Tech News on G4Bioshock ReviewSeptember 11, 2007By Andy Barratt - G4 Canada |
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And so Bioshock begins. Many promises have been made that it will be a video game experience unlike any other. But for now, you better figure out where the steps through a doorway lead. Down, obviously. For Bioshock situates itself way in a utopian world beneath the city, where a worker, tired of taxes and state responsibilities can start over in a purely objectivist society. Andrew Ryan created this world. It’s called Rapture. But something’s gone awry with Ryan’s Ayn Rand (get it?) inspired Shangri-la. Rapture doesn’t seem to be working out all that well. From the seemingly safe confines of an elevator you’ve wandered into, something not entirely human quickly disposes of the party sent to greet you. Your presence is already well noted. If you’re getting the sense that there’s quiet a cinematic opening to Bioshock, you’d be both right and wrong. It’s a first act of widescreen, epic proportions, but this is no FMV sequence. Bioshock hands you the controls from the get go. And just like anyone who’s feeling the disorientations from wondering when the in-flight movie would start one minute, to breast stroking their way through the burning wreckage of the remains of their flight to New York the next, you could probably use a helping hand. Luckily, he makes himself heard (but not seen) fairly early on in the form of Atlas, but presumably like everyone who signed on for Rapture, he needs your help for his own aim of saving his family.
Despite its grandiose opening, once it’s over Bioshock does immediately seem like any other shooter. A comfortably familiar control scheme and a standard weapons upgrade path, until the purposes of “plasmids” and ADAM are revealed. ADAM is Rapture’s lifeblood. Everybody wants it, and they’ll do whatever they can to get it. And as far as you’re concerned, it enables plasmids. Think of them as a magical power, such as the ability to fire an electric bolt from your left palm. ADAM facilitates these plasmids. And as mentioned earlier, Rapture’s little sisters have got it all, and will guard it with their lives. Which presents a bit of a snag. There’s nothing scary about the little sisters as such. They’re probably just as innocent as they look, and they look pretty damn harmless, even in their slightly mutated state. But what looks anything but innocuous is the relentless shadow cast over the girls in the form of their bodyguards, the Big Daddy. Looking like a cross between a modified diving suit and a big drill, the Big Daddy’s sole purpose is to prevent the theft of their protectorate’s bounty. And they take some beating. Bioshock ceases to be a conventional shooter fairly quickly. With a wealth of intelligently armed weaponry, the options for a fairly imaginative takedown are vast. Shoot a fireball at something, and it’ll probably head for a puddle created by Rapture’s rapidly leaking structure to douse the flames. Follow the strike with a bolt of electricity and, well, it becomes physics 101, but this is just the most basic of combo options.
There’s detail in every direction, and it’s not necessarily all window dressing either. Security cameras, hidden in heights of corridor ceilings, alert Rapture’s security defences of your presence, and quickly dispatch flying bots to deal you some damage. Take them down, sure. But a smarter thing to do would be to hack them, and have them turn their attention to your enemies instead. Or not. The choices and options are abound. Bioshock innovates where previous shooters have stagnated. It succeeds in not only trumping previous FPS’s in the visuals and action, but with its moral choices and progress approach options it combines scope for an experience that is unique for each player. It’s simply a must have. Bioshock Rating: 9 / 10 |
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Swim for your life. Pay no mind to the fact that not 30 seconds ago you were aboard a mid-Atlantic flight enjoying a cigarette, or that the ocean’s surface is ablaze with aviation fuel. Just swim. And now you can breath. It might be an idea to head for that path illuminated by that streetlight.
He’ll give you the 411 on Rapture. Its crumbling society and self-serving populates. Oh, and its Little Sisters. Genetically enhanced infants who harvest ADAM from Rapture’s corpses. 
And speaking of options, Bioshock presents one heck of a doozy when it comes moral decisions. See, you don’t have to kill the Little Sisters. Sure, no death, no extended plasmid power but you’re promised it’s worth your while if you spare the little madams. Who knows what will result? A replay is almost guaranteed.
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