Review
Release Date: 08.21.2007
Platform:
Xbox 360Developer:
Irrational GamesPublisher:
2K GamesReviewed by
Justin Fassino on 8.28.2007
| Review Rating: 9/10 | User Rating: 9.27/10 |
Narrative. Plot. Story. These are integral parts of entertainment media, especially of the visual kind. Stories have been around for thousands of years, starting with oral traditions that eventually evolved into the written word. The written word transformed into live performance, which further changed when it went to the film screen. VIdeo games started their still brief history with the barest bones of storyline and plot. Since the days of
Pong, games have become increasingly cinematic in nature, featuring themes, philosophies, and stories that grow more complex as the technology to create games improves. Still, there have been very few games that have been able to incorporate story in a truly unique and dynamic way such that the player feels completely immersed as they play the game, as opposed to playing the game to "reach" a pre-defined story sequence or scene. It takes a real talent to blend the two aspects of gaming to such a degree that one could be confused with the other, and some might argue that it has yet to be done at all in the video game medium.
If
BioShock doesn't accomplish that, it sure comes close.
BioShock is about an underwater city. It's about genetic experiments, and it's about economic and political philosophy. It's about choice and also partly an exploration of humanity. But more than that,
BioShock is a revelation in terms of cohesive storytelling inside an interactive environment. There is a subtlety in many of the game's facets that will engage players of all levels of understanding about the time period and the political ideals presented therein. Those subtleties also extend into the gameplay as well. In short,
BioShock presents a great, layered experience for gamers. What will you get out of your experience with it? Like the wise answer from Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back: "Only what you take with you."
On a macro level, the game is about an underwater city built by a man named Andrew Ryan, who carried a great disdain for government influence in the lives of the private citizen or business person. With the ideals of the Objectivist movement driving him, Ryan leaves terrestrial Earth to build Rapture, the aforementioned city hidden deep underneath the Atlantic Ocean. But say you are someone who doesn't know anything about Objectivism, or any of its tenets or philosophies; that's alright. The game will give you enough to get by without forcing you to go read
Atlas Shrugged, so you can enjoy exploring and blasting your way through the aquatic dystopia without troubling yourself. If you're the type of person who enjoys a rousing philosophical presentation or two, then you will also enjoy
BioShock as it examines the consequences, successes, and failures of adopting the Objectivist ideology in the game's setting.
On a micro level, the game is also about you as Jack, the main character. On his journey, the player will discover the culture and history of Rapture, the motivation of its citizens, and the reason for its downfall. It also doesn't hurt that
BioShock features one of the greatest plot twists in the history of gaming, one that will make you feel like you just got hit in the gut. It is precisely this mastery of storytelling, combined with the outstanding art design, that makes everything experienced in the game so satisfying. The game has a tangible soul that is a character in itself. The world is not lifeless or empty; in fact, Rapture is
BioShock's biggest success.
You would be hard-pressed to think of a game environment that is more unbelievably believable, more detailed and atmospheric, than the mid-century art deco digs of Rapture. It's not just the space in which the player exists, it's also part of the story. Such care and meticulous detail went into creating the city that these intricacies are almost overwhelming. No room looks the same as another; in fact, part of what makes the game so immersive is how fresh the environments feel. As before, the macro level of the game allows the player to see how each part of the city relates to every other part. You will gain a sense of history and narrative just through drinking in the architecture and layouts of the level you're playing. On the other hand, each area and room has its own story. Some of these stories will be told through audio cassettes, which can be picked up by the player and listened to in order to further understand some aspect of the plot, while the other parts of these stories can be deciphered by simply observing the area and looking at the furniture or decorations strewn about. The game is never obtuse or blunt, choosing instead to allow the player to connect the dots in his or her own head to figure out what is going on, or what went on, at any given time.
Kudos should go to the design team that made Rapture a reality. There has been nothing else quite like it in gaming up to now, and some gamers may find themselves playing
BioShock a second or third time just to absorb the horrifically beautiful sights and sounds.
