BioShock reviews

Bioshock was made by Irrational Games (now known as 2k Boston/Australia), an offshoot of Looking Glass Studios that made interesting story driven, atmospheric games like System Shock and Thief. Irrational was given the task of making System Shock 2 as Looking Glass Studios was busy with Thief and Eidos were redirecting man power into Deus Ex. With Looking Glass no longer in existence and having made critically successful titles like System Shock 2, Freedom Force, Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich, Tribes Vengeance and SWAT 4, the expectation I had for Bioshock were pretty high. Well, not only did Irrational meet my expectations but they clearly surpassed it.

Action is tight and intense, weapons and plasmids are cool, animations are sweet, enemy AI is nice, story is superb, levels and missions are crafted in a meaningful way to help drive the story (those who have have played Thief will see identical mission structures and familiar game play elements), graphics and visuals are perfect, sound effects are plentiful and of good quality, music is hair rising and fits the game well, game play is fun and interesting, etc.

However Bioshocks true greatness lies in its presentation of a city called “Rapture” at the bottom of the ocean and injecting into it elements like politics, power, lust, greed, good, bad, heroics, sacrifice, love, hate, innocence, choice, deception, suspense, happiness, grief, knowledge, ideas, etc. that collectively comprise the “Art, Science and Industry” of Rapture. Bioshocks beauty is in its explorable environments. Take some time to explore the environments and you'll hear and see interesting stuff.

There's a lot more to Bioshock than what's covered in this review. But to summarize, Bioshock is all about choice.

A truly beautiful game – atmosphere, environment, graphics, voice-acting, story – all top-notch. Water effects especially impressive. (3700+, 2GB, 7900GTO)

Besides the irritation factor of having to put a modem in my gaming rig in order to activate it, this otherwise superb game is heavily flawed by the lack of challenge to the player – when you die you are respawned with about 70% health and EVE, while the enemies still retain the same damage they had when you died. Choosing a difficulty level at the outset seems kinda pointless.

It's possible to get through most of the game (apart form the final boss map) using the wrench, without ever using any ammo or EVE, of which there is too much anyway. It would have been more fun to be desperately trying to find enough raw materials to make some armour-piercing ammo to finish off that last Big Daddy in the map, and for careful use of plasmids/EVE to be a necessity. The feeling of “survival in a hostile environment” is lacking when you know a) the wrench will kill anything, and, b) you never die.

Not a lot of variety in the enemies, and their respawn rate was too many, and too quick, it just became annoying. I enjoyed this game, especially at first, but by 2/3 through I became a bit bored with the repetetive gameplay and lack of challenge. If they'd cut down on the respawns and left out the vita-chambers this could have been one of the best games ever.

Bioshock is one of those games that you just have to play!

It may not be a great first person shooter, but its story and atmosphere greatly makes up for that.

The city of rapture is a character of its own in bioshock, with its interesting design and its inhabitants. Rapture is what makes bioshock great.

The shooting and action in bioshock is good but not great. It is quite initiative with its use of plasmids which grant your character special abilities (fire balls etc). These help make the combat interesting yet still keep the game balanced.

Overall it is a great game that everyone should play!

There is a train of thought out there in the world that says “A game is a game and a shooter is a shooter” which has been formed from the many generic titles which are put out in today's world where apparently making a quick buck is more important than providing good entertainment.

Bioshock however, does not conform to this sad opinion and provides a deep (no pun intended hehe) and enthralling run through the underwater fallen Utopia of Rapture. It is a shooter, but it does not stop here with filling waves on enemies with a seemingly unlimited supply of ammo, in fact it doesn't go in that direction at all! To add to the many different aspects of fascinating complexity of the story, the player must also consider actions which they take as they play. Ammo tends not to be a very abundant resource, meaning that it must be carefully "administered”. This fact may be a potential put-off for players wanting to kill stuff, but fear not, a main feature in the game-play which is also perhaps the most essential part of the story is the existence of a substance named Adam which allows the player to play around with various aspects of their genetic code. Adam allows you do things like shoot bolts of electricity or balls of fire at foes, as well as allowing the change of personal strengths like being able to swing a wrench harder (a favourite weapon of mine). The environment itself also proves to be helpful in dealing out pain to your enemies through such ways as being able to electrify puddles of water which enemies stand in.

Not to give too much away, the game is fantastic and covers many bases, from great action to a fantastic storyline and the occasional frightening moments, not in the same league as F.E.A.R. for example, but frightening nonetheless. The art and graphics within the game are also quite fantastic and really are an aid to the feeling that you are actually in a city under the sea.

I really would rate this in my top 10 games of all time and in that list it is very near the top. If you haven't played Bioshock yet you really don't know what you're missing out on, the story is gripping and the game-play and is unlike that of most shooters in the market today.

Not a bad game, some new innovations, some old, some repeditive.

Graphically its pretty good for a FPS. My machine just manages to pull of the maximum settings and its worth it, I wouldn't bother recommending it to anyone that isn't running a DX10 graphics card. You'd just be missing out on too much. The lighting and water effects are very nicely done. I'm surprised it hasn't been slated for PS3 but I don't think its much of a loss.

I must admit it was pretty over-rated in all the hype. The range of enemies is limited to maybe half a dozen slightly different crazy people wearing stupid masks, automatic guns strapped to chairs, and the “Big Daddy” things (big guy that accompanies the creepy girls) but luckily you don't have to kill all of them.

If you had the time you could actually finish this game without saving once since when you die you're instantly revived in the last ‘Vita-Chamber’ that you past, so no GAME OVER screen to piss you off. Although, you only revive with half health and if you run out of ammo and money you're left with only the wrench and plasmid abilities, kind of annoying when you're trying to kill a Big Daddy.

