The best game so far this year. Well written story, believable dialogue, and fun system. Multiplayer is not needed.
On to the actual game. The first thing you will probaly notice are the graphics... they are some of the best on any platform, including pc. They are up there with gears of war, and better then it in a lot of places. The game looks even better on dx10, which unfortunetly I do not have a card to support it (7900). Along with graphics, it has some of the best voicework ive ever heard. Many characters sound like they are playing a movie character. The actor playing Andrew Ryan, who's accent is a bit tacked on, does an especially good job. There is a little over 100 "audio diaries in the game, which serve as giving you some background about the story. Many of these are interesting (especially all the ones about steinmen, someone you meet early). While they can be hard to hear, because of everything going on, and the voices can be somewhat muffled, these are normally very good. It also has an extremely good score (something you can and should get off the website).
The game takes place on 1960 in an underwater city called Rapture. Founded by Andrew Ryan in 1946, the idea behind it is that the government would not get in the way of things. The "artist would not fear the censor", where there would be no religioun, and only the best of mankind were allowed in. Without the government to hold them back, scientific advancements came very quickly. One young german scientist discovered a substance, in the form of a slug, called ADAM. It could be used to heal injuries and diseases. and give the user special powers know as plasimids, with the use of the serum EVE. To recover the ADAM from corpses, the Little Sisters were created, to suck ADAM from corpses with needles to reuse it. Because of their ADAM abundance, and because of the addiction, they could be easily killed. So each little sister were assigned a big daddy, a genetically modified human in armor that resembles a diving suit. With their super human strength and huge drill, no one sane dared to attack a little sister. Soon, the city fell apart. ADAM was more addicting then any drug, and soon people overodosed on it all the time. On the new year of 1959, those injected with ADAM, in other words, near everyone, broke into riots and many went insane. The only sane people, Ryan and Tenenbaum (the german scientist responsible for discovering ADAM) hid themselves, while the rest of the population, now called splicers because of them over splicing themselves with eve, try to take adam from other corpses. The little sisters and big daddies are no longer under check by scientists, so they continue their jobs. The only thing that didnt change is that the splicers, despite being crazy, have enough sense to not come close to a big daddy. That's all before the story happens. The actual game starts in 1960 after a planecrash. I will not spoil anything, you'll have to find out yourself. All Ill say is that Jack (although never said, it is what is written on a note for him) finds shelter in a lighthouse, goes on an elevator and ends up in rapture.
The main enemies in this game are the splicers I mentioned. The only way to survive is to obviously kill them. The games weapons consist of a revolver, a machine gun, shotgun, to name the basics. There are plenty others. Though weapons wont be enough to rely on. You also get the plasmids that were invented. Some basics are electo bolt, incinerate (12 year olds can use it?), a freezing move, bees..... You need to combine these two weapons to be effective. An example would be electrifying someone and shooting them in the head... a more complex would be to catch them on fire, shoot them, have them put themselves out in water, and electro bolt. The other types of enemies are the big daddies. Very hard to kill on hard mode, you will need to use multiple plasmids and weapons to beat one. They are faster then you are, and can kill you in 2 hits. Never fight one without a plan. Once you kill one, you will then get to take the adam from the little sister. You have two choices: to harvest or rescue. Harvesting them haves you take the slug that contains the adam out, and to take it all. This will kill the little girl in the process. In Dr Steinmans words "its not murder... think of it as taking a patient off life support". Whether you believe this philosiphy or not, you still have the option to save her instead. You only get half the adam from saving her, but the Tenebaum promises she will "make it worth your while". I wont say what she does give you, so you will have to make a choice to save her and go for that, or take all the adam. In Rapture, technology has come so far, they have inented things known as vita chambers. If and when you die, you will be ressurected at the nearest one, rather then traditionally reloading. There are plenty of them, so you will never have to go back far when you die. However, everything you hurt stays in that state. So, if you hurt a big daddy halfway, you can come back and finish it. This is good in a way, so you will never fail, but can take some of the challenge away... im one of those types of people who doesnt care, as long as its fun, which it is. You can also hack and research. Hacking lets you take security cameras, turrets, and security bots and turn them against your enemy. It can be very helpful. You do this by completing a mini game. It is very simple at the beggining, but gets overwhelmingly hard later... the only (easy) way to do it is to give yourself hacking tonics (passive abilities). The researching is simply taking a picture (with the camera you get later) of the different enemies... you get extra damage, more drops, use their organs as first aid, etc. I'm sure I have left something out, simply put, you need to play this game. Either the 360 or pc version, they are both amazing, and pretty much the same thing (ive played both, one at a friends). If you have both, get the pc, because it is a bit easier to switch plasmids and hack...though that is no reason to upgrade. I noticed no graphical differences. If you dont own either, you absolutely have to beat it at a friends house. You can sum up every single thing I said in this review into one simple sentence: play this game.