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No spoilers inside - excellent game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 17
Date: August 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Bioshock is a Sci-Fi Horror game set in the underwater city of Rapture which gave me, without a doubt, an amazing gaming expierience. To me, it seemed there has been a bit of a "dry spell" to good games lately, nothing notable has come out this year that gave me an original wow factor like Bioshock did. So what made it good? Well, let start with the gameplay...

At the core Bioshock has very fun and original gameplay where nothing is repetitive and even "respawns" that occur have interesting placement. It does have strong RPG elements, but you won't be selecting dialogue. Rather your actions speak louder than words in your choices as they present themselves as you move along the city of Rapture. I believe the gameplay was so strong of the PC version because the folks who made it are primarily PC developers rather than console jockeys. There is lots of key bindings that make sense and are customizable and everything in your arsenal is easy to get to, which was quite a feat considering how many tools you have at your disposable to combat the denizens of the underwater freak capitol of the world. The AI is quite amazing and above Half-Life 2's in my opinion, where the hostile folks you meet will do everything in their power to get away from your damage and give you theirs in kind (I won't say how, because that will be part of your fun!).

One of the standouts for me was the sound. The repetitive mumblings of the baddies you have to meet aren't too persistant and various enough to give you entertainment without listening to the same guys over and over chanting "Doom to you!" or something similiarily annoying.

The producers of the game mentioned quite a bit pre-release how there is many different ways to handle all your encounters and this is definatly true as there is no "one-size" fits all, but I will say if you try to run through it with guns blazing you will die very quickly. I played through the game on the normal mode (have yet to do hard) and it was challenging to manage my resources and really think how I am going to get through a "level". Speaking of level, its not really a straight forward "follow-the-corridor-to-the-end-game". There is a lot of hidden stuff and places to explore that have nothing much to do with the main quests, but allow you some freedom to move around a bit and not be tied down to one objective. You also don't have to do anything in order, and the game is smart enough to know and doesn't lock up and crash if you feel like doing something out of order or just going back to somewhere you haven't been.

So okay, sounds pretty good, eh? Well, there is some disturbing elements so if you are a bit squeamish then this game might not be for you. Namely the little sisters...without giving away too much in the game, they are one of the cornerstones of the whole story and how you deal with them makes your character "good" or "evil". I couldn't bring myself to do the bad thing, so I got the good ending, I assume there is a bad one too if you chose that path, so there presents some replay value. Little sisters aside, there is also blood, gore, strong language, adult themes and just some straight up sick, twisted and sadistic "bosses" you will meet in Rapture.

One of the big things i'm glad that was a departure from games like Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 is that the game is somewhat dark, but there is enough light going around where you don't have to squint or turn up the brightness on your monitor to that of a supernova to see what is going on (No flashlight required!).

Bottomline, if you are looking for a good gaming fix this is definately worth your money to pickup...Deus Ex, System Shock 2, Half-Life 2 are all games fairly similiar to this one so if you liked those you will be blown away by Bioshock because it trumps them all, especially in gameplay. The developers have a statement posted on their website and I would like to reiterate it here in that -- DON'T READ ANY SPOILERS --. It will ruin the game for you and most of the fun.

Pros:
- Amazingly fun gameplay
- Sound effects and voice acting waaaay above average.
- A long game so you will get your money's worth.
- ZERO bugs that i encountered..start to finish. *clap*

Cons:
- Nothing, except the violent, sadistic themes.

