Bioshock review for Xbox 360.

In 2007, the gaming world was whipped into a frenzy due to a game called Bioshock. I was lucky enough to completely miss all the hype on this game so I went in with no expectations. In hindsight, this was a good thing! Had I bought into the hype I would be even more dis-appointed than I am now. My gaming time has been fairly limited until recently which is why I'm reviewing this game now.

GRAPHICS AND PRESENTATION

+ Where's the Little Mermaid? The games graphics were pretty well done. The city of Rapture really exudes a mysterious aura that is hard to ignore. Why would someone build a city under the sea? What happenned to the people? These questions force the player to use their imagination and it works really well. Rooms and environments are a nice blend of sci-fi and 1930's art-deco. It sounds strange but it certainly looks the piece. Being a survival-horror game, the graphics are dark and oppressive with the occassional splash of brightness which is a nice psychological trick. Weaponry looks suitably old and rustic whilst the windows to the outside world give an even starker reminder that you're trapped here. I like!

+ Tell me a story! Given the originality of Bioshock's setting, it would be easy to give the game a generic narrative. 'Irrational Games' did not rest on their laurels though and put quite a lot of thought into telling the story of Rapture and its denizens, who have been turned into twisted images of their former selves. I don't want to give too much of the story away but you play as a survivor from a plane wreck who ends up on an island. As you descend into the City of Rapture, you are kept company by the voice of an Irishman who guides you through the twisted remains.

- Let me guess.....twins? What bemused me is that everyone seems to look the same in this game. There is very little variation in character model and design. Splicers, Big Daddies, Little Sisters all look the same......yawn! With such a vast expanse of gaming world, am I seriously expected to believe they couldn't fit in a few more character designs?

- This looks familiar! Bioshocks rooms and environments might look okay but when you're travelling through the same generic-looking corridors it definitely breaks the immersion of the game overall. It reminds you that you are definitely an outsider looking in. They try to hide it via pipes, boxes etc but if you take time to look around you'll see that there's very little effort that has gone into connecting the rooms together.

SOUND AND MUSIC

+ I hope this isn't Chris' blood!! This is, by far, Bioshocks strongest point! The music is the sort of thing they listened to on the wireless (pre-WW2). It is fantastic because it's in direct contrast to the environment around you. It really puts you, the player, off balance in a world that's gone mad. Voice acting is also of an extremely high standard and showcases some of the best in gaming! Pacing and tone are never exaggerated by any character and the strong scripting drags you ever forward.


- Yes, yes! You told me before! This is one of my biggest annoyances within gaming. Sadly, Bioshock is just as guilty. What am I on about? Repeated/looped voice samples. The enemies say the same damned things over and over and over......etc. Defend this how you will but to me this is just lazy in any game. This is a crack in the armour of Bioshocks audio armour.

GAMEPLAY

= I'll be a Jedi one day! You are able to purchase powers within Bioshock but to be honest you'll only use a couple of them. Anyone who's played a game that has purchaseable or levelling powers is gonna be dis-appointed here.

- Feel, don't think! Despite the fantastic audio and story, Bioshock feels quite empty and somewhat flat as a complete package. The guns you collect throughout your adventure do not feel like they should. Even Timesplitters 2 (Playstation 2) incorporated a decent physics engine for their weaponry so why can't 'Irrational Games' do that here? Every enemy reacts the same to gun-shots ie: they don't react at all until they fall down dead. Again, this breaks the immersion that the story has done so well to build up.


- Just keep running! As far as I'm aware, A.I stands for Artificial Intelligence. Here's the tactics that are employed against you: Run up and hit you or run/shoot then hit you up close..........you bored yet? I certainly was. The game doesn't punish you for dying but it doesn't really reward you for living either. A pat on the back or a kick up the a**e would be appreciated. Splicers throw themselves at you like an Englishman at a free bar whilst Big Daddies knock you into next week before you even know what's happenned. I unloaded god-knows-how-much-ammo at one of these things only to run out, die, get rejuvanted in a Vito-Chamber (a checkpoint by any other name), find the Daddy again and repeat this pattern until he/it died. Okay, bored of this now!!

- Get 'em off me! GET THEM OFF ME!! Yes ladies and gents, we come to Bioshocks greatest cock-up! BUGS!!! I was struggling to enjoy this game but was willing to see it through simply for the story. That is, until, I encountered a game-breaking glitch. **SPOILER ALERT** I was at a point in the game where you had to kill certain people, then photograph their bodies and hang them on a wall. I was on the 3rd (out of 4) mission of this particular task when disaster struck! I killed said person but was annihilated by a Big Daddy who snuck up behind me. "No problem" I thought. "I'll just go back to the room and photograph his body..............WHERE'S THE DAMNED BODY GONE?!!" That's right, the game decided I'd already photographed him and the body had vanished. I went to load my autosave only to find that the glitch had saved itself into that file too!! 3 hours gameplay down the pan!

Should I buy it?

If you're a fan of survival horror games then this review probably won't change your mind. Given the fact that you can find this game fairly cheap now it may be worth purchasing. I would honestly recommend renting it first though. Too much repetition gets boring and the bugs can screw things up if you're unfortunate enough to run into one like me.

Bioshock was developed by Irrational Games and published by 2K Games. Hours played = 12+. Review is based upon the Xbox 360 version