The beautifully haunting world of Rapture is an artistic masterpiece, with a darkly twisted story you won't ever forget
Contains: Strong Bloody Violence, Horror, Drug References and Gore
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Bioshock is a Horror First-Person shooter set in 1960, in a fictional dystopian city known as Rapture which is a place of wonder and beauty, but also a city that is atmospherically haunting and has detoriated into madness because of the lust for power.
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STORY - 5/5
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Bioshock is set in alternative 1960's time line, and you are Jack, a survivor of a terrible plane crash. Mysteriously, you are the only survivor, and even more mysterious, is the fact that you have crashed right next to a lighthouse in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. Once you've swam to the lighthouse you soon find out that you are at the entrance to an underwater city known as Rapture and quickly start to learn about the dark history of the city and its violent inhibitors known as Splicers, who were once human beings but are now crazed and disfigured because of a previously unknown species of sea slug which has a horrible negative effect on the human body if the use of the drug is withdrawn.
How did you crash? What is Rapture? And why are you being pulled in towards the horrific story which holds a terrifying secret? It is up to you to figure out the mysteries of Jack's past and the truth to Rapture's grand dystopia, in a city that draws a line between the real… and the impossible.
From the well presented and mysterious opening sequences, to the cleverly concealed twist, and then finally to one of the endings available depending on the moral decisions you made along your journey of discovery, Bioshock will never disappoint. Rapture is quite simply the most intriguing, disturbing and chilling fictional world ever created, and to be a part of its well-paced chilling story that unravels as you play, is a real pleasure that will never be forgotten in the history of gaming.
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CHARACTERS - 5/5
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Bioshock not only is a game with a complete story, but its moments of intrigue are told equally brilliantly through the wide cast of memorable characters. Whether likeable or not, each and every character makes an impact on proceedings effectively, even if they are only present on the back-story recordings scattered around on audio diaries.
Rapture was envisioned by the Randian business magnate Andrew Ryan, who wanted to create a laissez-faire state to escape increasingly oppressive political, economic, and religious authority on land. The city was secretly built in 1946 on a mid-Atlantic seabed, utilizing submarine volcanoes to provide geothermal power. Scientific progress flourished in Rapture, leading to rapid developments in engineering and biotechnology thanks in part to the brilliant scientists that Ryan brought to the city.
Andrew Ryan is brilliantly voiced, and is an intriguing character to say the least, he spreads his voice upon proceedings, and seeks to prevent you from getting close to him. Upon entering Rapture, a friendly welcome by an Irish man named Atlas tells the tale of what's happened to Rapture. Before your arrival he and other citizens of Rapture felt they were being exploited by Andrew Ryan, and therefore launched an attack on Ryan, which undoubtedly marked the start of a civil war between the two men which eventually led to Rapture's descent in chaos, and downfall into greed and hostility. Atlas recruits you and asks for your help to stop Andrew Ryan, and settles you in to the basics of Rapture's environment and weaponry with helpful and needed explanations.
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GAMEPLAY - 5/5
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Although things at the start seemingly stack up against you, and the odds don't look like twisting in your favour, it won't be long before you attain various weapons from your surroundings and develop new ones from your own body.
You must adapt to the decaying city around you, and one of the most unique ways of doing so is to use plasmids. With the world's best and brightest scientists together at the bottom of the sea with no constraints, it was only a matter of time until the population made a number of breakthroughs. The defining breakthrough was ADAM. Generated by a deep sea parasite when it attached to a host, the sea slug parasite produced new stem cells healing the host. The new stem cells allowed the host to take external genetic modifications that take over their normal cell structure. These genetic modifications ranged from medical cures to pure vanity changes, but eventually became more militant in nature. The instant genetic modifications of Rapture come in two flavours: Plasmids and Gene Tonics.
Plasmids rewrite the human genome, and this alteration in the DNA code grants you special abilities that do a range of damage on your enemies. From being able to control electricity at your fingertips, and launch bee's from the hive in your arm, its simply devastating, and you alone are able to control these abnormal powers. Plasmids are powered by EVE - a serum that gives you the power to use them. Without EVE, plasmids are rendered unavailable and your supply is displayed as empty of juice.
Gene Tonics give you enhanced passive abilities, and come in 3 different flavours. Physical gene tonics boost your body's natural abilities in extraordinary ways, like making you resistant to certain types of damage or let you naturally process toxins. Engineering tonics enhance your intellect and dexterity to allow you to carry out delicate tasks like hacking into and bypassing Rapture's security system quicker. Combat gene tonics improve your reflexes and strength to boost your combat skills, for example, some will allow you to deal more damage with melee weapons, or improve your effectiveness with electrical or fire based attacks. Gene tonics require no eve to gain their benefit but because of there being so many to choose from and find, it's your choice to pick the ones that best suit the situation, and how effective they will serve you best in Rapture. You can only equip a limited amount of plasmids and tonics at any time though.