No Fun

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 12
Date: October 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

When a manufacture overreaches with anti-piracy DRM measures, it ruins the fun of a game. Keeping a Microsoft OS rig running well is already enough of a challenge, without paying some company to install anti-piracy software so you can play their game. They apparently think that their intellectual property is more valuable than the security/integrity/reliabity of your PC. In six months, Bioshock will be selling in bargain bins for $9.99 (while you'll still be needing your computer to write priceless product reviews.)

uninteresting bore and gore

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 15
Date: September 04, 2007
Author: Amazon User

yawn! Well I'm just about awake enough to write about such a snooze fest. The plot is totally lame, the dialgoue thrice and two fold as much so, and the physics is not near what System Shock II was(a seven or eight year old game). Oh, and by the way, a seven or eight year old could play this. Asside from the gore fest, thier is nothing in the way of plot or incentive to ackomplish goals. It is like all "ported" games, just Xbox lamo "do this follow the big green arrow to the next "mission". Or in this case, the nagging british cockney nit wit fellow plane crash survivor and synical family man demanding your service(for free!)-typical dor'kta 'oooeu! Yada yada. For the most part, the game(and incoherent backdrop noises) is remenesecnt of a bad 80's cop out tribute to better times as in "Poltergiest" or "Child's Play" was to the 1960s and 70s halcon TV days comparing them to the 80's, 90's, and aut's cheapness in sci fi and horror. In this ""game", it mainly applies the lame dialogue and not at all System Shock quality there. (Some times less is more.) As for the gameplay and physics it is a pail cheap imitation to System shock(as in copy cats). Here is another example of games hitting the mainstream rather than elitists as technology goes up games go down in quality. And "Bioshock" as a clone of the System shock is "going through the motions again" as did TV during the "Reganomics era". Also, if you are going to make a game the exact same way as system shock, as in "Red alert causes zombies to go at you" or "The wrench" you pick up at the biginning of the spaceship, eh oh city, whatever!" then WHY NOT MAKE THE GAME SYSTEM SHOCK!!!?(as in 3 or something). The "bio" in "Bioshock" only applies to the "Plazmids" you shoot up on(as in drugs) to give you magic powers like "lightning" "fire" or what not. "just going through the motions again" as in a bad 80's film, this "title" is not related to any plot or anything global in the game it'self.
Do not buy this game unless you are a web-troll looking to flame me and other real amazonian reviewers for no good reason(constructively) and/or a little kid of fifteen (and who should be scorned by his/her parents for buying such a violent title and trolling websites unmonitored by parental controls)If you like this kind of stuff, you are too young to remember when games were actually better than TV! and no one cares what you think anyway, so zip it! Get out of that smelly old basement! Or I'll call your parents!

death to Xbox(and it's supporters)..

Overhyped

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 8 / 15
Date: September 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

It's another DOOM. Nothing really innovative with this game. After the fifth level I could not wait to finish it, and not for the right reasons. HL 2 was so much more fun (man trapped in maze, shooting enemies and going for a final showdown with the BIG BOSS). Forget about the securom fiasco, besides that, the game is not worth 50 dollars. Had I known it would be this repetitive, I would have paid $5 for it. I mean it. But the hype this game has gotten will most likely get you to buy it. I am just warning you.

Beautiful Game, Draining to play, Like it, but don't love it

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: August 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is as amazing to look at as everyone says. I find the gameplay draining and annoying sometimes though. I have probably 200 game titles, have played them all many times through. This one is quite good, but some errors were made in how you play and use weapons that makes it extremely difficult to play sometimes.

The story is pretty cool, as is the overall feel of the game. Very art deco, very 1940s-1950s, to post WW2 era. From the script (terrific voice acting) to the music, to the scenery, to general artwork. It is convincingly a period piece set in another time. Even the weapons have a Rube Goldberg feel to the.

The characters are interesting for sure. There are megalomaniacs, actor/musician wannabees, crazy industrialists, lots of "guys and dolls", with the clothing, music, and themes to go along. Very Tracy and Hepburn in many areas. The story is well documented so I won't go into it here.

The basic scene is of a metropolis under ocean, with all the things that make up a great city. Subways, gardens, doctors offices, apartments, etc. Really really cool. Look out the windows of these places and see other "skyscrapers" and fish swimming by. Amazing scenery in many parts of the game.

