BioShock
Review
A Utopian society gone wrong...and now you're in it
by Chris Scott
reviewed on X360
From Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Lighthouse
Imagine a perfect Utopian world, filled with the greatest minds in the world. Now imagine the world turned on its head, a world virtually devoid of good with almost nothing worth saving, destroyed because of the choices of its leaders. Welcome to Rapture.
You end up in Rapture after your plane crashes in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and being the only survivor you swim to the relative safety of a lighthouse. Why a lighthouse is located in the middle of the Ocean is beyond me but as your only other choice is to swim with the fishes, you will more than likely choose to explore the lighthouse. The lighthouse holds its own mysteries (aside from standing in the middle of the Ocean) and you will find yourself plunging into the depths of the Atlantic where you will set your eyes on a beautiful sight, the underwater city of Rapture.
A not-so-Utopian society...
Once in Rapture you will meet your guide, Atlas, who fills you in that everything isn’t as pretty as the outside may suggest. Not that the destroyed interior of the city or the radio messages from the supposed leader of the city, Andrew Ryan (a play on Ayn Rand’s name), wouldn’t have given it away. You will then meet some of the residents of Rapture, during which you will do something no sane person would do but once it is done the game really kicks off taking you on a journey that is like no other. The journey itself touches on many themes but the primary one is of choice and of control, heavy thematic issues also prevalent in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. A lack of knowledge concerning Rand’s book or her philosophies will not hurt your overall experience but those that do have that knowledge will be able to see more of the intricacies.
With Bioshock, Irrational Games (now 2K Boston/2K Australia) has created something that is truly worthy of your time. But what is Bioshock exactly? Classifying the game into one genre would be of great disservice to both the creators and potential players. For the sake of consistency we will call Bioshock a shooter. However please note that Bioshock is much more than your standard first person shooter, it borrows heavily from the sci-fi, survival horror, adventure and role-playing game genres. Yes you can play it like any other shooter out there but to do so would be depriving yourself of the depth that Bioshock has to offer.
Visual splendor
Whenever a new game comes out people always look at a couple things, highest on the list is almost always graphics. From a Xbox 360 standpoint it is the best looking game on the system since Gears of War. It does contain a few graphical glitches that keep it from becoming the new gold standard in graphics but if you base your purchases on the graphical prowess of a title, Bioshock will deliver the goods.
9.0
fun score
No Pros and Cons at this time
