Blog FeedBioShock Review
BioShock is joy. From the moment I got BioShock, I was either playing the game, eating, sleeping or waiting to get back to playing it. The game is somewhat difficult to classify as it straddles the line between three genres. The guys at 2K Games would insist that it is a first person shooter for marketing purposes, but it’s also drawing on elements of role-playing and survival horror. The story, so often the bad news with respect to a shooter, is fantastic. Furthermore this game is presented in the most amazing way any next-gen game has yet presented itself. The gameplay has been a wonderfully emergent playground that allows you to mix genetic magic, conventional weapons and a weaponized environment in wonderful ways.
The Story
The year was 1960, the place was the mid-Atlantic and your plane has just crashed. And to your surprise there is a nearby lighthouse which serves as your only hope of survival. You swim over and walk in to find that it’s a station descending down to an underwater city named Rapture. This city was the brain child of the rich industrialist Andrew Ryan, whose dream was to create a society with no government controls on the industrialist, no moral restraints on the scientist, and no one to scoff at the artists of the world. The game tackles the philosophy of Ayn Rand very nicely and a lot of thought has been put in to why things were not as advertised. There is lot of thought about what made this world what it is; yet the game is subtle about it all and does not beat you over the head with cut scenes.
As soon as you make it down to Rapture it’s instantly apparent that something has gone horribly wrong, as people have gone terribly insane. The scientists had developed a chemical called Adam which allowed for instant modification of the human genetic code, granting them tremendous powers such as shooting electricity or fire at people. You’re constantly accosted by the insane who have over-spliced their genes and suffered the consequence of total insanity. Even though these guys are brutally attacking you throughout the whole of the game, they don’t really feel like monsters. The Splicers are so well created as maniacs that I feel sympathy towards them if I just sit back and listen, but then they see me and I’ve no compunction shooting them in the face. Without getting into spoiler territory, as you wander around the city you’ll discover a great deal of the political and social problems that led to Rapture’s downfall through audio logs and brief radio conversations.
Much has been made in the preview coverage of the decisions the player will face with respect to little sisters. Little Sisters are these little girls who through some sort of science were made into the Adam harvesters for the city. Because everyone wants the Adam so they can upgrade themselves, the little sisters are protected by big daddies. Big Daddies are these giant heavily armored creatures armed with either a drill or a giant gun, who are neutral to anyone until they start threatening their little sister charge. Then they go completely crazy and will do anything and everything to protect their girl. After killing the Big Daddy you’re left with a choice with what to do about the little sister between harvesting their Adam and killing them, and rescuing them from this curse and getting somewhat less Adam. I rescued every one of the little sisters and it really makes you feel good inside saving them. Conversely, killing the big daddy oddly made me feel a surprising feel of remorse as they are only things in the game that don’t mean any harm for you, and are not trying to use you for their own ends. As their little sister cries over her protector who they call Mr. Bubbles it hit me just about every time.
The Presentation
While it’s not quite the technical tour de force that Gears of War was, this is the best looking next-gen game out there. The art direction is absolutely amazing. The team at Irrational did a great job capturing the look and feel of the Art-Deco movement. Everything from the trashcans to the building architecture feels exactly like it was actually built in the 1940s and 50s. The world also captures the feel of stuff like advertisements during the 50s and has pre-rock tunes like “Somewhere Beyond the Sea” and “How Much is that Doggy in the Window” playing in different segments of the game. It all lends to a tremendously atmospheric presentation.
The audio in this game deserves special mention as it’s really a show-stealer. The music is exceptionally well edited and only pops up in specific places and that leads to it having a really amazing effect. The ambient sounds really help create this underwater dystopia and some of them are quite witty. PA systems play messages to the citizenry of Rapture, in some of the tunnels you can hear whales singing, big daddies are best found by tracking the sound of their moan and groan throughout the environment. The little sisters have perfectly precocious voices as they have the kind of discussions toddlers would have with their guardians. You’ll know a big daddy is nearby by the sound of his footfall, but you’ll know you’re really close by the sound of his charge saying “hurry Mr. Bubbles!”.