So on storyline, acting, artwork, imagery, graphics, etc, its 5/5.

But now lets get down the gameplay. Ugh... the Gameplay.

I've only went through the game once, but here is my opinion for what its worth. The game designers and programmers tried to give us flexible weapons, with numerous different types of ammo, as well as super powers to go along with them. So between all the weapons, different ammo types, and super powers you need to keep track of some 20 different combinations PLUS 32 super power combos at any given time. PLUS, there are a zillion different "upgrades", and changes, plus lots of super powers you keep in a bank. So keeping track, and getting to the right thing at the right time is excruciatingly painful and frustrating. Half the time when you die, its cuz you can't get to the right combo. Even with practice, its mind numbing to keep track. And ALL of these is controlled by the 3 mouse buttons (or however you map it). So keeping track of what is in the current slots when you get into a gunfight is basically impossible, unless you have superpowers as well ! Too much to control with 3 buttons for me at least.

I understand that the plan was to have lots of ways to deal with all the enemies, and situations. But there are simply TOO many options. And keeping your own selections simple means that you run out of resources constantly, and keep dying and having to replay the same things over and over again.

Now replaying to progress is part of all shooters, but this one makes it ad nauseum. Over and over again. And when you die, you come back in a "vita chamber" and it could me miles from where you died, so you have to meander your way back to where you were.

I don't want to give the impression that this is a bad game. On the contrary. Its terrific in vision and execution, but some of the basic design assumptions were flawed, even though the intent was a good one. Not the first time and won't be the last time its happened in a great game. (STALKER comes to mind, as a brilliant game, with many gameplay snafus that have been solved by patches and mods)

In conclusion, this is clearly a milestone in design and programming, but be prepared to be baffled and frustrated with zillions of weapons and ammo options, as well as super powers that make little differences or are confusing. Other than that, highly recommended

Atmospheric, but it's no System Shock

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: September 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

As a fan of the incredible System Shock series of games, I eagerly awaited the release of BioShock. Billed as the 'spiritual successor' to System Shock 2, this game had me very excited. So how did it end up in my book?

The Good

* Graphics: Without a doubt, this is one of the best looking games available. It doesn't feel as gritty or realistic to me as Half-Life 2, but the game is a sight to behold. The water effects are well worth the price of admission.

* Voice Acting: BioShock has some of the best voice acting in any game, on par with all-time greats like System Shock 2 and Half-Life 2.

* Art Direction: No game ever produced can touch the art direction presented in this game. In one particular level, you fight several waves of enemies to the strains of 'Waltz of the Flowers' from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker Suite. It's a magical gaming moment that I won't soon forget.

* A Psychological Thriller: There are a lot of psychological moments in this game, many of them bordering on the horrific. Not many games can pull that off without being cheesy, and BioShock does an excellent job of keeping it just scary enough.

The Bad

* Volume Problems: The audio diaries scattered throughout the game are often difficult to hear. Turning on the audio-subtitles helps a little, but they quickly get out of sync (clearly a game bug). Hopefully a patch will fix this issue.

* Mediocre UI Design: In order to see how many Little Sisters are left in the current level, as well as how much money and Adam you currently have, you have to go into the game menu (by pressing Escape). Storing critical information like that in a game menu is a poor design decision.

* Repetitive Combat and Hacking: The bestiary in this game is very limited, which inevitably leads to repetitive combat. In addition, there are far too many enemies on some levels. System Shock 2 did a great job of maintaining a slower pace by limiting the number of enemies on each map. The pace in BioShock seems entirely too fast. Similarly, the hacking mini-game quickly gets tedious. Having additional hacking mini-games would have helped in this department.

* Way Too Linear: Most first-person-shooters are linear affairs, but BioShock is too linear. While you have the option of visiting a previously cleared level, you never have a need to. BioShock could have made backtracking a fun thing to do, but it ultimately does not, a big disappointment.

