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"I Chose... Rapture"

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 134 / 194
Date: August 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Bioshock, without a doubt, is one of the video game events of the year. A first person shooter that is more than just a first person shooter. Not only is this game fun, but the storyline is thought-provoking and philosophical. This is more than just a game. This an interactive storybook of epic proportions.

After being the only survivor of a plane crash in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, your only chance of survival is to seek refuge in the nearby lighthouse. The moment you step inside you're greeted by a banner which states: "No Gods or Kings. Only Man." Going further into the lighthouse you're soon taken to the underwater city of Rapture. A place where religion and morality do not rule the decisions of mankind. Where every man does what he chooses for his own selfish gain. The city is run by a man named Andrew Ryan. When you arrive in the city, however, its quite clear that Andrew Ryan's perfect world wasn't so perfect. The city lies in ruins and chaos runs rampant as a form of genetically mutated people called splicers roam the streets. With the help of a man named Atlas who guides you through the twisted city of Rapture, you'll have to survive long enough to get out.

Throughout your adventure there are plenty of things you can do to advance the story. You'll find radio diaries that give hints to the downfall of Rapture. You'll meet people who will tell you things about Rapture. Some of these things, such as the radio diaries, are optional, but if you don't listen to radio diaries you'll not only miss out on some of the complex and absorbing storyline, but you'll also miss out on some of the game's better features. The voice acting contained within each radio diary is fantastic. You'll learn not only about Rapture, but Andrew Ryan and other characters who play a major role in the story. There are other things that move the story along as well, like running into ghosts who will give you more insight. Some of the mutated denizens give you hints (before you have to do away with them). There's a lot to piece together here. If story and character development are your thing: Bioshock delivers.

As far as gameplay goes, Bioshock is a game that presents some complex things, but it's easy to play overall. Splicers are the most common types of enemies encountered in Rapture. You'll need an arsenal of weapons to take them on. As you progress through the game you'll have splicers that simply attack melee style, others that shoot at you and even some that throw explosives. When you first begin you only have access to a wrench. But along the way you'll pick additional weapons like a pistol, shotgun, machine gun and a few others that you can use to decimate your enemies with.

Despite how difficult things might be, Bioshock doesn't penalize you much should you die. If the worst should happen you'll respawn from a Vita Chamber (basically a checkpoint) with some health and everything you had at the time of your death. The enemy also keeps the same amount of health lost. So even if you die over and over again, you'll eventually be able to kill whatever it is that's giving you trouble. Despite the challenge of the game, the simple fact that you can't die permanently does take away some of the challenge.

The enemy AI is also pretty good. While they never stop attacking once they've found you, they do act the way you expect them to. If they're firing at you and suddenly run out of ammo, they'll run away from you to reload. If they hear your footsteps, they'll investigate. Your adversaries are no dummies in this game.

There are also machines like gun turrets and security cameras around. You can keep out of the way of security cameras easily, but sometimes turrets can be a pain. However, despite how tough gun turrets and rocket launchers can be, the game allows you to short circuit them and hack them. Hacking is a little mini-game in which you must lead a fluid through a series of pipes to the exit. Most of the hacking mini-games aren't hard. Successfully hacking a gun turret or rocket launcher turns them on your enemies.

There's more to Bioshock than simply killing your enemy, though. You'll also want to search the dead bodies of those you kill. Usually enemies carry ammo, money, first aid kits, EVE Hypos and some will even drop weapons. You can also search more than dead bodies. You can search any containers scattered throughout the game. Trashcans, cabinets, virtually anything that sits idly by. Sometimes you'll find money, ammo etc.

Aside from searching corpses and containers you can also pilfer any food or drinks that are lying around. Food often restores health, while drinks will restore health yet take away a bit of EVE. Most of the drinks you come across are alcoholic drinks, and if you drink too much alcohol it will register and your vision will actually be impaired and you'll start to stumble around.

In addition to all that searching, there are also vending machines scattered throughout the game where you can buy healing items, drinks, ammo and more. It'll cost you money. Like some of the machines you'll encounter, you can also hack into a vending machine, and you'll want to do so. Doing so lowers the prices on the items and makes more available.

As you go through the game you'll also come across Plasmids. Plasmids give you powers. At first all you get is electricity, but later on you'll be able to command fire or even use telekinesis. There are several plasmids in the game, with their own little benefits. Electricity, for example, will let you activate switches and short circuit machines. You cannot use Plasmids limitlessly, though. Plasmids consume EVE and once you run out of EVE, you can't use Plasmids.

In addition to Plasmids you'll also find tonics which grant you everlasting effects so long as you have it equipped. There are tonics which improve your physical attributes, engineering skills to make hacking easier, and your combat abilities.

Throughout the game you're also given chances to upgrade your weapons. You can also shoot off stronger ammo as you get further, and at some point you'll have to. Some enemies are immune to standard shots but can easily be taken down with armor piercing rounds.

