BioShock
Introduction
BioShock is an FPS/RPG designed by 2K Games as a spiritual successor to their earlier, similar System Shock series. Having never played the latter, that detail meant nothing to me, but it appears to play a strong role in the other reviews I?ve read or watched. According to the Escapist?s own Yahtzee, BioShock plays almost exactly like its predecessors, only the futuristic settings are replaced by steam punk versions. But, that note is for players who know the previous series, and if, like me, you?ve never played System Shock, you don?t need to worry about that.
Now, in my opinion, the thing that sets BioShock apart from other games in the same genre is the storyline. Or rather, the multiple storylines. I don?t mean the alternate endings, I mean the idea of several stories featuring in the same story?namely the diaries you find scattered about the underwater city of Rapture, and with a little imagination, it?s not hard to picture the plight of various other citizens during the riots and the subsequent downfall of Rapture.
Story
I will try my hardest not to spoil anything here, the game relies heavily on me keeping its secrets. But I can make a few comments - for one, the game takes no time at all to get into the action. There?s a short, opening cutscene during which the protagonist sits on a plane, which promptly crashes into the Atlantic ocean. Then control is handed to the player, who guides the character toward a lighthouse?and then the game kicks off from there. There?s barely any time to get immersed, so I will admit the first fifteen minutes or so of the game aren?t anywhere near the excellence that shows when things really start.
It?s kind of a false start. They waste no time with introductions, and try to throw you into the action, but without knowing what?s going on, you half-heartedly stagger between objectives. No sooner had you gone into that lighthouse, there?s a friendly Irish bloke on the radio. It did seem a little strange, at first, just?wandering into a random lighthouse, finding a suspicious lever and tugging on it. And then doing whatever the Irish guy says to get out again.
But, I believe that was intentional, that last part. If you desperately need to know why, I?m sure there are a hundred places on the Internet where you could find out.
The Irish fellow explains to you after a short while about a wonder drug, this substance called ?ADAM??in Rapture, it was seemingly the cause of, and solution to, all life?s problems. Like alcohol, in today?s culture, but somewhat more volatile. And with Rapture?s philosophical ideology, under the leadership of Andrew Ryan, it was practically every man for himself. Of course, this ended predictably. People fighting, civil wars, the usual. But ADAM was the catalyst to all of this, and as such plays a very important role in the game, since it allowed the rewriting of the genetic code?and genetic modification is a major theme in the game. It?s almost as though the whole game is a message to stop playing with genetics.
I suppose this is what separated BioShock from the other shooters. Rather than laugh and giggle at ten year olds over the Internet with guns, 2K implemented a very serious tone, and in truth, if you fail to take the game seriously, you simply won?t enjoy it.
Gameplay
Admittedly, the gameplay featured in BioShock is pretty mediocre, but I could say the same for practically every first person shooter I ever played. With your right hand, you wield a variety of weapons, ranging from pistols and grenade launchers to crossbows, and a camera, oddly enough. In your left, you possess various powers, named ?plasmids?. Injecting yourself with suspicious hypodermic needles found throughout Rapture gives you certain abilities, as opposed to AIDS, which would be the norm for strange needles. The combination of physical weapons and these plasmids allows for multiple ways to fight, and your strategy can change as many times as you feel like, so combat is rarely repetitive. And on that note, it?s by no means easy. Some of you may be far better than I, so you might find it easy, but from my point of view, Normal mode was not easy. Again, referring back to the Zero Punctuation review from so long ago, he claimed there was ammunition all over the place. We must have been playing different games. Ammunition was not only hard to find, I ended up spending all my money on first aid kits and EVE, the substance used to power plasmids, and none of it went on ammo, because I simply couldn?t afford it a lot of the time. My weapon of choice was often the machine-gun, and when you find machine-gun bullets, you find them in twos or threes, and quite simply, two bullets won?t even deter a house spider.
So I died. A lot. Luckily for me, dying is only a minor inconvenience. You die, you get taken to a nearby ?Vita-Chamber?, which acts as a respawn point, so you generally have nothing to fear from combat?except maybe the odd fit of rage when you just can?t seem to survive.
Maybe some of us would like to avoid combat?but sadly, that?s impossible. You can run away from as many enemies as you want, but if you want to get anywhere, you need to collect ADAM, and there?s only one way to collect that stuff. You have to take it from strange little girls known as Little Sisters, and to get to a Little Sister, you have to throw down with their huge, armoured protector, the Big Daddy. And that isn?t easy. Maybe somebody will reply and say they killed one with their wrench. I don?t care. I didn?t. I tried. I died. So I rushed him with the wrench again, and he just pimp-slapped me with his giant drill. So I won?t do that again. Big Daddies take a bit of imagination to take down. Either that, or a huge amount of your health kits.
So, in my opinion, combat is a *****, and it?s a ***** that won?t stop visiting you at work.
But there are ways to give yourself an advantage when it shows up. Certain plasmids will turn certain enemies into allies, and Rapture?s omnipresent security force can easily be turned to your will.