* No Inventory System: How am I supposed to tell what I'm currently holding?

The Ugly

* This Is No System Shock: I was expecting this game to be just as good as System Shock 2, and it's simply not. There's a lot to like about this game, but there's also a lot to dislike about it.

Do I recommend this game? Absolutely. It's a must-play for 2007. There's a lot I ended up disliking, but overall I think the experience was a positive one (if only for the enjoyable art direction and eye candy).

The definitive dystopia

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I'll be forthright- I'm not normally what one would call a fan of shooters in general. I generally don't buy them for full price, and even when supposedly 'great' FPS games end up in the bargain bin, I usually end up passing them up for something else. With Bioshock I made a rare exception, and admittedly this was partly because of the sheer eye candy evident in screenshots. What really drew my attention, however, was the setting of the game.

To put things as simply as possible, it wasn't a disappointment in any way, shape, or form. FPS purists beware- this game isn't much of a challenge. You can almost certainly finish it on normal difficulty even if you've never played a shooter before and have a near total lack of fast reaction time and hand-eye coordination. The game includes hints and an arrow that guides you to each objective, and if you die you're not penalized in any way. In fact, sometimes its advantageous to die to regain some health/eve without using your finite store of medkits and hypos. Additionally, enemies do not regenerate health unless- in some cases- they find a med station. These stations can be destroyed, which you usually end up doing anyway since they drop free medkits. After that, you can repeatedly attack enemies (dying along the way) until they get worn down by sheer perseverance on your part. Aside from all this, it's entirely possible (even- some may say- encouraged) to finish the whole game using nothing but your monkey wrench.

This isn't to say that the weapons and shooter mechanics aren't done well. They are, and (especially in the case of plasmids) are quite interesting to play with. However, the action is just a sideshow for the real meat of the game, which is the setting. The city of Rapture is an incredible portrayal of dystopia: a magnificent underwater settlement that is a mix of sci-fi futurism and 50s-era glamour. It's all fallen apart, but you can see everywhere how magnificent it must have once been. It doesn't hurt that the game has a great story to go with the view, and the entire package is both attractive and compelling enough to keep you moving.

The game plays quite well on my year-old machine, though I did see some stuttering an lag in certain areas. The areas and characters generally look excellent, and most are destructible and affected by realistic physics. In particular, water effects are incredible- the best I've seen in any game to date.

As of now, there is no multiplay in Bioshock. The game includes some role-playing elements that facilitate replay, including multiple possible endings, plasmid and weapon upgrade choices, and- usually- optional areas and multiple ways to meet objectives. You have two resources in the game- money and ADAM- which are used to buy assorted goods (ammo, medkits, etc) and plasmids, respectively. You can also occasionally find random items that can be combined into ammo or other goodies at U-Invent stations. Additionally, any of the vending machines and stations can be hacked, which provides some additional benefit- usually more items or lower prices. In the case of many locked doors and safes, you have the option to hack or enter a combination. Audio diaries left by Rapture residents can leave hints as to these and other puzzles, and also serve to move the plot along.

Though Bioshock isn't exactly challenging, it does offer many moments of intense first-person action that really gets your pulse pounding. It often doesn't matter that you know you'll respawn if you die, because that charging Big Daddy just LOOKS scary. Additionally, the game does get gradually more difficult as your progress, to match your ever-growing arsenal and (one would hope) skills. There are also 3 difficulty settings if you really need to make it harder.

The bottom line is, Bioshock is a great game because of its setting and story. The technology is impressive as well, but the game doesn't rely solely upon it (as all too many recent games do). If you're looking for a challenge, then you might be disappointed. However, if you're just looking to have a good time, then this is perfect for you.

3 stars for atmosphere

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 15, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I loved looking out the windows into the ocean....The music helped create a surreal and eerie feel and the sense of isolation from the rest of the world was what kept me playing. There wasn't much variety in scenery or enemies but I thought the Big Daddies were wonderful and their slow approach of heavy footsteps and deep primitive moans was frightening every time.

