The first FPS game I have played in a long time that makes me glad I spent full price on it.
Story: I will try not to spoil the story, so don't expect much here, but the game places you basically as an unnamed protagonist, (the name Jack is on a package in the into) who after experiencing a plane crash climbs into a bathysphere and enters the large, underwater city of Rapture, which was built by Andrew Ryan, a man who wished to escape the governments and religions of the world, and try another way, however that way failed as you see within the first 10 minutes of the game.
Graphics: This was the game that made me update my card to shader model 3, I didn't do it for oblivion to get HDR, I did it for Bioshock. The graphics are stunning, the best looking FPS out there at this time, period, the lighting is soft and works well with the city's falling apart state. The textures are sharp and pretty, making the game unbelievably immersive, the fact you don't have to press any button to inspect a sign, just walk up and read the thing. The plasmid effects make them look convincing in the ways of how they work, and the water effects are just plain gorgeous, even that is an understatement, definatly the best and most realistic water to date. Definatly perfect in every way I can think of, and amazing that my Radeon x1650 pro did full detail on a reasonable resolution with hardly any slowdown.
Sound: The second part of where this game truly shines. The string music establishes the creepy moods when neccessary, otherwise you have the very immersive 40s and 50s music playing over radios and loudspeakers. The voice acting is spot on and makes the video recordings come to life, giving the characters personality even though most of the recorded voices are in fact dead. The splicers sound great, yelling and screaming as they come at you, hating themselves for their addictions to the plasmids, which also sound great. The metal creaking of the world around you, the water falling in, the doors, the weapons, etc, all sound great.
Gameplay: This is where that .5 for the perfect 10 rating is lost, and it's lost in the fact that aside from the final boss, you cannot die, you end up in the vita-chamber, and your enemies still have the lost health you dealt them. Otherwise the gameplay rocks, the controls are tight, the switching between plasmid and weapons witht the RMB is simple and easy to manage, the mouse wheel keeps switching your available weapons/plasmids on the fly and doesn't call any menus up to pause the action. The game is somewhat long for a first person shooter laces with RPS elements, ranging around 20 hours, and that 20 hours might as well be 40+ because there is too much to see and experiment with in just one playthrough, plus 2 endings (3 technically, but the only real difference is the voice over is slightly different in two of them) means there is reason to dive into Rapture more than once.
Final Thoughts: The hype of Bioshock is well rounded, it justifies what the game is and does. This is a milestone in shooters, even without multiplayer. If someone makes a GOOD multiplayer mod, this game, with it's plasmid/weapon combos could easily become more popular than many of the PC FPS games out there now. This game is GoTY material (though I am not saying it's definatly going to win, though it will be nominated) and is worth jumping through the hoops of securom (which is soon to be removed anyway). If you haven't dived into Rapture yet, grab your wet suit, enter the bathysphere and experience one of the best pc games to come out in the last 5 years.