Bioshock

Gaming For Geezers

Bioshock

Summary: This game does not suck. Buy it. Good example of new thinking and creativity that generates a single player only game that can be replayed every year.

Single Player Play

The plot: You are the sole survivor of ocean plane crash. You just happen to crash near the entrance to an underwater city built by a fascist. Picture Donald Trump building an underground world. But in this world the Donald doesn’t hold back on his opinions of the governments that hold him back. You are contacted by a strange voice on a radio. He informs you that the underground city, Rapture, is in disarray, the lunatics are running the asylum, literally, and you must help him free his family from the facist overlord’s grasp.

To top it off, the City’s progenitors developed a gene altering system that allows you to shoot fire out of your hands. This of course needs a power source to allow you to do it, which is called Adam. It should be no surprise to you that Adam must be harvested from dead people by 4 year old girl/zombies who are accompanied by automatons in hyped up deep sea diving suits. The girls use a nasty syringe to jab corpses repeatedly all the while carrying on a conversation with their protectors referring to them as “Mr. Bubbles.” Ok, maybe that is a surprise, but I am not making it up either. This is also one aspect of the game that combines with a thoughtful attention to the audio and visual detail to make it entirely compelling.

The game progresses on and you have to complete tasks in several separate sections of the city, all the while urged on by the mysterious person who just happens to one of four sane human beings left in the whole world. We assume this is because they haven’t altered their genetic codes with the Adam, but it is generally strange that they are the only ones left.

Why this Single Player Game without an On Line Option does not suck.

Sometimes a single player game will overcome the lack of an on line multiplayer option to get to our “does not suck list.” This is one of them. Here are the primary reasons.

1, The visual environment. This is a totally new concept in the first person shooter environment, and the developers built it correctly. You are in an underwater city, it leaks, the graphics are awesome. More importantly, you never have any repetition. It is quite easy for game programmers to recycle wall textures and rooms here and there with a few alterations. In Bioshock, there is no repetition. You don’t notice this at first, but as you progress through the levels you will become more and more amazed at the level of detail applied to the environments. Underground forests, medical facilities, and stores all look very very rich in their detail. This attention to detail is evident in other areas of this game as well.

2. The audio environment. This aspect of the game may be a better testimony to the love and affection the developers have for the game. Every single material detail of your environment makes a well intentioned audio response. The lunatics who try and kill you throughout the game can be heard talking to themselves around corners. You can tell they are in a big room or a tight space. You can feel their derangement in their voices. The dialogue is kind of scary after awhile. Your ammunition, supply and Adam stations also make excellent sounds. “Welcome to the Circus of Values” will become a familiar and welcome sound.

3. Guns and Adam. Ok, this is the same thing as any first person role playing game with swords and magic, only here it is called weapons and Adam. Here however, the decisions are delivered with some depth. You need to purchase the right Adam/spells with your limited resources. Your choice of ammunition can be meaningful if you run out as in most games, but you can also collect parts to make unusual ammunition such as exploding shotgun shells or incendiary crossbow bolts. You have to decide. (Build the incendiary bolts).

4. Little Sisters. Ok, I have two girls, so I am a sucker for this aspect of the game. But it is also the most distinguishing factor that contributes to the non suckiness of Bioshock. As most of you know, your journey through a first person shooter is typically a linear journey. You start, you are usually a white, brown haired American around six feet tall who by some quirk of fate or your genetics are placed in a situation where you are going to save the world, or destroy it through your shortcomings. Even then, you can replay the game and save the world using a saved game that the rest of us do not enjoy. This is no different peering down on Bioshock from the surface. However, you have a moral decision to make throughout this game when you come across these little sisters/Adam gleaning zombies. You can either harvest the Adam from their own bodies, or free them, turning them from zombies back to the cute and innocent 4 year olds they were when they were abducted into the Adam harvesting service.

I couldn’t stand the idea of killing a four year old girl, so I never considered harvesting one for my benefit, even in this fake world. I am told there is an alternative ending to this game if you do harvest them, but I think that makes you a sick fuck if you do, so suck my balls. Me and my overweight middle aged ass will kick your depraved butt if you argue otherwise. However, this may be a distinction lost on the younger readers because I sometimes well up during a McDonald’s commercial if there are hungry kids in the screen shot.

Deep breath. Anyway, this part of the game distinguishes your gameplay from the formulaic journey we are all used to and makes it very compelling. You find yourself actually caring about these pixels on the screen. The end cut scenes after you save the world actually brought tears to my eyes the first time I played it.

Summary: Same as above.

Publisher: 2k Games

Platforms PC – we don’t care about any other platform

Published: Summer 2007

Publisher Site: http://www.2kgames.com/bioshock

Best Help/FAQ Site: http://www.gamespot.com/features/6176968/index.html

Purchase Price as of 7/6/10: $19.99 new.