When faced with the various cameras, turrets and flying robots, ?Jack?, the protagonist, has his own way around them. He can hack. Get close enough to a machine, and the option to ?hack? is presented. Activating this triggers a plumbing-style puzzle, where you simply connect the pipes and direct the current to the destination, and upon beating this puzzle, the machine decides to be your friend. The irritating thing about this is that I?m not very good at these puzzles, and my brother took great pleasure in referring to me as ?special? when watching me attempt to hack. Do it wrong, you get an electric shock. Do it very wrong, and you trigger an alarm and an army of flying robots comes to hunt you down. But, do it right, and you get a valuable ally. Until you leave the room, or it decides to die. Although combat is unavoidable, there?s only a few occasions when you have to fight your own battles.
The roleplaying elements come into the mix in the form of ?gene tonics?. These upgrades are scattered about the city, or can be bought at a ?Gatherer?s Garden?, a place where the player exchanges ADAM for tonics or plasmids. Although a player can only have a certain number equipped at the same time, certain combinations do allow for certain methods of play. Some gene tonics will increase your health and your damage output, while some reduce the difficulty of hacking and boost the effects of healing items. Luckily, these come into different categories. Combat tonics affect your battle capabilities, physical ones will increase melee damage or physical toughness, engineering ones assist with your hacking and such?and there was another category, but I forgot what it was, but I suspect that was the one that shortens alarms and makes turrets easier to avoid.
Setting
Decent gameplay and a memorable story are pretty useless without a good setting, and I believe the underwater city of Rapture to be an excellent choice. Situated someplace off the coast of Iceland, Rapture sits at the bottom of the ocean, entirely self-sustaining and isolated from the rest of the world.
?It was not impossible to build Rapture under the ocean. It was impossible to build it anywhere else.? - Andrew Ryan, at every opportunity he gets.
By this, he simply meant his city would have been rejected anywhere else in the world, for its ?twisted? ideology. Although aesthetically resembling the Manhattan district of New York, Rapture could not have been any more different to the land of the free. You could only get there by invitation, and the mere suggestion of a friendlier life could have you locked away for good. Ryan was forever paranoid about government agents spying on his city, and in this claustrophobic city, what he says, goes.
Although at times, it is hard to imagine Rapture being anything other than a dystopian hell-hole, certain parts of it are really brought to life, through audio diaries, and scatterings of personal belongings. But underneath what felt like a glamorous social life, the city had a far darker side?when scientists are not bound by ?petty morality?, bad things tend to happen, people go insane and worse things happen. The society that was Rapture collapsed, and while the city remains largely intact, the chaos within was a far cry from its past.
The game is set in 1960, or thereabouts, whereas Rapture collapsed roundabout 1958, so the chaos is in full swing by the time the player gets there. When the halls don?t echo with the mad screams and bellowing of the inhabitants, they possess a melancholy quiet that?s hard to pull off in a videogame.
The Inhabitants
Splicer
Splicers are the most common type found in Rapture. These screaming creatures are what?s left of a once thriving populace, left to its own devices and consumed by ADAM. Rewriting the genetic code is bound to have side effects, and an addiction is the least dangerous. Combined with the ruined scraps of their shattered minds, Splicers will stop at nothing to get their fix, and Ryan controls something in the air, something that sends Splicers on a mad rush to kill the intruder. Splicers are found working for various boss characters, simply because the big name has the ADAM, and if the Splicers want the ADAM, they have to work for it.
They come in various flavours - Thuggish, Leadhead, Nitro, Houdini, and Spider.
Thuggish Splicers are the most common throughout the early stages of the game. They announce their presence with shouting and screaming, and rush the player with all manner of melee weapons, from wrenches to machetes. Then there are my least favourite Splicers, the Leadheads. They strafe too much and carry guns. Guns are never fun to play against. Long range, high damage, and on the odd occasion, the Splicers simply refuse to die. I can guarantee, if any enemy in BioShock makes you want to cry, it?ll be the Leadhead Splicer.
The rarest breed, from the looks of things, is the Nitro Splicer. They run away from the player, tossing explosives over their shoulder. I would say they?re far from dangerous, in fact, they provide you with a useful weapon against other Splicers.
The Houdini Splicer will confuse you at first. I know it confused me. They can teleport, and shoot fire. And they?re damn smart. But they?re lightly armoured, so if you spot them fast enough, you can cut them down before they have chance to do any harm.
And the toughest Splicer I think is the Spider. They have a pair of hooks over their hands, and they crawl along the ceiling. They show off acrobatics for a while, and throw their hooks. Then they come screaming at you and start beating on you for a bit. It?s a bit of a *****, fighting these, but they do die?eventually.
Big Daddy/Little Sister
There is something hauntingly sweet about this coupling. Usually I find it hard to feel sympathy for a big metal man with a drill for an arm, but I find it so very hard to bring myself to kill a Big Daddy. The Little Sisters, creepy little girls they are, wander around Rapture collecting ADAM from dead Splicers, and they store it within themselves. Splicers want the ADAM, and killing a child isn?t something they see anything wrong with, so the Little Sisters need protecting. And the Big Daddies were built. Hulking metal monsters, but so very peaceful. It?s not uncommon to hear the pitter-patter of bare feet against the cold metal floors, accompanied by the ominous thump-thump-thump of diving boots bigger than my entire leg moving lazily along the corridors. If you don?t touch a Little Sister, a Big Daddy won?t touch you. If you do manage to piss a Big Daddy off, however, you?re in for a long fight. If you solo it, it is doable, but eats up a lot of ammunition and health kits, and you?re likely to die. Big Daddies are very tough, and they deal out a shitload of damage with each hit.
