bigtruckseries's Full Review: BioShock for Xbox 360
Regardless the pandering and acquiescence we see in the media, science is diametrically opposed to Religion. Science is fact based, religion is faith based. The reason the scientifically minded must acquiesce to the demands of the religious minded is normally always the same reason. The religious inclined usually control the funding for science or the religious inclined are willing to kill the scientists.
It is because of morality and the consequent “value judgments” that phenomena such as abortions, homosexuality, cloning, stem cells, etc… are constantly in a state of suspended controversy. In a country where there is no religion, abortions are legal, and are not usually scrutinized. In a country where there is no religion... homosexuality, prostitution, and all the other “bad things” Christians, Muslims and Catholics object to, are usually out in the open and uncensored.
Bioshock is a game for the Xbox 360 that seeks to create an atmosphere were there is no religion and a man could be whatever he wanted to be. To keep his brave new world called "Rapture" safe from the “outside” world’s timid shortsightedness, Andrew Ryan (a play on famous author Ayn Rand) built the city underwater around 1946. The entire city show’s design elements reminiscent of the time period throughout the 1950’s, which is about the time Rapture was at the height of its capacity. Genetic engineering has been taken to profound levels. Injections of a substance called “ADAM” gives the user instant powers: pyrokinesis, electrokinesis and telepathy to name a few.
There is no ethics committee down here.
Unfortunately, the world of Rapture is actually facing the end of its days. Something has gone horribly wrong and now, the inhabitants of Rapture are killing one another. The genetic tampering has gone wild and the people have grown grotesque – the ones that have survived anyway.
You, the player, find your way into the underwater nightmare of Rapture after surviving an unfortunate plane crash which lands you at her shores.
Its up to you to figure a way out of it.
System Shock 2
Bioshock is actually quite similar to an older game on the PC named System shock 2.
I purchased this game when I first got a PC based on its muted hype. The game was part First Person Shooter, part RPG. You selected a type of soldier to be: psychic, marine or engineer – and based on your selection, you could develop skills in line with your character profile. A Psychic could use telepathic attacks or telepathy to kill enemies. An engineer could easily hack into computer systems to gain access to new areas and corridors. A marine was highly skilled with weapons and very accurate, but lacked psychic powers and engineering skills. The innovative gameplay of System Shock 2 made it a great game, but, due to poor marketing, and other, flashier games of the time being available, it never lived up to its hype. System Shock 2 was also very difficult to play unless you were experienced with both RPGs and FPS gameplay. I played it a couple times and then quit playing it. It was not very intuitive to “casual gamers” and the interface system, which used all the keyboard keys, was quite deep.
BIOSHOCK GAMEPLAY
Bioshock’s gameplay is more straightforward – dummed down for play on a controller and made more accessible to Xbox’s “Halo” generation.
You move around the world of Rapture, finding items and killing enemies just as you would in any First Person Shooter. However, the focus of the gameplay here has been placed on creativity. You must locate ADAM in order to develop your character (similar to mana in RPG games).
You must locate EVE, a substance that gives you access to plasmids; and you must locate money to give you special opportunities.
Plasmids give you special powers. If you find an “incinerator” plasmid, you can set enemies on fire. If you find an Electrify plasmid – you guessed it – you can electrify enemies. There are also character developments that allow you to spray bees at your enemy from pus wounds in your arm; the ability to cloak your body-like the Predator-when you are not moving; and the ability to run faster/ jump higher, to name a few.
The key to plasmid use is experimentation. Sometimes incinerator plasmids will do very little damage to an enemy, wherein electrifying them will stun them so you can attack them with a more powerful weapon such as a shotgun.
Similar to the game Half Life2 the Telekinesis plasmid may be used to lift and throw objects that are movable – which includes enemies.
Early on, you will learn that the electrobolt plasmid allows you to short circuit electrical panels which allows access through many damaged doorways.
There are also objects scattered around that can give you chances to design traps. For example, there are medical stations that you can poison so that when you attack an enemy, they will end up killing themselves if they attempt to run to that station to heal themselves. As you progress in the game, you are given the opportunity to experiment with many different plasmids, traps and use of items.
You are even given a chance to change the profile of your weapons. You might increase a gun’s clip capacity, or enhance a weapon with plasmid use.
Combining electrobolt plasmids and the shotgun for example, yields electrifying buckshot!
