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Beautiful, scary, & fun!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 14
Date: August 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you haven't heard about this game, check out the videos on XBox Live or the demo: or the videos on other game review sites... It's a fun, cool game.

ART STYLE
Game is set in 1960, and the art style is a snazzy, art-deco style reminescent of Fallout (at least the fake "ads" in the game). The setting of the city on the bottom of the ocean is a visual treat along with the omni-present water that is leaking into most structures.

ACTION
The game mostly focuses on action and fun. The save system doesn't punish players for character death and encourages players to try out various strategies. The combination of plasmids ("magical" powers) and regular weapons makes for some entertaining ways of defeating enemies. If you like shooters, you'll take great pleasure setting up ambushes and responding to ambushes. This definitely is a first-person shooter, though the plasmids make this have somewhat of a feel of a role-playing game.

THEMES
The general theme is the fall of a utopia society. Rapture, the city, is literally falling apart and buckling under the weight of the ocean. You also have some moral choices to make during the course of the game.

Overall, the combination of everything is just right and its a extra fun (scary) to play at night.

You call THAT tenderloin ???

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 9
Date: August 29, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Bioshock is the greatest first-person shooter ever made, by quite a wide margin. But it is not a great game, merely a good one.

The story of Bioshock is passable, and while the style of exposition, in which the player learns more about the story by picking up and playing audio diaries, would have been a great addition to a game that was already story-based, it does not suffice to create a game that is story-based, on its own. There are virtually no cutscenes in the game, and while the diaries and radio transmissions are well-scripted and voiced, their characterization of the inhabitants of rapture quickly becomes redundant and superfluous, while their explication of the chain of events leading to the downfall of the attempted utopia remains oversimplified and unconvincing. Bioshock's is a story which ought to have been told from more angles.

The plot itself, while frequently advertised as revolutionary and ultimately surprising, seems literary only in comparison to those of other action video games, and if Bioshock were a screenplay for a feature film, the plot's resolution would almost certainly be rejected, not because of its self-proclaimed boldness, but rather because within the established canon of science fiction, it would be sen as hackeneyed beyond passability. There are four or five stories that have been told again and again in science fiction, with only the superficial details changed, and the story of Bioshock is one of these, verbatim.

The soundtrack to Bioshock is superb. Blasting one's way past drug-addled mutants in the ruins of restaurants and hospital waiting rooms, to the sound of pop hits from the 40's and 50's creates the kind of thematic redefinition of music seen in films such as David Lynch's Blue Velvet, and Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs. The art direction and virtual architecture in the game are also superb, but a couple of production issues detract from the player's enjoyment of being in Rapture. First, although the game supports surround sound, the direction of the speakers used to play the various sounds within the virtual environment, does not consistently correspond with the direction of their source, relative to the player. Being fired at from the left might result in the sound of gunfire being evenly mixed throughout all speakers, leaving the player with no audible clue as to the direction of the ambush. It is absurd for the game to support 5.1 and 7.1-channel sound, if it is not going to take advantage of obvious opportunities to use it. The second major technical flaw is in the lighting. Light sources in this game illuminate to an unrealistically high degree at close range, and an unrealistically low degree at long range. Frequently, a light bright enough to clearly illuminate its immediate surroundings, will not prevent a section of the same room, which is only fifteen feet away from the light, from remaining completely dark.

The gameplay is excellent, and although the enemies in this game are frequently stupid enough to come rushing into a corridor where they have you pinned, allowing you to engage them all from the front, rather than waiting in the adjacent open area for you to emerge from the corridor, the great physics in this game's combat more than compensate for the lackluster AI, which is partly explained by the game's story. There is a realistic feel to using the weapons, and at any given time, there are a few different feasible tactical approaches to combat, of which charging in Rambo-style is usually the worst. Compared to games like Resident Evil 4, there is almost an overavailability of ammo and healing items in this game, which makes returning through rooms that have already been cleared of enemies to scavenge for them, whenever the player has been weakened from battle, almost too powerful of a strategy, which detracts from the necessity to use ammo and Eve efficiently and take a minimal number of hits. There is also no penalty for dying in this game, but it's not as big of a problem as the overabundance of items, because players looking for a challenge can always choose to return to their last save position every time they die, rather than taking advantage of the infinite, free respawns which the game offers them.