To that end the game does not break first person throughout the game and uses scripted sequences as well as anybody out there. This feeling of being there lends to the element of fear which permeates the game. The game world is dark and atmospheric and danger lurks around every corner. All over the place are gruesome images, people having been murdered in some terrible ways, blood stained walls, dead bodies left to just rot in the street. But yet the game doesn’t resort to cheap scares. There are no monster closets, the lighting is only seldom turned off and even then when it’s actually time to fight they turn the lights back on. The game is more disturbing than scary per se, but on the other hand there is a palpable sense of dread throughout the whole game.
One of the really unique points of this game’s presentation was that you only see sane people for a few moments. This sort of takes advantage of the concept of the uncanny valley. Almost all the the characters you come across are completely gone and don’t try to act like normal humans. The one exception to this was the Little Sister’s who are made to be like toddlers but they are meant to be disturbing. What this achieved was just that much more immersion to the game, as you’re never interacting with someone who seems off-character, as maniacs are easier to replicate than people just like you and I.
The Gameplay
The gameplay in BioShock is a real celebration of emergent gameplay. If you talk to any number of people about how they approached a given part of the game you’ll get an equal number of variations. I specialized in firearms and taking everything down OK Corral style; with the conventional weapons, then supplemented that with hacking and fire and lightning powers. One of my friends was big on bees and lots of plasmids, another one of my friends lurked in the shadows whacking dudes with the wrench in melee. Another would take dudes down by laying all sorts of traps. There are so many more ways you could get by in Bioshock, it really gives each encounter the ability to be personalized. The controls are really excellent for this kind of game. The few games of this nature to end up on a console controller have always felt really clunky and Bioshock has a somewhat ingenious solution to that. They tied the right and left buttons to radial menus that pause the game and let you select from either your weapons or powers allowing you to cycle through abilities almost a seamlessly as on a PC. It’s still not quite as elegant as having bind keys for everything you want but it’s a very good solution for putting a square peg into a round hole.
If you’re looking to quibble over points there are some that you could possibly find in the gameplay. It isn’t very hard as you technically can’t really die - if you run out of health you’re transported back to a checkpoint-like device called a vita chamber without any real consequence. However I kind of think this lends some advantages to the game as it really lets you focus on trying different things and the unfolding drama instead of getting through every segment just so. I could however see how this could annoy someone. I’ve seen some complaints that the guns are underpowered which is maybe true but that just forces you to try some left hand/right hand stuff and figure out ways to best enemies other than just standing there and trading broadsides with them. All of these things are really just if you’re looking for something to complain about as none of them really get in the way of the amazing experience.
Final Thoughts
BioShock is an utterly amazing game and anyone who has either a Xbox 360 or a PC that can run it should be adding it to their collection. If you bought an Xbox 360 just to play BioShock, I certainly would not hold that against you. It’s too early to discuss this game’s place in history but I can say without any sense of hyperbole that this was one of the greatest narrative based games I’ve ever played in all my years. Unlike earlier efforts at this genre, it captures the shooter part of this game exceptionally and all it’s side segments are very well done. I do not give a 10/10 lightly - Half-Life 2 is the only other game I’ve given that score to - but this game earned it.
1st September | Reply
What kinda rig does it need? I’ve been very disconnected…
1st September | Reply
I’m not really the best person to answer that question as I played this on my 360; but the demo ran really really well on my 5400X2, x1950gt and 2 Gigs of Ram. Beyond that the offical minimum specs call for a 2.4 ghz 1 gig of memory and a 6600 at least.
1st September | Reply
The demo ran just fine on my C2D E6750 with Geforce 8800 GTX, but I guess that’s not very helpful
So how about this instead: http://firingsquad.com/hardware/bioshock_mainstream_gpu_performance/page6.asp
Firingsquad has a whole bunch of benchmarks in that article, and apparently it runs just fine on a Geforce 8600 GT in full quality, even with DX10. If you’re going to settle for medium quality then a 7600 GT would be sufficient. If you actually customize your settings then you can still play with an 6800 GT at medium-ish quality level, with 28 fps (the same probably goes for the X800 series)… and a 6600 GT might be able to handle low smoothly.
