Somewhere, Beyond the Sea…

Posted under Review, Thrillhouse17, XBL Radio by Thrillhouse17

Would you kindly enjoy Bioshock?

Bioshock doesn’t feel like a game, which is perhaps the finest praise a video game can receive. An “experience” is a more fitting description, for it succeeds at fully immersing you within the world it creates. This is an adventure that deserves to be taken, and one you won’t soon forget.

A plane crashes into the middle of the ocean, and one lone survivor discovers a mysterious lighthouse - a structure which serves as entrance to the underwater city of Rapture. Intended as an underwater utopia, where citizens could live without the oppressiveness of government, religion, and politics (the cause of all unrest), Rapture was a city of hope, where merit was earned and unjustly taken from no one, a haven for science, with the desire to improve the human species. This ideology, flawless though it may seem, failed to take into account humanities many faults, and Rapture crumbled into a city of violence, carnage, and desperation.

This is where Bioshock begins. There are two stories to be told, one telling the rise and fall of Rapture, the other of our character, and they eventually intertwine. The strongest aspect is not the story’s quality (which admittedly borrows elements from other works), but the way in which it slowly unravels. Told primarily through radio conversations, both real time contacts and hidden prerecorded messages, the story slowly guides you, revealing secrets, and hinting at others. Everything surrounding you, every little detail in the environment, contributes to the story of once was. The luggage of deserters strewn by exits, the mangled bodies of the religious hanging from walls, the chatter of citizens realizing what they’ve become, the PA systems chiming propaganda – the story isn’t told to you, it is there for you to experience. The game is the story.

The amount of detail, and care, taken in crafting Rapture is astounding, and perhaps this game’s biggest strength. Everything, no matter how small – from the posters lining the walls, to the mangled carcasses encountered – is there for a reason. They all contribute in making the city real. Each section of the city is different, and serves a purpose. No two areas are quite alike, each is unique, and are logically organized. You understand why this building was constructed, why props are scattered about, what purpose they served, and what events transpired prior to its destruction. There are no superfluous extra areas, no buffer corridors; every area discovered has logical reasoning behind it. There is so much history to be discovered that it almost overwhelms.

There is extreme attention to detail in every aspect of Bioshock. Graphically, this is arguably the best-looking console game yet. Your character’s hands look incredible. (You’ll notice chain tattoos on his wrists, an underlying theme in the game. Again, detail.) The weapons look fantastic, and as they upgrade and acquire moving parts look even more remarkable. The smoke and gas exhausts they release after having been fired, and how it trails following your movement is subtle, yet look and you’ll appreciate it. The environments are detailed and stylized. Water pours from every facet (and wow, does it look good), letting the surface shimmer and reflect light. Fire dances, casting shadows across empty hallways. Character models are all appropriately eerie (Splicers), foreboding (Big Daddies), and deceptively innocent (Little Sisters), and animate just as well. The graphics are nearly flawless.

The style of Bioshock is worthy of mention. Having been constructed in the 1950s, Rapture has a wonderfully timeless, almost fairy tale, art deco feel. The instructional videos, the statues erected honoring the city’s founders, the carnival inspired vending machines, the music playing from the jukebox – they paint the setting for this tale, and remind us of an innocent time. It is this innocence, this example of the utopia Rapture could have been, that makes the horrors so significant. The dichotomy of good and evil, of hope and despair is ever-apparent thanks to this stylistic choice. Walking into a hospital who’s walls feature friendly cartoon advertisements (some advertising cigarettes, a nice very 1950s touch) hanging above a body mutilated beyond recognition, or listening to Mozart while fending off crazed madmen creates a very powerful contrast between the beauty of what was, and the abomination it now is.

Sound is often overlooked, but in Bioshock it takes center stage. The crack of ice, the snapping of flames, the gush and dripping of water, the incessant babbling of the crazies, the long deep bellow and screen shaking footsteps warning you a Big Daddy is near, the advertisements and public safety messages playing over the PA system, the excellent voice recordings and radio chatter – sound is another brush used to paint and create Rapture. Hearing enemies creep behind you, scraping pipes against the walls and floors, makes your skin crawl. Turn up the sub, prepare the 5.1, or thrown on good pair of headphones and you’ll be rewarded.

Sadly, Bioshock is not a flawless game. It’s puzzling that, while it awes on so many levels, perhaps the weakest element of all are the actual game aspects. The gun play is oddly average, the controls are slightly hampered, and difficulty is almost non existent. The weapons you are given, at least until upgraded, never seem to do the damage advertised. Head shots, which kill enemies early on, for no obvious reason fail to do so in later areas. The machine gun is perhaps the worst offender, as the controls and auto aiming when using it fail, compared with other shooters. Plasmid selecting becomes problematic. Countless times I’ve faced enemies throwing grenades, or turrets shooting missiles, and haven’t been able to select telekinesis in time due to the controller’s limitations. Practically every button is used, and the LB is designated to Plasmid selection. You can either cycle through them, hoping you’ll reach it in time, or press and hold, prompting a selection wheel to appear on screen. The problem with this is that it takes roughly half a second for the wheel to appear, and a split second for your character’s hand to change. This time, as insignificant as it may seem, can be the difference between success and failure, and is unintuitive and frustrating. Weapon selection is handled the exact same way, only via RB. I understand that this is more a hardware fault than software, as there are only so many buttons available, yet it happens frequently enough that it is worth mentioning.

The difficulty of the game is hard to judge. The beginning of the game is actually the most difficult part, as you haven’t unlocked any Plasmids or weapon upgrades – but there is no penalty for death. You are simply revived at the nearest vita chamber (the game’s invisible checkpoints), and free to continue. There is no incentive to not die, aside from some time wasted regaining your original position. Normal enemies pose no real threat. The true threats are the Big Daddies. While they are technically neutral, and won’t attack unless attacked, they are the final barriers between you and the Little Sisters. At the beginning of the game initiating battle is seemingly suicide. You simply lack the abilities and experience needed to tackle this adversary. However, by the end they are almost nothing more than an inconvenience.

The game also teases with possibility of choice and consequences, without ever really delivering. After having killed a Big Daddy you are forced into a decision: will you kill the Sister, making yourself stronger, or will you save her, forfeiting power? This decision is prompted prior to each Sister harvest/freeing, yet kill one Sister and you’ve cemented your fate. The game has two possible outcomes, black or white, and sadly doesn’t seem to have any grays. I will say that the story did in fact make me remorse my decision, but I would have like more variables.

Yet, despite the shortcomings, Bioshock is a masterpiece, a rare work of fiction that truly envelops the user. Video games have the potential of not just telling a story, but letting you briefly live it, of transporting you inside and stimulating every sense. Rarely is this potential realized, and that is why a game such as Bioshock is all the more appreciated. Enjoy it, take your time with it, and appreciate everything that has been lain before you. This truly was a labor of love.

Presentation: The bar by which every game should be judged. Simply a marvel to behold.
Controls: Sadly suffer from wanting to cram too many options onto too few buttons.
Graphics: Stunning, the detail is awe-inspiring. The style, and its impact, is unrivaled.
Sound: An equal contributor to the presentation. Lesser games should be ashamed.
Replay: The story is a healthy 15-20 hours long, but take your time exploring every offering of Rapture and 25 hours will fly by.
Overall: A very strong contender for Game of the Year. Would you kindly enjoy it?