They come in two types - the Bouncer, the iconic drill-arm diver, and the Rosie, the less memorable rivet gunner, plus Elite variants of each. Bouncers like to disorientate the player, then rush them, delivering an irritating amount of damage, while Rosies run about like idiots, shooting away and occasionally flinging a proximity mine in your direction. Unfortunately, they never seem to give me any hint as to when they?re about to do that, so I can never return the favour.
The Big Daddy is iconic, no matter which way you look at it. I personally think if BioShock was a film, or a book, or some better-accepted medium, the Big Daddy would be as famous as say, that big-ass walking gun thing from RoboCop, or?no, I don?t think I?ll go as far as to say the Terminator. There is something ominous yet endearing about the way the Little Sister?s hold the big bugger?s hand?and cry her little eyes out when he finally falls.
These are the morality choices in the game. There?s not a Good path and an Evil path, per se, it?s your choices regarding the little girls that change the ending. Upon killing a Big Daddy, you get two choices in what to do to the girl. Rescue her, and remove the parasite that turns her into a scary little vampire, or Harvest the ADAM from her body, killing her in the process. Removing the parasite gives you a small amount of ADAM, but the little girls decide to help you out throughout the game, while Harvesting them gives you a lot more ADAM, but is also a very mean thing to do, and you?ll piss a lot of people off.
So in a shooter, you need something to shoot. And it definitely helps if those targets are people you can either relate to, or at least understand. While the Big Daddy is possibly one of the best shooter ?villains? I?ve seen, the Splicers can seem almost like filler?and as a man who enjoys variety, the limited differences between the Splicer types was somewhat disappointing, even though it wouldn?t have made much sense to incorporate creatures that simply did not belong. There are no animals of any kind, they were forbidden in Rapture, except for a gentleman?s cats?but that?s his story and not ours. The only variation in targets seems to be the robots, and I prefer to avoid them wherever possible.
The review stops here. The rest of the text is an explanation of weapons and plasmids featured in the game. If you?re not interested, and simply want to know if the game is any good, skip to the bottom, where I will happily provide a summary, and whether I like the game or not.
Weaponry
Weapons
Wrench
The wrench is the signature melee weapon of BioShock, much like the crowbar from Half-Life, though not nearly as iconic. The wrench is big, it?s red, and it hurts people. At least until you?re a quarter of the way into the game, then you might as well stuff it in your back pocket and forget about it. Waving a wrench about just asks for trouble, and you?re more than likely to just end up dead.
Pistol
The pistol, in my honest opinion, is the second to least useful weapon in the game. Low damage, small clip, and an apparent inability to succeed at anything led to me just using it to disable tripwires. I could also never seem to find ammunition for it, which was strange. I assumed it was the fallback sidearm at first, which was helpful, given that when I came to fall back on it, it had already run out of ammo, leaving me to just wave a wrench about.
Also, on a completely irrelevant, trivial note, I would describe it as a six-shot revolver?though the make of it eludes me. Help me out in the replies?
Machine Gun
A ?Tommy? gun, as they used to be called, I believe. The machine-gun was my best friend throughout Rapture. The ammunition types can be switched to anti-personnel and anti-armour at any time, along with the generic bullets. Helpful in any situation, especially when fully upgraded at a ?Power To The People? weapon upgrade machine. But, as in my earlier complaint, I couldn?t find much ammunition, and had to spend my hard-found dollars on health kits before I could focus on filling up my magazine.
Shotgun
If it wasn?t for the limited ammunition available for the shotgun, I would have used it all the time. This gun is easily my favourite, mainly for its stopping power and it?s beautiful, resounding crash as it blows Splicers away. The ammo type can be switched to ?Electric? or ?Exploding? any time you need to, so Big Daddies aren?t so much a challenge anymore.
This gun is a bad-ass, pump-action sonofabitch, and is simply awesome. Except I ran out of ammo. Again.
Crossbow
Certainly not a bad weapon, by any means?I just found it cumbersome and inaccurate. Ammo switches between ?Trap? and ?Incendiary?, meaning you can lay down tripwires by firing the bolt into a doorway, or you can set your foes alight with a fiery bolt. Usually a one-hit kill, so it led to a lot of fun. Also the only weapon?from what I could tell?with a zoom function, so it allows for long-range combat.
Research Camera
Well?not really a weapon?more of an aid. Use the research camera to take photographs of enemies, and the subsequent ?research points? earned will provide you with bonuses on killing that type of enemy. I rarely used the camera, since the best shots usually involved the subject beating you around the head with something, and by then I was too preoccupied with a headache to take pictures.
