One of the most unique shooters on the 360.
The Bad: Combat is overly simple; No penalty for dying; Little replay value; Some story elements not explored.
Bioshock is one of those rare games that gets nearly everything right. From fantastic story telling, to it’s unique visual style. Bioshock takes place in 1960 in an underwater city called Rapture. Rapture is the vision of Andrew Ryan, a businessman seeking to create a perfect capitalist society away from the negative influences of politics and religion. The scientists of Rapture discover how to harness the power of stem cells, which they call Adam. Using Adam, they are able to genetically modify people, and give them super human abilities called Plasmids. Plasmids become a way of life, and soon the city is torn apart by rival factions seeking to control the powerful Adam.
You play the role of a mysterious character named Jack. Your plane has crashed near a lighthouse in the middle of the Atlantic that serves as an entrance to Rapture. From there, you’re forced to survive in the rapidly crumbling city.
GAMEPLAY
Bioshock’s narrative is it’s strongest point. It's highly reminiscent of Ayn Rand books, especially Atlas Shrugged. Story elements are told via radio communications, and audio diaries that are picked up along the way. While this works for advancing the story, it can be difficult to understand what characters are saying. Partly because of their heavy 1930's style "speak-easy" accents. But also because they will frequently speak to you while you're in combat.
The entire game is played from a first person view, and plays like a lot of other FPS games. As you progress through the game, you'll gain access to Plasmids that will assist you in battle. You can have up to six of them equipped at a time, and they have a wide variety of effects. Some, like Electro-shock, will instantly kill most enemies who are standing in water, and stun them when they're not. Allowing you to get in a killing blow. However, other Plasmids like Insect Swarm are not very useful. Because of this, most of the damage you do will be done via your standard FPS shooter weapons like the shotgun, machine gun, etc. Thus reducing the Plasmids to little more than utility tools. I spent most of the game using Electro-shock almost exclusively.
The guns in the game, while they look great, aren't anything special. You can upgrade them via various vending machines, and create new types of ammo for them. But for most of the game you'll be sticking with one or two guns and ammo types.
In order to survive in Rapture, you'll have to make tough moral choices. Little Sisters can be found all over the city. These little girls are protected by Big Daddies, which are large golems that look like people in diving suits. In order to get the large amounts of Adam that the Sister's carry, you'll need to kill the very tough Daddy which basically equals out to a boss fight. Once the Daddy's are dead, to get the Adam you can either harvest the Sister, and thus kill them. Or save them which lets them live, but gives you a much smaller amount of Adam. How you choose to survive has a large impact on the gameplay as well as the story's ending.
GRAPHICS
Bioshock is visually stunning, and easily one of the best-looking games on the 360. The art style is fantastic, and Rapture looks like a 1930's Industrial city gone mad. All the characters and levels look very well designed, and fit within the theme of the game. Seawater leaks through the walls, and many areas are flooded. If you happen to step through a falling stream of water, the screen gets distorted for a few seconds as the water washes over your face. After you fire a weapon, smoke trails out of the barrel, and follows your movements. Set an enemy on fire, and it will spread to other burnable objects. This is eye-candy at it's best.
SOUND
Like-wise, the sound in Bioshock is also fantastic. The music sets the mood for the game, and helps to serve some excellent horror moments. The sound effects are also great. Each of the Plasmids has a unique sound to it, and the weapons sound realistic as well.
The only downside is the voiceovers. Although the game is fully voiced, and the actors sound the part, it can be hard at times to understand them. This is partly because of their accents, and also because of the inconvenient times as which they talk to you. Which is usually during combat. This will sometimes force you to re-listen to the log, and play it back with subtitles.
VALUE
It will take most players around 20 hours to beat Bioshock the first time through. That's fairly standard for a FPS, but because there's no multiplayer there's little incentive to play again. Unless you want to get a different ending, or unlock achievements.
Speaking of achievements, they are a little on the easy side. In fact, I unlocked 95% of them on my first play through without really going out of my way to do so. Most of them focus around taking pictures of enemies, upgrading weapons, or making items.
The game is also too easy, even on the hard difficulty setting. This is partly because of a lack of a "death penalty." When your character dies, you simply respawn at the nearest Vita Chamber, with all your items, and nearly full health. While enemies stay with the damage you dealt to them. This means that you can overwhelm any enemy simply by attrition. Even without the Vita Chambers, there are plenty of healing items so you'll rarely find yourself dead in the first place.
Although Bioshock's story is well told, some of the more interesting elements are left virtually untouched. For example, early in the game Andrew Ryan gives you a well-told voiceover explaining the nature of his vision for Rapture. Once you get to Rapture, it's all about surviving and the mystery surrounding your character's background. The political and social nature of Rapture is never seen again, and leaves some unanswered questions. Like why it's 1960, and everyone still talks and dresses like it's 1930?
Overall, Bioshock is a great FPS and should not be missed by fans of the genre. With that said, it's not going to appeal to everyone. There are going to be people put off by the lack of multiplayer, and others that think the combat is too boring. But for those that value a good story, you'll find more than enough to like here. Bioshock creates a well-crafted story, and combines it with some great horror elements, and moral choices. It's sure to be remembered as one of the most unique games on the 360.