Number 25 - Volume 3/Issue 1 - Defunct Games

PubliSher: 2K Games
DeveloPer: irrational
releASe DATe: 8/21/2007
Genre: FPS
On November 5th, 1946, Andrew Ryan
founded Rapture, an underwater
city where “the great will not be
restrained by the small.” He built
Rapture as the ultimate capitalist
dream, where both commerce and
science could grow without limits.
Fourteen years later, after surviving a
plane crash, you accidentally find your
way into Rapture. In the intervening
time, Ryan’s dream has gone rancid.
CATeGory: undersea Conspiracy
# of Players: 1
The entry terminal is heavily damaged
and littered with picket signs (“Ryan
Doesn’t Own Us”), and the only people
you see have gone mad. Your only friend
in Rapture is a voice over a radio who
calls himself Atlas, who’s trying to give
you the information you need to stay
alive, but he’s not all that sane himself.
Rapture’s scientists, freed from the
burden of morality, have created
plasmids: injectable genetic cocktails
that give the user superhuman powers.
Overuse of those powers, however,
drives the user homicidally insane.
That’s exactly what’s happened
to most of the people, you see.
To survive, you must use plasmid
powers yourself. The question that
no one’s asking is whether what
you’re doing constitutes “overuse.”
By Wanderer
All Sides Against The Middle
BioShock is, in a quiet way, a game about
choices. None of them are right and, unless the
aftermath leaves you dead on the floor, none
of them are wrong. No one is a hero, no one is
a villain, and no one has the absolute truth.
Every obstacle you encounter has multiple
solutions, but once you get past a few
introductory scenarios, nothing is highlighted;
BioShock refuses to hold your hand and
show you the path of least resistance. Your
environment is your greatest tool, but to use
it, you’ll need a little imagination. You can
hack turrets and security droids, use your
newfound genetically-activated powers in
several different ways, turn enemies against
each other and more, but it’s up to you to figure
out how best to proceed. The unobservant or
ignorant are going to get their faces caved in.
The ultimate expression of BioShock’s choicebased
gameplay comes from the Big Daddies
34_PREVIEW_BIOSHOCK HARDCORE GAMER MAGAZINE_VOLUME 3_ISSUE 1_CHICCITAWICCITA
HARDCORE GAMER MAGAZINE_VOLUME 3_ISSUE 1_CHICCITAWICCITA
and Little Sisters, the bizarre duos which
stalk through Rapture’s hallways. Little
Sisters process genetic material from dead
humans into a substance called Adam, which
can be used to purchase new plasmids.
You essentially need Adam to improve your
capabilities and survive the game.
To get to the Little Sisters, though, you need to
defeat the Big Daddies, which are easily the most
dangerous enemies in the game. They’re too
heavily armored for you to defeat them through
the typical shooter tactics. You need to find
another way to defeat them, whether it’s hacking
turrets, turning other enemies against them,
luring them into ambushes, or whatever else the
environment allows.
Once you’ve managed to
get to the Little Sisters,
you have another choice
to make. If you kill
them, you’ll get twice as
much Adam, but you’ve
just murdered what looks like a little girl, and
infuriated Tanenbaum, one of the surviving
scientists. If you let them live, you can cure
them using one of Tanenbaum’s plasmids and
get some Adam in the process, but Atlas insists
they’re inhuman monsters. What if he’s right?
BioShock can be a very complicated game
that way, or it can be remarkably simple.
It has very few systems that govern its
customizability and complexity, but both are
still implicit in every action you take in-game.
This is easily one of the most fascinating titles
I’ve ever played, in more ways than one.
BIOSHOCK_PREVIEW_35