An innovative and impressive game that sucks you in and is just plain fun to play.
If you want to hack these machines, you'll need to engadge in an elaborit (sarcastic) minigame (bascally they took pipe dreams, and, uh, that's it). Anyway, it still feels like a pretty good fit, although later in the game players may find it occurs a little too frequently. There are two reasons the gameplay in Bioshock feels so amazing: Plasmid power-ups and how real the enviornment feels. Plasmids are essentially these super-power like enhancers that you either find around the city or have to purchase with a substance called adam (more on that later, still). These range from powers like lighting your enemies on fire, making them go berserk so they attack anything and everything it sight, creating a duplicate of yourself so you can buy some extra time, ect. these are powered by eve, which esentialy the game's "mana", and behaves just as you expect it to, you can find injections that replinish your eve, along with other ways, and each action with the plasmids spends a decent amount of eve. Along with plasmids, there are passive attribute increases called tonics, wich increase certain aspects of your character. Eventually you can also evolve your character through the use of a research camera, but that is not as prevalent as the plasmid system. Now, your really have to buy the game to appreciate the potential for coolness these elements combine to create, but let me give an example: you walk into a room, and around the corner, you can see the shadows of three splicers talking. You shoot a proximity mine, in front of you, equip incinerate (fire plasmid), and get ready to engage them. Then, you see a gas canister in the corner, and decide you'll try a more explosive approach. You insead equip telekinesis, grab the container, and hurl it into the crowd. This kills one of them, injures another, and the last of the crowd closes in on you. one hits the mine and goes up in flames, and you manage to get the other one with a shock plasmid and wrench to the head. It's moments like these that reinforce the awesomeness of the the game, and make you feel just plain good. Okay, so before I go any further, I owe it to you, the reader, to talk about adam (if you don't already know). Basically, Adam is a form of currency: it's what you need to buy plasmids, and what makes adam so interesting and central to the plot is how you have to get it. The only wa to get adam, the sole source of it in the game, are little sisters. These Ghastly looking girls are genetically altered "Gatherers" who exist to harvest adam from dead bodies (which, believe me, are plentiful throughout rapture). First of all, to get to these little creeps, you have to go through a BIG daddy, lumbering behemoths encased in massive steel scuba gear that absorb damage like a sponge. There are a set number of these duos on each stage of the game, and you'll want to make sure you snag all the adam you can for gene upgrades. Now, here's the twist: once you finally take down the daddies, you have a choice to make, get the MAXIMUM amount of adam by killing these girls, or get half of that by saving them from this mutant form. There are story elements pulling you both ways, and rewards for doing each, so really it's all about your own preference. Now, I know some of you might be saying "pff, the choice is obvious, (method A or method B), but, after playing through the game twice, it's an important decision that requires some serious thought. There's always that little naggin voice in the back of your head going "Wow, how can I be so selfish?", or, alternatively "Would I be better off if I had killed these girls?". anyway, the point is, this segment of the story; save of slay, becomes one of the more memorable segments in the game, and helps each player craft his own individual experience. Now, I hope your not thinking "gee, all this ranting about bioshock's story and gameplay, I bet the graphics and sound are sub-par at best", Because you, my good sir, would be wrong. Bioshock is all about the atmosphere, and nothing helps make a good atmosphere like killer graphics and killerer sound. Rapture looks amazing, from the moment you first set eyes on the city to your very last look at it, you can't help but be awestruck by the beauty wrapped in every nook of the city's art-deco style scenery, and you can easily get lost in it's captivating beauty. Another tack on the "Plus" wall is the way certain scripted segments help the eerie and claustraphobic feel of the game. At certain points, for instance, you'll enter a room and be able to make out the shadow of a surgeon fidgeting around a corner. Step a little further, and suddenly the lights go out, and you're instantly left blind. When they come back on, the shadow is gone, leaving you in fear of that moment when he may jump out and ambush you. Finaly, the sound of the game is expertly crafted, with enemies frequently blurting out entertaining and spooky musings, and crying out in anger when they first charge you. Vending Machines, plasmid effects, weapons, and other misc. sound effects sound exactly like you would expect them to. The beauty of this game is undeniable, and combined, the individual aspects reinforce the inescapable atmosphere (there's that word again) of the game. IF video games are art (don't want to start up that debate), bioshock is the mona lise, venus de milo, and the statue of david all wrapped up with a copy of TRANSFORMERS and fergalicious playing in the background. There's not very many bad things you can say about bioshock. The enemies banter does repeat once in a while (especially the little sisters), but it doesn't hinder the gameplay and occurs so infrequently that it's hardly even noticable. The gameplay tends to run a little easy, but not to worry. If your new to shooters go low, if your cautious but experienced go medium, and if your pretty good to insanely awesome go hard. You'll probably want to play through it twice anyway, so if it feels to easy but your already a chunk through you've got nothing to worry about. Finally, while the Plasmids, weapons, and tonics seemed to be aimed at this sort-of tactical style of play, the game doesn't, especially on the medium difficulty, force you to use these tactics. Oftentimes players will just find a plasmid-weapon combination they like, and use it till it gets boring or ineffective, and the upgrade and continue. It's not a huge flaw, but if would have been nice if there were more situations that allowed you to fully exploit these elements to their fullest. Basically, Bioshock is an awesome game. You can break down its phillosophy, draw parallels to literature, marvel at it's artistic design, and feel like a god as you rip through splicers with your superhuman powers to boot. The game is fun, innovative, unique, and a great addition to the first person genre. If you like first person shooters, RPG, acion, adventure, or just a great story, Bioshock by Irrational Games (erm, sorry, 2k Australia and Boston) is the game for you.