Reviews// BioShock - Played To Death

Now, re-spawing… oh, dear. Because Rapture is divided up into sections that can only be travelled between by a bathysphere (tiny submarine-like vehicles); and because you have access to the only bathysphere in the place, you might assume that you should be able to kill every enemy within a particular area.

But apparently, either Big Daddies and Little Sisters can move from section to section sans tiny submarine, or the developers simply used re-spawing as a standard in-game device.

Either way, it’s irritating to spend a great deal of time and ammunition clearing out an entire area so that you can freely explore all the little story lines it has to offer, only to be assaulted by re-spawned enemies who had no real way of getting where they are.

So, I had to convince myself that sub-aquatic travel was part of the little (and big) bastards’ evolutionary styling (hence the diving suit appearance) - I’d advise you to do the same.

Sound As A Pound
Although the voice-acting is among the best I’ve ever heard in a game, it does suffer a bit from ‘Oblivion Syndrome’. Each different Splicer type has its own voice actor. However, as these are all used and reused over and over again with very similar character models, it’s difficult to see them as the free-wandering, insane ‘individuals’ they are supposed to be - instead they simply become generic 'monsters'. That said, as far as monsters go they are rather well developed and can provide anything from a tense firefight to a ‘turn around in a dark room to see one standing two inches from your face and scare you so bad you nearly fall out of your chair’ scare.

While there are plenty of good, startling scares throughout the game, they almost always come from scripted events rather than the free-roaming AIs themselves. When a game with such a frightening and oppressive atmosphere - and such impressive AI – can’t manage to get a good scare without pre-scripting that has to go down as a minus point. Come on, where is BioShock II?

Okay, sound effects: some things (like the sound of a Splicer dragging a pipe along the ground as it rushes past a doorway just at the edge of your field of vision) verge on in-game, atmospheric perfection. While others (like the sound of your footsteps, or jumping not always matching the surfaces you're standing on) are a bit disappointing. Little issues aside, overall the sound scheme does a wonderful job of adding to the mood and the tension.

Game-Play
BioShock, at its core, is indeed a shooter, albeit unlike any shooter you’ve ever played before. Therefore, it is absolutely key that the controls function as effortlessly as possible. So many shooters, especially on consoles, have their own ‘unique feel’ and this is often unnatural. It is with great joy, therefore, that I can report that BioShock plays effortlessly for anyone with any FPS experience. Due to its unique customisations it even enables those gamers who aren’t aspiring ‘frag dolls’ to handle themselves and anything thrown at them with relative ease – its genius is that it can still provide a challenge.

Plasmid Surgery
Other key features, and probably the most often discussed in the run-up to the game’s launch, have been the ‘plasmids’^† and ‘gene tonics’. Plasmids are the BioShock equivalent of spells in a traditional role-playing game (RPG). They are all active and affect the world and characters around you directly. They not only provide special abilities but are also able to alter the method of play entirely; they are an absolute treat to use. While the right trigger [RT] and bumper [RB] are used for firing (or wielding) and switching weapons respectively, their counterparts on the left provide the same functions for your equipped plasmids.

^{†Just in case you wanted to know what a plasmid is in real life, here’s what Newcastle University has to say: “A small, independently replicating, piece of extrachromosomal cytoplasmic DNA that can be transferred from one organism to another. Linear or circular DNA molecules found in both pro and eukaryotes capable of autonomous replication.” This has been another information burst brought to you by SPOnG.}