One of the most atmospheric games I've played,set in an underwater city.Even if you don't like FPS you should play it.
The thing that makes Bioshock stand out to me the most is it's atmosphere,you'll travel to an underwater city named 'Rapture' that's at the bottom of a deep ocean and hidden from the rest of the world and it will provide an eery atmosphere because the city is surrounded by a bluish tinge from the ocean water and you'll even see fish swimming and from the start of the game you'll be shown an outside view of the city that shows all of this and it made me feel like I was going to enter a very daunting place.
The story for Bioshock is about a man named Jack who survives a plane crash and is lead to Rapture and hell has broken loose in the city and genetically modified psychotic humans referred to as 'Splicers' infest Rapture and will attack you on sight.All the 'normal human' survivors are hiding so basically you'll be alone against lots of splicers and you'll be trying to discover why you are there(it will make sense when you experience the story)and you'll discover dark secrets about Rapture and about your character and there is some big surprises installed.
Basically Rapture was created as a place where science could flourish without religion getting in the way and to be a place free from political oppression but obviously something/a number of things have gone wrong and you'll be trying to find out what they are,and there's quite a lot to learn about Rapture because it was once a city full of people with lots of scientific advancements and commercial things operating from within it.
The controls are quite fun for FPS standard,the aiming mechanics and character movements feel fluid and fast.Even though the story is set in the 1960's you can upgrade the weapons to make them feel high-tech.For example,a 45 magnum is known for being a very powerful handgun but it shoots very slowly but in Bioshock you can upgrade it so it fires much more quickly.You can also upgrade your machine-gun and shotgun to make them more advanced compared with the average versions of those weapons for their time.
You can also use plasmas which are abilities gained from genetically modifying your character and some of these abilities allow you to knock heavy objects over a distance without touching them and this can be used as a weapon or counter attack(if enemies have grenades)or to remove objects blocking doors.You can use plasmas to create fireballs,ice,electricity or for mind control and they definitely come in handy,for example you can shoot electricity into water and if enemies are in the water they'll get eletrocuted or you can use plasmas to make enemies attack other enemies or to stun enemies.
The combat in the game is fun because of the fluid and fast aiming mechanics and character movements.
The game has lots of fetch quests and they can become boring,especially when you have to search all over the place for an item needed to progress through the story.The brings me to my next point,Bioshock offers quite a lot of exploration for a FPS game because there's many rooms and passageways and many levels and many types of different environments to explore.Often a yellow arrow will point to where you need to go next but it doesn't always point to where items you need to find are and often you'll need to search many rooms for items you need.But being able to explore a lot is fun because the city has commercial areas and recreational areas and areas devoted to nature as well as office and science rooms and areas that let you see the ocean surrounding the city and it creates quite a daunting atmosphere.You can also search for voice recordings that have extra story information and you can try to rescue the little sisters which are little girls that are being hunted down by big daddies(enemies that use big,heavily armored suits with giant drills that makes them almost look like a mech suit) because people want to harvest the energy from the little sisters(this energy referred to as 'Adam')so they can use this energy to genetically enhance themselves.
A lot of the environments in the game will be dark and you'll hear the splicers yelling and screaming and it can create a creepy and great psychological horror effect.
The splicers are usually armed with weapons whether they be firearms or melee weapons and some splicers referred to as 'spider slicers' can run across ceilings like a spider whilst shooting at you and some splicers use explosive weapons and can teleport.You'll often run into big daddies which will make you use up lots of ammo and security robots if you move into the security spotlights or if they move onto you.
Even though the game is a FPS you can upgrade your stats such as max health,max plasma and your abilities to hack doors and devices(which often contain helpful items or so you can go through a door without having to find the code or so you can get cheaper prices for items)by using Adam which you get from either harvesting or rescuing little sisters that you save from the big daddies and Adam is kind of like experience points in the game.
You can buy items to heal your character or to restore plasma and you can customize which abilities you want to use because there is a limited number of slots for abilities but when you use Adam to upgrade your number of slots you can use more abilities.And of course you can upgrade your weapons too in a variety of ways(the damage they do to enemies,rate of fire,reload time etc.).Splicers respawn in many areas and often drop money and ammo and items.
From a technical perspective,the graphics look quite good and detailed for a 2007 release(even though the PS3 version was released in 2008 the Xbox360 version which is graphically similar to the PS3 version was released in 2007).But like I've said,it's the game's eery underwater atmosphere that makes it visually appealing to me in the way it uses the eery tinges of blue from the surrounding ocean to surround Rapture and I love the way Rapture has neon signs for it's buildings and a dark look to it's city,it feels like a film noir style environment at times,especially with the old style classical music playing constantly in the game.I also like other little touches to the environments such as how you'll see everyday objects in a messy layout to help create the feeling of knowing a lot of chaos has happened in the city and some parts of the city are flooded or dark and the fact you're alone makes you feel even more vulnerable.
Overall,Bioshock is a great game in terms of story,game play and atmosphere and even if you're not a FPS fan you should give this game a try.