Got to love that wrench!
Overall I've enjoyed playing Bioshock. Initially I was a little hesitant in purchasing this $60 game after reading that one of the main weapons was a wrench..... I thought, "How exciting can a wrench be"? But I’ve found, with the incorporation of other abilities like shock, that bashing stunned crazy people in the head with a pipe wrench is quite exhilarating.
Bioshock is not an easy game to explain in a review - it can seem convoluted in its approach to game play. Bioshock is set in what feels like a 1928 Flash Gordon SciFi film. It brings together the feeling of the early science fiction genre with a bit of wizardry through the special abilities.
This game is gory. If you dislike blood or mindless brutality then Bioshock is not for you. You may want to purchase "Viva Pinata" and build gardens. If on the other hand you enjoy the satisfaction of ridding a dilapidated ocean world of its miscreants (known in the game as splicers) than Bioshock may be right up your alley.
The toughest characters in the game by far are the “Big Daddies” (a.k.a. Bouncers and Rosies). These are the “body guards” to the Little Sister characters. I have to say—especially if you’re playing on medium to hard settings—that these guys are some of the toughest creatures in any video game I’ve ever played. It takes a lot of planning and a lot of ammo to take these brutes down. But this adds to the excitement Bioshock creates. This brings me to the Little Sisters in the game. In Bioshock a goal is to harvest as much “Adam” as possible. Adam is the credit system enabling the purchase of special abilities, which, along with first aid kits, ammo, and other items, are purchased at…. Vending machines…. The only way to harvest Adam is to kill the Little Sister’s protector, the Big Daddy, and then harvest the Adam from the now unprotected Little Sister (Little Sisters cannot be attacked directly). The Little Sisters are little girls who have fallen prey to a form of demonic-like possession. This may be the tough part for some: after killing the Big Daddy the gamer now has to make a decision – fully harvest the Little Sister for 200 Adam or save the Little Sister—allowing it to become a little girl again—for 160 Adam. I must admit I chose the latter for a payoff later in the game (I’ll let you figure this one out for yourself). This is just another example of the twist and turns that Bioshock’s such a good game.
To conclude I think Bioshock is a truly a very good game, not at the level of a Gears of War but above a F.E.A.R. Bioshock has a great character lineup and, as I mentioned earlier, a wonderful creepiness created through whispering voices, dark corridors, and of course blood-stained floors and walls. I would say go out a purchase a copy.