If you're new to First-Person Shooters, this is a good game to start with, because it was designed to be finishable by almost anyone. If you like great stories, but for whatever reason, you never read or watch movies, then you might like this game for its story, because it is actually pretty decent by video game standards. If you're a hardcore gamer, you might like this game for a while, just because it's fun, and it has interesting level design and combat physics. And if you're a first-person shooter fan, you'll almost certainly like this game, because it excels in most areas, compared to other first-person shooters. I can't honestly think of many categories of gamers who wouldn't like this game at least a little bit. But like the majority of other games, it would be very hard to argue that this is a work of art, and harder yet to argue that it is an important one.

Simply amazing game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 9
Date: August 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Forget everything you've heard about any great 360 game to date, BioShock has taken that crown achievement for the moment. Whether it will weather the storms of Mass Effect, Halo 3 or Call of Duty 4 is yet to be seen though. I can tell you this, this game is going to likely be a most serious contender for game of the year!

For 360 owners, this game is all that and a bag of chips. If you own a 360, YOU MUST buy this game. The only people that will not find this game enjoyable at the moment will be the PS3 owners, who will likely get a taste later on down the road. But hey, who needs fantastic games for their $500-600 game console when they can just watch BluRay movies all day, right?

The most overrated game in the history of games

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 26 / 74
Date: September 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you google on the article "BioShock - Overrated Disneyland Ride", I share many of the sentiments. I just don't understand what game you reviewers were playing. It sure wasn't BioShock. I will try my best to not sound like yet another "This sucks" kind of person. The graphics are amazing; the spotlight lighting and shading is pretty advanced. Sometimes the enemy characters are so in the dark, they are hard to make out, but their features look pretty believable. I also liked the Big Daddy character mulling around. The story itself is also ok; a little different from the humans against the aliens shooters we are used to. But, I am paying $60 to actually play a game not to foam at the mouth for eye-candy.

First, the gameplay is just so amazingly basic; You pick up guns, ammo, plasmids and you run around the dungeon like environment as characters pop up or the occasional turret or flying thingy. This may not be so bad except for the fact that you don't really get to use your full range of motions. You don't ever have to attack somebody above you or below you. It is a basic forward shooting, dungeon FPS (almost kind of reminded me of Doom 1). Oh yea, all of that is kind of pointless because if you aren't strapped for time, you can just respawn and finish off your characters without any real penalties.

Let's look at Halo2 or Gears of War, for example. In Halo 2, you might have to take out a bunch of weaker characters close up and then snipe the more difficult ones from a distance while using your soldiers as bait. In Gears, it is the same thing; you are ducking behind walls corners so you don't get toasted by the Boomers, hoping your friendly characters might kill something. In Bioshock, I just kind of ran around clubbing people with the wrench because I never really had any ammo. I was bored to tears.

Not a big deal, but what happened to Animation sequences or End chapter sequences. All I am getting is that silly radio message popup or maybe a diary message which I won't normally listen to. Those aren't very exciting and makes it hard to appreciate the story.

Maybe I am wrong, It could be possible. I am flexible in my analysis of the game if you want to comment on it.

And I am only at 60% completion, so maybe that other 40% is where the amazing part of the game is. I don't know. To be honest, I don't think I can continue.

Almost Perfect FPS

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: August 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The story of Rapture and Bioshock is second to none. Im probably about 25% completed with the game right now, and it already beats out Gears of War in my opinion. The graffix, gameplay, story, etc, are all top tier. Rapture is so deep that Im still finding out new things every few minutes it seems. The single player campaign is just amazing... which is a good thing because Bioshock doesnt have a multiplayer. But, if you want the best multiplayer- get Gears. If you want an engrossing story and unique weapons/powers and story- get Bioshock. Unless you dont like FPS, of course. Even then, this does FEEL different than any other FPS Ive played thus far. Its definately different (I dont want to spoil anything, so my review can only be 'so' detailed). Bottomline- Recommended.