Grenade Launcher
As much a tool as it was a weapon, the grenade launcher is possibly the most useful weapon against Big Daddies. The ammunition switches between frag grenades, proximity mines and heat-seeking RPGs. That?s rocket-propelled grenades, in this case, not roleplaying games. Just in case you were wondering how effective Final Fantasy XII would have been if you?d have just thrown it at the cashier?s head instead of taking it home.
Proximity mines are fun, since you can lay them in a line while moving backwards, then piss off a Bouncer, so he charges along the line. Quite often, he just died when he hit the wall at the other end. Cruel, but effective.
Chemical Thrower
In my opinion, this was definitely a trap-tool, not a weapon. The chemical thrower uses napalm, liquid nitrogen and electric gel, though I only really found use for the electric gel, which there was an unfortunately limited supply of. The range on this weapon also seemed a little schizophrenic at times - sometimes I could set fire to a group of Splicers at the other end of the corridor, but sometimes I could barely reach a Big Daddy about to rush me from only a few feet away. Liquid nitrogen freezes the enemies, but doesn?t damage them, which meant constant weapon switching. Napalm is a little useless in the later stages of the game - by that point a lot of locations are dripping with water, and setting Splicers on fire doesn?t hurt them as much as I?d like.
Plasmids
Electro Bolt
The first and possibly most useful plasmid found in the game, the Electro Bolt delivers a single bolt of electricity, damaging and stunning enemies, and temporarily disabling machines to allow for hacking. In my opinion, this plasmid is indispensable, and you?d do well to keep it equipped.
Incinerate
One of the more direct assault plasmids, Incinerate causes a burst of flame with a simple snap of the fingers. Useful for melting ice around doors and loot, and good for harassing Splicers at short to mid range, which means practically anywhere in Rapture.
Telekinesis
Definitely a useful plasmid, Telekinesis does as the name suggests - it allows you to move objects without physically touching them. Corpses are surprisingly deadly weapons, and will usually kill a Splicer if thrown hard enough. You can also catch a Nitro Splicer?s explosives and throw them back, or even lift a dead Big Daddy as mobile cover.
Hypnotise Big Daddy
Does what it says on the tin. Throw this at a Big Daddy, and he will guard you like you were a Little Sister for a duration. Further upgrading this plasmid at a ?Gatherer?s Garden? increases the duration of time.
Personally, I was not fond of this plasmid. My Bouncer?s idea of protecting me was to hit me as hard as he could so I was out of the line of fire?or in the case of a Thuggish Splicer, he?d just hit us both?just in case.
Security Bullseye
When I first got this plasmid, my first thought was that it was pretty useless. Hacking a security camera causes it to trigger an alarm on any enemy, except for a docile Big Daddy, so the Security Bullseye didn?t seem worth anything. As I reached the later stages of the game, however, the Bullseye really came into its own. If you throw it at an enemy, security cameras, no matter the allegiance, will trigger an alarm on them.
I have to say, Big Daddy fights were no longer a problem.
Winter Blast
A fairly useful support plasmid. Hitting an opponent with this causes them to literally freeze in place, but killing a frozen enemy smashes them, leaving no loot. Useful in an emergency, but not a must-have.
Cyclone Trap
I only used this one once, and I never actually possessed it. I spent my time with it trying to work out what it did, and I must admit, I?m still not certain. From the look of it, you place a small tornado in a doorway, and if a Splicer wanders onto it, he?ll be flung far into the air?and he will land very angrily. Unless you put another Cyclone under him. And another. Until you run out of EVE or find something more productive to do.
Enrage
I never, ever used this plasmid. Never even bought it, so I can?t really comment on it?but as far as I know, all it does is make people angry. I can see it being useful on a Big Daddy in a room full of Splicers?but only if said Big Daddy doesn?t see you first, and if you suck at sneaking like I do?he will probably see you first.
Target Dummy
This plasmid creates an image of a cowering man, which attracts the often violent attention of nearby Splicers or angry Big Daddies. Useful for luring opponents on to environmental hazards or into the range of a security camera or gun turret.
Insect Swarm
This plasmid can be a lot of fun, and a lot of use, but only if you use it properly. Using it sends a swarm of angry bees after every enemy in the area. Including the Big Daddy who was standing behind you but you didn?t see him, and he punched you in the back of the head, knocking you down a flight of stairs into the crowd of upset Splicers.
True story.
Sonic Boom
As part of the ?Plasmid Pack? DLC, I never even knew of its existence until I was looking up a bit of source material for this piece. It sends a powerful gust of air to hurt people?I think. I?m not overly sure.
Conclusion
Anyone who tuned out during the weapons/plasmids explanations can tune back in now. I only named the weapons and plasmids because I don?t have the time nor the patience to list every gene tonic. There are far too many.
In summary, BioShock is a very competent FPS/RPG, and although the gameplay is nothing special, special thought should be put into collecting the audio diaries and uncovering Rapture?s stories.
If you want a game where you can run around blowing the hell out of everything with big-ass weapons and truck-engine voices, this is not your game. If you like your games to require a bit of thinking outside the box, and perhaps a decent plot to go with it, this game is definitely for you.
It earns my personal recommendations to anybody at the Escapist, as I?m fairly sure we are all thinking men/women here.
