"Spiritual Successor" to System Shock 2? More like COPY! (Which isn't sooo bad...)

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	• BioShock Windows \| 2K Games, 2007 average customer review:based on 204 reviews view larger image
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Legendary

Rapture... it is actually the perfect word to describe how I feel when I play this game. Everything about this game is absolutely breathtaking. From the graphics to the storyline to the sound and to the soundtrack, this game is complete on every level and is one of the best shooters I've ever had the pleasure of enjoying. This is coming from a huge fan of the half life series, I will be the first to tell you that this game is right up there with it. I'll do my best to keep this review as organized as possible. Read on if the last paragraph hasn't convinced you that this game is a buy.

You are the lone survivor of a plane crash over the middle of the Atlantic. You make your way to the waters surface to find yourself surrounded in wreckage and flames. This is where your jaw will start to drop, I'll get into that more when it's time to talk about graphics. Anyway, despite the fact you are in the middle of the ocean, there is a mysterious lighthouse piercing the waters surface. Being that it is the only means of improving your situation you swim over and enter. You slowly make your way through a dark passage that suddenly starts to light up around you and you find a small submersible. You get in and it starts to descend. It is at this point that you are introduced to Andrew Ryan and his failed utopia, Rapture. You enter the city to find that everything has gone horribly wrong. Derranged freaks shriek in the distance and stalk you through the darkness... and you start to explore the city and uncover the truth as to what exactly happened down here. I won't say anymore.

This game is a shooter/rpg/action/adventure/horror game. Nay say if you want, but its true. It combines elements from each of those genres to create a gameplay experience that I will never forget. There were points where I was feeling almost too creeped out to continue(whenever you can hear a big daddy but you cant see him... its just messed up) but then a huge action packed firefight would break out and draw me back in. The funnest part about combat is that there are TONS of different way to take enemies down. You can whack em with a wrench shoot em, and this brings me to plasmids. Plasmids are genetical enhancements that you find throughout Rapture that basically give you special powers. You can zap enemies with lightning, ignite them with fire, freeze em and shatter em, brainwash them and turn them against eachother, throw their own projectiles back at them, hack their securities cameras and gun turrets to turn them against them. That is just naming a few.
The major flaw with the gameplay(its not really a flaw for some people, casual gamers probably like this) is that there is no death penalty whatsoever in this game. You simply respawn at a designated point with nothing lost and the enemies retain damage that you have already done to them. Think what you want about it... I tend to not die.. actually I haven't yet so it hasn't really come into play for me yet.

Time to talk about the games graphics. I will start by saying if your computer is more than a couple years old, get it for your xbox 360 or if you have a ps3 get that version when it comes out. To run this game at its maximum graphical settings you need to have a directx10 machine and an nvidia geforce graphics card in the 8 or 9 series. Take a look at the recommended graphical requirements and take it seriously. If you meet them then this game will leave you breathless. Whenever you reach the surface of the water at the beginning of the game you will know what I mean. Everything is so detailed. The water is very convincing, the reflections are stunning, the fire is unbelievable, and can you say atmospheric? Seeing the tail end of the plan slowly sinking into the water as you swim over to the lighthouse was incredible. The descent into rapture was amazing. Trust me, this game is a feast for your eyes. The only flaw graphically that I can pick my brain for is the fact that when you first load a game it takes about 5 seconds for all the textures to load. But after they initially load they never disappear or anything. This game is essentially a flawless graphical achievement.

The only thing left to talk about is the sound. If you don't have a 5.1 surround sound system just use headphones, you will get creeped out. Again, this game is atmospheric as all get out. The enemy chatter is excellent. Sometimmes that are having angry spats among themselves. Other times they are just shrieking or moaning. Whenever they are aware of your presence, they will berate you with comments like "TRY AND REPORT ME, YOU F**K!" The enemies called big daddies(featured in boxart) you can hear before they are even in the room. It is disgustingly scaring, they just kind of make a low animal type moan, and their thundering footsteps are just eerie.

This is starting to get long so I will be brief on the music. It's great, consists of orchestrated numbers and a handful of licensed songs from the era. It always brings something to the atmosphere of the game and there is never a misplaced musical number.

My final opinion, if you are a fan of gaming, buy this game. Its something you have to experience.

Verdict: 10/10 Overall
Buy? Are you kidding me????!! BUY, but if you own a 360 or PS3, get it on your respective system because most people wont have a PC that can run this game as its supposed to be run. I noticed this game has a 3.5 star rating for the PC version. I haven't read other reviews but I'm guessing its mainly because of the rootkit and the fact that it can only be installed twice... PRETTY BEAT 2K WHAT IF I GET A NEW COMPUTER? Doesn't matter, getting a ps3 next month to get it on that. Either way, great game, the 3.5 star average isn't due to the gameplay its due to 2k games being greedy.