The game doesn't just put most of these things there for your benefit, but actually expects you to use them effectively. For example, if there are a bunch of enemies standing in water, you're encouraged to electrocute the water. If there's an oil spill you're encouraged to set it on fire. You can put together lots of great strategies when it comes to your Plasmids and Weapons. Even better is that you can switch between them on the fly. Your plasmids occupy your left hand and your weapons occupy your right. You can't use them both at the same time but the game allows you to switch between them rapidly enough to the point where it doesn't matter.

Finally, the game allows you to invent and construct items for you to use a long the way. You'll need to find components to invent items, though, and that's easily done through searching all those basic containers.

As far as the game looks it is by far one of the most detailed and beautiful games out there. Everything about the game is given a fantastic look to it. From what your enemies look like to the vast city itself. The walls are detailed, the water is detailed all the flames and vending machines are detailed. Even better, the physics and other mechanics in this game work divinely. For example, if you bump into a trashcan, it falls over. If you're stepping over something, you'll find yourself walking a bit slower and stumbling over it.

There are few differences between the PC and XBOX360 versions. The controls in the PC version are much easier to grasp and switching between plasmids and weapons is also much simpler. The game also runs slightly better on the PC than it does the 360. Some reviewers have noted that the PC version is a pain to install and some people just haven't been able to run it. As of writing this review, I've only suffered one crash and haven't suffered any other major problems.

Bioshock is a stunning game. The long wait was well worth it. Tight controls, lots of variety in the gameplay and an absorbing storyline is what keeps this game afloat and makes it fun. It is without a doubt one of the best games of 2007.

The Good

+Enticing storyline full of philosophy and intrigue
+Fantastic voice acting brings the already fantastic story to life
+Lots of variety in the gameplay
+Great sound effects
+Great music score
+All around beautiful game
+The atmosphere of the game never settles

The Bad

-While it's nice that you don't get penalized or ever have to reload when you die, it brings down the difficulty of this game a bit. However, as I said, it's a good and bad thing

Great game if you have the computer for it.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 22 / 36
Date: August 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game has some very high system requirements, and most people with a computer older than 18 months old will not be able to run it. You're going to need 2 Gb of RAM and a fairly high-end video card made in at least the last two years with a min of 256Mb of RAM, preferably 512. It plays on 256Mb of video ram, but I noticed a big increase in performance by switching up to 512. Do not try to play on the minimum requirements because you will only be frustrated

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

CPU - Pentium 4 2.4GHz Single Core processor
System RAM - 1GB
Video Card - Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 128MB RAM (NVIDIA 6600 or better/ATI X1300 or better, excluding ATI X1550).
Sound Card - 100% direct X 9.0c compatible sound card
Hard disc space - 8GB free space

RECOMMENDED REQUIREMENTS

CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo processor
System RAM - 2GB
Video card - DX9 - Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 512MB RAM (NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT or better) / DX10 - NVIDIA GeForce 8600 or better
Sound Card - Sound Blaster X-Fi series (Optimized for use with Creative Labs EAX ADVANCED HD 4.0 or EAX ADVANCED HD 5.0 compatible sound cards)

Awesome game - HIGH SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 19 / 29
Date: August 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The game is fabulous - I have played it on the XBox 360 because my PC can't play it.

IMPORTANT: make sure your PC system can run it. I have a pretty powerful, albeit older, video card, a Radeon X800XT, and I can't run the game.

I payed $320 for my video card around 2 years ago and I can play many other high end games decently. That doesn't matter, this game will not play on my system.

This game requires a feature on your video card called Shader Model 3.0.

If your video card only supports SM2.0, you will not be able to run this game.

**There are no drivers that can add support for SM 3.0. SM 3.0 has to be built into the design of the card. (added in response to driver updates solving this problem)

Beautiful, scary, & fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 23
Date: August 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you haven't heard about this game, check out 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.

The graphics on the PC version are very nice (nVidia 8600+ recommended and ATI 1900+ recommended). You can run the game with vertical sync off to up your frame rates (but it can lower visual quality).

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.

BIOSHOCK PC

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 22
Date: August 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

For all you clowns out there that can't run the game go to http://www.guru3d.com/ and update your drivers also so update your DirectX,you have to have DirectX 9.0c.My video card is a OLD GeForce 6800 Ultra 256MB and plays the game just fine with the Monitor Max Res:set at 1366x768.
So why would you tell people that the have to have a high end computer?
When they don't,the stuff you wrote is completly untrue.
Maybe you need to learn how to set your computer up and do some reading on the new drivers.If you need help email me at TDTyree@excite.com lol!!
This is my spec on my 5 year old computer and it plays the game just fine with all the sweets candies turned on high.
------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 8/21/2007, 17:49:12
Machine name: TY-UAOCYSWR9FOV
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: INTELR
System Model: Cyberpower Computer
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2048MB RAM
Page File: 774MB used, 3169MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.2180 32bit Unicode

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
DirectX Files Tab: No problems found.
Display Tab 1: The file nv4_disp.dll is not digitally signed, which means that it has not been tested by Microsoft's Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL). You may be able to get a WHQL logo'd driver from the hardware manufacturer.
Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 2: No problems found.
Music Tab: No problems found.
Input Tab: No problems found.
Network Tab: No problems found.