Introduction
BioShock is an FPS/RPG designed by 2K Games as a spiritual successor to their earlier, similar System Shock series. Having never played the latter, that detail meant nothing to me, but it appears to play a strong role in the other reviews I?ve read or watched. According to the Escapist?s own Yahtzee, BioShock plays almost exactly like its predecessors, only the futuristic settings are replaced by steam punk versions. But, that note is for players who know the previous series, and if, like me, you?ve never played System Shock, you don?t need to worry about that.
Now, in my opinion, the thing that sets BioShock apart from other games in the same genre is the storyline. Or rather, the multiple storylines. I don?t mean the alternate endings, I mean the idea of several stories featuring in the same story?namely the diaries you find scattered about the underwater city of Rapture, and with a little imagination, it?s not hard to picture the plight of various other citizens during the riots and the subsequent downfall of Rapture.
Story
I will try my hardest not to spoil anything here, the game relies heavily on me keeping its secrets. But I can make a few comments - for one, the game takes no time at all to get into the action. There?s a short, opening cutscene during which the protagonist sits on a plane, which promptly crashes into the Atlantic ocean. Then control is handed to the player, who guides the character toward a lighthouse?and then the game kicks off from there. There?s barely any time to get immersed, so I will admit the first fifteen minutes or so of the game aren?t anywhere near the excellence that shows when things really start.
It?s kind of a false start. They waste no time with introductions, and try to throw you into the action, but without knowing what?s going on, you half-heartedly stagger between objectives. No sooner had you gone into that lighthouse, there?s a friendly Irish bloke on the radio. It did seem a little strange, at first, just?wandering into a random lighthouse, finding a suspicious lever and tugging on it. And then doing whatever the Irish guy says to get out again.
But, I believe that was intentional, that last part. If you desperately need to know why, I?m sure there are a hundred places on the Internet where you could find out.
The Irish fellow explains to you after a short while about a wonder drug, this substance called ?ADAM??in Rapture, it was seemingly the cause of, and solution to, all life?s problems. Like alcohol, in today?s culture, but somewhat more volatile. And with Rapture?s philosophical ideology, under the leadership of Andrew Ryan, it was practically every man for himself. Of course, this ended predictably. People fighting, civil wars, the usual. But ADAM was the catalyst to all of this, and as such plays a very important role in the game, since it allowed the rewriting of the genetic code?and genetic modification is a major theme in the game. It?s almost as though the whole game is a message to stop playing with genetics.
I suppose this is what separated BioShock from the other shooters. Rather than laugh and giggle at ten year olds over the Internet with guns, 2K implemented a very serious tone, and in truth, if you fail to take the game seriously, you simply won?t enjoy it.
Gameplay
Admittedly, the gameplay featured in BioShock is pretty mediocre, but I could say the same for practically every first person shooter I ever played. With your right hand, you wield a variety of weapons, ranging from pistols and grenade launchers to crossbows, and a camera, oddly enough. In your left, you possess various powers, named ?plasmids?. Injecting yourself with suspicious hypodermic needles found throughout Rapture gives you certain abilities, as opposed to AIDS, which would be the norm for strange needles. The combination of physical weapons and these plasmids allows for multiple ways to fight, and your strategy can change as many times as you feel like, so combat is rarely repetitive. And on that note, it?s by no means easy. Some of you may be far better than I, so you might find it easy, but from my point of view, Normal mode was not easy. Again, referring back to the Zero Punctuation review from so long ago, he claimed there was ammunition all over the place. We must have been playing different games. Ammunition was not only hard to find, I ended up spending all my money on first aid kits and EVE, the substance used to power plasmids, and none of it went on ammo, because I simply couldn?t afford it a lot of the time. My weapon of choice was often the machine-gun, and when you find machine-gun bullets, you find them in twos or threes, and quite simply, two bullets won?t even deter a house spider.
So I died. A lot. Luckily for me, dying is only a minor inconvenience. You die, you get taken to a nearby ?Vita-Chamber?, which acts as a respawn point, so you generally have nothing to fear from combat?except maybe the odd fit of rage when you just can?t seem to survive.
Maybe some of us would like to avoid combat?but sadly, that?s impossible. You can run away from as many enemies as you want, but if you want to get anywhere, you need to collect ADAM, and there?s only one way to collect that stuff. You have to take it from strange little girls known as Little Sisters, and to get to a Little Sister, you have to throw down with their huge, armoured protector, the Big Daddy. And that isn?t easy. Maybe somebody will reply and say they killed one with their wrench. I don?t care. I didn?t. I tried. I died. So I rushed him with the wrench again, and he just pimp-slapped me with his giant drill. So I won?t do that again. Big Daddies take a bit of imagination to take down. Either that, or a huge amount of your health kits.
So, in my opinion, combat is a *****, and it?s a ***** that won?t stop visiting you at work.
But there are ways to give yourself an advantage when it shows up. Certain plasmids will turn certain enemies into allies, and Rapture?s omnipresent security force can easily be turned to your will.
