeably better compared to the 360 version. But then again, this isn't 100% finalized code, so take all these numbers with a grain of salt. Sea salt! From the bottom of Rapture.

Trophies
From the outset, BioShock lists three gold trophies, one silver, dozens of bronze, and a bunch of secret ones of indeterminable color. For gold, there's "Brass Balls" (Complete the game on Hard difficulty without using a Vita-Chamber), "A Man Chooses" (Complete the game on Survivor difficulty), and "I Chose the Impossible" (Complete the game on Survivor difficulty without using a Vita-chamber). The lone silver trophy that's not hidden from the beginning is "Historian" (Find every audio diary).

Trophy junkies will be pleased to know that bronze trophies are doled out in generous fashion. Early on, these things roll your way like crazy. You'll get one for everything from hacking your first safe to upgrading your first weapon to passing through the first chapter. But not all bronze are so easy. Fully researching enemies only results in a bronze trophies, as does completing the entire game on Hard difficulty. Either way, trophy fiends will collect plenty of bronzes.

Survivor Difficulty
Let's be honest: BioShock isn't the toughest game in the world. In fact, it's pretty damn easy. Between unlimited saves you can create at any moment and Vita-chambers sprinkled generously throughout Rapture, the only thing standing between a decent player and victory is either a Red Ring of Death or a deep-seated allegiance to the philosophies or Ayn Rand. Rather than futzing with the balance of the standard difficulty options, the folks at 2K have gone and added an extra difficulty option for the hardcore lot.

Known as "Survivor difficulty," this setting is described in the title screen as "Every bullet counts." The most noticeable difference is the resiliency of enemies. The first Splicer in the game gave us a good fright when he wouldn't go down with two or three well-placed wrench strikes. No, that little adam junkie took a half-dozen or more swings to kill. Eve also drains more quickly (one shot of the basic plasmids uses nearly the entire gauge), and it seems like ammo is quite a bit more scarce. Atlas' prescribed "one-two punch" of giving a splicer some lightning followed by a wrench hit to finish him off doesn't quite work here. However, when you die and find yourself revived in a Vita-chamber, enemies will still have their health depleted to where it was at when you died. This time, though, only about a third of your life is restored, and very little Eve. Still, if you want to kill a Big Daddy using only a wrench, that's remains a possibility if you've got enough patience. It just takes a whole lot more on Survivor.

All in all, survivor poses a significantly greater challenge for players, but to me it still seems very doable. This isn't Mega Man 9 or Ninja Gaiden here; Survivor probably isn't going to force you to replace your controller ten times over before you finish the campaign. And if you do, well, I'm sure it will be worth it for that gold trophy you unlock.