| Bioshock - review |
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Following a period of monotony and lack of inspiration within the first-person genre, BioShock has arrived promising depth, action and adventure. A shooter that takes place at a failed subterranean utopia called Rapture in 1960, you assume control of an unknown character seeking to escape the claws of its creator Andrew Ryan, a free market capitalist-turned-dictator. While on paper the setup sounds decidedly off-the-wall, BioShock's strength is in its execution and how it delivers its many themes and layers in an accessible manner. The usual first-person staples are there in the shape of the explosive combat and fast-paced action, but it's a game which also expertly fuses RPG and adventure elements without unbalancing the weight of the experience.
With a twisted society spiralling off the rails, what Rapture offers is a nightmarish city full of colour, peculiarity and mystery - where the extraordinary becomes the norm the more you acclimatise to becoming a 'citizen' and transforming yourself into the very things you fight against.
These distinctions and blurring of lines quickly transfer themselves to the gameplay, where cameras, turrets, bots and machines can be used against foes, and creatures can be turned against one another or influenced to fight on your side. All the while your far-ranging combat skills allow you to turn the tide in any number of ways, being paired into two categories of conventional weapons and plasmids. Both can be upgraded and combined with additional attributes which over time increase physical, combat and engineering strengths, with plasmids acting as genetic modifiers that give the player the ability to wield numerous special powers. Although these options mean combat isn't as challenging as it could be, their availability (in conjunction with the randomness of the AI) means no two fights are ever quite the same. Enemies run for cover, know when they're hurt, use health stations and hack objects in the same way that you can. To this end their unpredictability encourages experimentation and ensures the plasmids are less gimmicky than they could have been with weaker AI, helping the action to sustain prolonged interest. Connected with all this is the relationship pivotal to Bioshock's narrative and gameplay – the Big Daddy and the Little Sister. Tasked with collecting Adam (Rapture's genetic currency people use to physically modify themselves), this neutral pairing provide an additional layer of underlying creepiness and tension. Do you preserve ammo and leave them alone, or do you risk taking on the terrifying protectors and steal the Adam that the Sisters collect to upgrade your abilities at the cost of their lives?
Even with all these various elements, BioShock never overwhelms the player - providing easy-to-use off and on-screen menus to ensure your powers aren't difficult to keep track of. The levelling and modification systems are simplistic when taken alone, yet combined together serve to make the gameplay feel more organic than a typical shooter. While this won't come as news to fans of System Shock 2 (the game to which BioShock is the spiritual successor), it's surprising to see how the various systems integrate and effortlessly combine without their mechanical nature breaking the flow of the action. Contrast exists everywhere in Rapture - from the vibrant neon signs pulsating in the dark, right to the player's evolution being rigidly held together by a set of rules in a lawless society. Where there's order, there's nearly always chaos nearby, and that's what breathes life into the game's captivating quality, something which the brilliantly thought out level design underscores by encompassing its exploration within the spectacular retro-come-sci-fi artwork.
It's a game that blends the linearity of a passage-driven first-person experience with the expansiveness of a more open-ended shooter - possessing a story always moving you towards a clear goal in comparison to the open levels that encourage continued exploration. In the maze-like design of Rapture's snaking corridors, getting lost nearly always yields reward, be it a new plasmid or audio log. Yet while loading is quick and unobtrusive, you get the feeling given the stylised cohesiveness of the environment, that it would have benefited from being continually streamed. This is a world that comes across as meticulously designed in almost every way, and as such the brief loading screens are counter-productive.
In comparison, BioShock's attention to detail means the locations are consistent with one another, tangible and crafted as though they've been inhabited by living people. Each room has a story and a history, and Rapture feels satisfyingly complete in face of a segmented form which could have easily fallen apart with lesser attention. To fuel this suspension of disbelief, intriguing, well written dialogue is left behind by Rapture's residents to unveil the tale of its fate. These audio snippets act similarly to a radio play and help bring context and life to the environments, while at the same time increasing the sense of disconnection and isolation you have in being underneath the ocean. Believable voice acting and moving, carefully placed music are used to accompany the superb ambience of a city at war with itself under the creaking pressure of the sea - aurally, everything gels perfectly, and this is reflected just as much in the way Rapture is placed together and how it conveys your position within it as you progress.
