I can’t really live with myself if I didn't say BioShock can be considered a genre benchmark.
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I hate flying. Even with the facts that indicate a accident is far, FAR from likely, I’m still on the edge of pissing myself. It’s not what could happen during a flight, its the fact that I’m spitting distance from the fucking stratosphere. Thats kinda what I feel about Rapture. Beautiful and nearly flawless in concept, but essentially enabling UNREGULATED, UNSTABLE, ADDICTIVE SUPER SERUM use in a goddamned fish tank, makes the whole thing far from desirable.
BioShock is one of those games used as a shining example of gaming as art, or how an interactive narrative should be done. While the narrative is rather fantastic, I don’t see how adding an art deco style to something makes it artsy. A pretty damned good design, but thats where it stops, as it’s simply design. Going with the theme of what’s “pretty damned good” about BioShock lies mostly with it’s strong story and combat.
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| Still, BioShock oozes style. |
Finding yourself victim to a plane crash over the city of Rapture, you soon delve down into the briny deep to the underwater dystopia for sanctuary. What you find is a dying city, full of genetically spliced psychopaths, are a range of weapons that don’t really deviate from the standard formula of melee weapons, pistols, shotguns, machine guns, explosives, and exotic weapons. What I do enjoy is your not restricted to two weapons, leaving you with an entire arsenal at your disposal. Compensating for your ability to break into Fort Knox, ammunition relatively scarce, resulting in a very balanced and cohesive experience, complemented with satisfying gun recoil and accuracy. All modifiable at one time use upgrade stations, offering sizable bonuses to damage, ammo consumption and capacity.
Still, plasmid use is what BioShock seeks to bare its teeth. Essentially powers that rely on a mana bar for use, plasmids offer an interesting spin on game play, giving you a second option if your ammunition drys up. While there are a quite a few to choose from, you won’t really need to deviate beyond some core combat powers, being fire and lightning attacks. Rendering other options rather muted, being used once for experimentation and never again. All also upgradable for a certain amount of ADAM, which acts essentially as money.
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| Plasmid's at work |
Going with the theme of genetic manipulation, the player is granted a variety of passive buffs in the form of gene tonics. Each can either improve combative abilities, aid in hacking mini-games, lower store prices, or increase the time it takes a camera to spot you and alert security. It’s rather marginal in practice, but Irrational Games needed some place to cram those pesky RPG elements.
Complementing BioShock’s solid combat mechanics are the surprisingly variant baddies to murder. Be it the hulking Big Daddies, gun toting Lead Heads, or wall crawling Spider Splicers, they all offer a certain depth to combat, giving every weapon and plasmid a purpose. Making larger fights rather tense and exciting. Though, enemy types tend to be grouped together early on, dampening the game a bit.
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| Big Daddies WILL fuck your shit up. Stock up prior to combating them. |
Storywise however, BioShock shines brightest. It offers legitimate intrigue and speculation early on, helped along with the absolutely stellar voice acting lent. Providing a clear cut objective that ties in with the world that you find yourself in, as you interact with various key political figures of Rapture’s glory days. Providing a twist that was so smartly written, you can’t help but feel it was hurt by it being told through a cut scene. As you are almost always behind the controls, YOU are the one that is carrying the story along, not a cut scene. It’s very reminiscent of Half Life in this respect, keeping you engaged with the plot the whole way through.
Having given this game non-stop praise, the only negatives I can find is with it's later half, which is more level padding and far from necessary. Everything else is spot on and virtually excellent, with it’s tight and engaging story and characters, coupled with it's solid combat system, I can’t really live with myself if I didn't say BioShock can be considered a genre benchmark.
Verdict
10/10
Genre Benchmark
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