The Little Mermaid stayed far away from this place
...or at least it was.
~Story = 10
The game gets off rather quickly. When you reach Rapture, a creature destroys your method of getting out. A radio nearby calls for you nearby. Atlus, the man at the other end of the radio, tells you to listen to him so you can get out. What to do other than to listen to him, right?
In Rapture, there are no moral boundaries. So scientists, artists, musicians, and the like all go nuts with their work. Two of the big creations that everyone went nuts for (literally) was ADAM and EVE. ADAM is, for some things, a form of money in which was used to spend on Plasmids, which gave special abilities. The more ADAM you had, the more Plasmids you could get. EVE is the life force of the Plasmids. Run out of EVE and you can not use the abilities.
EVE is easy to find, as its usually around in vendors or the bodies of people, or even on desks and the like. ADAM isn't as easy. To obtain ADAM, you have to either Harvest or Rescue the Little Sisters. Rescuing a Sister only gains half of Harvesting. The Little Sister's themselves are harmless, but they have a friend. Big Daddy. They are the bouncer's to ADAM. They are the challenge, and to overcome is simple if you have the skill and strength to overcome.
The story is done very well. Throughout the game you will pick up recordings, which you can listen to find out some useful information like combinations or little hints, as well as some interesting things to fill holes in the plot.
What's also nice is that there are multiple endings. Play the game a few times over, pick up things you might have missed along the way, and do something different to see where the story could have gone wrong, or right.
~Gameplay = 7.5
I find the gameplay rather decent. It really starts off as the average FPS shooter, only with things like Tommy Guns. What I found a bit off on occasion was the Plasmids. They tend to really add well to the game, but most of the time you just run and gun without sometimes thinking to use your plasmids. The game tends to make you use them to get pass things (like doors), but you generally stick with the guns.
Hacking is your best friend. wanna get something cheaper? Hack the vending machine. That safe with some guy's money locked and you don't know the combo to it? Hack it. Those Auto turrets really pissing you off? Hack it. A lot of the stuff in the game can be hacked, and it can be very, very useful to you. All you have to do is solve a pipe dream-esque game, and you're in. There are stops along the way and there are occasions that it feels like you get cheated, but thats what hacking does. Its never perfect.
Another neat factor in the game is the customizations to the weapons. There are stations called "Power to the People" Where you can customize 1 aspect of a weapon you have, such as a bigger pistol clip or stopping recoil on your Tommy Gun or even be immune to your grenades from the grenade launcher.
There's also "UInvent" where you, as the name explains, invent things. Various things lie around, and you can pick them up to create numerous things, like "Anti-Personal Pistol Rounds," which would come in handy.
~Graphics = 9.5
Almost flawless. I don't even use an HDTV and it looks great. The entire setting feels so perfect, so fluent. Colors and everything just fills up the void that would have been the 1960's in you.
~Sound = 9
Amazing. Voice Acting was done very well. They gave off the most enjoyable 1960 tone possible. Gunshots sound just like that. Plasmid sounds are great as well.
~Replay Value = 7
It's worth a few times of play. Not a lot, but a few play throughs to get some achievements you missed, or wanted to catch the other endings. But otherwise its not much to return to.
OVERALL SCORE 9
It was a great experience. Not up to hype, but was an overall worthy experience and very well done.
~Finaleve