Didn't hear much about this, then suddenly, BAM! One of the finest games ever made.
THE GOOD: Yeah, it's kinda' hard to make a summarized list of the good things in this game. It looks nice, plays nice, sounds nice, feels nice, and that whole essence never goes away as you play.
THE BAD: The environment and appeal to the game gets really old, really fast. The only other things I have to say are bad end up being minor offenses. I would have liked a flash light, but part of the game's ambiance is the pure darkness. The other is the lack of any kind of multiplayer, but with all the elements in the game, trying to cram those into multiplayer wouldn't have worked well without completely redoing the format of your abilities. For example, if you could shock someone over and over and just shoot them in between shocking and stunning them, multiplayer wouldn't be that fun.
THE REVIEW: I really enjoyed this game. It's a solid FPS, with so many other, fluid elements, it's just boggling. If you've played an FPS before, it's alost too easy, and if you haven't, then this is a good place to start. If you're an action FPS fan, then you need to learn some patience fast so you can enjoy this game to its fullest. The viual design is incredible, with the whole 50's stylization being complemented beautifully with a post-apocolyptic atmosphere. The music in the background is just immersive, and you almost laugh at it's elevator-esque feeling, then get really creeped out when you see something truly scary with this nice tune going in the backround. The graphics are really good. Really. The abilities you get are represented really well by the graphics, from the icey mist and texture of your fist with the ice plasmids (powers) to the burning, volcanic look of your fist with the fire plasmids. The gameplay is just solid. All the weapons feel right, especially in the setting. They aren't pin-point accurate, but they aren't suppose to be, so getting that one-hit-kill headshot isn't easy. The different ammunition types just add even more depth to an already deep system of plasmids and guns, but you eventually realise their significance, and slowly ween yourself into using them. You end up getting other power ups that simply effect how you perform in the game as a whole, and it all turns into a First Person RPG with lots of shooting. Not saying it's more of a role-playing game, there's just a lot of RPG-esque elements that are awesome. Enemies you run into are all different in their own way, from the way they look, to the way they attack you. For the most part, their all crazy, so they pretty much act the same way... that is till you come up to one throwing grenades at you, then when you think you're about to kill him with an up close wrench to the face, he pulls out a grenade, activates it, puts it back in the box, then lifts the box over his head laughing maniacally. That's just beautiful the first time you see it... or experience it. The story isn't half bad either, and while I don't like encoroperating stories into reviews, as I beleive a game should be reviewed based on it's performance, not it's story. It's pretty convincing, and pretty dramatic too. All in all, this is just a good game. If you own an Xbox 360, buy this game. It's a must own. The only problem here? It'll only hold you over untill Halo 3, but that's not a bad thing. Everyone needs something to blind them from the long wait, and having a good game between now and then makes the wait even better. Hope Bioshock is everything to you that it is to me!