Bioshock Review

Version Reviewed: 360
Release Date: Out Now
Price: Normal- £40
Special Edition Tin - £45
Box set- £50

Welcome to Rapture

After a gap of around 8 years since "System Shock 2", everyone in the gaming world was expecting something special from Irrational games' newest release "Bioshock". After one run through of the games storyline I feel I am ready to review!

"They told me I was special..."

First off let me say that Bioshock takes around 16 hours to finish on normal, and that if your not prepared to invest that much time in the game before games like "Heavenly Sword", "Halo 3" and, "Assasin's Creed" hit the stores next month then don't bother. If the time span seems far to short then you'de be better off with the other major release this month "Blue Dragon" which apparently takes around 100 hours (in human time) to complete.

If you can get past that welcome to the review. The game starts with your character landing near a tower in a plane crash, what ensues is probably one of the most breathing taking action cutscenes ever devised as you take your first descent into Rapture. When you arive in Rapture, it's fairly ovious that the city has taken a turn for the worst. Corpses lie strew across the streets of Rapture in an abundance, graffiti protesting to every manner of crime commit by the government.

The first character you meet in Rapture is Atlas he serves as your guide for the majority of the game. This is where the game comes into its own, while having outstanding gameplay and graphics it is the dialog and voice acting hat has made Rapture into a living, breathing world. Ranging from friendly Irish men quipping whenever the need arises to the blood-curdling roars of the Big Daddy, the voice acting in Bioshock only ever improves.

"...They were right."

Yet it is only when the plot reachs the middle of the game do you start to feel truely a part of Rapture. You have aquired enough Plasmids (Basically spells, they are sustained by EVE, and aquired with ADAM) to take on tougher enemys successfully, you no-longer feel sickend by the Little Sisters, or thier grotesque protectors, and life is good, then the onslaught begins.

Any thoughts you had of Ammo lasting you long enough to get to the next Ammo Bandito Machine should be gone by now because by the time you aquire the Grenade laucher, the seemingly insatiable lake of money and ammo will have run dry. You will begin to scavenge anywhere possible for money, you will start to remind yourself of the Splicers you have come to loathe and you will feel sickend by yourself.

When you have reached this stage of depravitey you will begin your never ending hunt for ADAM. ADAM is the substance that keeps the wheels of Rapture moving (It lets you buy plasmids) and it can only be aquired by "Exorcising" the Little Sisters, to do this you will have to kill the Big Daddys. This may seem like an overly daunting task at first, but then you realise, three grenades and it's over.

Bioshock begins to take a turn for the worse...

Damnit

When you have reached the games major plot twist (about 14 hours into the game), Bioshock begins to feel less frantic, less monumental and at times tedious. Only three missions follow the plot twist but they are the least innovative, most tedious and hardest in the game. The first of these three is a simple "collection" mission where you collect parts which enable you to become... something (I know what it is I just don't want to ruin it).

The second is an escort mission, which while giving you an insight into one of the most compelling relationships in the game, is filled with some of the most annoying dialogue in the game (the only dialogue I have heard to be repeated at all I might add), tedious gameplay, and an overly dissapointing enemy layout (predict and you'll be right 50% of the time). The third is an overly predictable boss fight.

The boss fight is followed by a cutscene to end the story, this cutscene is variable depending on the choices you've made in the game, yet both endings are overly ambitious and unsatisfying compared to the rest of the plot (which is compelling, and provocative), which makes me wonder why the game wasn't postponed.

Review Synopsis

Overall Bioshock is an incredible game with an ending which appears rushed due to time constraints. If the game was postpone until november it would have been at least second in line for the title of "Game of the Year" but as it stands Bioshock stands at about 4th place pending. Everyone knows the ending is the most important part.

8/10