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce 6800 Ultra
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0040&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_A1
Display Memory: 256.0 MB
Current Mode: 1360 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200
Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0011.6344 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 8/17/2007 16:23:00, 5860736 bytes

Well Worth the 2 year wait

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 16
Date: August 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Amazing.. absolutely bloody fantastic. I've been waiting for this game since March of '06 and has blown away my every expectation, even after reading every review and watching every video clip on it, it's just unbelievable.
Definately requires a HIGH end PC to thoroughly enjoy its splendid detail, but every last pixel of this game is eye candy.
Best gameplay in a first person shooter
Best storyline in a first person shooter
Best graphics to date in a first person shooter
I can't even begin to elucidate how overly impressed I am with this product.
If you have the hardware to support it, definately get it for the PC, not 360... it's the only way to to fully grasp all that this game has to offer

Raises the bar for FPS

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 19 / 32
Date: August 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Bioshock, the spiritual successor to the System Shock series, manages the neat trick of actually exceeding the hype that had built up for the game prior to release. In short, this is one fantastic game, from start to finish. I bought it the Tuesday it was released and beat it in the late afternoon of the next day, and I'm already considering how I'll play differently the next time I run through in the near future.

This is a rare game that satisfies in all areas of game design. The graphics are incredible (just make sure you have the PC to handle them). The sound design was brilliantly executed, helping, along with the detailed art, to craft the kind of all encompassing, unique world you can rarely find outside of thousand page novels. Rapture, the underwater city where Bioshock takes place, is a fully realized world, complete with it's own laws and rules and fauna.

The story, too, is well done and drives the game forward relentlessly. Told mainly through radio communications and (in a move harking back to System Shock 2) many pre-recorded audio logs you can pick up along the way, the narrative is detailed enough to keep your interest without bogging the action down. That is possibly the story's greatest strength: it is as involving as you want it to be. Don't care about the story? No problem. Just shoot stuff. But it's there if you are interested, and better integrated into the game than, say, F.E.A.R.'s similar use of audio logs.

I could go on and on. But suffice to say, this is a truly great game. It took me about 15 hours on the first play through to beat it, and I am an experience FPS gamer. There are a huge number of drop dead gorgeous environments, and several moments that will make you go "wow." It's also suitably creepy, though never quite to the levels System Shock 2 managed.

As others have said, make sure you have the computer to really play this game like it's meant to be played; if in doubt, download the demo before buying. On my relatively new computer, with a Core Duo overclocked to 3ghz, 4gb ram, and a GeForce 8800GTX running on Windows XP SP2, the game ran butter smooth (consistently above 30 frames/sec, usually much higher) with everything turned up at a resolution of 1920x1200. I experienced only two or three minor slowdowns early in the game after hacking bots to follow me around, and even that disappeared entirely later in the game.

In short, if you are a game fan at all, and especially if you like first person shooters, rpgs, or games with engaging stories and amazing atmosphere, buy this game now. If you are a fan of the System Shock and Deux Ex series, then, well, you should already have it.

Awesome experience!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 15
Date: August 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I purchased Bioshock last night and played it for a good three hours. Being a fan of System Shock 2, purchasing Bioshock was a no-brainer. I was expecting to play the most amazing game ever made after reading the critic reviews. A+ here, 100% there, as it stands now it has the highest cumulative review score ever. The story is great, the atmosphere is truly spooky and twisted. You really get the feeling that Rapture was a great city that fell into the depths of madness and despair. The character dialogue is also very engrossing. The interaction between the player and the big daddies and little sisters is very fulfilling. I twitter with anticipation everytime a hear a big daddy lumbering about. (Spare the little sisters). As for the FPS action goes, Bioshock doesn't do anything new or special in the realm of mechanics. The addition of plasmids is very interesting, but the actual gunplay leaves a lot to be desired. The enemy variety is also very weak. All in all, I don't agree with all these insane reviews, I give this game a B+ for it's amazing story and engrossing atmosphere.

This game rocks!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: August 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

For anyone who has liked gears of war, resident evil, etc. you need to play this one

DO NOT BUY THIS GAME - Draconian DRM Warning!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 62 / 86
Date: August 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The PC version of Bioshock is the most DRM'd game ever released, no joke. It runs a new version of the Sony Rootkit known as "SecuROM" and will refuse to run if you have any kind of software installed like virtual drive software, AVG virus scan and who knows what else. It even refuses to run if you have Process Explorer running on your PC. That's right, the MICROSOFT product Process Explorer is some kind of evil big bad program that makes Bioshock refuse to run.

On top of that you are only allowed TWO installs total. 2K claims that if you uninstall the game it will allow you to reinstall somewhere else, but the system is currently bugged. After you install two times the game will refuse to register and you have to take pics of your CD and manual and mail them in.

I'm sure Bioshock is a great game, but DRM is making the PC release a disaster. Even the editors at PC Gamer are having a hard time getting the game working with all the restrictions. If you want to play Bioshock for PC you have to jump through all kinds of hoops and are severly limited as to what you can do with the game you purchased. Therefore I am giving Bioshock a one star rating.

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