I'm BioShocked.
BioShock is a spectacular experience, no matter what platform you play it on. It's obviously best on PC, because the game looks a lot better with improved graphics, but the experience is almost as good on consoles.
Your main goals in BioShock are to find Little Sisters, collect ADAM, and escape the underwater city of Rapture. Little Sisters can be found with Big Daddies, who are essentially the most powerful enemies in BioShock, besides some of the crazy people who run Rapture. You can either choose to rescue or harvest Little Sisters when you've killed their Big Daddy, each has it's benefits. If you save them, it gives you a warm feeling inside and you get a tiny bit of ADAM, and after rescuing a bunch of them you'll get a reward at a Gatherer's Garden (a place where you can buy stuff with ADAM, like Plasmids), but if you harvest them it gives you a lot of ADAM straight up. ADAM can be used to buy things at the Gatherer's Garden, as I said above, such as Plasmids and Tonics, which will help you fight, especially when low on ammo.
The difficulty of BioShock, even if you're playing on hard, is rather easy. If you're playing on easy or medium difficulty, you shouldn't have trouble with anything, really, even the boss battles. I only died once in my first playthrough of BioShock, and that was due to an insane lag-spike, which I'll talk about later on.
The control scheme is the main issue I have with BioShock's gameplay - it's not very easy to pick-up if your used to typical first-person shooters, and the controls are hard to get used to at first. In the end, you'll get used to it, but you can't change them around all that much, which may make it really difficult at the earlier parts of the game while you're getting used to the controls.
The boss battles are all very fun and creative, and they're probably where you'll want to use your arsenal to the fullest. There aren't too many of them, but all of the people you fight have major relevance to Rapture, but it's disappointing that they're quite easy. If only they had utilized the under-water city more, and made a giant squid battle, or some giant sea monster attack where you have to run before it eats you....
There are around ten (less, actually) different weapons for you to find and use through the course of the game, all of which are very fun to use. It is quite hard to aim with some of them, namely the crossbow and pistol, unless you're aiming down your sights. If you're playing on the easier difficulties, there's really no reason to conserve your ammo, as it's littered everywhere across Rapture, and enemies die in a few hits anyways. It's unfortunate, because you won't get to use your special ammo all that much, because your wrench is much more powerful and efficient than most of Jack's other weapons.
Graphics
The under-water city of Rapture is among the most beautiful worlds in gaming today. You'll want to explore every inch of Rapture, and the game never seems to get tedious in terms of exploring (or anything, really). If you didn't get enough of Rapture on your first playthrough, you'll probably get a better chance to explore it on your second playthrough - just make sure you don't get too enveloped in the scenery, or you might get spliced.
There's an option to "unlock frame-rate", which essentially makes the game a bit faster at the cost of the graphics going a bit lower, but honestly, it still looks amazing either way. Unfortunately, there are some lag issues occasionally, but most players usually experience it once or twice through the game's lengthy campaign, which isn't that bad.
Sound
The game features a sound-track filled with pleasant music from the 50's and pre-50's. Most people nowadays don't typically listen to old music on a regular basis, but the music fits so well into BioShock, and you won't find yourself muting the game any time soon because of the music - in fact, you'll probably turn it up. BioShock is one of the only games in recent history that can pull off an old sound-track, besides the likes of Fallout and the Rockstar games.
The voice-acting is some of the best there is right now. Every character, whether it be a minor character like a Splicer that will be killed off in a matter of seconds, or one of the game's major characters like Andrew Ryan, everyone seems to have their own distinctive voice. You'll hear the Splicers whistling or laughing to themselves, which is a sign that you should prepare for battle or hide for your life. The only disappointing thing is that Jack, the character whom you play as, doesn't speak in the game. It leaves a lot to the imagination, which I guess is what 2K was going for.
Story
BioShock is a very story-driven game, with over a hundred audio logs to collect and listen to that unveil a lot that you would have never known about Rapture and it's citizens.
The audio logs really help you understand the story and background of Rapture a lot better, which makes them worth looking for. They tell stories of people involved in Rapture's creation and it's downfall, as well as stories of deceased people or spooky stories that help unfold sections of the game that are left unexplained in the main story itself.
Throughout your journey, you will meet many different people and other things that are kind of similar to people, but they're actually called Splicers. You'll come head to head with the leader or Rapture, and some of it's sick inhabitants, such as evil doctors and inventors.
Longevity
In terms of length, you're looking at around 10-16 hours on easy and medium, if you take your time and look around. On hard, it will probbly take 20 hours, and you'll be doing a lot more looking around, as every bit of ammo, money, health, EVE, ADAM, etc.... counts. If you're trying to Platinum this game, it will take you 2-3 playthroughs to get it, which shouldn't take more than 30-40 hours, because the game is pretty straight-forward.
The Verdict
Pros:
• Superb story
• Amazing graphics
• Fun combat
• Lengthy
• Unique
Cons:
• Easy
• Tough controls
Gameplay: 9.5
Graphics: 9.5
Sound: 9.5
Story: 10
Multiplayer: N/A
Longevity: 8.5
Overall, BioShock is an amazing game that will likely have you coming back for more after your first playthrough. It takes a while to get used to the controls, but the game looks and plays great, and it's one of the best experiences on the PlayStation 3 to date.
9.5/10