Not only do the windows into the metropolis provide expansive views with which to show off the artistry, they act to mark progression where you can look back on places you've already been and where you're heading toward. This enables BioShock to sidestep the usual displacement associated with corridor first-person shooters, and it's these same towering blocks which increase the claustrophobia and sensation of being cut off from the outside world. If there's a thorn in the game's side, it's that the standards it holds itself to occasionally work against it. There are, on occasion, noticeable level-of- detail changes, small clicks in the audio and every once in a while, ungainly seams and flickering textures. That these minor problems stand out is a sign of the solidity present elsewhere. Many games today are heralded for their technical prowess, but BioShock marries its bells and whistles with truly cutting edge art design. It's a gorgeous, stunning looking game that makes use of its beautifully crafted world as more than just eye candy.
Rich and detail laden, if you examine it close enough, the world has a story to tell. You rarely get to meet characters in Rapture who don't view you as a threat, and the threaded approach of telling the narrative through architecture, journals and a whole host of audio and visual cues, means you have to assemble the pieces yourself if you want to get glimpses of the world as it was before. If there's one flaw to be had, it's that the justifications the two main characters use for their actions are relatively one dimensional - they're ordinary people motivated by power and greed, and while thankfully there are no clichés of worlds or heroines to be saved, greater understanding of these people wouldn't have gone amiss. Where the greater mystery lies is in the depiction of the characters we never meet; traces of their past left hidden within diaries and abandoned rooms. It's these parts which end up providing the human heart of BioShock's story, and shed insight and reason into why Rapture's idealism has become corrupted over time.
Ultimately the narrative is at the mercy of the player's willingness to invest, and in a climate where storytelling in most games still serves everything on a platter, Irrational demonstrate a refreshingly intelligent approach. Themes range from the sociological to the humanistic and manifest themselves in various guises, be it through a simple, odd painting on the wall to the commercialisation which rampantly fuels the game's ecosystem, both in terms of materialism and physical evolution.
Sitting across from this take-it or leave-it approach to the story, BioShock's mechanics initially default to an intrusive help system at pains to make sure the player isn't in the least bit stuck. It's something that weakens the sense of immersion - especially as part of the delight of Rapture is the idea that around every corner there are discoveries hidden and waiting to be found. Since this makes up most of the experience, it benefits to have "adaptive training" turned off.
Typically each environment unfolds in a variety of directions from a single starting point, with enemies and surveillance littered in key areas to ensure that the game never meanders too much or becomes combat heavy. After its jaw-dropping opening, BioShock eschews its scripted form to settle into this rhythm - a blend of tense exploration and sporadic, condensed action. Whereas the typical length for a single-player title in the current generation has been reduced to below ten or so hours, BioShock offers over twenty for those who take their time with it, and even though it concludes limply, encourages multiple playthroughs if you want to uncover the sum of everything it has to offer.
At its core BioShock can be described as a corridor first-person shooter that builds on Irrational's legacy and borrows from the best parts of others in the genre to better serve itself. But to distil the game to such a dry description is to do it a disservice. Flawed though it may be, it's one of the most atmospheric first-person games ever made and perhaps the standout title of the generation so far. Dazzling, thought provoking, compelling and engaging, it's an experience which refuses to lessen its hold until you've seen it through to the end, and in doing so, lodges itself in the memory in a way that few other titles can.
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System: Microsoft Xbox 360
Genre: First Person Shooter
Developer: Irrational Games
Publisher: 2K Games
Players: 1
Version: European
Reviewed: Aug 2007
Writer: Ben Mottershead
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Pros:
- Wonderful, awe-inspiring atmosphere
- Entertaining, diverse combat
- Interesting characters
- Excellent, and exquisitely produced, level design
- Superb production values
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Cons:
- Occasional, minor technical problems
- Should have had a stronger lead in to the end
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