BioShock

I finished BioShock. It was lauded as the best game of 2007. I’d have to agree, but two years later. The developers at 2K made the world of Rapture deep, rich, and satisfying. For example: as you travel through the city, you find tape recorders. At first I thought, “How silly. I need to listen to all these things to find clues.” But instead I begin to enjoy them; luckily, you can continue your adventure while they play. By listening, you discover about the corpse you just plundered: sometimes funny, others tragic, and occasionally a hint to an upcoming puzzle. It gave the story depth as you uncover the personal history of Rapture.

My favorite level was Fort Frolic where you complete Sander Cohen’s Masterpiece. The script for this part was great and the voice actor believable – very over-the-top. Here is where you get another device that develops (pun intended) greater game-play: a camera. The camera is used to do “research” on the various enemies by photographing them. Your strategy changes – because you want a close shot of each one before you kill it. The benefit is that you learn each adversary’s name and eventually its weakness. I now know the difference between every Splicer and the name of every Big Daddy – the more intimate you are with a game, the more you become a part of the game.

As to the Little Sisters, I saved them all. So in the end I got the Happy-Happy ending.

All-in-all, this has been the most satisfying PS3 game I have played. I am a big fan of Ayn Rand – so the setting was a delight. The sound and music was haunting and added to the period ambiance. The character AI wasn’t difficult (I played on Normal), but it wasn’t repetitive or predictable. There were surprises and twists – everything ended neatly, but still left you with questions suitable for a sequel.

I did well on the trophies, but the story is very linear. I can’t go back with my present save file to do some of sections that I skipped. An improvement to the game would be to add a biosphere at the end. Then I could go back into Rapture and finish upgrading all my weapons, collecting gene tonics and plasmids, and to complete my research (more trophies). I downloaded the exclusive add-on content from the PSN. I’ll report on that when I finish. If you have not experienced BioShock, it is a “must own” before BioShock2.