If Bioshock has any flaws they're completely outshone into irrelevance by the synergy of it's superior qualities.
The year was 1960 and 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. So you swim over and walk in to find out that it's a station to descend to an underwater city named Rapture. This city was the brain child of a 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 thought into why things were not as advertised. A lot of thought about what made this world what it was; but 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 which grants them tremendous powers such as shooting electricity or fire on people. You're constantly accosted by the insane who have over spliced their genes and suffered tremendous 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 and 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 everyone 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 advertisement 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 tracking the sound of them moan and groan throughout the environment and 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 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 it just lent that much more to the immersion of the game as you're not ever interacting with someone who seems off 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 and people. 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 as 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. However I could 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 gets 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.