A solid, entertaining title, but you may be left wanting more.

User Rating: 8 | BioShock X360
By STARS_Splinter | Review Date:
Bioshock. I'm not going to go into the long, convoluted history of the title and its System Shock origins, at least not any more than I already have. You know all that already, and if you don't know, then chances are you don't particularly care anyway. Bioshock, then. Its a first person shooter, mostly at least. There are a few other elements thrown in, such as the equipping of plasmid 'skills' and suchlike, which I'll look at later. But for the most part, you'll spend the game shooting, zapping, and otherwise *hurting* the various enemies the game throws your way. Theres a few different weapons available, from a humble crowbar (half-life, anyone?) to a hulking grenade launcher, all of which feel pretty realistic and act like you'd expect them to. There's also the DNA-enhancing plasmids, which give you a slew of other weapons and abilities, like the chance to electrify your enemies with lightning and set them on fire. Its a pity, then, that the weapons don't really have that much variety to them. Sure, you can upgrade them several times at the various 'power to the people' stations you might be lucky enough to find around the city of Rapture, and you can throw some different ammo into them for some more interesting effects (the explosive shotgun shells are a personal favorite). Unfortunately, even when you've loaded some armour piercing rounds into your revolver it still feels like the same old revolver, no matter how much you upgrade it and enhance it. Unless you hit someone in the head with it, its not going to do much damage. Fortunately all of the weapons do feel solid and are still pretty fun to use.

So, what about these varied enemies, then? Er, well, actually, they aren't all that varied either. You'll find yourself up against three main foes- splicers (read: mutated humans gone mad), security bots and turrets, and the eponymous Big Daddies. The Splicers break down into five categories- club-wielding splicers, gun-toting splicers, plasmid-using splicers, grenade-chucking splicers, and wall-crawling splicers. Security bots come in one variety- flying with tommyguns- and turrets have one of three weapons. The Big Daddies also come in two flavours- the grenade-launcher-toting Rosie, and the Drill-wielding kind. Er, thats it, though. You'll be introduced to these enemies right near the beginning of the game, and you'll carry on fighting them right to the end, although they do get (inexplicably) tougher as the game goes on. There are a couple of boss characters, but these normally act like enhanced versions of existing enemies.

The plasmids are rather more interesting. There are absolutely *loads* of them on offer, far more than you can ever equip, so you'll have to make some RPG-alike choices over which enhancements you're going to take. Each has its own benefits, and you'll want to take a good mixture to see you through some of the game's trickier points which are, actually few and far between- largely thanks to a very forgiving respawn system which instantly pops you back into your body when you die at a nearby safe point, and helpfully keeps the health of your enemies to the same level they were at before you died. So, if a particular area gives you trouble, you can just die and keep retrying- not much of an incentive to buy first aid packs, true, but it makes for a much more enjoyable game, if one that lacks any real challenge. There are other min-game type things in Bioshock as well; a hacking minigame that lets you control security cameras, partol bots and turrets, and collecting achievements that have you scouring the levels for weapon power-up stations and diary recordings of Rapture's inhabitants, all of which is really just a good excuse to look around the beautifully realised city. And it is beautiful- Bioshock is a stunning game which maintains both artistically and technically proficient level design throughout; the music and sound only serve to add to your immersion into the game world. The whole thing is tied together with a wonderful story that elevates the game well above the sum of its parts, and with alternate endings and extra difficulty settings theres a reason to play through it again after your first time.

Overall, Bioshock is a good game. Its a fully competent and well-realised shooter, but its mechanics can leave something to be desired. The shooting, hacking, and even exploring have been done better in other games, and its the strength of the story that holds the game together, rather than the proficiency of its individual aspects.

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