Bioshock

I’m glad I finally decided to check out what all the fuss was about – even though it’s been many years since I’ve actually liked a first-person shooter. In my view Goldeneye messed them up, and they were much better when they played like Duke Nukem 3D or Quake. I half-heartedly played through Unreal, but since then, only Portal has engaged me, and that can only just be called an FPS – as after all, you don’t ‘die’, you're not using offensive weaponry and it’s more a puzzle game than anything else.

Bioshock is similarly different from the macho games about blasting away soldiers or spraying bullets into wave after wave of aliens. Its key elements are not its guns or action – they are the plot, the atmosphere and the melding of horror and sci-fi into a genre where it’s usually one or the other, and without nearly such a clever concept.

The story of Bioshock takes place in the underwater city of Rapture. Built in the 50s, with the story happening some ten years later, it is an amazing construction but creaky, grimy and themed on old diving suits and pre-60s entertainment. Rapture was also the site for various experiments – the use of ‘Adam’ to enhance human abilities and even give special powers, the necessary manufacture of oxygen, and the ‘vita chamber’ respawn points. At first you know nothing of who you are beyond that your plane crashed and you had no choice but to go to rapture, and just do as you are told by a stranger on a radio. Later, you find you have a personal connection to the founder of Rapture, and during a rather predictable plot twist, the way you have been blindly following orders (because it’s a game and there’s nothing else to do) becomes a rather clever and satisfying little plot point.

To be honest, I don’t think I played the game quite the way I was supposed to. I essentially hoarded all the ammo and hypodermics that I found, and killed 98% of the enemies, including bosses, with the wrench. This became progressively easier as power-ups made it more useful. The other 2% were big daddies, who I would just unload all my rockets and frag grenades on, knowing that I would be able to restock soon enough. Then there was the final boss, probably the lamest thing about the whole game, who I just strafed continuously, with more than enough ammo to finish him off five times over.

If anything, after the steep initial learning curve, I longed for the game to be harder. The big daddies were a challenge, and trying to take care of the last boss with just the wrench proved too much, but overall there was very little to hurt the player and what drove me on was mostly the story and atmospherics. In other words, I played the FPS like an RPG.

But story is what I like most about any game, and I’m very happy I spent the time with this one. I liked the creepy sections, where out-and-out horror scare tactics were used, and some of the more unhinged residents of Rapture were very memorable, like the artist who made a very silly masterpiece and demands you help him finish it with a murder spree.

There are three endings, and I was a little sad to discover I’d shut myself off from getting the good one after only just getting through the exposition. I would certainly have saved all the little sisters if I’d known, as the rewards they gave you really weren’t that good and by the end I had nothing to do with the Adam I got.

The game triumphs in its little details. The big daddies are of course iconic (and I would have preferred only bouncer-types, because the rosies were a bit lame) and I love the little sisters’ babble when they’re around them. ‘Hop hop, Mr Bubbles!’ The splicers are interesting, and though I can see how it would annoy a lot of people and it’s bizarre how all the action completely stops while you do it, I really liked the hacking mini-game. The creepy vending machines, the stupid flying guard bot things…all came together to make a charmingly unsettling game that I’m glad has a sequel and very possibly a movie in the works. I’ve already bought Bioshock 2 for the PS3, so I’ll get around to it before too long…