BioShock Review

Imagine your plane crashes somewhere in the Atlantic ocean. As you swim through the burning wreckage, you spot a lighthouse and head towards it. Too preoccupied with getting onto dry land, you don't stop to consider the absurdity of a lighthouse in the middle of the ocean. You go inside and find that you're at the entrance to Rapture, an underwater utopia. Not only did you survive a plane crash, but you're about to be rescued. You're the luckiest guy on earth, right? Wrong! You've just walked into hell and the only way out is through the fire.

Atlas

You play as Jack, a guy who was seemingly just on the wrong plane at the wrong time. The promotional videos and propaganda tell the tale of paradise underwater, but as you start exploring Rapture you realise something has gone horribly wrong. Via a shortwave radio, a man named Atlas guides you along and teaches you how to survive in this formerly magnificent city. You don't know much about Atlas, only that he's trying to escape with his wife and child, he needs your help and he has no love for Andrew Ryan.

Andrew Ryan is a wealthy man who grew tired of the views of governments and society. Watching the world around him succumb to socialism and the people he viewed as parasites thrive, he "chose the impossible, [he] chose Rapture." Ryan decided to create a community where "the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, where the great would not be constrained by the small."

Your adventure takes you through different districts of Rapture, from beautiful man-made forests to run-down control centres. The majestic Art Deco-style buildings in the city are connected by glass tunnels and submarine-like elevators, called bathyspheres. On your way you stumble across many interesting characters, all of them driven mad by Adam, unstable cells injected into the body which give the user special powers. In their eyes, you're an outsider who crashed their party and they want you dead.

Spider Slicer

You'll mostly encounter Splicers, the crazed inhabitants of Rapture who remember nothing from their former lives. Splicers come in various forms, the scariest being Spider Splicers, who climb walls and come at you like some freaky mix between Spider-Man and that creepy girl in the Grudge.

Little Sister and Big Daddy

Then there are the Little Sisters. These little girls are not hostile, but where there's a Little Sister, a Big Daddy is not far away. Big Daddies will destroy anyone who comes too close to the Little Sisters they're protecting. But why would a sweet little girl require such protection, you ask? They're walking, talking Adam-farms, created for the purpose of growing Adam. If you feel brave enough to take on a Big Daddy, you'll have the choice of harvesting or rescuing his Little Sister after you take him down. Harvesting them yields more Adam, but your kindness will be rewarded should you choose to rescue them instead.
The Adam you receive can be spent at a Gatherer's Garden to buy new Plasmids and upgrades for the ones you have.

To survive you must use the weapons you find, like pistols, shotguns, machine guns and the trusty old wrench. All the weapons (aside from the wrench) can fire different kinds of ammunition, like anti-personnel rounds for the machine gun or electric buck for the shotgun. However, to gain an advantage on your enemies you must use Plasmids such as Electro Bolt which shoots lightning from your hands, stunning your foes. Both weapons and Plasmids can be upgraded as you venture deeper into the city and the bad guys are harder to defeat. You'll also come across a research camera which lets you take pictures of your enemies. Researching  an enemy provides useful information, such as what type of ammunition they're weak against and increased damage against that type of foe.

Andrew Ryan, founder of Rapture

Using Plasmids consumes EVE, which can be restored by using EVE hypos. First-aid kits and food restores your health and if you die you'll be resurrected at the last Vita-chamber you passed. (In Ultimate Rapture Edition this feature can be turned off, making you to load a saved game when you die.) You'll also find money when looting dead bodies or searching containers. Money is used to buy ammo, first-aid kits and EVE hypos at the various vending machines of Rapture. The vending machines can be hacked by playing a Pipe Dream-like mini game. A successful hack reduces the prices and unlocks more items to be bought at that vending machine. Security cameras, turrets and safes can also be hacked. Eventually you'll start collecting spare parts which can be used at special vending machines to create new types of ammunition and Plasmids.

The Ultimate Rapture Edition adds three short missions, all with the objective of saving a Little Sister. Each mission has different rules; for instance, in one you have to defeat a Big Daddy with no weapons or damage-dealing Plasmids, a tough challenge. For me though, the best part of the DLC is the Museum of Orphaned Concepts. Here you will find concept art and models that didn't make it into the final version of the game. Along with the things to look at, players can also read about the development of the game and the ideas that lead to the finished product.

BioShock is a great game. Six years after its original release the graphics are still beautiful, there aren't any bugs to speak of and it's still one of the better shooters on the market. 2K Games created a masterpiece that successfully combined story and gameplay, a rare occurrence back then. The story, coupled with the lurking Splicers, will leave you at the edge of your seat. A must-have gaming experience.


One final note: If you do buy the Ultimate Rapture Edition, make sure you install the DLC before starting a new game. Any saves from pre-DLC will not work once the DLC is installed. Learned that the hard way.