Plasmids and gene tonics are found throughout Rapture, some are only available at specific points in the storyline, but there is so much, that this first-person shooter can often feel like an role-playing game as you can customise Jack how you want. Bioshock encourages the creative combination of plasmids, weapons and the use of the environment, and this adds so much variety in the gameplay.
Most plasmids however, will be available to purchase at a "Gatherer's Gardens" vending machine by using any collected ADAM mutagen you have. ADAM isn't found lying around however, the only way to obtain it is by brute force or an exceptionally gentle and accurate touch. Rapture is a world where everything has turned to fighting and power, and so you have to mix in with this dilemma if you want to get to the end of the story alive. ADAM is the lifeblood of Rapture, and with it, more and more plasmids and gene tonics can be spliced ito your genetic code. Roaming the halls of Rapture are the creepy and mentally deranged "Little Sisters" who walk around and drain the blood from corpses which in doing so, extracts the ADAM inside them. The little sister then drinks the substance which then recycles it into raw ADAM in the stomachs after they've swallowed it. But to get to the little sister, you must defeat their guardians The Big Daddy - genetically enhanced, and mentally sterilized humans grafted into a heavily armored diving suit. Despite their aggressiveness and emotional joining with the little sisters, they won't attack unless provoked, so be ready to unleash everything you've got once you do decide to increase you ADAM supply. Once they are dealt with, the Little sister sticks with their beloved guardian, and this is where the moral choices come into play. Do you harvest the defenceless little girl by extracting the slug from inside her for a large quantity of ADAM, which in the process the little girl doesn't survive, or do you choose to let her live by destroying only the parasite, but for a smaller amount of ADAM? Its a big part of the game which has advantages on both sides of the deal, and its up to you which choice you make.
Plasmids are the highlight of the gameplay, but there are also a large amount of fantasy firearms to make use of against the many deranged enemies inhabiting Rapture. From machine guns to shotguns, and even to chemical throwers, there is enough variety to force every assault away from repetitiveness. Each gun has 3 types of ammo, and each type of ammo is best suited for specific situations and enemy types, but all in all make for some really fun action, which rarely comes to a halt. Searching bodies for supplies and money is a worthwhile and relatively brief procedure, and always has its rewards. If you happen to be running low of something, there are a number of machines in Rapture that offer invaluable services or resources. Gene banks are stations that allow you to reconfigure your equipped plasmids and gene tonics and allow you to keep certain ones in storage for later retrieval; Gatherer's Gardens currency for exchanging goods is only in ADAM, and allows you to purchase plasmid upgrades and new tonics or plasmids; Vending machines are full of random things such as first aid kits, EVE hypos, ammunition and food, plus many more machines are scattered around in the many different environments which all have unique benefits to help you out during the length of the game. Security is tight and so security cameras and turrets are occasionally encountered on your way, and although its quite simply just to destroy them, a better option is to turn them in your advantage, which can be accomplished by successfully hacking them via a short mini game which gradually gets more difficult as the game progresses.
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GRAPHICS / ATMOSPHERE- 5/5
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Your first impressions when taking the bathysphere down to Rapture will no doubt be impressions of awe and wonder. Gorgeous water visuals and a realistic dated look to the buildings are all noticeable, and while this short tour down to the start of your journey is of creditable quality, its the inside of Rapture that is so much more engaging on the mind and the eye. Rapture was a city built up from scratch and its construction included elements that were in that time, and even now, after all the chaos that has caused Rapture's unfortunate downfall because of the lust for power, it is still a mesmerizing city complete with beauty and horror.
Up close textures of walls and weapons could provoke some criticism, but nothing can take away the quality of the art design evident in every corner of this dystopian city. Each area you travel to has qualities that make you aware of the kind of location you're in. The medical ward is decorated in posters and surgical equipment, with a foreground of blood created by the crazed doctor Steinman who's mental condition has gone downhill where nothing is quite beautiful in his eyes, and torturing his victims to force beauty onto an "ugly" face only makes matters more gory. Splattered blood on walls is a frequent substance found on surfaces in Rapture, and this bloody imagery conveys the haunting and creepy aspect of the environments, and also portrays the story where things have turned to uncontrollable violence. The beautiful forests of Arcadia, a place where oxygen is produced which can be supplied to the rest of Rapture is still a place of craft and imaginative beauty where plants and trees grow, but its still a place that teases you into a false state of security, as every corner has something nightmarish behind it, whether alive or dead, mutilated or intact, each environment encourages exploration, aswell as create a foreboding atmosphere made up by such a wonderful graphics engine. The atmosphere is outstanding, artistically and technically, and every single level of Rapture traps you in a discomforting yet admirable atmospheric tension where split second decisions are needed for a head start over your enemies, where your fate is truly inescapable and conjoined with the walls of Rapture.
