BioShock lets you do the impossible as you explore a mysterious underwater city. When your plane crashes, you discover Rapture – an underwater Utopia torn apart by civil war. Caught between powerful forces and hunted down by genetically modified “splicers” and deadly security systems, you have to come to grips with a deadly, mysterious world filled with powerful technology and fascinating characters. As little girls loot the dead, and biologically mutated citizens ambush you at every turn. Now you’re trapped, caught in the middle of a genetic war that will challenge both your capacity to survive and your moral allegiance to your own humanity. Make meaningful and mature decisions that culminate in the grand question – do you exploit the innocent survivors of Rapture to save yourself – or risk all to become their savior?
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Bioshock (2007)
History proves that for most great civilizations there is often a gradual rise to power before an inevitable descent into subjugation, making way for the next dominant force. Bioshock depicts such a fall from grace, the epic dream of Andrew Ryan manifested in his glorious underwater city, Rapture, that from the outside appears to be a form of paradise but within the vortex dwells the remnants of a crumbled society.
Set in 1960, the story opens spectacularly with Jack, a lone survivor of a crash in the Atlantic Ocean, swimming through the cold water, illuminated by the burning remnants of the ruined plane, searching for sanctuary. A lighthouse perched on a small island offers Jack the solace he needs and once inside he descends beneath the ocean into Rapture, the city lights glowing bright against the enshrouding darkness of the watery depths. Appearances are often misleading and this is the case for Jack who hasn’t even stepped foot in Rapture before he witnesses the brutal murder of one of the city’s residents. Rather than a thriving utopia, Rapture is a city plagued by inhabitants driven to violence against strangers and even each other, rooms and corridors are haunted by the ghostly voices of the dead captured in recorders, while water leaks from the ceiling and has flooded many sections. On his arrival Jack is contacted by Atlas, one of Rapture’s residents who is eager to help you survive in exchange for your efforts in rescuing both him and his family. Your efforts are hindered by the father of Rapture, Andrew Ryan, who will stop at nothing to oppose both you and Atlas.
Though a first person shooter, Bioshock contains many forms of combat. You begin with a humble wrench to floor your foes but soon move on to more priceless acquisitions – a pistol, a shotgun, a grenade launcher, a machine gun, there’s always plenty of choice. Weapons are wielded in your right hand while your left hand is reserved for the use of plasmids – genetic modifications allowing Jack to wield unique skills such as electricity, fire, telekinesis and so on. To obtain such power, Jack must join the rest of Rapture’s society in the relentless pursuit of ADAM. Produced from sea slugs that have taken root in human hosts, ADAM can be transferred at a Gatherer’s Garden into either plasmids or gene tonics, an array of enhancements that can augment your health, intelligence or strength. The plasmids you wield are powered by a serum known as EVE, which along with your health, are visible as blue and red bars in the top left hand corner of the screen. Keeping your stocks of first aid kits and EVE topped up is vital to survival in the decadent hallways of Rapture. As you gather further plasmids and gene tonics you will have a limited amount of slots to allocate them to so prioritising becomes a mainstay of Bioshock. Maintaining supplies is made relatively straightforward thanks to a plethora of vending machines where you can use any money you have pilfered from corpses or rooms to purchase ammunition, first aid kits, EVE, upgrade weapons and invent new items.
I’m not usually a big fan of first person shooters but found myself completely absorbed into the world of Bioshock. The combat was easy to grasp, the story was deeply engaging with some clever twists along the way and Rapture is portrayed beautifully throughout as the remnants of Andrew Ryan’s failed dream. Bioshock 2 didn’t quite reach the same heights but Bioshock: Infinite was a welcome return to form though a vastly different experience to the one here. The original is the place to start though: an engaging FPS masterpiece.
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