Of course the best way to see if it works is to just download the demo. It can include some pretty hefty firefights, so should be a perfect test as for whether the game will run on your system.
1st September | Reply
I’m not sure I can agree with you here on a 10/10 score.
I’ve read some of the other reviews out there and one of the themes that continues to pop up is: “There is nothing in Bioshock that hasn’t been done before in other games, but it is greater than the sum of its parts.” On that score, I’d have to agree.
I sort of missed out on the original time-line of emergent-style games, I played Deus Ex and System Shock 2 out of order of their release. However, I did play them first and there are a lot of similarities between the three titles.
Now, of course Bioshock should be similar to both games, at the very least, System Shock 2 as it is billed as the spiritual successor to that game. I could write about all the similarities, but I won’t. They don’t matter insofar as enjoyment of the game goes.
Let there be no mistake, Bioshock is an incredibly enjoyable game. However, when I’m playing the game, I feel like I’m playing System Shock 2 with an Art-deco skin and more NPC characters you are involved with. Oh, and there are no aliens…not yet, I haven’t beaten the game.
So, while it is an incredibly enjoyable game, and I agree with all your positive points listed, I’d have to at least dock it a full point for being familiar, at least to this gamer.
As to your negatives, I have more issues with the Xbox360 controller than you do. I find that not having as many buttons as the PC version does hamper the action a bit. While pausing the game to bring the radial dial up is a welcome compromise, I find the multi-textual buttons to be a nuisance. Not that it is at all game-breaking, but when I pick up an audio log and try to play it and instead I open an empty trash can, then some splicer roams into the room and starts shooting, I get a bit harried.
I haven’t played through the game on my friend’s PC yet, so I don’t know if those controls are substantially better, but as I said, I find the Xbox360 controls to be a bit bothersome.
Anyway, great review.
1st September | Reply
In Reply to #4:
Yeah, the reviews that I’ve read about the game does make it sound a lot like Deus Ex to me, which is no bad thing but I’m not convinced that I’m going to find anything new here. I did play the System Shock 2 demo but in much the same way I found it felt like Deus Ex to me and therefore I wasn’t bothered enough to actually buy the game.
Mind you, with the system requirements quoted thus far I suspect that my MacBook Pro won’t handle it well anyway.
2nd September | Reply
In Reply to #5:
There’s a problem here: System Shock 2 predates Deus Ex, so technically, Deus Ex plays like System Shock 2.
Really though, that’s just semantic quibbling on my part.
System Shock 2 is sufficiently different from Deus Ex in: setting, style, and gameplay, that it is certainly worth your time to give it a shot. That is, if you can find it.
Again, let me reiterate, I think BioShock is an incredible game. I just don’t think it is sufficiently different from its predecessors that it deserves a 10 out of 10 rating.
2nd September | Reply
In Reply to #6:You want me to take a full point off for being familiar to a game which a statistically insubstantial portion of today’s gamers even played? A game that’s part of a genre that’s had less than half a dozen substantial entrys in in eight years since its release(and it could very well be argued that has no entrys since System shock 2 as both it and Bioshock are the only games even pushing Survival Horror, FPS and RPG as a hybrid)
There is no one on this earth who is saying oh gosh another hybrid RPG-FPS I’m just really sick and tired of those games they’re a dime a dozen. What are you going to say you have undersea objectivist utopia gone horribly wrong fatigue? I could understand if we were talking about a World War 2 shooter or something that is a dime a dozen why that would start entering into the rating. But novelty of experience is not necessary component of a 10. I want my scores to reflect a reward developers who employ the utmost craftsmanship in there games and not punish them for failing to turn out gift store crap looking for junkies looking for a novelty fix.
