BioShock Review (Spoilers)
Warning: The following review contains spoilers. Reader's discretion is advised.
BioShock is a first-person shooter game developed and published by 2K Games and released on August of 2007. The game takes place in the 1960s in the underwater city of Rapture that player's character, Jack, ends up in after surviving an airplane crash. If it were me I'd be asking for a refund.
The game does a good job with creating a sense of isolation, and the first-person aspect helps with immersion. You never know what could be lurking behind each corner. That said, the monsters themselves aren't that scary, and are more prone to rely on jump scares.
Rapture is presented as a mystery that you learn more about through audio recordings. The concept itself is a good one, the execution not so much. I quickly found myself becoming bored of Rapture and the monsters that dwell within it. About the only ones that kept my interest were the Little Sisters, and the Big Daddys, which sound like names you'd find in a porno, or Kick- Ass. There just isn't that much variety in the enemies. After the tenth or eleventh splicer it starts to become exhausting.
I like the idea of the wealthy creating a place where they can use their earnings as they see fit, as well as science having no limitations set upon it allowing for genetic engineering. The problem is that none of these elements are implemented well through gameplay. BioShock may as well have been a movie you see at the theaters, not a video game you play at home. I can at least say that the controls are probably the most simplistic I've encountered without being insulting. When they say you can easily switch between weapons, they really do mean it.
Weapons range from wrenches, to firearms, and powers like electricity, fire, and telekinesis. A common weapon combination involves stunning an enemy with electricity and then taking him out with the wrench. You can also use your environment to take out enemies. I think this is the first game I played since Pokemon where water really does conduct electricity. I commend BioShock on encouraging creativity when dealing with enemies, but once you stock up on enough weapons you can just blast through the splicers that get in your way.
As soon as you arrive in Rapture you are contacted by Atlas. A citizen of Rapture who helps guide you through the run-down city and asks for your help in dealing with Ryan, the man who constructed the city. How do these characters become relevant to you in the end? Ryan is your father, and Atlas who is really the villain just using you. I would be impressed by these plot points if I haven't played Metal Gear Solid. Nevertheless, Atlas causing you to crash your own plane through hypnosis is pretty cool. His motives on the other hand are the usual “power and money” lingo that has plagued villains motives since the beginning of time.
BioShock uses a lot of “this path is blocked” throughout the course of the game, like pretty much the majority of survival horror games ever invented. The first time this happened I needed to find the telekinesis plasmid to proceed. The second time, the fire plasmid. A little more creative than needing a key to open a locked door, but it gets old, very, very quickly.
The game has three alternative endings that depend on how you interact with the Little Sisters. Basically, if you save them you are good, if you do anything less than that you are a horrible human being. There doesn't seem to be any middle ground, but sadly that's a problem that a lot of games seem to have.
Conclusion: The game is boring. I'm sorry, but it just is. Say what you want about games like Metal Gear Solid being more of a movie than a game, at least they managed to make the actual gameplay fun. Once the novelty of Rapture wears off all you have is an interesting concept, and a concept can't carry a game.
Skip it.