Of course, just like in any RPG, you must be careful how you manage your inventory. If you waste your powers or waste your ammunition, you can put yourself in a position later in the game where it becomes nearly impossible to progress. Its a trial and error process so unless you by the guidebook with the game, you'll need to come up with a weapon conservation strategy.
The Little Girls
Tied into the gameplay of Bioshock is a dynamic plot which will change based on player actions throughout the game. The main source of power for the player is ADAM and EVE substances, however, you cannot possibly find all of it unless you come in contact with the Gatherers. The Gatherers are creatures which are basically, little girls. Complete with a spring dress and a cute voice, the gatherers move about Rapture finding dead bodies and extracting ADAM from them via hypodermic needle.
The gatherers are constantly in a situation where they may be attacked by the Splicers which are zombie-like psychotic Rapture citizens who move through Rapture searching for ADAM for themselves. However, The gatherers are not alone, as they have been assigned Protectors known as the Big Daddy.
The Big Daddy is a large lumbering beast inside what appears to be a Diver’s suit. He is usually equipped with a large drill for a hand or some type of rocket propelled grenade launcher. More combat-ready Big Daddies have rivet guns. Ultimately, they will use their brute strength before they bother to use projectiles, and they are hella' tough.
If anything comes within threatening range of a gatherer, the Big Daddy will attack it. You usually get a warning first. If you come into range, you get knocked back and the Big Daddy places himself in between you and the gatherer. If you continue to threaten the gatherer, the Big Daddy, will kill you..
There are numerous tactical advantages to Big Daddy’s aggressiveness. If a Splicer is nearby, you can trick the Splicer into attacking the gatherer to get her ADAM. When that happens, the Splicer and BD will fight it out until one of them dies – usually the Splicer. If the Splicer manages to kill the BD, you just move in, kill the splicer and then decide what to do with the gatherer.
If you save her, you have a chance at a different plot line and different equipment bonuses from Dr. Tenenbaum, a main character who is using gatherers to collect ADAM.
If you choose to kill her and take her ADAM – you sick, sick person – well, you’ll have new advances in your character profile, but, you risk changing the plot slightly if too many gatherers are killed.
The creators of the game placed the little girls in the game to force you to make “moral decisions” about whether or not to kill little children for personal gain…but I feel it was done sloppily, as the little girls do have some monstrous qualities - such as glowing eyes - making them less human. When you do attack them, the screen goes black and you only hear what is happening.
I call that a 'cop out'.
Of course, in some countries, video games are prohibited from showing children in situations where they may be killed. And in fact, if you played this game around adults, seeing a little girl in front of an FPS hand with a shotgun in it, is eyebrow raising to say the least.
The gameplay is the most fascinating feature of the game. Rather than hacking security systems like in System Shock 2, you are given the chance to hack Security Cameras and Security Bots (little helicopter driven cameras with machine guns) in a minigame resembling Pipe Dream. The minigame is quite difficult, but you can cop out of it by paying a little cash for an automatic hack. This is part of the reason money is necessary in-game. If you want, you can reprogram the bots to work for you – they will attack splicers and Big Daddies or other enemy securecams.
The Music is very good in this game as well as the graphics. Both of them do a great job of conveying an atmosphere reminiscent of the 1950’s with an undertone of dread and fear. Considering you’re in a closed environment underwater from which escape is nearly impossible, there is a constant claustrophobia that exists while you explore. The entire place feels as if its going to give to the surrounding water pressure and collapse. Many of the graphical eye candy involves dripping water, or leaking bolts.
Probably the best use of graphics actually occurs early on where the game introduces you to the world above the surface in a plane crash where you find yourself surrounded by fire and see the tail of the plane slowly sinking. Surround sound allows you to hear the screams of the unlucky fliers who are now finding their lungs filling with water – Titanic style. The rest of the game looks fantastic too…if you have an HD television and run the game on a TV larger than 32, you’ll be amazed at what the developers have created here. It really looks that good.
To enhance the story, there are also audio diaries to be found, similar to those in DOOM 3, which allow you to recall the lives of Rapture citizens before the genetic war broke out. They thought they were above God and Natural law. You can listen to their logs in progression as their world comes crumbling down around them.
