The story of the game is likely to be as deep and involving as its spiritual predecessors, though in keeping the faith, you’re presented with minimal details from the outset. Throughout the game, you will slowly learn and find out what has happened. It’s done through cinematic sequences, radio communications with other characters and a bunch of tape recorders that are found lying around the place - similar to the PDA's in Doom 3 but spoken and much more engaging. Still, the basic premise is that you’ve crashed into an ocean and managed to find yourself in the underwater city of Rapture. Originally primed as a “utopia”, you’ll find that the feces have hit the fan and you can either help out the survivors or take over yourself.
Welcome to Rapture. This place is in the poop.
Really, that is the VERY basic premise and really doesn’t cover what the game has to offer. Furthermore, we only got to play through the first three portions of the game and they didn’t really get to the point where the true nature of the game was revealed. For a game that promises to be very open ended and full of choice, the first two portions really held us relatively by the hand. Effectively, these were pretty much the "tutorial" portions. Still, the reason for this was really to introduce players to what you can do and what the game has to offer.
And really, if the first two portions are any indication, the game is holding up exceptionally well. While a lot of the encounters were driven by tense and eerie set pieces, once you got to them, the enemies tended to act different every time. The enemy reactions were quite interesting as well, as they’d react very feverishly if they knew that someone was there to hurt them, or not at all if they didn't know. Furthermore, a lot of the time they would act as if things were going about "normally". Otherwise, the game so far is a splendid mix of exploration and fending for your life. Speaking of enemies, you’ve got boss characters that will run off and heal themselves and of course, the Big Daddies. All of them can be tackled in variety of ways and all pose a great threat to your existance.
There are two forms of combat in BioShock. Not only do you have a nice selection of reasonably heavy weaponry, but thanks to the marvels of stem cell science, you are also able to turn your own body into a weapon, using genetic modifications called “plasmids”. There are apparently eight standard weapons in the game, each with different types of bullets and upgrades. Be aware though, ammo is scarce so you might have some difficulty after a while if you go all out. The plasmid powers are essentially bio-upgrades that you can get to enhance your own abilities. They’re credited with sending Rapture to the poop and add an interesting twist to your arsenal.
Don't invite us to that party.
In the first three hours of the game, you are already able to obtain a number of plasmids, expanding your corporeal powers. The first that you’ll find is Electrocute. Not only can you shock enemies, you can fry them while they stand in water and also short circuit doors, turrets and security drones. Secondly, you’ll earn Incinerate, which can melt ice, and set enemies alight. When they try to wash it off, you can electrocute them. Finally, we saw the telekinesis power, which allowed us to grab, catch and shoot projectiles. Not only were all powers useful on the offence, all of them had peripheral purposes as well. To add to all this, hacking makes a return and it's similar to how it was in System Shock. Hacking is again useful, because instead of frying a turret or camera, you can bring them to help you rather than go against you.
While we didn’t really get the chance to see that much of it, the game is trying to really put the choices into the hands of the player. One example of this, and one that looks to be pervasive through the game, were the Little Sisters. These freaky little girls (often accompanied by a Big Daddy) are the primary source of “Adam”, the substance that can be used to increase the scope of your powers. The choice is whether to “harvest” the Adam, thereby getting a lot, or by “saving” the girl and getting a little bit. The consequences? Well, you’ll just have to play the game and see for yourself. Still, we have to say that it’s an incredibly intriguing premise so far.
When we asked how long gamers can expect the BioShock narrative to last, Irrational reps were hesitant to commit to a solid number of hours – and understandably so. From what we saw, much of the more detailed aspects of the game (for example, gleaning information about Rapture and its fascinating history, little by little) is optional, meaning that the player can choose to move quickly through the game, completing the bare minimum, or to relish in the finer details, and explore the darkest corners of Rapture. Having seen little more than the first few levels, we couldn’t reasonably put an estimate on the number of hours it would take a seasoned player to rush through the game. Finally, we found that the controls, even on the Xbox 360, were quite refined.
Who is your daddy?
The level of immersion created by the graphics and sound were really something else. In terms of the structures and how smoothly the game was running, BioShock was stellar. It’s been said elsewhere, but it needs to be said again: the water effects in this game are quite possibly the best we've ever seen. Not to mention, the development team have managed to create an excellent and entirely appropriate setting. Not only does it manage to be unique, but it manages to be stunning as well. The tense and creepy horror-driven atmosphere works extremely well. The sound is something on its own as well. It’s hard to describe but once you put both of these elements together, you really feel like you are there.
From what we’ve see of BioShock, we’ve really only scratched the surface. We won’t know the true potential of the game until we’ve seen how open and how consequential our choices really are in the final version. But from what we’ve seen so far, the game looks like it’s on the track to live up to the lofty and ambitious premise put forward by the developers and the hype that has been generated by the media.
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