There's a Journalism course at a University that I applied for a while ago, and part of the condition was that I had to write a review of something. So I chose BioShock because I thought it was the best example of a game to change people's minds about games. It's a little late to the party, and it's not brought a lot because I had to make it less than 200 words, but here it is nonetheless.
There are many games available that give the player futuristic weapons to blast aliens with. Sometimes a game will put you in the middle of a cubic-mile war-zone and allow you to choose which way you obliterate your enemies. Some allow you to climb walls, jump into the skin of a fictional super-hero, create utopian metropolises, tamper with the emotions of your fellow-man and let you shout obscenities at incredible volume through flimsy, plastic headsets. Bioshock is, essentially, a first-person horror-style shooter that focuses mainly on an incredibly well worked-out storyline. Many games these days focus on innovative gameplay; just look at Nintendo?s Wii; or incredible graphics ? and while BioShock delivers brilliantly, in this latter aspect, by creating sceneries that would not embarrass any current-gen console, it never sacrifices any aspect of itself for the storyline, or any way in which it can pull you into it.
BioShock is set in a 1950?s underwater utopia, built by the radical and charismatic philosopher, Andrew Ryan, to house the world?s most powerful, artistic and intelligent minds and put them to work, completely unrestricted by society?s moral issues or policies. This unhampered approach to science leads to the exploration of genetic enhancements, and subsequently the discovery of Adam. Adam is a fictional substance that allows the re-writing of genetic codes, granting the citizens of Rapture, and the player, powers beyond the average human being ? like shooting violent bees out of a hand, for example. The Adam is collected by small girls called ?Little Sisters?, guarded by hulking behemoths hidden inside old diving suits called ?Big Daddies?. As difficult and outlandish as this story may sound, it is demonstrated in a wonderfully absorbing and incredibly impressive way ? the pacing, characters, voice-acting and graphics mould together to create an unashamadely immersive experience. BioShock?s storyline unrolls as a tale of deceit, betrayal and morality twists and turns around the player ? never too confusing and never too ridiculous, it manages to suck the player in to a flawless extent.
BioShock also sets a very high bar in terms of graphics; the set pieces and design concept of the broken, art-deco style dystopia only add to the wondrous sense of involvement that occurs from playing the game. Some of these include: the surgery of an insane plastic-surgeon whom the player sees disembowelling a patient; the concert hall of an eccentric theatre practitioner; an under-water forest of oak trees created to introduce reliable oxygen supplies ? all of the areas explored in this game deliver spectacularly in visual style, and the creepy, haunted feel of the game is carried on in every locale visited. What strikes most about the game is that every different location fits so well into the overall game, and as you visit them, you become more intrigued in the mystery of Rapture's downfall.
BioShock talked itself up before release, claiming that its ?moral-choice? would serve to pull the gamer in further to the game itself. The game allows the player to choose whether he or she should save or murder the small children who collect Adam from the rotting corpses littering Rapture. While it may be difficult to decide what to do in the first case you are presented with, every encounter after this usually ends in the exact same way as the first. The moral choice seems fairly trivial after a while, and it is no-where near as deep as the concept has appeared in other games before and after BioShock's launch.
BioShock is more than a game. It?s a story wrapped in a form of media that is growing more and more popular in today?s culture. It is the sort of experience that you wish you could forget so you could relive it all over again. Without a doubt, it is one of the most impressive examples of how a game can be unquestionably brilliant.
There are many games available that give the player futuristic weapons to blast aliens with. Sometimes a game will put you in the middle of a cubic-mile war-zone and allow you to choose which way you obliterate your enemies. Some allow you to climb walls, jump into the skin of a fictional super-hero, create utopian metropolises, tamper with the emotions of your fellow-man and let you shout obscenities at incredible volume through flimsy, plastic headsets. Bioshock is, essentially, a first-person horror-style shooter that focuses mainly on an incredibly well worked-out storyline. Many games these days focus on innovative gameplay; just look at Nintendo?s Wii; or incredible graphics ? and while BioShock delivers brilliantly, in this latter aspect, by creating sceneries that would not embarrass any current-gen console, it never sacrifices any aspect of itself for the storyline, or any way in which it can pull you into it.
BioShock is set in a 1950?s underwater utopia, built by the radical and charismatic philosopher, Andrew Ryan, to house the world?s most powerful, artistic and intelligent minds and put them to work, completely unrestricted by society?s moral issues or policies. This unhampered approach to science leads to the exploration of genetic enhancements, and subsequently the discovery of Adam. Adam is a fictional substance that allows the re-writing of genetic codes, granting the citizens of Rapture, and the player, powers beyond the average human being ? like shooting violent bees out of a hand, for example. The Adam is collected by small girls called ?Little Sisters?, guarded by hulking behemoths hidden inside old diving suits called ?Big Daddies?. As difficult and outlandish as this story may sound, it is demonstrated in a wonderfully absorbing and incredibly impressive way ? the pacing, characters, voice-acting and graphics mould together to create an unashamadely immersive experience. BioShock?s storyline unrolls as a tale of deceit, betrayal and morality twists and turns around the player ? never too confusing and never too ridiculous, it manages to suck the player in to a flawless extent.
BioShock also sets a very high bar in terms of graphics; the set pieces and design concept of the broken, art-deco style dystopia only add to the wondrous sense of involvement that occurs from playing the game. Some of these include: the surgery of an insane plastic-surgeon whom the player sees disembowelling a patient; the concert hall of an eccentric theatre practitioner; an under-water forest of oak trees created to introduce reliable oxygen supplies ? all of the areas explored in this game deliver spectacularly in visual style, and the creepy, haunted feel of the game is carried on in every locale visited. What strikes most about the game is that every different location fits so well into the overall game, and as you visit them, you become more intrigued in the mystery of Rapture's downfall.
BioShock talked itself up before release, claiming that its ?moral-choice? would serve to pull the gamer in further to the game itself. The game allows the player to choose whether he or she should save or murder the small children who collect Adam from the rotting corpses littering Rapture. While it may be difficult to decide what to do in the first case you are presented with, every encounter after this usually ends in the exact same way as the first. The moral choice seems fairly trivial after a while, and it is no-where near as deep as the concept has appeared in other games before and after BioShock's launch.
BioShock is more than a game. It?s a story wrapped in a form of media that is growing more and more popular in today?s culture. It is the sort of experience that you wish you could forget so you could relive it all over again. Without a doubt, it is one of the most impressive examples of how a game can be unquestionably brilliant.