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SOUND - 5/5
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When venturing through the hostile environments, necessary music associated with the setting in the timeline are produced along the way in various locations where you'd expect music to make an appearance. Despite the violence and the horror, Bioshock isn't non-stop action, a moody atmosphere which contains the 1950s style of music settles you down when the action does pause. The soundtrack during gameplay adds to the atmosphere, for those silent and eerie moments of being unsure in a dark and frightening looking room, or those moments of pure, chaotic and fantasy based combat. The sound effects are spot on, weapons feel and sound accurate, and above all, the story is told through superb voice acting which is incredibly convincing and engaging.
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CONTROLS - 5/5
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The plasmids and weapons you purchase or find are split up into their own separate radial menus, which are nice and simplistic in design and also work as a good source of pausing the game to think up strategies to range your attacks in fluent, multiple and exciting new ways. Since the amount of plasmids you can have at a time are limited, The Gene Bank is the solution to mixing up your biological supernatural set of abilities, and in appearance it may seem confusing, but it really isn't when you follow the help display at the top of your screen and proves a basic yet believable construction.
But one problem that can prove annoying and slow the combat down accidentally, is changing ammo types for weapons. This process is lengthy and repetitive, and when you're in the heat of a battle it discourages you from mixing ammo, because the animation takes time to complete. The overall button configurations are really well done, and while it may take time to completely master the layout, all the buttons feel like they are being correctly used for the right purpose.
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ENEMY AI - 4/5
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The citizens, and now enemies, of Rapture were once ordinary people settling in to a unique life underwater. But one parasite changed everything, and what was once a controlled specimen, eventually got out of hand and turned the once beautiful dystopia into a flesh and blood warfare. Everybody wanted ADAM, and everybody needed it. A drawback of ADAM is that a user must take regular infusions or suffer mental and physical degeneration. As the war disrupted production and supply, every ADAM user in the city eventually went violently insane. By the time the you arrive in Rapture, only a handful of non-mutated humans survive in barricaded hideouts, and the deformed monsters created by the over-use of ADAM are now Splicers - your unrelenting enemies. There are many variations of Splicers, and they attack in different patterns or in groups, but you'll also see them battling each other, which is always cool to witness. The varied form of Splicers each look frightening to look at, and their human figures underneath their scary look are barely recognisable in some of the more strained form of ADAM-obsessed enemies, but they each produce attacks convincing enough to make you careful when fighting them. Some will crawl on ceiling and attack with sharp bladed throwing knives, throw grenades at you, or even resort to attacking with a melee weapon, perfect for you to work out methods of your own when battling these crazed, mutated beings. Researching each enemy a set number of times also allows damage bonuses or tonics to collect which will help out later in the game where guns feel more underpowered.
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LENGTH - 5/5
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Bioshock's twisting path through Rapture will last a very good length of time if you appreciate the exploration encouraged upon you, and could last up to 25 hours before you come to one of the 3 available endings, which are unlocked depending on your moral decisions you make throughout the game. It will no doubt be a memorable journey, and so appreciating every environment will keep you thoroughly engaged until the credits eventually roll upon the screen.
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REPLAY VALUE - 5/5
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There are numerous reasons to replay Bioshock. For the overall experience of the dark story from beginning to end again, change the outcome of the ending by making different moral-based choices and even varying up the weapons, plasmids and tonics you use for a completely different gameplay experience. Exploring the lowest depths of Rapture, and witnessing visuals and art design created by some of the most imaginative artists is just a pleasure to see, as Bioshock not only challenges your capacity to adapt and survive, but brings to question your values and commitments asking: Do you exploit the innocent citizens of Rapture to save yourself or do you risk all to become their saviour? in the most unique and satisfying first-person shooter ever made.
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OVERALL SUMMARY - 10/10
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Good Points: Dark and twisting story that is thoroughly engaging from start to finish, Art design is outstanding and makes Rapture both beautiful and haunting, Everything you encounter is worthwhile and memorable in a world you'll want to explore from top to bottom, Splicers are creepy-looking adversaries, Role-playing elements are perfectly injected into the action, Plasmids and weapons can be combined to great effect where the gameplay has so much variety, Superb voice acting and sound effects.
Bad Points: Guns can feel underpowered later in the game, Switching ammo types is a lengthy process.