Irrational Gaming launched a series of video games many years ago that would go on to become some of the highest-rated games ever to grace the PC and garner a vast fanbase. System Shock and its successor have appeared on several “Best Games of All Time” lists, elevating Irrational to the top tier of PC developers. The developer's finest work to date has now been published, effectively integrating a complex narrative with adaptive gameplay. BioShock is a spiritual sequel to the aforementioned PC classics, offering a completely realized universe with incredible gameplay mechanics and superb art design. BioShock is the best game of the year so far, and no player can miss it.
BioShock takes place in 1960 in Rapture, a self-contained undersea dystopia. Originally conceived as a sanctuary for artisans and the intellectual elite to study and test the boundaries of human ability on both a mental and genetic scale. However, like an Ayn Rand objectivist vision, the whole thing goes horribly wrong, turning the population into insane mutants addicted to ADAM, who are basically stemming cells capable of bestowing magical powers on their users. You play Jack, an enigmatic man whose plane crashes into the Atlantic Ocean in the midst of Rapture. However, as you advance through the game, you'll find that you may have more in common with Rapture than you expected...
You will be outfitted with a range of weapons and ammunition in Rapture, ranging from Tommy guns and pistols to grenade launchers. You'll get special ammunition for each weapon, such as armor-piercing bullets, and so on. You'll also be able to design your own ammo for each weapon, which is a pleasant touch. Plasmids, on the other hand, are much more fascinating than guns. Your plasmids' genetic enhancements made possible by ADAM would enable you to strike enemies with lightning bolts, set them ablaze, or even hypnotize a Big Daddy to battle alongside you. There are various plasmids spread throughout the level, each providing you with a specific skill for dispatching enemies or traveling to different areas of Rapture.
BioShock is a clever shooter, but not in the way that you must solve meaningless puzzles to advance. Instead, the game allows you to progress through circumstances that are strongly grounded in reality. Your plasmids and weapons would help you to determine the best possible course of action in a given situation. For eg, if a group of bad guys was standing around in a pool of water, you could either creep up on them and drop a bomb on them, or you could zap the pool of water in which they are standing and electrocute them all at once. The enemy is astute as well and can surround your position in order to stop your assaults. They'll do something like run into a puddle of water if they're set on fire or dash to a health station if they're about to die, leading to the game's immersion.
The Big Daddy is one such foe, as well as the game's unofficial mascot. There are more than a dozen of these hulking beasts wandering Rapture, each one defending a Little Sister, who are genetically modified monsters dressed like little girls and are the harvesters of ADAM in Rapture. When you beat a Big Daddy (which is no simple task), you will be given the option of harvesting or rescuing the Little Sister under their possession. Harvesting them will give you the most ADAM, but it will also kill the Little Sister. If you save them, they'll give you less ADAM, but they'll always be alive and thankful. Although how you deal with the Little Sisters is largely up to you, it will have an influence on the game's outcome.
Aside from the insane Rapture residents, you'll still have to deal with the city itself. Rapture has a slew of surveillance systems in operation, ranging from sensors that can dispatch security robots to apprehend you if you are detected to gun turrets. Fortunately, you would be able to use them in your favor and they can be hacked to fight for you rather than against you. Almost any piece of equipment in the game can be hacked using a mini-game akin to "Pipe Dream." Aside from the protection mechanism, you can hack vending machines to get better goods and costs, or health stations to get cheaper health and even poison weakened enemies that want to use them.
Even without the amazing art direction and style, BioShock is a beautiful-looking game solely on technical grounds. The bloom lighting is amazing, and the textures are also fantastic. The enemies, especially the imposing Big Daddies, are very scary, providing a great sense of tension and anticipation throughout the game. The incredible graphic direction in BioShock, on the other hand, is the game's true winning element. Rapture's world is brimming with personalities and style, from picket signs in the run-up to the great civil war that halted the city's progress, to demolished houses and stores, and so on. Rapture is a stunning, though destroyed, environment, and the team responsible for developing BioShock's universe has set a very high level.
BioShock is one of the titles that really defines computer games as a genuine art form. The universe is as rich and complex as anything you'll find in a film, and the excitement never wears off, holding you on track for a thrilling journey from start to finish.
