BioShock is the very proof that video games can be a form of art.
The year is 1960. The beginning of the game begins with the protagonist, Jack, telling us about his parents calling him special and how he was meant to do amazing things. He's on an airplane. Suddenly, you here screaming, and the next thing you know, you crash-land right in the middle of the ocean. You end up going into a building with some mini submarine inside. You go in there, and then Andrew Ryan describes how he wanted to get away from the government. He chose to build… Rapture.
That's where the whole game takes place in: an underwater city known as "Rapture." The city, however, is crumbling to pieces, and there are zombie-like creatures known as "splicers" that will kill any human being in their sight. There's also Big Daddies, which men in these large suits and Little Sisters.
The Little Sisters play a prominent role in the game. You can choose to either harvest them or save them. This will determine which ending you get. The "choices" end there. You are limited to being bad or being good. The game doesn't really allow you to create your own pathway to the end. It seems like you either have to take Road A, Road B, or Road A2. The Little Sisters are always protected by these Big Daddies, and you'll have to take them down to get to them. They are basically little girls that are altered in some weird way.
There are many ways you can kill enemies. You have plasmids, which are basically superpowers. They let you zap people with electricity, burn people with fire, freeze people with ice, and so on and so forth. You also have a large amount of guns to choose from and your trusty wrench. It seems like you have basically an unlimited supply of bullets and EVE (EVE is used for the plasmids.) because you are basically tripping over money and other supplies everywhere you go. You most likely will never be low on bullets or EVE. This makes things extremely easier.
But to make things even easier, there's no real penalty for dying. You go to some Vita Chamber when you run out of health, which is more of an annoyance than anything. Then you can pop out of there, and take down whichever enemy you were trying to kill. When you die, the enemies' health remains the same.
The combat can get pretty repetitive after awhile. There doesn't seem to be too many things to mix anything up or change anything. Sure, you get new plasmids and those are fun to use for awhile, but you basically encounter the same enemies with slightly different abilities almost every single time. It's fun for the first few hours, but then you just wish it would end.
Rapture is a beautiful place, but unfortunately, everything there seems so linear. The areas are all wide and open, but you'll still have to follow the set path. Every now and then, you'll take a few minutes just to look around at the gorgeous underwater city. You'll pretty much go to every location in one play through, so it's not like you'll encounter any different places the second time around, which is a real bummer.
The sound is great, and it has terrific voice acting. Everyone has an accent, and all the cast members do a good job of fitting their character. I just wish you could hear Jack talk a little bit more.
BioShock is what it is, and if you didn't buy into the hype, you'll have a good time with it. Despite a disappoint ending and a total lack of difficulty, BioShock still delivers an epic adventure that any PC or XBox 360 owner should take. If your PC can run this game, then there's no exist for not playing it.