Video Game Review: Bioshock

"I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture, a city where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, Where the great would not be constrained by the small! And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well." - Armin Shimerman

I didn't think I'd like this game when I first demo-ed it four years ago.  Dark, freaky games with jump-scare effects tend to freak me out a little too much.  If there is one thing that attracted me, it was the concept and settings of the game:  a grand art-deco style city deep beneath the sea.  It is as wonderfully rendered and designed as it is imaginative.  If nothing else, "Bioshock" deserves top marks for its original art designs and its visual style.

The game does have its freaky moments though; it is a horror survivalist game first and foremost.  There are several moments where you'll find yourself trapped in a dark, tight space with bad guys (called "splicers") crawling out of the woodwork trying to get you (and some of them literally crawl on the walls and ceilings).  The game's atmosphere is phenomenal:  it's use of light, shadow, sound effects, and textures help generate an unsettling atmosphere.  There were moments that made me jump out of the chair, or just creeped me out completely.

After a while, however, I found myself getting accustomed to the world of Rapture, and I stopped fearing the dark.  One of the game's key features is the use of "plasmids," or superpowers.  While your right hand holds the weapon, your left can be used to summon lightning, fire, ice, a swarm of bees, or whatever else you manage to find or invent (not all at once though, you can only use one hand at a time; this is something that gets rectified in "Bioshock 2").  Weapon and character upgrades help even the odds quite a bit too.  I also found myself having loads of fun hacking into all the different turrets, cameras, and robots to turn them against enemies (hacking in this game brings up a little mini-game that's highly reminiscent of "Wowspill," which is neat).

In order to upgrade powers and effectively progress, the player is often made to confront the iconic character displayed on most of the game's covers and posters:  the Big Daddy.  Going hand-in-hand with the design of the city, this hulking brute appears like a deep sea diver from Hell, wielding either a rivet gun that could blow holes in his enemies, or a drill that will gore his enemies to death.  Fighting these suckers is a challenge, especially at first.  It can be quite gratifying to bring these behemoths down; as a reward, you get to deal with the Little Sister that the thing protects (your choice to either "harvest" her, which grants you more points to spend, or rescue her, which offers less points but is the morally right thing to do, and you'll get a different set of rewards).

It's not all just random running around in a derelict underwater city; there is a story beneath all this slick gameplay.  I always found it a little weird that the main character you play goes from being in a plane crash to jumping smack dab in the middle of this conflict between Andrew Ryan (city founder), and Atlas (rebel).  Still, for a game, you can just roll with the flow, and pick up on all the background info through collecting data tapes (I still would have liked it a little better if more information could have been presented in exposition).  Regardless, the story does pull a few impressive plot twists, and there are some strong themes worth thinking about.  The key concepts involved include the idea that men are born with free will, and you, the player, are town between obedience and free will.

These days, I find myself thinking more and more about the city of Rapture and its founder, and thinking about the implications of what it all means.  The city was built as a utopian sanctum free from politics or religion, allowing its inhabitants to explore art and science without any restriction.  But Andrew Ryan's dream turned out to be folly, for without control or morality, the citizens harnessed the god-like power of genetics and abused the Hell out of it.  It's pretty sobering to imagine all these people turning mad, ripping apart their families and their own city, and ultimately mutating into something monstrous.

Overall, the gameplay is sublime and addicting.  Even though "Bioshock 2" offers a few important improvements (such as remote hacking, the ability to shoot and use powers at the same time, and multiplayer action), this first game in the series has very few weak points.  As far as I could tell, it's glitch-free.  The graphics look decent; the textures and renderings are highly-detailed; most animations look great; the levels are designed with distinction and solid attention to detail.  Sounds are phenomenal, and the music is not bad either.  Voice acting is good.  As mentioned above, designs for the environments and everything within is fantastic.

I think, if there's one thing that really pushed this game over the top for me, it'd be the cute and adorable relationship between the Little Sisters and their Big Daddies.   As perverse as it is to have these mutant little girls sucking the genetic goo out of corpses, I loved the way they wandered around Rapture with their big silent protectors, addressing him fondly as "Mr Bubbles" and singing about nonsense.  Awwww...

"Mr Bubbles!!!"

This game comes highly recommended!

4.5/5 (Entertainment:  Perfect | Story:  Good | Game:  Very Good)