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"Spiritual Successor" to System Shock 2? More like COPY! (Which isn't sooo bad...)

I originally played this game last year when it first came out on my PC. I had an XBox at the time but opted for the PC version instead since my monitor was much better than the TV I was planning to use with the console version. In short, I wanted this game to look as good as it possibly could.

So I bought a new video card, an extra gig of RAM and attempted to play Bioshock......bad idea.

Bioshock for the PC is a resource hog and if you have a 360 I recommend just going for that version to ensure you have a consistent and good overall visual and gameplay experience. That's all I'll say about that...

As for the gameplay, I loved Bioshock's setting and characters. The voice-overs were done exceptionally well and the visuals (when turned up all the way or shown as-is on the 360) are jaw-dropping for sure. Bioshock is a beautiful game. I loved the atmosphere of many of the levels and the truly creepiest part of the game is when you enter the level of the crazy artist who has turned an area of Rapture (Fort Frolic) into a bizarre museum filled with plaster-covered dead people...very, very disturbing.

All that said though, Bioshock does have a couple bad flaws: First, and most obvious to anyone who's played these type of games before: Bioshock is an updated, underwater version of System Shock 2...I mean, it's almost an identical copy. Ghosts, a huge plot twist in the middle, your narrator helping you, etc. are all direct rip-offs of the 1999 PC masterpiece. I'm not saying Bioshock isn't worth playing because of this - I just think it could've been so much more on its own if it hadn't copied SS2 so much in major ways.

Another gripe is the inventory system - the system was obviously dumbed-down to make gameplay progress faster and not confuse so many gamers - but for players who liked SS2's way of finding things and rationing items out bit by bit, this is a letdown. The game's difficulty also needs to be addressed since all players will come to a point when they realize Big Daddies are easy to kill and the regeneration booths essentially make the game a breeze since there is no penalty of death. Also factor in some huge gaping plot holes that were deliberately ignored (Why only Little Sisters? How was Rapture created in secret in such a short amount of time, etc.) and you have a game that is far from perfect.

And finally, you have an ending that many people weren't happy about. I've never been a fan of "boss battles" in shooters because they all play out the same and it usually boils down to shooting parts of the environment in the right order at the right time to damage or kill the bad guy. Hardly impressive. Even so, Bioshock's final fight was very cinematic in its presentation and felt like it needed to be there. However, the very short ending makes you feel sorta cheated, so I can't rate the last part of Bioshock too highly.

Overall, Bioshock is a very fun game and is definitely worth checking out. It's got an amazing and beautiful world to explore and has laid the groundwork for an interesting setting future games in the series could explore in more detail. I do recommend System Shock 2 more than BS though, simply because it did everything Bioshock does now nearly a decade ago and is truly a more challenging, atmospheric and scary game.

(Reviewed Sep. 1, 2007 by Gamer X² www.gamerx2.com)

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Fun and not frustrating, but also violent and a bit too easy

I enjoyed this game very much. The graphics were unique and the plot was ludicrous but engaging. You could use a wide range of weapons and "superpowers," which made killing things a bit more novel.

This game is pretty violent, which may or may not be a downside to you, depending on your personality. I didn't really mind it. However, every time I used nitrogen to freeze a mentally-ill person, then smacked them with a wrench as they whimpered helplessly, thus shattering them into bloody frozen chunks, I thought "This is probably desensitizing me in a way that is not healthy."

The only real downside (again, to some it may be an upside) was that this game was not really challenging. I am a fairly unskilled gamer: I mostly just run and shoot until the ammo runs out, at which time I switch to the next weapon. Even so, I only died twice during this entire game. Just a note, when you die you reappear at a nearby location and all of the hits you made on enemies are saved; so there is almost no penalty for dying. This makes the game a little too easy, but it sure cut down on frustration and swearing on my part.

Anyway, I would recommend this game highly, because it is fun and not too expensive. However, you can expect to finish it in a week or less.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

BioShock lets you do the impossible as you explore a mysterious underwater city. When your plane crashes, you discover Rapture - an underwater Utopia torn apart by civil war. Caught between powerful forces and hunted down by genetically modified "splicers" and deadly security systems, you have to come to grips with a deadly, mysterious world filled with powerful technology and fascinating characters. As little girls loot the dead, and biologically mutated citizens ambush you at every turn. Now you're trapped, caught in the middle of a genetic war that will challenge both your capacity to survive and your moral allegiance to your own humanity. Make meaningful and mature decisions that culminate in the grand question - do you exploit the innocent survivors of Rapture to save yourself - or risk all to become their savior?

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