The 1960's deco and ambient sound is pulled off really well. Every now and then you'll come into an area with music playing that you'll recognise from the era.

The only real puzzles are the hacking… which you'll do A LOT! They probably could have saved some time by creating a single outlet for ammo and general items but instead they had to create some stupid machines that sound something like a drunken mexican (I can't understand it) and a really annoying clown.

Overall a good FPS with pretty visuals and decent voice acting (for a game).

One of the first things you will notice (aside from the gorgeous graphics) is how easy it is to pick up and get right into it. This game has a very user friendly control system and a variety of ways to dispose of your foes, including hacking into security systems to have them do some of the dirty work for you. The game uses a highly modified unreal engine 2.5 so should run smoothly on most systems.

The level design is interesting with the art deco theme combined with the eras music creates an absorbing and slightly spooky atmosphere. Not scary but still with the occasional fright. The voice acting is well done and the musical score / sound effects are above average with the range of …unique.. characters to meet as you fight to survive and discover the mystery behind this submerged metropolis. You will no doubt find this game addictive, it's hard not to get sucked into it as there is plenty of action and with a variety of ways to tackle the levels including the mammoth amount of upgrades and add-ons the replay value is good also.

The only down side really is that it's quite an easy game. If you die you will respawn at the nearest respawn point and anyone you have attacked will have their health as it was the moment you died. That really is picking hairs though as the game has a decent length and you will want to play through it a few times and play around with the upgrades etc. No multi player though.

All up this is a must have for your gaming collection more so if you sway more toward First Person Shooters. An excellent FPS that will keep you hooked.

Just finished this and best money I've ever spent on a game. The storyline is awesome and its been a very long time since I played a game just for the storyline but this had me playing more and more just to see what would happen next. The graphics and sound is amazing and everything is done in meticulous detail. I was wary of the hype in this game, but in this case its well worth it.

The interface is intuitive and game play is a challenge without being nauseatingly difficult (on medium setting anyway – felt perfectly balanced).

The only disappointment will be waiting for the inevitable sequel. This game has everything in spades. Go out and grab it now if you don't already own it, you wont regret it.

Every time you see hyped up new games, you feel somewhat worried that youll get it, play it and get the overwhelming disappointment rolling in. You end up wishing you had spent your hard earned cash on more gainful pursuits.

This is not true with Bioshock.

Bioshock is truely an exciting and engaging gaming experience. From the moment you start playing, you just keep finding new and exciting aspects about it.

Every moment I have saved or changed level I have sat and look lovingly at my collectors case, glad I preordered!

First the graphics are amazing, the water effects are crazily realistic and the AI is top notch. Even the way the AI taunt and threaten you when you cant see them is truely fantastic. The plasmids and weapons are very cool, and every new aquistion just rocks. Whether your setting enemires on fire, freezing them with ice,turning security systems on them or simply blasting them to bits with guns, you always get the opportunity to defeat enemies in a very dynamic and different ways. The smoke, the fire, the explosions, and the physics just magic!

Unlike FEAR the story line is great, well put together and actually keeps you engrosed ( what was fear about?, some paxton fetel chap… scary girl..zzzzz)

My only gripe is the extremely hardcore copy protection, even for someone who purchased it, I lost a few hours with activation. Wasnt as easy as it should have been. But good on the game producer for making a game that is 100% well worth the purchase.

If you ever have played a FPS shooter and enjoyed it, this game will knock your socks off and keep keeping you wanting more! Even for you dull Warcraft/MMORPG players, this will be a refreshing and exciting game experience…

Best game Ive played in a LONG time.

Played the demo, and this is just superb! I truly don't think you need DX10 to enjoy this, but you definitely need a decent rig to fully appreciate the eye-candy.

I won't be buying this game just for the reason it's full of zombies, and apart from the storyline and plasmid “weapons” being kinda unique, it reminds me too much of the other games. Yeah I guess my threshold of fear is low, but I don't really enjoy a virtual life that will shorten my real life.

Overall an enjoyable game, with beautifully rendered art deco settings. However, having now played the game through, I'm going to go against the tide somewhat and give it 4/5. Personally, I feel the game has been slightly over-hyped, and is not, in my opinion, as good as Half Life 2. Lovely graphics aside, the game is essentially a linear monster killing fest, with few puzzles (other than the rather repetitive “hacking” of machines) or character interactions (the back-story is told through tape recordings), and no HL2 style drivable vehicles to add variety. There are two possible endings, but they only result from a simplistic binary choice relating to the “little sisters”, and one of them is rather odd to say the least. I think there might also be some sort of pro-Christian, anti-science subtext to the game (you know – breakdown of morality in the absence of God blah, blah) , which I'm not that crazy about.

I personally didn't have any installation or activation issues, although the protection software does seem a bit over the top.

bioshock was one of the best 2k game before bioshock 2 come out and took its place

Bioshocks a decent game, though unlike what many seem to think it's not the best game ever. The story is interesting but not amazing, and the atmosphere is done rather well, how ever it is far too linear.

Sure you get some character customization choices with the powers and other genetic mods, but nothing revolutionary, and the gameplay is just linear, heck even Crysis gives you more options and choices, in how to play through the game and that has a standard FPS storyline.

Anyway if your primarily FPS player then your likely to love this game, seeing compared to most traditional FPS's it actually has a story that is quite decent. If your primarily a RPG player, your more likely to find the game just another linear shooter, with a somewhat interesting bolted on story line, and that any choices you make have very little actual impact on the world.

If your an RPG player looking for an amazing shooter/rpg dig up a copy of the original Deus Ex from somewhere and play that through, then try playing it through with out killing any one, after that you'll need to play it through again a couple of times to find all the things you missed the first two times :) (heck they even sell the game here in a 4 pack for ~$30).