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Software Cart - All The Software You Need - BioShock
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List Price: $19.99
Our Price: $18.99
Your Save: $ 1.00 ( 5% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: 2K Games
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Amazon Maximum Age: 20
Amazon Minimum Age: 204
Batteries Included: 0
Binding: Video Game
Brand: 2K Games
EAN: 0710425219627
ESRB Age Rating: Mature
Feature: Biologically mod your body with plasmids - genetic augmentations that empower you with dozens of fantastic abilities
Is Autographed: 0
Is Memorabilia: 0
Label: 2K Games
Manufacturer: 2K Games
Platform: Windows XP
Publisher: 2K Games
Release Date: 2007-08-21
Studio: 2K Games
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Features
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Biologically mod your body with plasmids - genetic augmentations that empower you with dozens of fantastic abilities
Take control of your world by hacking devices and systems
Upgrade your weapons at Fire-For-Effect stations located through Rapture
Pick up materials in the city to modify them at U-Invent kiosks
Explore an incredible and unique art deco world hidden deep under the ocean, vividly illustrated with realistic water effects
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Editorial Reviews:
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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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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Shooter
Comment: A decent shooter with nice graphics. Definetly need a current system with 2 gigs and a good video card. Gameplay is a bit linear (o.k., alot linear). Good recreation.
Customer Rating:
Summary: This is no System Shock...
Comment: I recently bought BioShock through Steam because it was discounted. Basically, you can't own this game. You either buy the physical copy and have limited installs, or you buy it through Steam and be forced to log in every time you want to play.
So after I asked Valve for permission to play the game I just payed for, the real disappointment set in. I've read dozens of articles that describe this game as being like System Shock. It has exactly three things in common with System Shock: The word "shock" is in the title, there's hacking (or is it plumbing?) and there are multiple types of ammunition for each weapon. The game goes for a retro atmosphere, but it only succeeds at this by looking like it was made in the late 90's with an outdated engine. I gave it two stars for "fun" because it inspired me to play better games.
"BS" is a fitting abbreviation for this game. It was a HUGE disappointment.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An Unusual Game
Comment: An unusual game. I was not impressed at first but friends told me to stick with it. They were right, it does get better as you go on. A simple FPS can get boring after a while. This FPS has some unusual play aspects and a plot. Like any good plot, it has some interesting twists and turns that will surprise you. The game was definitely worth it. The only downside was you get killed fairly easily and regenerated often. After a while, you learn to use that to your advantage.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Bioshock Will Blow You Away
Comment: When I bought this game for my brother, I never intended to play it. But every time I walked in on him as he roamed the gorgeous levels with their art deco-inspired architecture, picked up jarring recorded diaries detailing the intriguing and horrific fall of a utopia, engaged in epic firefights with mutants through glass corridors hemmed in by the murky, hungry waters of the Atlantic, sneaked through flickering rooms pasted with old posters and decorated with wonderful art deco statuary and echoing with merry songs of a bygone age -- I found myself increasingly drawn in. The result was that I finally gave in and played this game. And oh, am I ever glad I did.
As far as mechanics go, it wasn't any different than any other shooter I've seen. The AI is fabulous. The controls were intuitive. The weapons are not that different from your regular lineup: pistol, shotgun, rocket launcher. There are a few fun, "different" additions in a Crossbow and a Chemical thrower, which in addition to Napalm shoots "Electrical gel" and Liquid Nitrogen). A nice twist for me was the addition of traps, which I enjoyed setting -- hacking turrets, setting mines in commonly used corridors, and stringing electrical bolts over every level like a vindictive, psychopathic spider.
There's also a kind of "magic system" -- Plasmids, chemicals that alter your genetic code and give you super powers, like setting people on fire (hahaha) or freezing them in their tracks or throwing chairs at them with your mind. They mix up the action delightfully, and in combination with your firepower, you can do almost anything. So, for example, you could shock your enemy and then whack him with your wrench as he jerks around in the electrical current, or set proximity mines all over an explosive barrel and launch it with Telekinesis. Still, it's not the shining element of this game, as enjoyable a diversion as it is.
The graphics are also fabulous, and the colors, level designs, and character designs are excellently done. Bioshock is a dark game, but not so dark that you can't see. That's a big plus in my book. Granted, you're going to need a monster of a machine to see the graphics at their full potential.
So where does this game move beyond "average" and into "spectacular"? Two words: Epic. Story.
The idea is that Rapture was intended to be a utopia, free of governmental, religious, moral, and social constraints. However, when the residents find a special sea slug on the bottom of the ocean containing a special chemical called "Adam," they quickly find out that it can be used to modify their genetic code for all kinds of fabulous things -- plastic surgery, teleportation, setting people on fire. Unfortunately, it's like a drug; one must have a constant supply of Adam after taking it, and long-time usage results in insanity. Couple this growing city-wide addiction with a friction between Andrew Ryan, Rapture's founder, and Frank Fontaine, a lowlife smuggler aiming for the top, and you have the recipe for disaster -- and a wonderful story.
