All your greatest fears rolled into one game
James Cosby III
Issue date: 3/25/08 Section: Arts & Entertainment
I fear water, I fear being alone, I fear loud noises and I fear the unexpected twists.
"Bioshock" has them all, and it has taken me almost six months to muster up the courage to play this first-person shooter game.
It was released last holiday season by 2K games, and this spring break with 20 inches of snow justifying my playing videogames for a week, I faced the most terrifying experience of my short life.
The story takes place in the city of Rapture, an underwater city set in the late 1950s.
Rapture, meant to be a utopia built by man for man, was built as an attempt to get away from the moral constraints brought on by the American government, communism and religion. Sadly, it falls to ruins after a plane crash.
Rapture is one of the most fully realized environments encountered in a videogame. The colors, the music, the water effects and the architecture are rich with detail.
Jazz music creeps behind you from room to room, reinforcing the idea that you are alone in a deserted city.
The rest of the graphics in the game are decent. While the character models are detailed, the bad guys are repetitive. The enemies are the remaining citizens who are mutated beyond recognition and attack any intruders. There are only about 15 variations of the citizen and it gets boring quickly.
However, there is one enemy that you will remember long after the game is over and that is the 'big daddy.'
Big daddies are large mutated men in diving suits that protect little girls who are hunting and harvesting the main energy source in the game.
"Bioshock" is story-driven almost to a fault. The story is uncovered by picking up tapes on the ground and interacting with characters through a radio.
The ending is unexpected and will leave you baffled as to why you were really playing in the first place. For once, having no idea what was coming to me at the end was refreshing.
In an attempt to keep the flow of the game going, there is no penalty for dying. You can run and shoot an enemy, get killed come back and finish off the enemy with no repercussions. It makes the gameplay very mindless, but it also aides in moving you through the story.
"Bioshock" has them all, and it has taken me almost six months to muster up the courage to play this first-person shooter game.
It was released last holiday season by 2K games, and this spring break with 20 inches of snow justifying my playing videogames for a week, I faced the most terrifying experience of my short life.
The story takes place in the city of Rapture, an underwater city set in the late 1950s.
Rapture, meant to be a utopia built by man for man, was built as an attempt to get away from the moral constraints brought on by the American government, communism and religion. Sadly, it falls to ruins after a plane crash.
Rapture is one of the most fully realized environments encountered in a videogame. The colors, the music, the water effects and the architecture are rich with detail.
Jazz music creeps behind you from room to room, reinforcing the idea that you are alone in a deserted city.
The rest of the graphics in the game are decent. While the character models are detailed, the bad guys are repetitive. The enemies are the remaining citizens who are mutated beyond recognition and attack any intruders. There are only about 15 variations of the citizen and it gets boring quickly.
However, there is one enemy that you will remember long after the game is over and that is the 'big daddy.'
Big daddies are large mutated men in diving suits that protect little girls who are hunting and harvesting the main energy source in the game.
"Bioshock" is story-driven almost to a fault. The story is uncovered by picking up tapes on the ground and interacting with characters through a radio.
The ending is unexpected and will leave you baffled as to why you were really playing in the first place. For once, having no idea what was coming to me at the end was refreshing.
In an attempt to keep the flow of the game going, there is no penalty for dying. You can run and shoot an enemy, get killed come back and finish off the enemy with no repercussions. It makes the gameplay very mindless, but it also aides in moving you through the story.
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