“Shock”ingly Good
By Steve
Ohmygoodness, what an original headline!
Like everyone else in gamelandville, I’ve played through Bioshock. And it’s good. Very good. “Game of the Year” good. It’ll probably lose out to that “Halo” thing or Rock Band, but in the case of the latter, comparing it to a game with its own custom controller isn’t fair. If Bioshock came with its own $200 “Big Daddy” helmet interface, it’d be a 1-to-1 comparison. (It’ll be interesting to see how Halo 3 feels after blasting through Rapture. Consider the bar raised. A lot.)
But I’m not just here to praise Bioshock and admit my crazy man-crush on Ken Levine. I’m here to rip it to shreds. So, without further ado, I’ll break this down Adrenaline Vault-style, with individual ratings. Because that’s how I roll. (I’m fairly certain there are no spoilers here.)
Graphics
There’s nothing in Irrational’s past games that anticipates this enormous leap in art direction. System Shock 2 was relatively generic, though austerely handsome (the models sucked, however). Freedom Force was lovingly faithful to its comic book source material but didn’t really go anywhere unexpected. Tribes Vengeance was generic and SWAT 4, while wonderfully grimy, could have been a generic Tom Clancy game.
But with Bioshock, yowza. Love, love, love the setting and art direction. This is easily the best-looking game in years, and way, way better looking than Gears of War. I’ve been to Gears of War-land hundreds of time; it’s merely the prettiest generic rubble yet. Bioshock is amazing art-deco rubble.
More importantly, I hadn’t been to this world hundreds of times, and had no idea what I’d find around every corner other than more awesome signage. If I ever get a chance to make a game, I hope I can be given the flexibility and freedom (and technological acumen) to produce a world like this. 4.7/4.9 cups of drool
Sound
Oh Irrational, love the use of period music. Never has Bobby Darrin sounded so ominous and creepy.
There’s a beautifully brutal segment scored to Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz of the Flowers” (or so people say; my knowledge of classical music and opera is limited to what’s appeared in Looney Tunes cartoons) that makes you wonder why classical music isn’t used more frequently in pure action games. Fuck techno or metal; there’s nothing quite as powerful as a full orchestra. (You’ll also discover that it’s impossible not to try to time your attacks to a 3/4 waltz.) 87.34/93.78
Weapons
I’m mixed on plasmids. Not as a gameplay thing; they work great for that. But as a narrative/world feature, they kind of blow. This kind of instantaneous mutation is too sci-fi, too game-y as a mechanic for a game so rooted in a plausible alternate past.
There’s also way too many weapons and ammo. Were these guys planning on staging their own version of the British Invasion? There are way too many guns in Rapture. It would have been much cooler if the game forced you to improvise weapons, like Condemned.
Of course “cooler” in this case probably means it would be a slightly worse game. This is another reason why no one would let me design a game. So it’s probably fine as-is.
And, um, the shotgun has a great feel. Yeah. Thumbs Up
Storyline
The best part of Bioshock is the storyline, though its so good you want to hold it up to a level of scrutiny it can’t quite handle. It isn’t quite the attack on Randian self-reliance or whatever the hell you want to call objectivism in its purest form it starts out being, and ends up more of a statement about free will and manipulation the nature of personal choice and, which should make it quite the time capsule game of the Bush years.
Or at least its about perceived choices, since you don’t have any meaningful ones in the game beyond, “Should I shoot that guy with a shotgun or zap him with a plasmid?” (I’m pretty sure it’s ironic.)
It shows off a nice liberal studies education too, but that’s probably a post for another day. 52/65 stars
August 28th, 2007 at 9:14 am
Why do two of the gonfalons read “Ascendancy”?
August 28th, 2007 at 9:32 am
Because things are looking up in Rapture?
August 28th, 2007 at 10:55 am
I like when you talk like a homie. Because, you are SO not a homie.
August 28th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
“Fab Five Freddy told me everybody’s fly
Dj spinning I said my my
Flash is fast, flash is cool
Francois c’est pas flashe non due.”
August 28th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
But I’m not just here to praise Bioshock and admit my crazy man-crush on Ken Levine.
You too, huh?
(or so people say; my knowledge of classical music and opera is limited to what’s appeared in Looney Tunes cartoons)
You too, huh? Apparently Jerry Seinfeld as well. (it says so in his show) And speaking of which, they use the Barber of Seville in the episode “The Barber”, which is conveniently also used in my favorite Looney Toons short of all time: Rabbit of Seville.
(You’ll also discover that it’s impossible not to try to time your attacks to a 3/4 waltz.)
Whoo ya! I’m always amazed that people rarely consider music in games. Games like Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time really only hold top positions because their music & sounds created a perfect atmosphere.
Thumbs Up
Ebert you’re not… I am most confused.
September 26th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
I give this review a 4… out of 3.