When faced with the various cameras, turrets and flying robots, ?Jack?, the protagonist, has his own way around them. He can hack. Get close enough to a machine, and the option to ?hack? is presented. Activating this triggers a plumbing-style puzzle, where you simply connect the pipes and direct the current to the destination, and upon beating this puzzle, the machine decides to be your friend. The irritating thing about this is that I?m not very good at these puzzles, and my brother took great pleasure in referring to me as ?special? when watching me attempt to hack. Do it wrong, you get an electric shock. Do it very wrong, and you trigger an alarm and an army of flying robots comes to hunt you down. But, do it right, and you get a valuable ally. Until you leave the room, or it decides to die. Although combat is unavoidable, there?s only a few occasions when you have to fight your own battles.
The roleplaying elements come into the mix in the form of ?gene tonics?. These upgrades are scattered about the city, or can be bought at a ?Gatherer?s Garden?, a place where the player exchanges ADAM for tonics or plasmids. Although a player can only have a certain number equipped at the same time, certain combinations do allow for certain methods of play. Some gene tonics will increase your health and your damage output, while some reduce the difficulty of hacking and boost the effects of healing items. Luckily, these come into different categories. Combat tonics affect your battle capabilities, physical ones will increase melee damage or physical toughness, engineering ones assist with your hacking and such?and there was another category, but I forgot what it was, but I suspect that was the one that shortens alarms and makes turrets easier to avoid.
Setting
Decent gameplay and a memorable story are pretty useless without a good setting, and I believe the underwater city of Rapture to be an excellent choice. Situated someplace off the coast of Iceland, Rapture sits at the bottom of the ocean, entirely self-sustaining and isolated from the rest of the world.
?It was not impossible to build Rapture under the ocean. It was impossible to build it anywhere else.? - Andrew Ryan, at every opportunity he gets.
By this, he simply meant his city would have been rejected anywhere else in the world, for its ?twisted? ideology. Although aesthetically resembling the Manhattan district of New York, Rapture could not have been any more different to the land of the free. You could only get there by invitation, and the mere suggestion of a friendlier life could have you locked away for good. Ryan was forever paranoid about government agents spying on his city, and in this claustrophobic city, what he says, goes.
Although at times, it is hard to imagine Rapture being anything other than a dystopian hell-hole, certain parts of it are really brought to life, through audio diaries, and scatterings of personal belongings. But underneath what felt like a glamorous social life, the city had a far darker side?when scientists are not bound by ?petty morality?, bad things tend to happen, people go insane and worse things happen. The society that was Rapture collapsed, and while the city remains largely intact, the chaos within was a far cry from its past.
The game is set in 1960, or thereabouts, whereas Rapture collapsed roundabout 1958, so the chaos is in full swing by the time the player gets there. When the halls don?t echo with the mad screams and bellowing of the inhabitants, they possess a melancholy quiet that?s hard to pull off in a videogame.
The Inhabitants
Splicer
Splicers are the most common type found in Rapture. These screaming creatures are what?s left of a once thriving populace, left to its own devices and consumed by ADAM. Rewriting the genetic code is bound to have side effects, and an addiction is the least dangerous. Combined with the ruined scraps of their shattered minds, Splicers will stop at nothing to get their fix, and Ryan controls something in the air, something that sends Splicers on a mad rush to kill the intruder. Splicers are found working for various boss characters, simply because the big name has the ADAM, and if the Splicers want the ADAM, they have to work for it.
They come in various flavours - Thuggish, Leadhead, Nitro, Houdini, and Spider.
Thuggish Splicers are the most common throughout the early stages of the game. They announce their presence with shouting and screaming, and rush the player with all manner of melee weapons, from wrenches to machetes. Then there are my least favourite Splicers, the Leadheads. They strafe too much and carry guns. Guns are never fun to play against. Long range, high damage, and on the odd occasion, the Splicers simply refuse to die. I can guarantee, if any enemy in BioShock makes you want to cry, it?ll be the Leadhead Splicer.
The rarest breed, from the looks of things, is the Nitro Splicer. They run away from the player, tossing explosives over their shoulder. I would say they?re far from dangerous, in fact, they provide you with a useful weapon against other Splicers.
The Houdini Splicer will confuse you at first. I know it confused me. They can teleport, and shoot fire. And they?re damn smart. But they?re lightly armoured, so if you spot them fast enough, you can cut them down before they have chance to do any harm.
And the toughest Splicer I think is the Spider. They have a pair of hooks over their hands, and they crawl along the ceiling. They show off acrobatics for a while, and throw their hooks. Then they come screaming at you and start beating on you for a bit. It?s a bit of a *****, fighting these, but they do die?eventually.
Big Daddy/Little Sister
There is something hauntingly sweet about this coupling. Usually I find it hard to feel sympathy for a big metal man with a drill for an arm, but I find it so very hard to bring myself to kill a Big Daddy. The Little Sisters, creepy little girls they are, wander around Rapture collecting ADAM from dead Splicers, and they store it within themselves. Splicers want the ADAM, and killing a child isn?t something they see anything wrong with, so the Little Sisters need protecting. And the Big Daddies were built. Hulking metal monsters, but so very peaceful. It?s not uncommon to hear the pitter-patter of bare feet against the cold metal floors, accompanied by the ominous thump-thump-thump of diving boots bigger than my entire leg moving lazily along the corridors. If you don?t touch a Little Sister, a Big Daddy won?t touch you. If you do manage to piss a Big Daddy off, however, you?re in for a long fight. If you solo it, it is doable, but eats up a lot of ammunition and health kits, and you?re likely to die. Big Daddies are very tough, and they deal out a shitload of damage with each hit.
