Review: Bioshock [Xbox 360]

Bioshock was one of those titles that generated some buzz throughout the gaming community, but little elsewhere. I can tell whether the buzz has penetrated the masses when I mention something about a game to my girlfriend. If she has even heard of a game, you know that company’s marketing department has done their job. Bioshock managed to slip under that radar, but the prerelease buzz started gaining ground as rave reviews jumped out from everybody who touched the game. They were well deserved. Bioshock raises the bar for storytelling in video games, and will be a gold standard alongside Gears of War in terms of graphics and gameplay for years to come.

The game follows a man whose plane explodes over the middle of the ocean, only to find that where it’s crashed is the entrance to a gigantic underwater city, Rapture. The city has become almost deserted though, with only a few insane inhabitants still residing. One of the most intriguing elements of the story is the play between the Big Daddy’s, huge brutish men in underwater breathing suits and brandishing fierce weaponry, and the Little Sisters, the tiny girls who roam the passages of Rapture looking for corpses from which to draw Adam, a source of magical power.

In a controversial, but revolutionary design choice, if you defeat a Big Daddy, you must choose whether to kill the Little Sister, which gives you a large amount of Adam, or free her and receive only half as much. Your choices determine how much Adam you will have during the game, as well as how the ending of the game will turn out.

Graphics: 100/100
Using the groundbreaking Unreal 3 Engine (the same used in the aforementioned Gears of War by Epic), Bioshock features some of the best graphics you’ve ever seen on a console, be it on Xbox 360, PS3 or anywhere else. The artistic style of the game is rich with nostalgic fonts, signs on the walls that look straight out of a 50’s film, and the look of a once thriving city, now beset with death and decay. Different sections of Rapture are themed in a different way, so you can easily tell when you’re in the Medical wing as opposed to the theater or some other district, just by looking at what types of signs are on the walls.

One of the more interesting facets of the game is the combat, and it shows great artistic style. The weapons are designed to look as though they were made from junk that was lying around Rapture, with coffee cans making up the chambers and old rusty scrap metal becoming a barrel. As you progress through Bioshock, your character learns to use magical abilities known as plasmids, and they allow you to shoot fire, ice, lightning or other things from your hand. As you change between the different plasmids, your hand physically changes to match the appropriate plasmid. When you have the ice plasmid selected, for example, your hand turns a frozen blue, with shards of ice sticking out. I have to also mention the bee plasmid, which makes your hand erupt with little holes as bees climb out of your skin.

Sound 100/100
With the game taking place in the past, the audio folks at 2k Boston/2k Australia used a ton of old music from the swing era, and it makes the game entirely creepy. Bioshock features one of the best uses of a soundtrack that I’ve ever heard in a game. The original score is also well done, making your heart race at the right moments, or giving you a sense of awe as you first set sights on Rapture. My only gripe in the audio department is the extremely annoying “Circus of Value!” machines, which drive you insane by the end of the game and the hundredth time you’ve heard them.

Gameplay 100/100
Bioshock is a rare mix of great graphics and tight gameplay. The controls are simple enough, with a good range of weapon choices available using the R triggers, and a wide variety of plasmids available through the L triggers. Different people will play this game in very different ways. I found myself mostly using the combo of ice plasmids to freeze the opponents, then shatter away with my wrench melee attacks. Matt, here at Xbox Topic, was more keen on using telekinesis to grab all sorts of objects and toss them across the rooms at the enemies. And each person who plays the game will find their own favorite means of defeating their foes. The huge variety of weapons and tactics in Bioshock allow for a huge range of gameplay options.

One choice that was made that really aggravates a lot of the more die-hard shooter fans is that when you die in the game, you simply regenerate back at the last Vita Chamber you passed, and nothing has changed in the world. Any enemies you’ve destroyed are still dead, any damage you’ve done to them is still on them. What it basically boils down to is that there is little punishment for dying in the game. Some people will like this though, as death can come frequently at some sections.

Replay: 80/100
Once you finish Bioshock, there it is good for at least one or two more play-throughs. At the very least, you’ll want to play it again doing the opposite action with the Little Sisters, either killing them all this time, or saving them all. There are also tape recorders hidden throughout the game, and one achievement is related to finding them all. These tapes give insight into what life was like in Rapture before chaos hit the city. Also, you can take photos of each enemy in order to gain research points for them, and it will take some perseverance to fully research each enemy type.

What is really missing here is multiplayer of any kind. A co-op game would have made Bioshock even more attractive, and a deathmatch mode allowing for players to use the plasmids against each other would have been an amazing experience. Sadly, there are no multiplayer components to be found in Bioshock.

Overall I heartily recommend any fan of fps games to give Bioshock a try. You can finish the campaign within a weekend of solid playing, but it will take much longer to find every tape player and research every enemy. The story, the mood, and the artistic style of the game make it truly a must-play experience to every 360 owner.