BioShock Preview

by Ashley Coomer - 2008/07/26 6:48am

No gods or kings. Only man

Final Fantasy XIII is no longer a PS3 exclusive, but why should we care? After all, we’re still getting the game, and certain Sony fanboys appear to be forgetting that. Does the console exclusive even mean anything in this day and age? Probably not – we’ve lost count of the amount of so-called exclusives that sooner or later made their way to rival formats, and one of the most exciting prospects for us is the PS3 version of BioShock, originally an X360 and Games For Windows exclusive which has an average rating of above 9.5 out of ten; deservingly so!

One of the most anticipated games in the year of its release, BioShock is a first-person shooter by branding, but we prefer to think of it as an RPGFPS thanks to the scope and depth of the game. The story begins with the main character, Jack Ryan being involved in a plane crash. It soon becomes clear he is the only survivor, and swimming away from the burning wreck, he discovers a lighthouse in which he enters a bathysphere that takes him to Rapture, the game’s secret underwater city created by Andrew Ryan, a scientist who wanted to create an Eden of sorts for the best of the humans. Here you find out that in order to survive, you will need to obtain ADAM and EVE regularly. ADAM is a mutagen which gives humans, well, inhuman powers, and EVE is what activates them. Like a drug, ADAM is an addictive substance and junkies of Rapture want to get their hands on it. What’s Jack’s excuse for searching for it? Well, Andrew Ryan doesn’t want anyone leaving the city, which is heavily guarded. Jack must obtain plasmids which give him special abilities, such as sending bolts of electricity in front of him. Now you can see how he becomes dependent on getting new plasmids in order to survive.



You’ve probably heard about Big Daddies and Little Sisters if you know a thing or two about BioShock, but for those of you who are unaware, Big Daddies are genetically altered humans made of heavy armour, whose purpose is to guard Little Sisters while they harvest ADAM from corpses. With Little Sisters possessing such quantities of ADAM, they are your targets in the game if you need a fix. This means you’ll have to take down their guarding Big Daddy first. After doing this, you can decide to harvest or rescue the Little Sister; by choosing the former option you kill her and take the ADAM, while picking the latter you’ll get less ADAM, but it will change the way the game continues.

Moving on from the story and on to the gameplay, much like an RPG, BioShock is a very personal experience. The choices you make will directly affect several things, and the age-old PR line ‘No two experiences are ever the same’ means a lot here. Plasmids are part of this – there are dozens of different plasmids to use, and you can turn Jack’s body into the weapon hybrid of your choice. Speaking of weapons, in BioShock you can create your own using the U-Invent machine! Instead of wasting spare parts of weapons and items, you can make them into something useful like a tool. Awesome! You are also able to alter the environment, for example by hacking a security turret and using it to your advantage, or just turning it off… it’s all up to you!

The graphics are fantastic, especially in high definition, and whilst it’s something og a cliché to say this, the water effects are so realistic it’s hard to tell it apart from the real thing! Not only that, but the rest of the game looks brilliant as well, and will provide many moments that have you sitting in front of the screen in awe. Like the magical moment of leaving the sewers in Elder Scrolls IV for the first time, entering the city of Rapture is a sight to behold.



A previous exclusive wouldn’t be all that without a few pieces of exclusive content, and BioShock is certainly no exception. Along with upcoming exclusive downloadable content, we’ll be getting challenge rooms, puzzles out of the main game itself. Shown at E3 was a giant, stationary Ferris wheel with a Little Sister trapped at the top, and there are several ways of getting her down. Completing these challenges under certain time limits will net you Trophies as well, just in case you needed a reason to play them. If you haven’t played it on the X360 or PC, we highly recommend putting some money aside for BioShock come its October release, and if you have, the new content could even be enough to justify a second purchase.