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BioShock
After months of hype Irrartional games (2K Boston) finally delivered BioShock, and quite frankly BioShock lives up to every but of it. You are a plane crash survivo......
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BioShock

Game Reviews XBOX 360

Written by NexGen

Friday, 23 November 2007

Editor's rating

9.0

out of 10

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Friday, 23 November 2007
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Welcome to Rapture.After months of hype Irrartional games (2K Boston) finally delivered BioShock, and quite frankly BioShock lives up to every but of it. You are a plane crash survivor who finds himself heading into the unforgettable underwater city of Rapture where you help this guy called Atlus. Atlus wants you to help him and his family get out of the city, but the guy who built rapture, Andrew Ryan, doesn't. Now I would love to talk about the story all day but if i said anymore i would spoil it. Yes the story is that good, as long as you pick up these things known as Audio Diaries throughout your adventure. Along your journey you can upgrade your weapons, use DNA morphing plasmids (such as electric bolt and incinerate), upgrade your abilities in combat, engineering and body plus a lot more.

GAMEPLAY - The gameplay is flawless, from the shooting to using plasmids. I don't have a single bad word on the gameplay. This is more of a first-person adventure in my eyes and can compare to a game like Metroid Prime easier than it can compare to Halo. Theres lots of places to explore, then you will be backtracking to get to the place you want then you may be thrown into a big fight with enemies (known ingame as Splicers). Its just fantastic. Plasmids add to fun and the ability to burn, hypnotise, confuse enemies just feels so satisfying. Also one of the enemies, who i'm not going to talk about much because i don't want to spoil your experience fighting one by telling you about mine, called the Big Daddy are the most
unforgettable enemies since goombas in Mario. Big Daddies are challenging to fight and rewarding and satisfying to defeat. The AI intelligence of Big Daddies in particular impresses me every time i see one. Whatevert you do, DON'T play this game on the easy diffculty or you will truly spoil your experience.

GRAPHICS - The graphics are spectactular but, in my opinion, spolit by one or two technical hitches. My big complaint being that when some enemies die they appear to kind of fall in stop-motion so to speak. This sometimes kills a bit of buzz for me after and exhilerting fight. However other than that, fantastic. Guns, enemies, environments look amazing. You feel that you are experiencing Rapture rather than just seeing it.

SOUND - Best sound in a game EVER. The spooky music and moans of the Big Daddies make you genuinely fearful of whats going to happen next. The music sets the pace of the game and gives that feel that you never know what is going to happen in Rapture. The orchestrated musical score is amazing and the sound effects are speachless. You wouldn't expect sound to affect a game as much as it does but believe me the sound is as important as the gameplay and graphics if not more important for this game.

VALUE - It's a good 20 hour adventure on medium maybe more if you take your time and get everything. No multiplayer but to be honest does it actually need it. This game is worth a lot moe than its £39 pricetag.

TILT - Its a fun but challenging game if done on medium or hard difficulty. Do not play on easy. There are chambers in game that you spawn at when you die and you can continue from where you left off, might make things easier but relieves any bad frustration.

OVERALL - A epic adventure from beginning to end. A modern masterpiece right up there with the greats. A must own on Xbox360.

9.6/10

Editor review : Game of the Year? Maybe...

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful


Overall rating		9.0

Platform – 360 (Version reviewed), PC
Genre – First-Person Shooter
Rating – 18+ BBFC
Price - £45/£35 RRP

With this winters line up being so strong, many people were planning on missing the late summer releases such as Bioshock and planning on saving their money. Oh how Bioshock shall change that. The game starts with the protagonist on a plane (as seen
in the demo), which crashes next to the entrance to Rapture, an underwater city and the setting for the game. Once inside the city we encounter our first splicer and first friend, Atlas, who assists you through the hallways and rooms of Rapture.

Rapture itself is a remarkably well-designed city, which impresses a lot visually. The characters and weapons are also nice looking with sufficient detailing and clever artwork giving the essence that even though we are in an underwater city with equipment far beyond the timeframe, it is still the 1960s The graphics in Bioshock are top notch, verging on par with the best currently out. But while it does indeed look nice it is not without fault by any means.

