theworldisgrey

Bioshock

I need to get back on the whole writing thing, been busy planning my next trip to Indonesia and working on a very important project with work to get much done here. But to the point of this entry. When I was younger, it seemed like there were a few games released each year that became classics. Now the number has dwindled to maybe 1 or 2 games every year. This year’s game is definitely Bioshock. This post is likely to have spoilers, if you haven’t played the game yet, you may not want to read more.

Bioshock is set in a city called Rapture, which was built on the floor of the Atlantic ocean in the 1940’s. It was built as a city were capitalism would not be regulated (You have to pay to use pretty much everything, but you can also buy out security), science would not have to follow ethics, and artists would be allowed to do anything without being censored. No religion but money.

Life in the city goes well for awhile. Expected class divisions develop. Criminal organizations develop in the lower classes to smuggle in goods and subvert the economic structure of Rapture. Tensions develop between Andrew Ryan, the leader of the city, and Frank Fontaine the leader of the criminal underground.

Things change when Fontaine comes possession of a special type of sea slug. This sea slug has a mutated stem cell, called by the citizen of Rapture, ADAM. ADAM, when used in the human body, can regenerate parts that have been damaged. But it can also be used to give people abilities and powers that they would otherwise never have. In this city, this makes Fontaine really popular. And many of the residents take advantage of ADAM.

Tension between Ryan and Fontaine erupt into a war. Which ends with Fontaine supposedly dead, and Ryan taking over Fontaine’s plasmid industry.

Because of the lack of ethics when it came to ADAM and plasmids, They never did work to realize the size effects of it. ADAM, while it can be used to provide powers and abilities to people, works in some ways like a cancer. It basically made everyone in the city insane. They become known as splicers.

You come into the story with a plane crash at the entrance to rapture. Without giving away anything, you basically are a pawn in the war between Ryan and Fontaine. I really can’t give any more of the story without giving significant spoilers to the plot. But would you kindly read on.

While there is nothing with this game that is particularly new or novel. What it is, has been done very well. Like many Blizzard games, while not necessarily inventive with anything, they are incredibly well polished.

In many first person shooter type games, the plot is very superfluous. Its basically just to give you a reason to be shooting at the bad guys. In Bioshock, you are the plot. The plot of the game revolves around your actions. The back story is given in pieces throughout the game. With everything from audio diaries you pick up, to radio communications from other characters still living in Rapture. The back story does a really good job at foreshadowing who you are and the plot that builds around you.

The game play is also well done. In essense, there are so many ways you can play Bioshock. You can go through the game with guns blazing, killing all your enemies as you would in most first person shooters. You can go through the game sneaking up on enemies and smacking them over the head, kinda like the Thief series. You can make creative use of your plasmid powers to make enemies kill each other, or get a big daddy to protect you. Also, you can use combinations of any of those to have quite a bit of fun.

While graphics may not be top of the line (though pretty close), the art direction is amazing. They did a very job bringing art deco style to the city and its architecture. It fits right into the story, giving it an eerie atmosphere. The city may be underwater, but its leaking, badly. Disrepair and chaos have left the city in a sorry state and that is evidenced in the design and art direction of the game.

The game is not perfect. But most of its downsides are really nit picky stuff. The ending is a bit abrupt, does not lead out very well like a good story should. Some of the game play does get a bit repetitive by the end of the game. Although you can switch it up and start playing with a different style of you want. But even with those small flaws, its a very good game.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 14th, 2007 at 2:45 pm and is filed under Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.