Despite it's flaws, Bioshock is, without a doubt, the best FPS game of this generation.
A lot of the good qualities Bioshock has are taken from other games, namely Fallout and System Shock 2. Considering it was developed by Irrational Games and it has "shock" in the title, it's safe to assume that it was created as a spiritual successor to System Shock 2. Which isn't bad you know. Many would agree that SS2 is brilliant and in turn Bioshock should be as well. But that's the thing. Bioshock takes almost completely every aspect from SS2. For anyone who's played it will probably be more of a blast to the past, rather than an entirely new experience whatsoever. It's also fairly easy to spot how it takes after Fallout as well. The game is set in 1960's, so music of the time is occasionally playing in the background (like Fallout) and it often uses those cartoons (I'm not sure what to call them to be honest) that Fallout uses.
The story is probably the most powerful aspect of Bioshock and for good reason. It's also very well told. The entire narrative takes place during gameplay. There are no cutscenes other than the intro and the ending and all the dialogue happens while you're playing. There is nothing to take you away from the experience. But that doesn't mean it isn't flawed. Since the characters talk during gameplay there's a good chance you'll be in the middle of a fight and you might not hear what they're saying thanks to all the explosions and bullets flying around. Learning the backstory of characters and various other events that took place previoulsy in Rapture (this is where the game takes place) is done through audio logs you find along the way and like the dialogue they aren't always easy to hear thanks to background noise. But I'm just nitpicking so I'll let it slide, since the subtitles can generally solve that problem. But if you're fighting and reading at the same time you'll be killed... Alright, alright I'll stop! I won't give out any spoilers, but this is probably the best storyline in any video game this generation.
The gameplay aspect of Bioshock is arguably it's weakest point. The shooting mechanics are pretty decent. You switch between two sets of weapons during fights. The first would probably be classified as the regular weapons, which includes a wrench, various firearms, a camera and a crossbow (which ironically is the strongest weapon in the game). The secons set is the "Plasmids", which could be classified as super-powers, like lighting, fire ice etc but also include other powers such as hypnotizing, instant hacking, sending bees at enemies and telekinesis. So, overall it's mostly functional and it's nicely varied. Where it falls very short however is the difficulty. System Shock 2's difficutly fell somewhere between challenging and "smashing your head against a wall" frustrating, so perhaps lowering it a little bit would be a good idea. But Bioshock goes too far. There are mostly more med kits, money and ammo in the same room than you can carry. And that's not even the worst part. It's the respawning that kills the game. You see the way it works is whenever you die you are revived at the nearest Vita-Chamber at no cost and without losing any equipment or money. And there's one every 5 feet. So once you realise that dying is nothing more than a momentary nuisance, the game is no longer challening or scary in any way. Which is a shame.
You might have heard that Bioshock is an FPS/RPG like Mass Effect or Fallout 3. Let me be clear about this. It is NOT. This is purely FPS with some very weak RPG elements that mostly involve buffing your Plasmids and combat performance. Another important part of the gameplay is hacking. And when I say hacking I mean hacking cameras, turrets, vending machines and stuff like that. It's incredibly easy and reeks of "designed for consoles"(which isn't the only thing that reeks of that in this game but I'll let those slide too) meaning it's ridiculously easy on PC and hacking even the most complicated machines is easy. Because once again there's hardly any penalty for failing. Most of the time they just short-circuit which costs you a small ammount of health, but never kills you. So you can repeat it as many times as you want until you succeed. And all the enemies politely wait for you to finish before resuming the murder activities.
I mentioned some weak RPG elements earlier. Let me elaborate. To acquire these "boosts" you must use ADAM which in turn is obtained by doing horrible things to little girls, called "Litte Sisters". They are the only ones with the ability to do this because they're basically mindless zombies controlled by the stuff and you get it from them by either killing them (or "harvesting" them as the game calls it) or "rescuing" them. Harvesting them gives you more ADAM, but rescuing means the lady who takes care of them likes you more and gives you some ADAM after you've rescued a few of them. So you basically get the same ADAM regardless of whether you decide to rescue or harvest the Little Sisters. So why does this even exist in the first place? Well it's for the game's moral choice system which can go shoot itself in the foot, but that's just me. See, if you decide to harvest most of them you get the bad ending where you are some sort of secret agent of Satan where the world is your playground of evil. Alternatively, in the good ending you're some sort of secret agent of God where you have been sent to cure the world of all it's pain and misery. That's what I hate most about this system. It gives you the illusion of choice but in the end it all comes down to either Satan's first mate or God's first mate. A few more choices are nice every now and again.
Atmosphere and sound design are also some of the highlights. A lot of effort has been put into making the game look and sound as creepy as possible, and they succeed in doing so. Lighting effects are perfect and the detailed sound design can make you start paying attention to your own footsteps. It's nothing short of brilliant. And those 50's to 60's songs I mentioned earlier can help enhance the already fantastic setting, even if they are "borrowed" from Fallout.
Fair warning though: Don't go into this game expecting something like Halo or Call of Duty because in that case you're in for a shock (no pun intended). This game is not for the light-hearted and if your attention span is borderline that of the average gamer then you probably won't be able to appreciate the finer qualities that this game has to offer, like its chilling atmosphere and complex story. No matter who you are though and what games you like, this game is a must play. It's easily broken gameplay, and somewhat weak storytelling methods are definitely something to be on the lookout for, but it's fantastic plot, tight level-design, and haunting atmosphere and sound forgive all that. Basically:
Go get this game. Because it's one of the best you'll ever play.