EDIT: I have completed the game twice to get both endings... Man, they are pretty lame. I played this game for probably 40 hours total and it was worth it for sure (Im a family man, so this kind of time is abnormal). But for such a great game as it is- the endings fall short. It doesnt ruin the game one bit, but it does keep the game from being perfect. Its still recommended all the same, but the endings had to be mentioned- they are that bad. (9/10 score from me after completing the game). Not bad at all.

Sorry PS3-only owners...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: August 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I thought that 2K just killed it on sports games... I completely lucked into this one. I'm not one to check up on games or read gaming sites - just happened to be in the store and saw this. Heard the security guy at the entrance talking about it, and remembered that I had heard some mumbling about this on the NEWS (first clue). So I picked it up - something I rarely do without knowing much about a game. I honestly haven't played it as much as some of the other people here presumably have (yet), but from what I HAVE seen I can safely say this: If you're a fan of FPS's, then this is a definite MUST OWN, right up there with Gears of War and Rainbow Six: Vegas.

The premise may still be a bit beyond my grasp for the moment; it's been mentioned in the other reviews TO DEATH, so I won't go into it further. (most likely, if you're reading reviews on it, you've at least heard of the game and it's somewhat controversial moral judgment element)

Graphically, it's AT LEAST the second prettiest game on the 360, maybe a a little ways off from Gears (arguably the prettiest-looking game to date) is... and definitely just as fun and scary/unsettling, if for completely different reasons. The water effects in this game are second to none. The sound is on par with that of Gears - which is extraordinary. The interactive nature of your environment and the ingenuity of the gameplay push it over the top for me.

**Look out for that Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare... may have some competition for Game of the Year there. Oh, and something about a Halo...**

Would you kill a child to get ahead?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: January 01, 2008
Author: Amazon User

"Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end, giving them peace and rest at last, but that it was essential and inevitable to torture to death one tiny creature -- that baby beating its breast with its fist, for instance -- and to found that edifice on its unavenged tears, would you consent to be the architect on those conditions?"

--Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

========================================

I didn't really want BioShock. The name didn't exactly thrill me, and the concept was a little hazy. Some guy underwater in the 50s being attacked by weird monsters in diving suits? What the heck was that all about? But my brother talked the game up so much that I put it on my wish list. I got it for my birthday and was instantly hooked.

BioShock has a vision, just like its creator/villain, Andrew Ryan (Armin Shimerman). And that vision is Rapture, an underwater city built with 1940s style architecture and Ayn Rand's (note the similarities to Andrew Ryan's name) principles. You are plane crash survivor named Jack and you are trapped in a hell that was once supposed to be Eden.

BioShock's central philosophical question is the plight of children. There are Little Sisters wandering throughout the complex, little girls who have been merged with some kind of mutant parasite that allows them to process ADAM from dead bodies. ADAM is a mutagen that bestows superpowers on whomever uses them, which puts the girls in a precarious position. Fortunately for them, they are protected by Big Daddies, diving suit-wearing behemoths with drills and rivet guns.

Running around Rapture are the shattered remains of civilization, the Splicers. These poor people are deranged; listening to them at length is a sanity-straining experience. Warped by their own mutations, Splicers argue with each other, weep over their fate, and of course try to kill you. Throw in a series of automated weaponry and robots dedicated to snuffing out all who cross Ryan's path and you've got one exciting first-person shooter.

BioShock is retro-sci-fi, all viewed through a 50s lens. There are hilarious instructional videos that explain how the various mutations work, vending machines that cheerfully solicit you, and public service announcements worthy of a Leave it to Beaver episode.

