BioShock Review

In the 1950’s an underwater city has been erected where the greatest minds in art, medicine, and engineering can freely pursue their creative paths without the hindrance of laws or regulations. Hidden from the rest of the world, the city is Rapture and its founder is a man known as Andrew Ryan. Like most philosophies, the enlightened city of Rapture sounded good in Ryan’s head, yet over the years it has taken a dark and twisted turn from its utopian ideals. After genetic altercation was discovered people began overdosing on their vanity and it destroyed their minds. A war broke out, and all hell broke loose.

While technically BioShock is a first-person shooter, it is difficult not to attempt to classify it as a role playing game and/or action title like the System Shock games that came before it. After a plane crash in the middle of the ocean, the player makes it to a lighthouse and discovers the water entombed Rapture. Armed with a wrench and the first plasmid Electroshock, BioShock evolves into a beast of its own.

A scientific citizen of Rapture created these plasmids that re-write a person’s genetic code and enables them with such unnatural “powers” as electricity. Plasmids are mapped to the left side of the controller while the traditional FPS weapons are on the right. The bumpers are used for plasmid/weapon selection and the triggers use the equipped instrument of survival. The typical fire, ice, and telekinesis plasmids make an appearance but there are also ones such as Enrage which turns an enemy berserk, Target Dummy which creates a replica of the player and draws enemy distraction, and even the Security plasmid which makes enemies susceptible to alarms and turrets. Needless to say, while the player can only have six plasmids equipped at a time, there are more than enough types available to suite any player’s style.


The enemies in Rapture are referred to as Splicers because they have become so junked up on genetic alterations. In order to upgrade plasmids and unlock more slots, the player must get his hands on the most valued substance in Rapture called Adam. Adam can be found in the bodies of deceased Splicers or humans, and acquiring Adam introduces us to the more infamous enemies in the game who are actually not enemies at all. These would be the Big Daddy and Little Sister characters who roam the world and harvest Adam. The Little Sisters are monstrous little girls who crawl out of pipes in the walls and extract Adam by using a syringe tool. While the Little Sister is doing her nasty deed, the Big Daddy is standing guard protecting his investment. The Big Daddy is a large diving suited shell of a man equipped with a rail gun and a disconcerting temper. These characters, if left alone, will have nothing to do with the player. They will go about their business as usual and exist as they have been before you arrived on the scene. But beware; once the player or a greedy Splicer attempts to harm the Little Sister in order to come up on some Adam, he/she will have the Big Daddy to deal with and that is no push over of a foe.

Here is where the player is given a moral dilemma. After defeating the Big Daddy that is protecting the individual Little Sister, the player can either harvest her for the Adam that she possesses and thus kill her, or he can cure the Little Sister and free her of her curse, but at the cost of receiving only a fraction of the Adam. Each player may decide on a different path when it comes to which is more important; saving the innocent or worrying about himself.


Along with being able to upgrade your character with plasmids, there are also three types of Gene Tonics: Physical, Engineering, and Combat. The player can equip six of each type at a time and once equipped the tonics take effect instantly. Physical tonics can make you stronger and more powerful, engineering tonics help with hacking security systems, and combat tonics improve your ability to deal and resist damage. There are a shitload of tonics to either discover or create and the player will need to decide which category is more important along the journey. The six main weapons can be upgraded as well and each weapon can handle multiple ammo types that are suited better for certain enemies. After talking to others who played BioShock, none of us approached the game the same way.

This alone says a lot, especially when dealing with first-person shooters since they can be regarded as the most repetitive genre in gaming. And while these features may sound like interesting gameplay tweaks, they can seemingly become set aside as it is the world of Rapture that steals the show.


Rapture sucks you in the second you enter its walls and it is near impossible to tear your eyes away. The 1950’s motif mixed with WWII propaganda, utopian undertones, and limitless amounts of water combine to bring to life one of the most immersive gaming environments ever created. It looks fabulous and it’s creepy as hell.

The game spans around seven different areas ranging from sadistic medical facilities, slums turned prison camps, a maniacal theater district, and industrial factories. Every area is dilapidated from the carnage that has taken place in Rapture. Rubble is around every corner, apartments are torn apart, fires are burning, and the ocean is slowly attempting to reclaim the city.

Some of this stuff is a real trip. Corpses are strewn everywhere, blood litters the pavement and walls, people have been hung in the town square, and others have been tortured or medically experimented on. Slaughtered families, including children, are still sitting in the living room of their ravished apartment with the television broadcasting an emergency signal. People are coated in plaster and positioned as living statues in the theater district. Make no mistake; BioShock is a very dark game in both its color scheme and content.


BioShock developer Irrational had a whole team dedicated solely on water graphics and physics. While the game takes place entirely indoors, Irrational wanted to make sure the player was always aware of the impending sea. There is running water produced from every nook and cranny, pools of standing water that the player must wade through, and an organic moving current flowing past every window. Sorry Wave Race 64 but you just got ousted.

Once again it is the audio that ties everything together. BioShock boasts a haunting mix of orchestrated and piano-induced tracks guaranteed to chill your bones. There is also some classic 1950’s pop music interlaced that clashes against the somber landscape and confuses the senses. Add in quality sound effects and the audio blends with the visuals in a way that creates an unforgettable ambiance. The constant trickle of water ensures that the player is engulfed by the liquid at all times.

The voice acting is just as superb. Most of the story is explained through radio transmissions and by picking up audio diaries that the residents have left behind. While this may sound like a cheap way of explaining what happened to Rapture, it isn’t. There are only three scenes in the game where the player does not have complete control and must sit through storyline. These do not last for more than a few minutes in length and as such the overall experience never feels broken. The events of Rapture can be found by listening to the audio diaries and investigating the environment. It is a great way to let the player decide how involved he/she wants to become in Rapture’s history and ideally it draws upon the end user’s innate curiosity to flesh out the world.


For the most part I only have very minor complaints with the game. The two that stand out the most should be mentioned as they were more prominent than the others. There was not enough enemy variety for my taste. The Big Daddies and Little Sisters were fantastically unique and the handful of different Splicer types were all quality as well, but just a few more would have been cool. Plus, it seemed like all of the enemies were introduced within the first area of gameplay. Spreading out the encounters may have been more rewarding. Secondly, the player cannot die. You can carry up to nine first aid packs to heal yourself during battle, but even if you die (which I did often) you will be respawned at a Vita-Chamber with no consequence. The enemies will retain however much damage you dealt before dying and you don’t lose any items or get penalized for failing. This began to bother me after a while because the player isn’t really forced to figure out a strategy in using all the cool abilities he has decided upon. You can just go out, take some damage off a Big Daddy, die, and repeat until the area is cleared. I found it to be an odd design choice, as it didn’t really make some situations as difficult or intense as they could have been.


I could go on another couple of pages about how much more there is to do in BioShock such as becoming a hacking expert, doing enemy research by taking photographs, collecting and creating items through invention machines, and dealing with security cameras and bots. But the facts remain; the controls are tight and responsive, the game is drenched in style and substance, the art and design are fantastic, the story is great, the AI is phenomenal, and oh yeah, it’s fun. I honestly cannot wait to return to BioShock after the New Year and play it an entirely different way than my first outing. Play this game alone, at night, with the volume pumped and prepare for one of the most intense and unforgettable experiences with a game in recent memory. I haven’t been in bed after a gaming session with my mind playing tricks on me this bad since Resident Evil 2. Even if you don’t like shooters, go buy this game. It is a must play for any video game fan.