Wrench v Drill
“In the town where I was born, lived a man who sailed to sea,” Ringo Starr once sang, “And he told us of his life in the land of submarines”.
Delusional acid-fuelled fantasy aside, he could well have been describing the curious tale of Andrew Ryan – millionaire genius/madman, and creator of his own subaquatic bourgeois republic!
Tired of the meddling interference of the world’s pesky politics, taxes and, most of all, troublesome standards of moral fibre, Ryan shipped out to build his perfect society – the city of Rapture - deep beneath the ocean.
Inviting the world’s finest scientists, artists and thinkers to colonise his new world, it wasn’t long before Ryan’s dream became a nightmare. Freed from the confines of ethics, the barriers of technological development were swiftly broken, and the inhabitants of Rapture began to resemble creatures who were far more, but paradoxically much, much less, than human.
It’s a few years down the line that you, the sole survivor of an oceanic plane crash, stumble into Rapture.
A derelict husk of its former self, the setting of Bioshock is a gigantic, broken behemoth of a place. Trapped in a 1940’s timewarp of mouldering velvet curtains, flickering musical theatre signs and rusting dancehall balconies, Rapture’s fractured infrastructure also leaks sea water at a constant rate, with beautifully rendered rivulets running down the girders, and glistening streams washing down its discoloured walkways. Its remaining inhabitants, mutated beyond belief by their own experiments, stalk its corridors muttering obscenities and killing remorselessly.
The setting is, without a doubt, utterly breathtaking. But what’s it like to interact with?
A first person shooter in the classic sense, Bioshock contains, on the surface, the usual staples of the genre. Pistols, shotguns and machine guns all make their predictable appearance, but it’s not long before your character discovers that Rapture’s arcane technologies can be used for your own benefit, too.
Plasmids – think of them as DNA upgrades to the human body, making possible such wonders as telekinesis, invisibility or even the ability to shoot liquid fire from your fists. Finding, buying or earning large syringes (which you gruesomely shove into your own wrist to “install”) will unlock the above skills and many, many more. These biological weapons add an almost infinite versatility to your playing style as you begin discovering more and more unhinged ways to plan the downfall of Rapture’s crazy remaining citizens.
For example, in one scenario, you’re battling a Big Daddy (a giant diving-suit clad monstrosity) while another enemy hurls grenades at you from a high balcony. All the while, a wall-mounted sensor unleashes flying sentry drones on you. You could just gun the whole lot of them down with your rocket launcher. Or, more interestingly, you could use your telekinesis Plasmid to catch the grenades, enabling you to hurl a steady stream of pineapples at the Big Daddy and the sentries. You could even use your “Security Bullseye” Plasmid to set all the drones on both the other enemies, while you take cover and wait for the dust to settle. The possibilities are seemingly endless.
The enemies, however, aren’t quite so varied in their nature, and this is my first major criticism of Bioshock – there are only around five or six clearly defined types of foe. The AI they display is also of a lower standard than, say, the good old US marines in Half-Life, with most of these guys just rushing towards you in shrieking insanity, seemingly ready to be shot/burned/frozen/stung by killer bees (yes, really). While some will climb across the ceiling or teleport around in a cloud of red smoke, they all seem to value little more than a direct approach in combat. It’s a shame, as the massive range of abilities you’re blessed with feel like they’re going somewhat to waste once you’ve sussed the quickest and easiest ways to plough through the steady streams of suicidal minions (which is usually bludgeoning them a few times with your wrench).
There is, however, one standout foe in the game, and this is the much-vaunted Big Daddy, as mentioned above. Spun as Bioshock’s poster boy for much of its PR campaign (and available as a small statue in preorder packs), they don’t quite live up to the hype somehow, but are still a force to be reckoned with and often great fun to battle.
As protectors of the Little Sisters - the carriers of ADAM, which is basically the currency you need to purchase your Plasmids - they are a sight to behold as they lumber gamely alongside their child-like wards. Simply attempting to approach a Little Sister will result in you being shoved forcefully away by the protective hulk. Try to attack her, and the lights behind the Big Daddy’s helmet turn bright red, and he’ll lunge at you, firing grenades or simply shoving his massive drill-tipped hand through your face. Stylish. Big Daddies are also deceptively agile for their size – they’ll chase you down in no time if you try and outrun him.
If and when you finally down a Big Daddy, you’ll be presented with something of a moral quandary as well. Do you murder this doe-eyed little girl, sobbing over the charred corpse of her minder (“Mr Bubbles…please wake up…”), and steal all her ADAM? Or should you “harvest” her – taking a lesser amount of ADAM but freeing her of her slavery to Rapture and leaving with a clean conscience to boot? The choice is yours, and, limited as it is, it’s quite a novel feature to see in a videogame of this type; you almost feel like you’re taking an active part in openly defying the monstrous ethics on which Rapture is founded.
There’s not an awful lot more to say about Bioshock. It looks great, it feels wonderful. Hell, it almost smells fantastic – at its best, this game simply oozes atmosphere. But it just doesn’t seem to have the consistent gameplaying Ambrosia of a title such as Half-Life 2. This could very well be due to it falling back all too often on rather bland corridor wandering, with backtracking aplenty. Half-Life 2’s developers, Valve, have an innate skill for peppering their FPSs with sumptuously designed setpieces, having the enthralled player lurch from each carefully choreographed encounter to the next. While Bioshock may be trying to shuck this philosophy in favour of a more open-plan ideal of “go anywhere do anything”, it unfortunately results in far too many quiet moments where you’re ambling along the same old tunnel as hordes identical, randomly-spawned ugly flappers jump at you with flick-knives. While I’m not suggesting everyone should copy Half-Life (the FPS market is currently stagnant enough as it is, thanks), I do think that Bioshock could, with improved AI and a bit more variety, have become another true classic. As it is, it’s still a great adventure, and well worth anybody’s time and money. When the atmosphere’s there, it’s a pretty much unrivalled experience, and the game is also an excellent showcase for a dual core system with a decent graphics card (both essential to get the best out of the game though – be warned).
Meanwhile, with a sequel recently announced, one hopes 2K have already set to work fixing those leaks in the hull before Bioshock’s next journey into the deep. Full speed ahead, Mr Boatswain…
Peter Gothard
