A few years ago I found myself falling in love with this series of games, and since it's recently been rereleased on the Xbox One and PS4, and technically PC too, I figured it's about time I played and reviewed these games. However, this is my second draft of this review, because by the end of the first paragraph of draft one, this review had devolved into gushing about the storytelling and philosophy in this game, so I'll try to keep that in check here, which will probably make this review a bit on the short side, and I'll follow up with a better structured version of gushing afterward, that said, let's go.
From the get go, Bioshock has one of the best opening in any game, hands down, the introduction to Rapture is in a similar league of awe inspiring to leaving the escape pod in Halo Combat Evolved, the mere sight the city on the bottom of the sea is enough to give you goosebumps, especially when accompanied with the beautifully haunting soundtrack, beautiful is not an exaggeration, it's powerful stuff. It doesn't take long though for you to realise that something very bad is going on in Rapture, luckily you have a friend in Atlas, who assists you in your quest through the city, and shows you the ropes in some of the game's more crucial mechanics. Rapture is a marvel in this game, the city oozes with personality and history thanks to a ridiculous attention to detail in the level design; the streets and corridors of the city are dark and decayed, water leaks in through ceilings and walls, and the city is alive with the mutterings of its insane splicer inhabitants, and the growls of some of the bigger baddies lurking around. All of this comes together to create a world that gets under your skin very well, but that's not all Rapture can do. The visual story telling on offer here paints a very bleak picture of a city gone to hell; corpses scatter the streets, often clutching various items ranging from guns to cash resisters to bottles of pills and so on, piles of junk and debris form makeshift barricades. All of these elements come together to make a place that feels lived in, like a real place that has seen some really ugly shit, it's as fascinating as it is scary. And scattered around are many, many audio tapes that give you backstory on certain events and characters you see in the game, for obvious reasons these are collectables you'll really want to find, because a lot of the time they are every bit as interesting to follow as the game's main story, which I won't go into any kind of detail on here, aside from a few need to knows. The game's story is really good, it sucks you into the mysteries of Rapture and has some really strong moments, whether they be powerful, or epic, or both. You'll run into a host of characters along your travels, some of them kind of sane, others have gone completely coo-coo, and some are just nightmare fuel splicer maniacs, there isn't really one in here though that isn't interesting, all of the characters are strong and compelling in their own way, and even when they're enough to make you lose sleep, you'll probably find yourself liking them a fair bit by the end. And then there's of course the twist, if you don't know the big twist of this game, it is reason enough to play this game, it's a masterfully executed twist that has implications far beyond the story of this game, perhaps even outside gaming itself. So, from a story and character point of view, Bioshock is a masterpiece, undeniably, this game is a piece of art. But it's also a game, with gameplay, so how does that work.
Gameplay is, in my opinion, where this masterpiece of storytelling starts to falter. Let's just start with what I really don't like, the hacking; in Bioshock there are numerous turrets, vending machines, and safes you can hack, which nets you rewards like cash, or perks like lower prices. The issue I have is how you hack; the game pauses and puts in a water pipe mini game, challenging you to channel the flow of water around a grid to complete the hack. I don't know what this hacking mini game said to my mother that pissed me off so much, but I fucking hate it, I stuck to auto hack tools and buying out whatever I was hacking because I simply can't stand it, for some, probably deeply personal, reason. On the surface, no pun intended, Bioshock is a first person shooter, and as a first person shooter, you'd expect a bit of shooting. This game has that in abundance, as well of a fair amount of weapons to shoot with, starting small with a melee wrench, a revolver pistol, and giving you access to heavier weapons like a machine gun, a shotgun, and eventually some crazier weapons like a crossbow and a flamethrower as the game progresses. This is all well and good, but my biggest issue with the shooting in this game is probably more down to the times than the game itself, as Bioshock is a few years old now; it's a game that, in all fairness, doesn't feel like a new game. I didn't call this issue a negative in my Halo CE review, but it is something worth noting, compared to the fast, refined shooting of a game like Call of Duty, or even the shooting of subsequent Bioshock games, this game feels a bit clumsy. As the game progresses you also notice that as you get tougher and stronger, the splicers do to, a normal splicer killable with a few whacks with a wrench at first, will become a complete bullet sponge towards the end of the game, while the Big Daddies, the supposedly tougher enemies, become pushovers, it's just weird. What makes the shooting in Bioshock much more interesting, thankfully, is Plasmids, which are basically magic, plasmids give you the ability to shoot lightning from your hand, or fire, or ice, or bees, some of them get a bit strange. These are nice little party tricks at the start of the game, as you can stun enemies with lighting before killing them with a melee, or zap a puddle to kill a group of enemies, but as you unlock new plasmids and upgrade ones you already have, they start becoming much more formidable weapons, perhaps even more useful than conventional guns in some situations. What plasmid or plasmids you gravitate to will depend more on your play style, though some plasmids are definitely more useful than others, I enjoyed sticking to Incinerate, because I'm a pyromaniac I guess. Plasmids can also be used to exploit the environment, you can, as mentioned previously, zap a group of enemies in a puddle of water to kill them quick, you can also light puddles of oil on fire, trick Rapture's security systems to target the Splicers, and even hypnotise a Big Daddy to fight on your side, they're fun to play with. It does feel kind of clumsy that you can't use a plasmid and a gun at the same time, but it's not an enormous hindrance. The guns can be upgraded at stations around the city, ammo and supplies can be bought or crafted from vended machines, and you can buy and upgrade Plasmids and tonics, which are your passive abilities, at Gatherer's Garden machines. Here's where things get really interesting, to use the Gatherer's Garden, you must have Adam, a substance that can only be acquired from little sisters, but to get to the little sisters, you first have to go through their protectors; the Big Daddies. Big Daddies are big, hard hitting titans in diving suits that make for formidable opponents, taking one on is effectively a mini boss fight, one that gives you a decent amount of rewards afterwards, most notably, Adam. How much Adam you get depends on whether you save the little sisters, which gives you a bit of Adam and lets the girls live, or harvest them, which gets you more Adam and kills the girls in the process, it's odd that this would be called a moral choice, for obvious reasons, especially given that the long term rewards for saving them prove to be much more beneficial, plus you're not a child murderer if you save them.
Bioshock is, first and foremost, a masterpiece of Storytelling, its world is deep, no pun intended, and rich in history, its atmosphere is thick and unnerving, and its story is gripping and packing a brilliant twist. But while the Plasmids are admittedly huge fun to play with and to explore the possibilities of, the game suffers from some clumsy shooting, and while not as necessary as the shooting or plasmids, a terrible hacking mechanic. I guess this wasn't a short review after all, but while Bioshock's gameplay is undoubtedly its weakest element, it's still really interesting, and it's story is something you can write a philosophy essay about, it's great to have a story and a world that was thought about this in depth, no pun intended, it's the reason I like story driven games, and it's the reason I love Bioshock, it's why I'm saying it's an absolute must play.
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