Speaking of sounds, the audio production in
BioShock is second-to-none in all aspects. Players will be constantly reminded of their underwater existence as they traverse the landscape. Sometimes they will get comfortable in a long series of corridors and dry rooms, only to be confronted with a large panoramic window that shows the blue-green enormity of the sea beyond. Other times the drip-drip-drip of a broken pipe or leaky pane of glass will be all that's necessary to illustrate the crushing pressures of the deep. In all cases, the groan of 1950s machinery and the hum of rushing water will provide the moody backdrop to exploration and combat. On the voice-acting front, this may be the best written and recorded game of the year. Each character is played absolutely perfectly, from the crazed genetic freaks that walk Rapture's pavilions, muttering about various events, to the main roles of Andrew Ryan and the Little Sisters. The Little Sisters, in particular, will both tug on your heart-strings with their cute, childlike proclamations to their Big Daddy protectors, and chill you with their wails and shrieks once those same Big Daddies are dispatched by your weapons. Every character from the biggest part to the smallest supporting role is believable and delivers an intense performance.
On the gameplay front,
BioShock is very versatile and allows for plenty of different strategies. if you like the run-and-gun style of some first-person shooters, you can certainly play it that way. There are seven different guns to use, including your basic pistol and machine gun, to more creative armaments that shouldn't be spoiled. Likewise, if you're a gamer who wants to take things slow and steady, thinking out strategies and executing them,
BioShock will not disappoint. You'll also be able to equip Plasmids, genetic modifications to your body that give you special abilities, like shooting fire from your fingers. Some Plasmids are meant for heat-of-the-battle use, while others (like the Enrage Plasmid, which causes enemies to attack one another) are great for taking care of the dirty work while you sit back and watch the chaos unfold. There are a variety of possibilities for players to experiment with when it comes to combat, and there is a huge amount of versatility in how you can play the game at any given time. This freedom is incredibly rewarding, for the most part.
Only near the end of the game does
BioShock lose some of its luster. The area design becomes just a little bit less impressive, and the combat begins to grow somewhat repetitive and annoying, thanks in no small part to an increase in the number of foes encountered. Big Daddies, the meanest and creepiest foes in the game, become exceptionally easy once you've spliced and upgraded to the best Plasmids and weapons. The ending itself is short and sweet, but far too abrupt to leave any feeling other than a twinge of disappointment. The lack of any interactive cut-scenes also makes the game feel like much ado about nothing. While the tape recordings you find throughout the game provide the necessary plot details, once you realize that the story doesn't move beyond that approach save for very specific instances, there is simply a feeling of too much narrative distance between what's happening (or happened) in the game and what the player is experiencing.
At the end of the day,
BioShock is not so much a revelation of gameplay (nor is it "just another FPS" as some might claim) so much as it's a revolution of game design and narrative technique. It's not so much what the story is about (although it is high quality compared to other games) as much as
how the story is told. Rapture is a hauntingly beautiful game world that is as impressive as it is visionary. The simple act of exploring its mysteries could be a game in itself, but on top of a satisfying combat engine and engaging characters,
BioShock is a great example of style and substance working together to create a unique and original experience. Only near the end of the game do its minor weaknesses show through, but that shouldn't stop anyone from adding
Bioshock to their collection.
Second Opinion
Reviewed by
Mikey Dowling
Review Rating: 10
BioShock is a title that gamers will be arguing about for some time. It's one of those games that will stir up heated conversation on whether it was revolutionary, or just a game from 10 years ago repeated. You could argue that it's a typical FPS, and that PC gamers have "Been there, done that;" yet, never before has something like
BioShock been done on a console so well.
Deus Ex tried on the PS2, but thanks to clunky controls and dated graphics, it didn't really catch on (which is a shame since
Deus Ex plays like
System Shock 2,
BioShock's spiritual predecessor).
The world of Rapture is beautiful, immersive, thought-provoking, and horrific all at the same time. It has been some time since there has been a game that has pulled off what
BioShock does, and with what seems to be such great ease. You can play
BioShock as an action shooter, or a thinking man's shooter. You can unravel the story through taped recordings, or try to piece together what has happened to Rapture and its citizens through the meticulously decorated locations. Rapture is a city of choices, and
BioShock reflects the ideals of its fictional city throughout the course of the game. How you discover the story is up to you, as is the method by which you get to the end. The tag line on the back of the box ("No two gamers will play the game the same way") is honestly true, and it's fully rewarding to see this happen.
Along with the game of choices, the end game is near Fight Club in terms of twists. So those looking for something to mess with their minds will find that the outcome alone will do the trick.
BioShock is a game that any gamer can get into, even those not comfortable with the FPS genre. It also happens to be better than just about anything else available, and finding something that can even come close to the sensation of taking down your first Big Daddy, or thinking up your first big Plasmid attack combo will be hard to do.
BioShock isn't just a game for Xbox 360 owners; it is a game for everyone.