BioShock is well written. The plots take twists and turns and the villains aren't who you'd think. It's well acted too. You meet very few sane people, but interactions are largely through old-style cassette tapes that play in creepy, grainy fashion as you stalk the halls of Rapture. I'll still be haunted by one actor screaming, "I CAN'T TAKE OFF THE F****ING EARS!" over and over.

The graphics are phenomenal. Fire and water are rendered realistically, with bits of water beading on the screen. The Splicers are all creepy, from mask-wearing debutantes to crazy doctors in surgical masks, to Spider Splicers who crawl along the ceiling. And the Big Daddies are disturbing and a little pathetic, groaning and moaning as they pound their way through Rapture.

The game play is fun. A variety of styles can be used to win the game. Bad at combat (like me)? No problem; hack the robots and automated weapon systems using a series of tube puzzles. I'm a sucker for puzzle games, so the hacking really hooked me and kept the game from ever getting boring. I got really good at hacking. More than once I turned the entire security system against the bad guys. Using the right mutations, you can be stealthy, you can just blast your way through, or you can even turn your enemies against each other.

BioShock also gets all the basics of gameplay right. If you get lost, it tells you where to go. It helpfully lists your goals. A map is always available. These should be ingrained in every game created post 2000, and yet it's far too rare.

But back to the Little Sisters. The main question BioShock asks is: would you harm a little girl to get ahead? Maybe it's just the fact that I have a newborn son, but I found the idea revolting. You're given a choice with every Little Sister you rescue, harvesting her or saving her. Harvesting kills the girl and garners more ADAM, while saving her gives you less ADAM but the gratitude of their creator (who gives you a gift for every three girls you save). It struck a chord with me, and soon I was determined to save every one of the little girls.

I thought this was just yet another means of BioShock hooking you into the game. But in actuality your decisions in how you treat the Little Sisters affects BioShock's conclusion. The Little Sisters are integral to the plot and how the game ends. They are the future, the future Ryan claimed he wanted but could never see.

Everyone else I've spoken to gleefully cracked the little girls open and took their stuff. As one gamer put it, "I'm a powergamer and that helped me get ahead faster, so of course I killed them." I still find that notion chilling. In fact, the very first opportunity to harm or save a Little Sister is very traumatic, with the little girl begging for her life. I couldn't bear the thought of killing one, even in a sci-fi video game. Maybe I'm getting soft.

In the end, BioShock isn't just a retro sci-fi shooter. It's a moral test. Of us.

========================================

"No, I wouldn't consent," said Alyosha softly.

--Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Buy it, buy it, dear god, f'ing buy it

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: August 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is hands down the best Xbox 360 game to date, and not much on the 360 will match it, even Halo. This game has no multiplayer, there for it had to have a killer story, and it does. The visuals are breath taking, the action is unpredictable even a second or third time around. Only a hand full of games will have a chance at taking it down, and halo isnt one of them cause its not original anymore. Haze and Crisis are its only real deal original competitors, but thats off topic.

This game has a great chance at Game of the Year. So as i said, buy it, keep it, you sell it, your dumb and deserve the red lights of death.

So, "Would you kindly" buy it

One of the best games of all time.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: August 29, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I'd like to write a long review like others have, however, I will just get the point. Buy this game. It is one of the best games of all time. From the story, to the graphics, to the atmosphere, etc, this game will hook you from the get go. Buy-it and remind yourself why you are a gamer.

Closest thing to Metroid you can get on Xbox.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: August 31, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is a thinking persons first person shooter. With out a little forethought this game will eat you alive. Do everything right and you'll be slicing through the opposition...or bashing, if you prefer bludguning enemies with a wrench. With a story to rival everything in hollywood and better than many books as well.

If you have any knowledge (but it is not required) of Ayn Rand's philosophy you'll love the many references to her work. If you're a fan of her's you probably will not like the fact that the entire game is a refutation of her system of beliefs--complete with examples of why Objectivism can never work.

Great controls, even better weapons and powers with graphics to die for.

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