Too much hype, not enough substance
The story is also well paced, played out well through the audio logs and communications you receive while the sound is pretty much perfect, with the shrill cries of the splicers; 'we can hear you, you know!' sending a shiver up my spine.
However I guess my disappointment with this game stems largely from claims that this would be the spiritual successor to System Shock 2. This game was itself criticised for having a lack of commitment to its rpg elements, where as Bioshock goes further and almost completely abandons them. Throughout the game you will pick up plasmids (giving you abilities such as freezing enemies) and tonics (which alter physical attributes). However with no actual stats for your character it is not obvious how much of a difference many of these tonics to your character, while plasmids, though fun to use, can be freely switched at many points in the game. Although some people may view this a positive, allowing you to try out every approach easily, for me it left little replayability in the game.
This game is also very easy and this in addition to the lack of rpg elements have led me to wonder if this game was dumbed down due to its availability on the xbox. During my first run through in normal I never really used any other weapons than the wrench, pistol and shotgun, for which I ended up with an abundance of ammunition. Combat is overtly simple, I mean it is enjoyable to freeze an enemy and shatter him into pieces but you can do this throughout the entire game easily. Why aren't there any enemies who can't be frozen for example?
My final gripe is that 2k have not only produced a game which people with vista will have problems running, but have as yet produced no patch in an attempt to fix either the sound problems or the lack of widescreen many people experience.
Having said all this and despite the negative points, this is a superbly immersive, beautiful game and despite it's disappointing simplicity is a very worthy purchase.