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Review

Bioshock

9.4

Format Xbox 360

Developer Irrational Games

Publisher 2K Games

Genre Action

16-Aug-2007 It's finally here...

2 Comments

To paraphrase the first in an endless line of self-promoting plaques built by Andrew Ryan, the egotistical ruler of Rapture: in the realm of videogaming, there are no gods or kings - only men. See, the power of the Xbox 360 gifts developers the ability to create offbeat worlds that wouldn't exist in Lovecraft's wildest cheese-fuelled fantasies. But, they're not always interested in tapping into their imagination. More often, they're more concerned with getting Hitler's 'tache just right, or mixing their colour palettes for the perfect shade of washed-out WWII greeny-brown.

Don't get us wrong, we think WWII is a top laugh and everything and that, but the Normandy landing's been on our TV screens more times than those 'Quote Me Happy' adverts. So: plenty.

Bioshock is the solution. Rapture, the underwater utopia-turned-dystopia that your nameless protagonist washes up in, is as brilliant a game setting as we can remember. Aesthetically, it's unparalleled. The 1950's art deco style is fresh, inventive and beautiful. It's got the same 'ruined beauty' theme running through it as Gears of War, except this time coloured in by Viva Pi�ata's artists. It's no accident that Irrational incorporated so many windowed tunnels into their level design - you just can't but stop and take in the sights.

You could motor through the game, but you'd miss half of the charm - round every corner, there's either an amusing poster, a poignant message scrawled on the wall, or something downright spooky. Much of the gameplay revolves around an endless scavenge hunt for screws, bolts and rubber piping - a task that would soon grow old if Rapture wasn't such a delight to explore. But Rapture is more than just a pretty face.

Bioshock's looks, ultimately, account for little. The real reason Rapture is such a sensational locale is because it is very much its own world, with its own rules and conventions, and the game is consistent with its rules to the last. And, crucially, the only way you can learn these rules is through bitter experience. The opening sequence isn't big on exposition - it's just long enough to establish that you're a survivor in a mid-Atlantic plane crash, and you now find yourself in the drink. You wash up on a tiny, desolate island with a strange well-like container in the middle, and, with flames engulfing you from all angles, you're left with no choice but to make like Alice and pop on down the rabbit hole.

Worlds apart
From what you can ascertain on your opening tour of the city (as viewed from the same transportation tubes as seen in Futurama), this was once an idyllic city, that is now under the grip of anarchy and chaos. What was it that gave us that impression? The eerie, deserted streets? The discarded placards that read 'let it end - let us ascend?' Or could it possibly be the giant mutant with hooks for hands banging against the glass as your tour comes to an end? And then you're set loose into your new home, and you're genuinely terrified.

And you're terrified for much the same reason that System Shock II on PC was so disturbing - you are constantly under the cosh. Enemies wander freely around the levels, so you're never safe, ammunition is relentlessly scarce, and the chambers resonate with the wails of tortured souls. You're equipped with a radio in which a desperate Irishman named Atlas pleads for your help - a human touch that only serves to reinforce your isolation. Audio diaries litter the catacombs, sending you in a mad scurry for a safe (ish) spot where you can listen to Rapture's backstory unfold without the unwanted attentions of some face-stabbing jerk.

Unlike many games that bore you with tiresome exposition, Bioshock turns it round 180 degrees by making you crave it. So don't be fooled by Bioshock's pretty looks; this burlesque horrorhouse is ten times more frightening than the more conventional 'yarrgh, I'm a zombie' method videogames use to frighten you up. But slowly, you adapt. You manage to piece together how Rapture's ecosystem works, both by observing the other inhabitants and from learning by doing. The premise is gripping, no doubt about that. But what can you actually do in Rapture? What kind of game is it?

LINEAR EMOTION
What we will say is that, underneath all the cleverness, Bioshock is a very traditional FPS at heart. The mission structure is as linear as a tube of Smarties, and the actual tasks themselves read straight from the bible of FPS cliches - hold off some forces here, build this bomb there, and there's a very protracted trawl around Arcadia's Farmer's Market for a pile of junk. But if you start treating it like a regular FPS, you'll soon find yourself in big trouble. At first, this is a problem, because you can see no other way to go about things. But that's merely because Bioshock leaves you to figure things out for yourself. It's a gruelling game of resource management, and as the ammunition dries up, you end up having to improvise. And more often than not, Bioshock will reward you heavily for thinking outside the box.