Whilst Rapture may impress for the first hour or so it is hard to stay impressed when you realise how so many chunks of the city look the same. I found myself on a couple of occasions checking the map (which is clear for the most part although the way stairs and links between floors is presented can be confusing at times) to make sure I was really in a new zone. As well as the surroundings, the enemies can too be repetitive.

The enemies in Bioshock are impressive and some of the most intelligent to date. To a certain extent, they react to their surroundings, adapting to what has happened but the splicers have one glaring fault that whilst minor and actually helpful to the player, doesn’t make sense. The citizens of Rapture are addicted to Adam, which is carried around by the Little Sisters who are guarded by Big Daddies. In the opening sequences we are shown a splicer coming across a Little Sister and attempting to harvest her before coming to a gruesome death at the end of a Big Daddies drill. This of course is the natural reaction for Splicers as they are addicts and crave any Adam they can gather. But in game the Splicers ignore Little Sisters. If you take down a Big Daddy and leave the Little Sister crying by it’s side, a Splicer will simply walk by without a second notice. Hardly what you would consider immersive.

Enemies, like surroundings, in Rapture are lacking in the variation department despite their quality. There are only two different types of Big Daddy and about six types of Splicer, throughout 10 areas. By the end of the game you have memorised their actions and reactions so closely it is as if the game has dropped a difficulty setting. Taking out even Big Daddies becomes something of a walk over later in the game once you have money for ammo and health. A quick electro bolt and some grenade launcher rounds and you have felled a once menacing and truly frustrating foe.

The gameplay of Bioshock is fast, fluid and fun. The use of weapons and plasmids as a combo is cleverly implemented and never without a dull moment. Moving around the city isn’t a long haul nor does it ever feel like a chore which, considering there may be a lot of backtracking, depending on when/if you do the research, is a great achievement in itself. The plasmids drain Eve, which is filled up by syringes found around the level but according to difficulty level this can be frustrating at times. On medium I found myself using about four electro bolts before needing to inject myself but on hard that halves making it just every two. I suppose they call it Hard for a reason. As well as running around killing things there is another thing you can be doing during your time in Rapture and that is research.

The researching in Rapture consists of you using a camera you are given to take pictures of enemies you come across and depending on the quality of the picture, your research bar on that enemy will increase resulting in bonus’ to damage against that enemy or even Tonics which help you do non combat abilities.

The story is extremely well written and thought provoking, using influences from Orwell and Ann Rand (an author who wrote books about individualism such as Atlas Shrugged, which could be where Atlas in the game gets his name), which is speculated to be where the cities mayor, Andrew Ryan, get his name from. A play through on Medium difficulty should take around 20 hours, which by FPS standard is decent, and doing extras like achievements and research will add another 5+ hours onto that.

Bioshock is a spectacle that should be enjoyed and while it does have it’s faults, the fact that it’s story is fascinating and intriguing, the weapons and plasmids are both fun and never useless and that it looks great should be enough to persuade even those who are not so much into the FPS genre to at least give Bioshock a try. A GOTY contender not without it’s faults but a contender non-the less.

Presentation – 9.5
The graphics are among the very best available on any console right now and the effects and animations are equally as impressive but a lack of variety and some confusing maps eat away at what could very well of been pure eye candy.

Sound – 8.0
The atmosphere created by the sound is immensely impressive and unsurpassed by any game I have played but the music is completely unmemorable. It’s good but it’s not going to make me go out and buy an OST.

Gameplay – 10
This game is pure fun. It really awaked with a startle the FPS fan in me that had lain dormant since Half-Life 2. Everything from sneaking up on an unsuspecting splicer and clobbering them with a wrench to hacking a turret to kill enemies for you is extremely satisfying.

Value – 9.0
At around 20-25 hours of near gaming perfection for £45, it doesn’t get much better but if you rush though you will be left wanting as apart from the alternative ending there is little replay value in a sense of varying the experience. Not that you should really feel the need to, anyway. All this would need is an extra £5 off the RRP for better marks. Even if retailers knock off the £5, it is an unavoidable taint. As such add 1.0 onto value for the PC version.

Overall – 9.2
A thrilling spectacle that immerses well and entertains brilliantly. This is definitely a must buy game for anyone with either a high spec PC or 360. If it weren’t for some glaring faults this game suffers from it would be one of the best of all time.

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