Top-notch atmosphere and perfectly crafted characters are everywhere. Rapture itself is a character -- a moldering dream on the bottom of the ocean, a testament to optimism, and a celebration of gorgeous art deco architecture, art, and design. Too bad it's now populated by mad mutants, collapsing, flooding, and on fire. Still, it is strikingly beautiful even as it rots away. The haunting sight of the great glass windows staring out into the murky blue-green nothing of the Atlantic -- the fish flashing by, the sun a wavering tin circle far, far above -- is enough to make the least claustrophobic shiver. Still, as beautiful as Rapture is, it's nothing but a rotting shell with dangers lurking in every dark corner, and you can't stop thinking about how much you want to leave it. Part of the horror inherent in this game is knowing how impossible that really is!
Which brings me to the characters. They are expertly crafted, each with his or her own little story, each tying into the greater story of Rapture's fall. As the 1-Up review so rightly states, you stop looking for those extra shells and those new Plasmids to find recorded diaries. It's not just a delight to find diaries of the important, all-powerful characters instrumental in Rapture's creation and destruction, but a joy to piece together the heart-rending stories of the minor characters who never stood a chance. It doesn't take you long to think about how much this game is like a playable movie.
The best part is the way this game explores morality, choice, and (gasp!) philosophy (specifically, Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged; look up Objectivism). There is a massive twist in the middle of the game that downright stunned me and left me hugely "self-aware", for lack of a better term. I felt like someone had punched me in the gut. A game has never done that to me before.
You'll soon see that in Rapture, everybody is looking out for himself. There are only three exceptions. One is a major character. The other two are the Big Daddies and their Little Sisters. The Little Sisters harvest (i.e., recycle) Adam from corpses (as capturing new sea slugs has become an impossibility due to Rapture's instability), and the Big Daddies protect them from wicked Splicers -- those of Rapture's population who have gone mad by using Adam too much. The duos are selflessly devoted to each other. It's almost heartbreaking to kill a Big Daddy, but wait -- it only gets better! After killing one of these behemoths, one must make the decision whether to harvest the Little Sister (gaining max amount of Adam, but killing her) or to save her (getting minimum amount of Adam, but releasing her from "possession"). This brings up a plethora of ethical questions that only become more complex as the tale goes on.
There are three endings to the game; I played for the "good" one and was more than satisfactorily rewarded. It's a tearjerker, to say the least.
Now, there are some cons to this game. It is completely linear, as some have said. It's just no fun to backtrack, and after experiencing the story, it has little replay value; each level's entertainment value is completely dependent on the story. There is also a glitch where corpses twitch or jiggle (although the jiggling is strangely funny, I found the twitching eerily, creepily realistic, since the freshly killed twitch in reality). I will also add that as far as moral choices are concerned, you only get three "choices" -- saving or killing the Little Sisters, killing a particularly irritating character in Fort Frolic, and killing a pair of dancing splicers. That's really it. Yes, I did say that this game explores choice -- it does, via narrative -- but you don't actually put it into action on the same level as, say, Fable II.
But those cons aren't enough to stifle the good memories I racked up blasting through this game. I loved this game. It was an experience. Why, why, why can't more games be made that are like this one -- smart games, with sharp, expertly crafted stories and characters that breathe?
If you haven't played it yet, please, try it. It is simply wonderful.
(Edit: If you are voting me down for the sake of DRM, lighten up. I had no idea that program was on this game; we have never had trouble with it. I am not saying it's all right -- heaven knows it's not! But please understand, this is a REVIEW of a GAME, not whether DRM is ethical or not. Send letters to 2K, by all means, but complaining here, in a place 2K probably never looks at, and taking down my review score will do nothing.)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Problems? Yes. But still a great game.
Comment: Back in June I replaced my 7 year old Toshiba laptop with a newer machine that sported an Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTS card with 512MB. While at the store I also bought a bunch of games that would run with Vista. The salesman told me that BIOSHOCK was written by the same folks that did SYSTEMSHOCK AND SYSTEMSHOCK II, two games that I really enjoyed. Because I work on a ship and had no internet access I had to wait until I got home to finally install the game. I agree with the opinions of others about the DRM etc. and it does suck. But the game is great. Once installed mine ran flawlessly and I was able to use the mouse and key board controls easily. The detail and rendering are amazing and very fluid on my new machine. VERY creepy. You definately need a higher end graphics card if you want to enjoy this game.
Paul
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