With all the talk about Bioshock 2 I decided to make a Bioshock 1 review because I didn't have 70$ to spend on a brand-spanking-new game and nothing good is on T.V.
This review contains spoilers that may make your Bioshock experiance less... shocking (lame pun).
To sum up the introduction to Bioshock in one word I would say a big bang. Your traveling on a plane in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean when your characters vision darkens and you find yourself in the wreakage of the plane in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Lucky for you that theres a conveniently placed lighthouse near the wreakage, as soon as you arrive at the lighthouse something is eerie about the place (Might be the fact that the bronze bust looks like the world's most disapproving dad, but who's to say). After about one and a half minutes later you cast away all rational thought and enter the bathasphere taking you into the unknown.
The unknown is the city of Rapture, a city where the artist may not fear the censor, the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, where the the great would not be constrained by the small. In short it's a purely capitalist society loosly organized by the differant corporations that do buiseness withen it and Andrew Ryan, Ryan built Rapture under water as an escape from the "parasites" (people who in Ryans view took what they didn't earn) and he took about 7000 other "great" people with him.
Before you even leave the bathasphere you immediatly get the feeling that something has gone terribly wrong (a guy gets his guts ripped out in a dirty building, doesn't get more forboding than that). The place is overrun with splicers, geneticly mutated junkies addicted to a substance called ADAM a genetic building block if you will. It's like a cancer in a way, it allows you to mess with your genetics but you need more and more to prevent mutation. Your guided around Rapture by Atlas, a man who has a way to the surface (your bathasphere got destroyed by a crazy splicer) and will give you free pass if you help him get to his family in time. That's about all the plot I'm going to spoil for you, so lets talk gameplay.
In Rapture your life is in constant danger, most (if not all) of the inhabitants want to beat, shoot, burn, drown, slice-open, maim, electrocute, and crush you in anyway possible. So to protect yourself from the giant army devouted to your untimely dimise your going to need weapons. Of course as an FPS Bioshock oblidges and then some. Not only do you get pistols, shotguns, grenade launchers, machine guns, improvised crossbows and flame-throwers. There are vending machines around Rapture that sell mods for your guns and give you more ammo. you also get plasmids. Plasmids modify your genetic code to give you super-human powers such as the ability to throw lightening, fire, wind, ice and even bees. Plasmids also give you the ability to hypnotize enemies to make them your temporary allies, enrage them to kill one another and even make them the target of the security machines. The plasmid powers look painful to use and make Bioshock a step above the rest when it comes to FPS games.
Bioshock also has minor RPG elements in the form of tonics, tonics are passive upgrades for your character and help in numerous ways, such as your resistances, hacking ability (it's more like plumbing), and safecracking (who knew that safes in the 1940's used steam-powered locks?). Now unlike other vending machines tonic vendors require ADAM. To get ADAM you have to harvest or save a Little Sister, just one problem, a big one in fact, the Big Daddy. Big Daddies are designed to protect Little Sisters at all costs. That means if you want ADAM you have to go through him first. Big Daddies are mini-bosses for lack of a better term, and come in 2 forms. The Bouncer is a heavily armored Big Daddy with a big-ass drill for his left hand, and the Rosie, a slightly less armored Big Daddy with a rivet gun and mines. Big Daddys are neutral to you unless you hypnotize them or attack them, then they won;t hesitate to open a can of whoop-ass on you. After you put the big bad daddy down your left with a choice, harvest this little girl for the maximum amount of ADAM, or save her from her mutated state and only recieve half of the ADAM. This effects the ending of the game. And honestly who could kill a Little Sister, I mean have you seen one? Look at their little yellow glowing eyes, pale skin and listen to their demonic... voice... and look at the huge... fucking... needle they carry... Never mind, do as you please...
Of coure all those weapons and plasmids wouldn't be worth getting if you fought against morons, and guess what? Your not fighting morons. Not only can splicers take clips of ammo and EVE (mana for your plasmids), but they can also pack a punch. They also come in 4 different forms. The thuggish splicer is a melee brawler, the lead-head splicer is a splicer that uses guns to kill you, spider splicers are melee based fighters with a short range ranged attack, and houdini splicer, a splicer who uses plasmids to turn invisible and burn you. There are also security robots that can attack you if a camera spots you. Now to make things a little easier on yourslef you can take pictures of your enemies to gain attack bonuses against them and even other perks. And if you feel like plumbing you could try to hack those robots.
Bioshock is also one of the most immersive games I've ever played. It has a great atmosphere, you even find old dairy logs that foreshadow upcoming events, flesh out the history of Rapture, and give insight to the horrors a purely capitalist society would bring. So if you can afford a 25$ game buy Bioshock you won't regret it.
Please comment.
