BioShock Review

I imagine that if Stanley Kubrick, Ridley Scott and Terry Gilliam had ever combined their considerable talents and collaborated on a film together, the result may well have ended up looking, sounding and feeling like BioShock. I can't think of a greater compliment for Ken Levine and his team at 2K Boston/2K Australian, formerly Irrational Games, than to say that BioShock artfully combines the best traits of those filmmakers. It's as if 2K took Kubrick's haunting atmosphere and dark themes of "The Shining" and "A Clockwork Orange" and combined them with Scott's dazzling imagery and hypnotic visuals from "Blade Runner" and the gleeful madness and black humor of Gilliam's "Brazil" and created a video game.

But to call BioShock just a video game is an injustice. It is a work of art, and while the game's quality and legacy can be debated, its classification cannot. In fact, referring to BioShock as a first-person shooter is somewhat misleading, since the game surely won't be remembered for head shots and firearms. It will be remembered for its lavish design and graphics, brilliantly conceived world, stunningly good gameplay, and one of the very best game narratives in the last decade. Yes, there is plenty of weaponry in BioShock. But there's also wave after wave of terrifying and disturbing moments that are as good as any survival horror title. But I wouldn't call BioShock a survival horror title, either. It's a genre bending title, a hybrid of the best elements of gaming.

And one of the best aspects of BioShock is its intricate story. The year is 1960 and the game begins with the main character, Jack, sitting on a plane in the smoking section, looking at an old photograph of his parents. The all hell breaks loose with a thrilling plane crash sequence in the mid-Atlantic (I've stated previously that it reminded me quite a bit of the brilliant plane crash scene in "Cast Away"). After swimming away from the wreckage, you find a strange tower sitting in the middle of the ocean that acts as a sort of underwater elevator. With nowhere to go, you descend in a bathysphere to Rapture, a city at the bottom of the ocean, with no idea who you or are why you're there.

Rapture, the underwater dystopian city of BioShock.

With Rapture, 2K has succeeded in creating one of the richest, most exciting game worlds ever created. The city was built by a wealthy industrialist named Andrew Ryan in the 1940s who wanted to construct a utopian society that would encourage science, art and industry free from religious or government boundaries. But it doesn't take long for players to realize that something has gone horribly wrong with Rapture. The city, which looks dazzling on the outside, is lying in ruins on the inside; the environment itself has a kind of retro-futuristic, post-apocalyptic flavor similar to the Fallout series. Rapture is also filled with genetically mutated humans called Splicers that run around muttering disturbing nonsense and violently attack non-mutated people. How and why the city became a freakish insane asylum is the heart of the game's chilling, suspenseful narrative.

The first Plasmid you pick up is the ElectroShock ability.

BioShock wastes no time getting started. After the exhilarating plane crash and eye-popping journey to the bottom of the sea, you run into some gruesome-looking Splicers pretty quickly. Thankfully, you're guided by a non-mutant named Atlas via a short-wave radio. And after injecting yourself with a mysterious substance called a Plasmid that alters Jack's genetic code, you're given superhuman abilities. The first Plasmid ability the player receives is the ElectroShock, which allows you to fire lightning bolts with your left hand at oncoming foes. You can also use the ElectroShock to by-pass short-circuited doors and deactivate Security Bots. Players pick up more Plasmids along the way, such as Incinerate, which turns your hand into a flame thrower, and Telekinesis, which allows you to pick up most objects, including dead bodies, and use them as projectiles. Players can also pick up "Gene Tonics" through funky vending machines that offer enhanced attributes like hacking skills, physical strength, and improved health.

Early in on the game, after doing battle with some Splicers, players are introduced to the other members of Rapture's population: the Big Daddies and Little Sisters, which are quite possibly the most original character type inventions in recent years. Essentially, Little Sisters are freakish prepubescent girls that have been genetically altered and roam Rapture with giant needles looking to harvest genetic material, known as "Adam." The Big Daddies are mutants encased in giant diving suits outfitted with large drills, rivet guns and other weapons, and they are charged with protecting the Little Sisters in their pursuit of "Adam." The twisted, symbiotic relationship reminded me of the "Master Blaster" character combination from "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome."

Who runs Rapture? The Big Daddies and Little Sisters, that's who.

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