Bioshock Review Xbox 360

Here’s my brief review of Bioshock for the Xbox 360.

Bioshock comes from Irrational Games, now known as 2K Boston and 2K Australia, the developers of the System Shock II and Freedom Force. It has garned numerous awards from the gaming media at this and prior years of E3 and other gaming conventions. It has this huge buzz surrounding it as being the game to revolutionize first person shooters on both the Xbox 360 and the PC. Personally, I’m not a big FPS fan. But with all this hype around Bioshock, I figured I’d give it a shot and see how it is.

The Premise

If you’ve played the demo on the 360, you’ve got a pretty good idea of the setting. If you haven’t, I’ll give you my high level overview. The year is 1960, you’re sitting in an air plane looking over a photograph when all of the sudden, your plane crashes and you end up in the ocean somewhere. Apparently there are no other survivors. It’s your job at this point to find your way to land and ultimately safety. But boy do things turn south quickly.

You find this lighthouse, but beneath this lighthouse is an underwater city. Think Atlantis, but on steroids. This is Rapture. This is the creation of one Andrew Ryan. This is what hell would be like if instead of hellfire and brimstone, you had vending machines full of injectable steroids that allowed the entire population to run rampant raping and pillaging one another, all for sciencentific research purposes.

Graphics

At its core, Bioshock is based on the new and improved Unreal 3 Engine. It’s a beautiful game, running at 720p on the 360. You have the ability to change the frames per second from 30 to 60, which to my knowledge is a first in a console game. Though be warned that there is some slight tearing when running at 60FPS, but it’s a huge difference in how the game looks and feels (lower quality for higher FPS).

Gameplay

Bioshock brings a unique experience to the FPS genre. Think of a cross of Prey, Doom, and Shadowrun and you have Bioshock. The use of Plasmids allows for shooting bolts of lightning, picking up objects and throwing them at enemeies (telekinesis), throwing fire at your enemies, etc. You also have the ability to use the standard fair of weapons (pistol, shotgun, wrench, etc) but what you also have the ability to do is mix and match ammo to create your own kind of ammunition. This is a unique element that hasn’t been done before in an FPS.

You also have the ability to “hack” machines. What I mean by hack is there are various security bots or vending machines throughout Rapture. The security bots are designed to harm you, but with a jolt of lightning you can stun the bot and go through a mini-game to hack the bot to be on your side. This offers numerous strategic advantages to you in your quest to get the fuck out of Rapture alive. Hacking vending machines also allows for you to buy goods cheaper. Though if I were able to hack a vending machine, I’d expect to get what I’m hacking for free.

Audio

If you don’t have a surround sound system. Get one. The audio in Bioshock is in one word: awesome. Enemies come at you from various directions and having bi-directional audio helps in determining where they are coming from.

The music is also set back in the 1950s/1960s, which gives the game that errie vibe, especially when no one else is around. Think old school horror flicks with that creepy record player playing in the background right before something scary was about to happen. That’s the kind of vibe I got while playing Bioshock. It’s way cool.

Online

There is none. So don’t bother. Irrational Games wanted to focus on keeping the game a single player experience, but wouldn’t rule out a multiplayer version sometime down the road. With the success Bioshock is about to experience, don’t rule out a sequel, with some possible multiplayer elements in the future.

Overall

All in all, Bioshock is a great game (in the time I’ve had with it) that offers a unique experience with a great story and pacing. Mixing the ammo and the introduction of Plasmids are interesting elements in the FPS genre that give Bioshock different take than other games of its type. There’s also this underlying middle finger to the government in an Orwellian sense that Rapture provides with its anti-government propoganda that takes you back to the post WWII time period. Take your time with the game and pay attention to the underlying message. Very deep compared to most games in its class.

Rating: Thumbs up.