They come in two types - the Bouncer, the iconic drill-arm diver, and the Rosie, the less memorable rivet gunner, plus Elite variants of each. Bouncers like to disorientate the player, then rush them, delivering an irritating amount of damage, while Rosies run about like idiots, shooting away and occasionally flinging a proximity mine in your direction. Unfortunately, they never seem to give me any hint as to when they?re about to do that, so I can never return the favour.
The Big Daddy is iconic, no matter which way you look at it. I personally think if BioShock was a film, or a book, or some better-accepted medium, the Big Daddy would be as famous as say, that big-ass walking gun thing from RoboCop, or?no, I don?t think I?ll go as far as to say the Terminator. There is something ominous yet endearing about the way the Little Sister?s hold the big bugger?s hand?and cry her little eyes out when he finally falls.
These are the morality choices in the game. There?s not a Good path and an Evil path, per se, it?s your choices regarding the little girls that change the ending. Upon killing a Big Daddy, you get two choices in what to do to the girl. Rescue her, and remove the parasite that turns her into a scary little vampire, or Harvest the ADAM from her body, killing her in the process. Removing the parasite gives you a small amount of ADAM, but the little girls decide to help you out throughout the game, while Harvesting them gives you a lot more ADAM, but is also a very mean thing to do, and you?ll piss a lot of people off.
So in a shooter, you need something to shoot. And it definitely helps if those targets are people you can either relate to, or at least understand. While the Big Daddy is possibly one of the best shooter ?villains? I?ve seen, the Splicers can seem almost like filler?and as a man who enjoys variety, the limited differences between the Splicer types was somewhat disappointing, even though it wouldn?t have made much sense to incorporate creatures that simply did not belong. There are no animals of any kind, they were forbidden in Rapture, except for a gentleman?s cats?but that?s his story and not ours. The only variation in targets seems to be the robots, and I prefer to avoid them wherever possible.
The review stops here. The rest of the text is an explanation of weapons and plasmids featured in the game. If you?re not interested, and simply want to know if the game is any good, skip to the bottom, where I will happily provide a summary, and whether I like the game or not.
Weaponry
Weapons
Wrench
The wrench is the signature melee weapon of BioShock, much like the crowbar from Half-Life, though not nearly as iconic. The wrench is big, it?s red, and it hurts people. At least until you?re a quarter of the way into the game, then you might as well stuff it in your back pocket and forget about it. Waving a wrench about just asks for trouble, and you?re more than likely to just end up dead.
Pistol
The pistol, in my honest opinion, is the second to least useful weapon in the game. Low damage, small clip, and an apparent inability to succeed at anything led to me just using it to disable tripwires. I could also never seem to find ammunition for it, which was strange. I assumed it was the fallback sidearm at first, which was helpful, given that when I came to fall back on it, it had already run out of ammo, leaving me to just wave a wrench about.
Also, on a completely irrelevant, trivial note, I would describe it as a six-shot revolver?though the make of it eludes me. Help me out in the replies?
Machine Gun
A ?Tommy? gun, as they used to be called, I believe. The machine-gun was my best friend throughout Rapture. The ammunition types can be switched to anti-personnel and anti-armour at any time, along with the generic bullets. Helpful in any situation, especially when fully upgraded at a ?Power To The People? weapon upgrade machine. But, as in my earlier complaint, I couldn?t find much ammunition, and had to spend my hard-found dollars on health kits before I could focus on filling up my magazine.
Shotgun
If it wasn?t for the limited ammunition available for the shotgun, I would have used it all the time. This gun is easily my favourite, mainly for its stopping power and it?s beautiful, resounding crash as it blows Splicers away. The ammo type can be switched to ?Electric? or ?Exploding? any time you need to, so Big Daddies aren?t so much a challenge anymore.
This gun is a bad-ass, pump-action sonofabitch, and is simply awesome. Except I ran out of ammo. Again.
Crossbow
Certainly not a bad weapon, by any means?I just found it cumbersome and inaccurate. Ammo switches between ?Trap? and ?Incendiary?, meaning you can lay down tripwires by firing the bolt into a doorway, or you can set your foes alight with a fiery bolt. Usually a one-hit kill, so it led to a lot of fun. Also the only weapon?from what I could tell?with a zoom function, so it allows for long-range combat.
Research Camera
Well?not really a weapon?more of an aid. Use the research camera to take photographs of enemies, and the subsequent ?research points? earned will provide you with bonuses on killing that type of enemy. I rarely used the camera, since the best shots usually involved the subject beating you around the head with something, and by then I was too preoccupied with a headache to take pictures.
