I have played through Bioshock two times now, and for those of you that remember, a long long time ago on another blog I promised to review it when it was released, whenever that would be. So without further ado, here’s what I think of Bioshock.

A personal view of BIOSHOCK (XBOX 360)

Bioshock isn’t a lot of things. It’s not the best shooter, it hasn’t got the most awesome graphics and it’s story is lacking in some places. However, Bioshock proves that the sum of the parts can be greater than the whole. Where the game succeeds is in its atmosphere, which is simply unparalleled today. Some serious eye for detail has gone into the process of fleshing out Rapture, and I really wish every game would feel as complete as Bioshock does, and that’s saying a lot, since the game takes place in a city at the bottom of the sea. In the ambience department, Bioshock is king.

What brings Bioshock down a notch on the scoring ladder is the odd choice of respawn-mechanics, the (lack of) enemy variety and the fact that the game isn’t nearly as unpleasant as it’s predecessor.

You never die in Bioshock, you simply respawn at the nearest health station, enemy health points as they were before you died, which in effect takes away any challenge from the game whatsoever, just hammer away on the Big Daddy and he’ll go down sooner or later. This is the wrong kind of difficulty system, you don’t need any skill to succeed, just perserverance, which also takes away any sense of accomplishment. The only reason to keep on playing is the story, and fortunately that’s a pretty great one.

There are 3 different kinds of enemies in Bioshock, the human splicers (which granted comes in 5 varieties), the mechanic alarm systems and the Big Daddies. That’s just too few enemies. They aren’t scary either, the splicer models is too simplistic and badly proportioned to actually resemble humans.

I assume that Bioshock wasn’t made to be as scary as System Shock 2, but I do think it’s a bit of a letdown really, and I don’t think that I’m alone on that. Bioshock tries really hard to approach the casual gamer; arrows, voice messages and pop-up hints hammer the player almost constantly. Couple this with zero death penalty and enemies that aren’t lifelike enough and you’ve just got an unscary game.

In conclusion I’d say that Bioshock is easily one of the ‘games of the year’, notwithstanding the bad parts I’ve written about above. It may not be that technically competent, but for what it’s worth it truly is a great piece of entertainment. At least I was thoroughly entertained by it, two times none the less!
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go and finish Atlas Shrugged.

Pros: Athmosphere to die for. Overall great voice acting. A story that actually has some inherent value. Terrific soundtrack. Awesomely Advanced Water Engine.
Cons: Bad enemy models. Retarded respawn system that ruins the game. Not scary enough! No Shodan cameos (to my knowledge).

score_4