Controls for the game are most reminiscent of Halo 2. You use both triggers for firing weapons, only the left hand trigger and bumper control Plasmids while the right hand bumper and trigger control firearms. The control system is easy to learn and unlike the keyboard/mouse combination, feels much more intuitive.
To authenticate the game as an FPS, classic weapons such as the Shotgun, Pistol, and Machinegun are here (similar to weapons of the time in design) but the majority of your weapon wielding will take the form of augmented powers and abilities.
The combat system of the game is quite deep because of all the possible uses of weapons and plasmids.
Unfortunately, the game does have some drawbacks.
The first problem is that some weapons don’t do as much damage as you think they should. For example, most games such as Quake4 and Halo make the shotgun a tremendously powerful weapon. However, as you progress in the game, headshots suddenly aren’t one-hit kills and the enemies don’t have any graphical clues as to why that is. They don’t go from armorless to armored. No Splicers have facemasks or bulletproof vests so a gunshot to the head or chest should put them down just the same.
I also noticed that the graphics of the Splicers were quite similar to the age-old graphics on System Shock 2. The enemies sport rag doll physics but not the gore system made popular by Soldier of Fortune 1&2 where you could tactically place bullets to tear arms, legs, hands, heads, and other appendages off at will. I was a little disappointed not being able to gore my enemies.
If you ramp up the difficulty of the game, enemy attacks do more damage to you, but the artificial intelligence governing them doesn’t really show much improvement. Just like most games, the enemy will rush you through your hail of bullets and get mowed down before they have a chance to realize they screwed up. The Big Daddy lasts a lot longer than the typical splicer, but, its easy for you to deal with him once you understand what it takes to kill him. Then you’ll know he is going to simply rush you – you just prepare a warm welcome for him and he is going down.
NO DEATH for THE WICKED
Probably the worst thing about Bioshock – and perhaps its saving grace - is that the game doesn’t have the ability to kill you dead. There are chambers scattered throughout Rapture – Vitachambers – that work like Lazarus pits. If you die, you are resurrected in the last chamber you passed. The problem is, there is little consequence to dying. The game allows you to proceed through it even at a snail’s pace. I’ve seen this same trend occurring in games such as Metal Gear Solid, Halo, Gears of War, etc. Your game will never really end so long as you keep playing so, eventually you will use trail & error to beat the game. In the good old days, we had a set number of lives and a set number of continues. Now, Save Game files rule the consoles.
Of course, what’s even more disappointing is that if you are killed, the game does not reload a Saved game point. Instead, you are resurrected back into the world while its still been in change. The enemies you killed before you died – remain dead. The enemy that killed you, has probably moved elsewhere to kill again. It may even still be at the spot it killed you. You will simply respawn with your inventory untouched and enough health to kill whatever it was that killed you and move on. This makes the game more accessible to casual gamers, but, to hardcore gamers, it may feel a bit “wrong”.
If it was a Big Daddy which killed you, you can simply keep attacking him, dying, attacking him, dying and attacking him until you wear him out.
That’s not the way it should be. But, that’s how games are nowadays. There is no lasting consequence. A better idea would have been causing more drastic story changes if you’ve been killed – or gravely wounded.
XBOX 360 or DESKTOP PC ?
Bioshock is a graphic intensive game. Many computers won't have the CPU power, the Memory or Video Card abilities to run it. Similar to games such as Rainbow 6: Vegas, you're better off playing this one on a $400 Xbox360 unless you just happened to go out and buy a $2000+ Dell XPS or Falcon Northwest PC. Otherwise, you're gonna end up having to upgrade your rig.
Most video cards required to run this game actually cost more than an Xbox360.
ONCE THROUGH
For obvious reasons, there is no multiplayer component to Bioshock. First of all, the game is centered around one man's survival horror and secondly, it would be tremendously hard to model a compelling multiplayer game around the existing maps.
Of course, if the developers did want to add a Multiplayer, it might be prudent to have a deathmatch system where each player is a splicer and they run around shooting each other, using powers on each other and stealing adam. I would have liked to see some attempt at Multiplayer but, the game does stand up very well as a Singleplayer-only.
OVERALL
Bioshock is a fantastic game. The gameplay is what will cause you to become immersed in this world gone mad and for your first time through it, you will be wowed as you witness the scenery, the violent images and the graphic depictions of death. This is what every gamer wants out of a Singleplayer experience. Atmosphere, involvement and innovation in a place where morality never enters argument.
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