But it does do one thing new. It builds a hybrid game that gets the combat right. Even in 99-00 System Shock 2 and Deus Ex ultimately succeeded almost entirely on the grandeur of their premise–that they had these wide open approach to things and that promise made up for the fact that the role-playing wasn’t up to snuff of BG2 or the shooting wasn’t up to par with say Half-Life. This game doesn’t fall into that trap the combat is masterful. That never has been done before–this game does get the shooter part as right as Gears of War or Rainbow Six or any other top tier 360 shooter. They’ve made a better mouse trap they really don’t have any need to differentiate it beyond that.
I guess I should also explain what I mean by a 10 because I think we’re really talking about two different issues. To me a 10 means that the game accomplishes what it sets out to do with tremendous execution. And then the game needs to pass the smell test, which is to say the idea of giving it a 10 needs to be reasonable so like I wouldn’t give one to the exceptional port of Super Mario Brothers to the Game Boy Color because that just doesn’t seem reasonable. So I mean this means the game does have to have ambition to move the pile. But what I don’t look at is like the much broader picture because ultimately that is well outside of the purview of the present. Niether Half-Life 2 or Bioshock did anything radically new, but that doesn’t preclude them from being 10s. They’re 10s because at every point in the experience I was loving playing the game 100 percent.
2nd September | Reply
You know, if I knew you were going to take my criticism so personally, I’d have tempered it a bit.
I think the disconnect here is that I’m a bit harsher on my games, and the cookie-cutter crap would get a much lower score from me in general anyway. Geez, it’s like a GameSpot forum battle in here: “WHY DIDN’T YOU GIVE METROID PRIME 3: CORRUPTION A 9.5? 8.5 MEANS THE GAME IS TERRIBLE.”
If I knew more about art, I’d be able to make an analogy better than this one: Saying BioShock should get a 9 instead of a ten is like saying the first piece from Picasso’s Blue Period is better than his last piece in his Blue Period.
In either case, it is an amazing game. I simply reserve a “10″ for an exceptional game that is a true pioneer in its genre.
Aside from that, I’d have to disagree that System Shock 2 or Deus Ex didn’t get the combat right, nor did they get the role-playing aspects right. I think they pulled off the “hybrid” feat with aplomb…almost ten years ago. As I said in Comment #4, BioShock is very much System Shock 2 with an Art Deco paint job and an isolated undersea setting as opposed to an isolated spaceship setting.
Oh, and you don’t pick your class upfront.
Again, that isn’t to diminish the game in any way. I just don’t think it is a perfect 10.
…Plus you can kill little girls and that’s bad. And it makes you a bad person for doing it. Even though you said you didn’t. But I knew you thought about it.
Evil.
2nd September | Reply
In Reply to #8:
I would say I reserve a 10 for an exceptional game and make no other caveats to that. Be amazing in all facets from beginning to end and you can earn a 10. It’s hardly common like you seem to be implying in fact it’s quite rare. I don’t think it’s even necessarily beneficial to be a pioneer as that tends to mean you fuck a bunch up. The graphics in System Shock 1 or 2 for instance really drag the game down a peg whereas here they elevate Bioshock as they’re best of breed.
I think comparing a 9 to a Picasso is a bit hard to believe. A 9.0 to me is a very good comercial artist so to speak. Guitar Hero 2, and the Tom Clancy games are perfectly good examples of what I think most people would understand a 9 as on the 360. They’re very good games, and on balance the positives significantly outweight the negatives but ultimately they have some flaws which mittigate that reccomendation. As you head up toward 9.5 and eventually 10 those flaws become more and more insubstantial until they get to 10 where they’re super nit picky issues.
As for comparisions to System Shock 2 or Deus Ex. If you give those games to your average shooter fan who likes Halo or Half-Life they aren’t really appealing. They kind of require some diggging to get to the special part of those games. The graphics even then were kind of meh, and the firefights were kind of dull, lifeless affairs. Most of my kills in Deus Ex are sniper rifle shots from many yards away. Bioshock on the other hand does have the right stuff to appeal to your average shooter fan. The graphics are gorgeous, the atmosphere and fear make the game grabbing, the battles with big daddies are pretty awesome, and the controls are pretty damned accessible to a console player.
