Tossing a ball of enrage at an enemy instantly causes them to start attacking the nearest enemy, basically turning them onto their fiendish pals. The ice plasmid can freeze a bad guy into solid ice which can then be shattered into a million pieces via one of the number of different “classic” weapons at our hero’s disposal. All plasmids are upgraded via a disturbing machine with two little girls on it. To purchase these plasmids our hero must collect something called “Adam” which can be found in “little sisters”, who happen to be guarded by the “big daddies”. The desolate world of rapture is overrun by the crazy, weird, enemies known as “splicers”. These splicers come in all different shapes and sizes and each section of Rapture is infested with different ones. The AI of the enemies in Bioshock is really top notch and some of the average splicers can cause quite a world of hurt on our protagonist. The lifeblood of Rapture is known as “Adam” and can be found in the dead bodies of people all over the city; unfortunately the only way to acquire Adam is by using a special needle-gun which only the little sisters have. To get to a little sister you must first go through a big daddy; the tall metal lurking beings from all the screenshots and TV commercials. In the early levels there is usually just one of these big daddies to fight but later levels can sometimes have as many as five. Don’t feel cheated because in the last level you actually get to put on a big daddy suit and wreak havoc on those that at one time had the upper hand on you.
Once a big daddy is defeated you get the choice of either “harvesting” or “rescuing” the little sister whom accompanied her now deceased guardian. If you rescue them you sometimes get a special treat from their “nanny” and you also get that warm feeling in your heart. On the other hand if you do what I did and harvest the little suckers you get twice as much Adam (which will come in handy buying plasmids as well as health upgrades, etc.) and you get that evil smile that goes across your face when sucking the soul out of a child. As you travel through the world of Bioshock your health is determined by a small bar at the top of the screen, right below that is another small bar that represents your EVE, or the amount of times you can use your plasmids. There are many health/eve packs placed throughout the environment so it was uncommon to be lacking in either. You can also purchase items from vending machines, and health stations during your adventure. To buy health, ammo, and items it takes cold hard cash, cash which can be found in registers and on dead bodies. I think I could talk for another two pages about the world of Rapture and how involved this game is but other things need to be discussed. In the end Bioshock features one of the most involved and detailed storylines/gameplay features in any game out there so well done developers, well done.
To go along with the plasmids there are other upgrades to be acquired, these vary from improving your hacking skills to having the ability to fire off lightning bolts whenever an enemy comes near you. Each one of these upgrades (including plasmids) are placed in slots and only a certain number of each can be equipped at one time. The controls of Bioshock are both simple and complicated at the same time. Moving is done with the left joystick and the camera is controlled with the right. By pressing the RB button you can scroll through your classic weapons and then pull the RT to fire. On the other side the LB button lets you choose your plasmid and the LT fires said plasmid. The face buttons do a variety of basic FPS functions such as reload, jump, action, etc. After a few minutes in Bioshock most gamers will feel right at home with the controls, which is a nice thing considering the variety in gameplay this title features.