Let's talk about the much-talked-of 'AI ecology' for a second. It's not quite as it's hyped up to be. Essentially, aside from the Big Daddies and the Little Sisters, every other enemy in the game is out to get you in standard FPS fashion. Sometimes they squabble among themselves, and they've got the common sense to make a break for the health station when they're injured, but make no mistake about it - once they spot you, they're as single-minded as any of Doom's corridor-dwellers. The only characters out of the ordinary, then, are our unlikely Daddy/Sister combo. But believe us when we tell you that that's easily more than enough.

These fascinating characters are the axis around which the plethora of Bioshock's hidden depths revolve, and here's why. The Daddies clunk around acting as the guardian to the Sisters, who simper around from corpse to corpse draining them of a valuable resource called Adam. Adam is Rapture's currency - a rare sea slug that allows the holder to modify their genetic structure at DNA level. All you have to do to harness its power is to kill the protective Daddy - which, plainly, is easier said than done.

GRUFF DADDY
Neither Daddy nor Sister are aggressive - you can wander up to a Daddy and even touch it, but approach the Sister and she'll recoil in fear. The Daddy will give you ample warning to step away from his 'client', but push your luck, or fire at him, and his visor will turn a shade of ANGRY RED and he'll want you dead. Which, generally speaking, doesn't take him that long.

Taking these monsters out is a massive drain on resources you don't have, so you have think smart. Once you've got some Adam in your pocket, a wise spender at one of the vending machines can make future Daddy hunts a lot easier for themselves. There are many different types of RPG-esque statistical upgrades you can buy - more, in fact, than can be afforded with the scarce amount of Adam located in the game, so you have to be a discerning shopper. However, the bulk of your spend will be on the
Plasmids, as detailed elsewhere on these pages, and it is with these powers, mapped to the left trigger, that you can really start to have fun.

Hypnotise a Big Daddy into thinking you're a Sister, for example, and you've got your own personal bodyguard - excellent for killing swathes of splicers, but that ain't gonna get you any Adam. Cast Enrage on a number of splicers, and they'll gang up on anything that moves - and while you're watching them get murderised by ol' Big D, you can either finish him off at a safe distance, or use the distraction to get by and save your neck.

But that's not to say your normal weapons are useless. At first glance, they seem like the kind of usual suspects that could have been dreamt up by Irrational's Doom-obsessed work experience kid. But, as with everything else in Bioshock, the more you experiment, the more rewards you reap. When you use a steel-tipped arrow to tag a Daddy from afar, and watch in glee as his charge towards you is disrupted mid-flow by that tripwire you placed earlier - and is that a proximity mine he's about to land onto helmet-first? - you'll realise that this is one of the most solid, flexible, authentic game worlds you've ever encountered. Everything you throw at Bioshock, it throws back at you.

FUTURE SHOCK
Criticisms? There are a few. The non-replenishable nature of Bioshock's many resources mean that poor players are often punished by the game becoming even harder. And the weird way that enemy health doesn't reset after you die means that if you're blessed with the kind of robo-endurance usually required for Boxing Day family get-togethers, you could hypothetically kill a Big Daddy with your wrench, if you had the time.

But these faults are few and very far between, and are simply the by-product of an incredibly complex and incredibly complete gaming experience. Any game that can have you frantically scrabbling through drawers and cupboards searching for the rusty nail you need to be able to create a round of pistol bullets, and have you actively enjoy doing it, is deserving of frenzied applause.

So, better than Halo 3? Let's go there, shall we? Since we at Xbox World are too busy making this mag to complete that time-travel gymnasium we've got loitering in our garage, we don't yet know precisely how highly Halo 3 will score, in all honesty - it's eminently possible it could come in as less. But despite both games being about pointing a gun at all and sundry, they have very little in common. Bioshock's cerebral pace will be a culture shock for those more accustomed to bouncing around with the Chief, but we implore you to take a chance on Bioshock. Turn the lights out, take the plunge, and make this the wettest summer on record.

Alex Dale