Returning to the world of first person shooters (FPS), playing games with different themes and variety are no different.  Bioshock takes place in the city world of Rapture, which is under the sea.  You play as an unknown person on a plane which crashes near the entrance of Rapture, and storyline unfolds from there.  It’s a very confusing storyline at first, as you progress through the game, more and more become revealed to you as you explore Rapture.

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          Playing Bioshock somewhat reminds me of playing F.E.A.R., the graphics are beautiful (and yet dark and spooky), you’ll hear sounds sometimes (but not sure where the enemy is at), and there are many recordings you can pick up and listen from various characters.  After listening to many recordings, you’ll learn that Andrew Ryan is the head master of Rapture.  Apparently, after you arrive in Rapture, not all is well.  Many structures of the place are down or damage and there are genetically enhanced freaks known as Splicer’s out to get you.  The storyline is overall obvious, find out who Andrew Ryan is and try to escape Rapture.

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          One of the many flavors of this game is its variety.  There are hosts of abilities, traits, and weapons you can acquire throughout exploring Rapture.  You acquire abilities known as Plasmids (which is genetic material used to enhance you – which also explains the Splicer’s, they had one too many).  These plasmids vary from enhancing your defense to spewing hoards of angry bees at your enemies.  There are so many of these plasmids that you can’t hold them all.  However, conveniently placed gene banks are there for you to swap out plasmids that you need currently while the ones you don’t need are stored there.

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          The last notable feature of Bioshock is the little sisters and their Big Daddies.  Scattered throughout each level, little sisters are strange little girls able to harvest a special genetic material known as ADAM.  This special material can be used to upgrade your character to more health and eve (which is used for plasmids).  However, before you can rescue or harvest a little sister, you have to deal with their Daddy first.  Big Daddies don’t attack you first until you do, so you do have the upper advantage first.  But do not let this fool you, as Big Daddies are one of the most formidable opponents in the game.  It takes a LOT to take down a Big Daddy, so be prepared before you fight one. The game is pretty forgivable about check points so dying in this game isn’t a big problem as you’re given a decent amount of health back as well as eve.

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          Perhaps what hurt this version of the game the most are its badly designed DRM (digital rights management) features, which is to prevent pirated copies to be played. Depending on your computer, you may experience various bugs or errors or even serious crashes in this game.  I myself had several hang-ups here and there and I also had to download a save after a certain point in Arcadia because the game would not give certain key items after opening a safe.  I researched this myself and noticed I was not the only player dealing with this problem.  Legit or unlegit users, depending on it their system, would experience crashes or hang-ups at certain points of the game and the game would REFUSE to go passed it.  My friend couldn’t even get passed the first level.  After sending him a save file shortly after the point of the game crashing, the game crashed at the same point every time (and he has a better system than I do).  Other DRM issues I had was I could not get the sound to work.  The full motion video sound would work but not the in game sound.  It took a lot of research, but I managed to get the sound to work.  I understand DRM and its reasons, but when it gets to the point that it will mess up the system or the game regardless that’s pretty bad.  It almost got to the point to were the game became unplayable.

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Graphics:  1.000/1.000:  Great graphics.  The underwater look, the design and decay of buildings and the details of enemies are very well done.  I enjoy games that make me stop and observe certain locations and just take it all in.

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Sound: 1.000/1.000:  Awesome sound.  From sound effects to music, it was interesting to hear the 1960’s music look (oh yeah the game takes place around that time period). The voice over acting from the audio recordings, the splicer’s yelling “It’s a simple medical procedure!  You just need to die first!” and the little sisters shouting “Time out! You go to time out!”  The effects were just excellent and creepy.

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Control: 0.900/1.000: Control sometimes just got confusing for me when it came to attacking.  It’s a simple ordeal left click is to shoot right click is use to plasmids it just felt confusing at times.  Everything else about the game was very fluid.

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Storyline: 0.900/1.000:  The storyline is very off in the beginning (as in you have NO idea what’s going on or why), but picks up later on in the game and it is described by Atlas and the recordings you find.  Many of these recordings are found out in the open and other ones are well hidden.

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Gameplay: 0.100/1.000:  This game is fantastic in lots of ways, but what hurts this game is its DRM.  As I stated earlier, I almost could not finish the game due to this problem.  I’ve read up as well that prior to the update patch, the game is actually more stable and less chances of crashing (even my friend stated this as such).  However, upon installation you are FORCED to auto update.  If you cancel, the installation cancels as well.  For me, the only time a forced auto update that has to be applied is for online gaming, as everyone has to same the version of the game matching the server to play.  This concept is a must in MMO’s and massive multiplayer environments (Such as Quake or Battlefield).  Since you are forced to get this update, you are pretty much stuck with it.  Because you have to ‘play at your own risk’, this hurts the game play score overall in a serious fashion.  Don’t get me wrong, other than this problem, Bioshock’s other game play elements are fantastic.

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