The storyline is really superficial....I thought the "goals" were silly, random "go and fetch" scenarios.

There is this constant underlying reference to Rand yet the mechanisms of the game have no resemblance, how does one achieve that? I am certainly no scholar, I have only read the novels but I can't help but think that if this were a game that was really about Rand's ideas and stories then it would be full of interesting puzzles and scenarios, epic characters, challenging "goals," and how about some consequences like actually dying when you get killed? Instead it was just putting money in vending machines over and over. I suppose 2k Games says this is what capitalism REALLY is? If so, is it smart to make a game fueled on monotony just to make a point? Rand originated....there is no originality here, just "opinions" about HER efforts. Ironic how they are so wound up about copyright infringement of "their" game.

The end was depressing and it made me realize that the whole thing was depressing and monotonous (except the beauty of the city) and whatever point they are trying to make about individualism or capitalism or Rand or whatever becomes a nihilistic and bland scenario.

Also, why not just accept the fact that people are going to hack and pirate? What this has to do with customers is what I don't understand. To focus on the criminal element more than those that purchase your products seems ridiculous. Only a small percentage of the pirates, if any, would actually buy the game due to failure to override protections. The percentage of real potential buyers, the non-pirates that is, that will not buy the game due to draconian copyright measures will be a much higher loss. It's really not that hard to figure out.

Lefties Beware

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: December 04, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is actually a 5 star game but I'm deducting 2 for lack of left-handed controls. It's impossible play leftie with the default key settings (as in you can't jump and move forward simultaneously) and though you can change most of the key assignments a few are locked so you have to work around them and consequently struggle just to find four keys together for the direction keys, let alone everything else. So while your right-handed friends will just install the game and play, you will mostly likely be spending the first hour just trying to sort out your controls and the second one trying to remember them. And even when you do all of this the mouse will still revert to right-handed on the menu screens, which is confusing and often deadly, as when you try to hack a turret and mistakenly right-click, which causes the menu to close and puts you right back in front of the still unhacked turret which immediately shoots you with a gazillion bullets. Not good. Not fun. And if you call the manufacturer to complain they will suggest that you edit the code. I have no idea how to edit the code but I'm sure 2K does, so why isn't there a left-handed option? It's a shame because it's a really good game.

Good gameplay with an abrupt ending.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: March 21, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I liked Bioshock, but I was disappointed by the ending. I defeated the boss villan and, bam, the game was done. The cutscene after the boss's defeat was OK and gave some sense of where the storyline was going, but I felt kind of cheated. I'm not sure what I expected exactly, but the whole ending just felt hurried.
I've been a big fan of Bioshock's predecessors: System Shock, System Shock 2, and Deus Ex. Bioshock's interface and gameplay, while updated, is a direct descendant of all those games. So, I had some pretty high expectations going into Bioshock. I think Bioshock is pretty much a linear descendant of those games. It has a new storyline and updated graphics. The interface was more intuitive and easier to use than the previous ones had been. I didn't feel like the game was much of a departure from the formula that made the previous games so good though. On the one hand, great, the developers stuck with a winning formula. On the other hand, I'd really like to have seen something that would feel more unique to this particular release instead of a rehash of the older games.
Don't get me wrong, I think that Bioshock is a good game and worthe the money. It is very atmospheric. Well, it's downright scary at times and the little girls are just creepy. The back-story was also good and kept me wanting to see what else was going to happen, but I felt like I was lead along in a fairly engaging fashion wondering what was in store for my character until the very end. It felt like having someone tell me a really good ghost story around the campfire, but ending it with "...but the hero kills the villan. The end."
I think if you've never played any of the other games I listed above, then Bioshock is going to seem very cool and original. Having played the older games, though, I was really hoping for a little something more.

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