Any form of media that involves a plane crash is going to be good, throughout history this theory has been proven over and over again. The most recent example of this comes in the form of the blockbuster television series Lost. The pilot episode of Lost, which included many scenes involving a plane crash, was the most expensive pilot ever created. Luckily for developers 2K Games it does not cost nearly as much to make a plane crash happen virtually, inside of a video game. It is always a great thing when a small, virtually unknown title is released to widespread good reviews and exploding hype. The game that did it in 2007 is Bioshock and it came out of nowhere. What started as a survival horror game that many publishers passed on has become a top-selling Xbox 360 game and a strong game of the year contender.
Bioshock is developed by the guys over at Irrational Games (System Shock anyone?) and was finally picked up to be published by 2K Games. Once the demo launched over Xbox Live a few weeks ago the fire around this game has turned into a fury that only a great game can accomplish. There is so much information about this game on the internet that writing this review cannot help sell this game much more, but I am still going to give you my impressions on the game whether you need them or not. On first glance Bioshock does look just like any other first-person shooter set in some horrific universe that involves multiple ways of killing bad guys. While this is correct on some level what sets it apart from the multitude of other titles in this genre is the way Bioshock goes about pulling gamers into the story, and holding them there for a good ten hours.
The storyline is something straight out of a big budget Hollywood movie and it involves a plane crash, an underwater city, and more twists than an episode of Lost. The hero of the game starts out in a very common setting, aboard a plane bound for who knows where. Something goes terribly wrong and you are thrust into a world where nothing makes sense and everything seems insane. Much of the storyline that unfolds later in the game cannot be mentioned without spoiling some of the best plotlines but the way Bioshock thrusts the story at the gamer is simply amazing. Other than the short opening CG movie and one that takes place at the end of the game, Bioshock does not use pre-rendered scenes to tell the tale. Taking a cue from the PC title System Shock story elements are told through a series of small interactions with characters (small tape recorders are placed all over the world of Rapture) or radio communications. While this is not a commonly used practice, it really does a great job of making the player feel involved in the story.
Basically, back in the 1950’s a man with a vision decided he did not like the way the world was controlling free thought and he decided to build a free-thinking society underwater which goes by the name Rapture. While most of the environment is just an underwater city there is also parts that seem to not fit such as the forest area, or the huge dance club. The variety in setting is one of the best parts about the world of Bioshock, nothing seems repetitive or boring your first time through the adventure. This utopia flourished for a few years but eventually (as in all societies) things turned bad and the citizens of Rapture started turning on one-another, slaughtering the innocent and causing the evil to triumph. To fight off these bad guys the developers of Bioshock have included a nice list of classic weapons including: wrench, pistol, shotgun, machine gun, cross-bow, rocket-launcher, etc. Each one of these weapons also has three different types of ammo which just adds to the variability. Combining classic weapons with magic (Plasmids) offers an endless number of ways to kill the Splicers or Big Daddies. Scientists began researching DNA mutation and the result was something Bioshock named Plasmids. These plasmids are basically gene-altering upgrades that a citizen of rapture (and now you) can inject into their bloodstream causing an array of different powers. Examples of these are: fire, electricity, telekinesis, ice, and my personal favorite enrage.