Grenade Launcher
As much a tool as it was a weapon, the grenade launcher is possibly the most useful weapon against Big Daddies. The ammunition switches between frag grenades, proximity mines and heat-seeking RPGs. That?s rocket-propelled grenades, in this case, not roleplaying games. Just in case you were wondering how effective Final Fantasy XII would have been if you?d have just thrown it at the cashier?s head instead of taking it home.
Proximity mines are fun, since you can lay them in a line while moving backwards, then piss off a Bouncer, so he charges along the line. Quite often, he just died when he hit the wall at the other end. Cruel, but effective.
Chemical Thrower
In my opinion, this was definitely a trap-tool, not a weapon. The chemical thrower uses napalm, liquid nitrogen and electric gel, though I only really found use for the electric gel, which there was an unfortunately limited supply of. The range on this weapon also seemed a little schizophrenic at times - sometimes I could set fire to a group of Splicers at the other end of the corridor, but sometimes I could barely reach a Big Daddy about to rush me from only a few feet away. Liquid nitrogen freezes the enemies, but doesn?t damage them, which meant constant weapon switching. Napalm is a little useless in the later stages of the game - by that point a lot of locations are dripping with water, and setting Splicers on fire doesn?t hurt them as much as I?d like.
Plasmids
Electro Bolt
The first and possibly most useful plasmid found in the game, the Electro Bolt delivers a single bolt of electricity, damaging and stunning enemies, and temporarily disabling machines to allow for hacking. In my opinion, this plasmid is indispensable, and you?d do well to keep it equipped.
Incinerate
One of the more direct assault plasmids, Incinerate causes a burst of flame with a simple snap of the fingers. Useful for melting ice around doors and loot, and good for harassing Splicers at short to mid range, which means practically anywhere in Rapture.
Telekinesis
Definitely a useful plasmid, Telekinesis does as the name suggests - it allows you to move objects without physically touching them. Corpses are surprisingly deadly weapons, and will usually kill a Splicer if thrown hard enough. You can also catch a Nitro Splicer?s explosives and throw them back, or even lift a dead Big Daddy as mobile cover.
Hypnotise Big Daddy
Does what it says on the tin. Throw this at a Big Daddy, and he will guard you like you were a Little Sister for a duration. Further upgrading this plasmid at a ?Gatherer?s Garden? increases the duration of time.
Personally, I was not fond of this plasmid. My Bouncer?s idea of protecting me was to hit me as hard as he could so I was out of the line of fire?or in the case of a Thuggish Splicer, he?d just hit us both?just in case.
Security Bullseye
When I first got this plasmid, my first thought was that it was pretty useless. Hacking a security camera causes it to trigger an alarm on any enemy, except for a docile Big Daddy, so the Security Bullseye didn?t seem worth anything. As I reached the later stages of the game, however, the Bullseye really came into its own. If you throw it at an enemy, security cameras, no matter the allegiance, will trigger an alarm on them.
I have to say, Big Daddy fights were no longer a problem.
Winter Blast
A fairly useful support plasmid. Hitting an opponent with this causes them to literally freeze in place, but killing a frozen enemy smashes them, leaving no loot. Useful in an emergency, but not a must-have.
Cyclone Trap
I only used this one once, and I never actually possessed it. I spent my time with it trying to work out what it did, and I must admit, I?m still not certain. From the look of it, you place a small tornado in a doorway, and if a Splicer wanders onto it, he?ll be flung far into the air?and he will land very angrily. Unless you put another Cyclone under him. And another. Until you run out of EVE or find something more productive to do.
Enrage
I never, ever used this plasmid. Never even bought it, so I can?t really comment on it?but as far as I know, all it does is make people angry. I can see it being useful on a Big Daddy in a room full of Splicers?but only if said Big Daddy doesn?t see you first, and if you suck at sneaking like I do?he will probably see you first.
Target Dummy
This plasmid creates an image of a cowering man, which attracts the often violent attention of nearby Splicers or angry Big Daddies. Useful for luring opponents on to environmental hazards or into the range of a security camera or gun turret.
Insect Swarm
This plasmid can be a lot of fun, and a lot of use, but only if you use it properly. Using it sends a swarm of angry bees after every enemy in the area. Including the Big Daddy who was standing behind you but you didn?t see him, and he punched you in the back of the head, knocking you down a flight of stairs into the crowd of upset Splicers.
True story.
Sonic Boom
As part of the ?Plasmid Pack? DLC, I never even knew of its existence until I was looking up a bit of source material for this piece. It sends a powerful gust of air to hurt people?I think. I?m not overly sure.
Conclusion
Anyone who tuned out during the weapons/plasmids explanations can tune back in now. I only named the weapons and plasmids because I don?t have the time nor the patience to list every gene tonic. There are far too many.
In summary, BioShock is a very competent FPS/RPG, and although the gameplay is nothing special, special thought should be put into collecting the audio diaries and uncovering Rapture?s stories.
If you want a game where you can run around blowing the hell out of everything with big-ass weapons and truck-engine voices, this is not your game. If you like your games to require a bit of thinking outside the box, and perhaps a decent plot to go with it, this game is definitely for you.
It earns my personal recommendations to anybody at the Escapist, as I?m fairly sure we are all thinking men/women here.