5th September | Reply
To start with: my copy of Bioshock just came in the mail today. Haven’t installed it yet, because there’s some other stuff I need to finish first and I just know I won’t finish it if I start playing Bioshock now, but it’s there, waiting until I’m done with that other stuff.
Did play the demo, loved it, immediatly felt the System Shock-vibe and can confirm that it runs quite smoothly on a 8600GT.
Now, as for System Shock 2: although the engine was already getting a bit dated when it was released, I personally feel that because of the excellent art direction it looks good and aged well. Especially when you install the high-res texture and high-detail model packs that were later created by fans. I just love the look of the game.
Still, no discussion about Bioshock when compared to Deus Ex and System Shock 2 is complete without the mention of another game: System Shock 1. I first played SS1 about two months ago and must say that I was impressed. Although it’s obviously quite ugly for modern standards, it still managed to convincingly portray the environment and draw you in in such a way that you made sure you didn’t stop until the end.
1. The graphics. While the engine wasn’t quite 3D yet, it was the most advanced engine available at the time of release. It was 2.5D and had no room over room architecture, but unlike its main contemporary DOOM, it did have slanted surfaces, a form of dynamic lighting and supported resolutions up to 640×480 (and nowadays, thanks to some tweaks made by fans, even higher - I played it at 1024×768) and due to the 256×256 texture resolution the higher display resolution was actually useful too (for comparison: Unreal, released four years later, also used a 256×256 texture resolution). In short: despite the fact that the game definately looks ugly by today’s standards, it still looks good enough to be able to draw you in and has aged better than most of its contemporaries.
2. Sound. This was just plain excellent. While the original floppy version lacked in this respect, the CD-ROM version (remember, we’re talking about 1994 here) had full voice-overs for all the logs and e-mails and, of course, Shodan. The sound quality was good, so while the game has aged slightly here (OMG NO EAX!!11), it really is barely noticable.
3. Story. There’s a reason why System Shock 1 is legendary and inspired games such as System Shock 2, Deus Ex and now Bioshock. Even when I played it earlier this year, the story really didn’t feel hampered by the limited technology in any way and could easily hold its own when compared to Deus Ex, System Shock 2 and Half-Life 2, even surpassing them at times.
Long story short: if you’re done playing Bioshock or don’t have the system to be able to run it, go play System Shock 1. Once you’ve done that you’ll find that all those awesome revolutions System Shock 2 was praised for had actually already been done five years before.
And now off to go install Bioshock. I can finish that other stuff another time
5th September | Reply
In Reply to #10:
I’m sure System Shock was the originator of this kind of game design…or close enough to it. I just never had the chance to play it. Maybe you should mail me your copy when you’re done
Looking back on it, it is amazing how many genres were established in videogames by the mid-1990s. I mean, the “great videogame crash” happened around 1984 (ha!) or 1985 and in less than ten years, if not every genre was already created, the seeds were sown.
Amazing.
5th September | Reply
I totally agree, Bioshock is joy, I loved it from the moment I laid my eyes on Rapture, it looks wonderful and the story…I have to say for me the story is practically the first thing I look for in a game, something to play for, something to keep me going.
Unfortunately I had to stop playing it for a bit, I’m near the ending…but the whole creepy atmosphere is starting to get to me, the screams, the moans all those creepy sounds…they freak me out
It’s just a game, I know but…
6th September | Reply
In Reply to #12:
I really agree with that , the game has a incredible sense of dread. It doesn’t have a lot of spring loaded monsters to jump in your face so it’s not a traditional horror game (there are a few here and there) but it’s like the game just has such an oppressive sense of an ill wind on the air that it becomes sort of a survival horror experience at times.
And a followup comment–I finished this game for a second time late last week and I feel maybe even better about having put my name on a 10 for this game. I’ll easily be playing this game a 3rd time and probably more than that as I’ve really enjoyed how deep my bag of tricks can get.
6th September | Reply
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/1394-Zero-Punctuation-BioShock
I said it first.
11th September | Reply
When did “different ways to kill stuff” become “emergent gameplay”?