P.S If anyone knows how to add pictures to a post and could tell me that would be great thanks.
This review contains spoilers that may make your Bioshock experiance less... shocking (lame pun).
To sum up the introduction to Bioshock in one word I would say a big bang. Your traveling on a plane in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean when your characters vision darkens and you find yourself in the wreakage of the plane in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Lucky for you that theres a conveniently placed lighthouse near the wreakage, as soon as you arrive at the lighthouse something is eerie about the place (Might be the fact that the bronze bust looks like the world's most disapproving dad, but who's to say). After about one and a half minutes later you cast away all rational thought and enter the bathasphere taking you into the unknown.
The unknown is the city of Rapture, a city where the artist may not fear the censor, the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, where the the great would not be constrained by the small. In short it's a purely capitalist society loosly organized by the differant corporations that do buiseness withen it and Andrew Ryan, Ryan built Rapture under water as an escape from the "parasites" (people who in Ryans view took what they didn't earn) and he took about 7000 other "great" people with him.
Before you even leave the bathasphere you immediatly get the feeling that something has gone terribly wrong (a guy gets his guts ripped out in a dirty building, doesn't get more forboding than that). The place is overrun with splicers, geneticly mutated junkies addicted to a substance called ADAM a genetic building block if you will. It's like a cancer in a way, it allows you to mess with your genetics but you need more and more to prevent mutation. Your guided around Rapture by Atlas, a man who has a way to the surface (your bathasphere got destroyed by a crazy splicer) and will give you free pass if you help him get to his family in time. That's about all the plot I'm going to spoil for you, so lets talk gameplay.
In Rapture your life is in constant danger, most (if not all) of the inhabitants want to beat, shoot, burn, drown, slice-open, maim, electrocute, and crush you in anyway possible. So to protect yourself from the giant army devouted to your untimely dimise your going to need weapons. Of course as an FPS Bioshock oblidges and then some. Not only do you get pistols, shotguns, grenade launchers, machine guns, improvised crossbows and flame-throwers. There are vending machines around Rapture that sell mods for your guns and give you more ammo. you also get plasmids. Plasmids modify your genetic code to give you super-human powers such as the ability to throw lightening, fire, wind, ice and even bees. Plasmids also give you the ability to hypnotize enemies to make them your temporary allies, enrage them to kill one another and even make them the target of the security machines. The plasmid powers look painful to use and make Bioshock a step above the rest when it comes to FPS games.
Bioshock also has minor RPG elements in the form of tonics, tonics are passive upgrades for your character and help in numerous ways, such as your resistances, hacking ability (it's more like plumbing), and safecracking (who knew that safes in the 1940's used steam-powered locks?). Now unlike other vending machines tonic vendors require ADAM. To get ADAM you have to harvest or save a Little Sister, just one problem, a big one in fact, the Big Daddy. Big Daddies are designed to protect Little Sisters at all costs. That means if you want ADAM you have to go through him first. Big Daddies are mini-bosses for lack of a better term, and come in 2 forms. The Bouncer is a heavily armored Big Daddy with a big-ass drill for his left hand, and the Rosie, a slightly less armored Big Daddy with a rivet gun and mines. Big Daddys are neutral to you unless you hypnotize them or attack them, then they won;t hesitate to open a can of whoop-ass on you. After you put the big bad daddy down your left with a choice, harvest this little girl for the maximum amount of ADAM, or save her from her mutated state and only recieve half of the ADAM. This effects the ending of the game. And honestly who could kill a Little Sister, I mean have you seen one? Look at their little yellow glowing eyes, pale skin and listen to their demonic... voice... and look at the huge... fucking... needle they carry... Never mind, do as you please...
Of coure all those weapons and plasmids wouldn't be worth getting if you fought against morons, and guess what? Your not fighting morons. Not only can splicers take clips of ammo and EVE (mana for your plasmids), but they can also pack a punch. They also come in 4 different forms. The thuggish splicer is a melee brawler, the lead-head splicer is a splicer that uses guns to kill you, spider splicers are melee based fighters with a short range ranged attack, and houdini splicer, a splicer who uses plasmids to turn invisible and burn you. There are also security robots that can attack you if a camera spots you. Now to make things a little easier on yourslef you can take pictures of your enemies to gain attack bonuses against them and even other perks. And if you feel like plumbing you could try to hack those robots.
Bioshock is also one of the most immersive games I've ever played. It has a great atmosphere, you even find old dairy logs that foreshadow upcoming events, flesh out the history of Rapture, and give insight to the horrors a purely capitalist society would bring. So if you can afford a 25$ game buy Bioshock you won't regret it.
Please comment.
P.S If anyone knows how to add pictures to a post and could tell me that would be great thanks.