Originally, I thought I was going to review all three BioShock games in the Collection in one single review entry. I've decided to not do this given the length of the games and I had to remind myself that there are two out of three games in the Collection that technically needed reviewing: the first BioShock as I last played it years ago before I implemented a full review system, and BioShock: Infinite as I never played it before - even though
I own the original Xbox 360 release. BioShock 2 was the only game I have
reviewed on here. Once it is complete later on, it will be given a quick re-review. BioShock was the spiritual successor to 1999's critically acclaimed PC game, System Shock 2. I've sadly never played either the first or second System Shock games. While System Shock takes place in the future and is more sci-fi, BioShock takes place in the past in an underwater-utopia-gone-wrong. A lot of gameplay elements from System Shock 2 were carried over into BioShock. Narrative-wise, BioShock is heavily influenced by the Objectivism philosophy of Ayn Rand though has dystopian overtones from George Orwell too. Even some Aldous Huxley is added in for some good measure as he was on both sides of the uptopian and dystopian fence. In fact, the name of the game's main antagonist, Andrew Ryan, is a semi-anagram of Ayn Rand to connect his character to her philosophy. In the game's opening as you make your descent into the ocean, he makes this recorded speech:
"I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? 'No!' says the man in Washington, 'it belongs to the poor.' 'No!' says the man in the Vatican, 'it belongs to God.' 'No!' says the man in Moscow, 'it belongs to everyone.' I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture, as city where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, where the great would not be constrained by the small! And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well."
A little personal history of the first BioShock: I remember seeing the trailers and TV commercials back in 2007 and being blown away by its graphics, art deco design, and mid-20th century soundtrack and setting. It was being released on the Xbox 360, but I didn't have one at the time. In fact, I don't think I was interested in getting a 360 and was more focused on wanting to get a Sony PS3 and Nintendo Wii. But BioShock sold me on wanting a 360 just so I could play it. Come late November of 2007, an opportunity arose when I saw a sale on HDTV's in a Future Shop weekly flyer. There was an LG 42-inch 1080p TV being sold and it included a 120GB Xbox 360 Elite console with purchase. Excellent - I would get the console AND a proper TV to play it on too! So my leather household bought the TV for me -with a little contribution from me too- and I soon after bought the game from (I think) Willow Video on Sunday, December 2, 2007. This what I wrote in a past blog entry on December 13 (picture above was also when it was taken): Yesterday while I was at work, the "experts" at Future Shop came by and installed the expensive wall mount and TV which was delivered last Friday and the 47-inch exchanged. It is an LG model: 42LB5D, 42-inch LCD, 1080p, contrast ratio 7000:1, aspect ratio 4:3 and 16:9, inputs: 3 HDMI, 2 component, 2 Audio-Video, etc... After I came home from work, I noticed one major mistake: my Daddybear had them mount the TV too high! Since we don't want to damage the wall re-installing it lower and pay an extra installation cost, it's staying put. Thankfully, the mount allows the TV to be tilted lower but it’s still a bitch to try and use the Nintendo Wii's Wiimote and Nunchuck. They are meant to be used at a comfortable height or else accuracy will be off and your arms will get tired. I found that they set up my Xbox 360 (without my permission! ) and used the expensive HDMI cable for it even though I'm planning to use it for the PS3 I will be buying next year. They used cable ties to reduce wire clutter but to me it was all unacceptable so I carefully cut them off. I used the 360's HDMI cable and put away the expensive one for future use. I then gave my 360 a test by setting up my account and setting the options (1080p resolution). I then put in BioShock which I bought Sunday night and it blew me away! The picture above was taken tonight and features BioShock's gameplay and my current set up. After a small test of the 360, I then installed my PS2 (I went back to using the component cables and tested God of War at 480p which worked fine) and Nintendo Wii. After many hours of set up and tests, I can now enjoy my TV.
I wouldn't complete and post my first review of BioShock until September 19, 2008. I had a number of games I was working on that year beforehand (sound familiar? LOL!) The following October of that year, the game would be ported and released for the PS3. I bought a copy for my younger sister and brother-in-law for Christmas that year too, which they loved and got them into the series. I replayed and reviewed the game again on October 20, 2010. That was the last time I ever played it until now. I scored it for the first time too: 45 out of 50. Playing it remastered from the Collection, this will be a new and more comprehensive review. I beat the game in over 10 hours of gametime on Normal difficulty with the good ending, plus various achievements unlocked (though a couple were robbed from me due to unpatched bugs, grrrrr!)
BioShock takes place in Rapture, a large underwater city planned and constructed in the 1940s by individualist business magnate Andrew Ryan, who wanted to create a utopia for society's elite to flourish outside of government control and "petty morality". This philosophy resulted in remarkable advances in the arts and sciences, which included the discovery of "ADAM": a potent gene-altering substance which is created by a species of sea slug on the ocean floor. ADAM soon led to the creation of "Plasmids", mutagenic serums that grant users super-human powers (such as telekinesis and pyrokinesis). To protect and isolate Rapture, Ryan outlawed any contact with the surface world. As Rapture flourished, wealth disparities also grew, and conman/businessman Frank Fontaine used his influence over the disenfranchised working class to establish illegal enterprises and attain power-enough to rival even Ryan himself. Together with doctors Brigid Tenenbaum and Yi Suchong, Fontaine would create his own company dedicated towards researching plasmids and gene tonics. As ADAM became addictive and demand skyrocketed, Fontaine would secretly mass-produce ADAM through slugs implanted in the stomachs of orphaned girls, nicknamed "Little Sisters". Fontaine was then killed in a shootout with police, and Ryan took the opportunity to seize his assets, including control of the Little Sisters. In the months that followed, a man amongst the poor named Atlas rose up and began a violent revolution against Ryan, with both sides using plasmid-enhanced humans (known as "Splicers") to wage war on one another. To protect the Little Sisters, Ryan created the "Big Daddies": genetically-enhanced humans surgically grafted into gigantic lumbering diving suits, designed to escort the sisters as they scavenged ADAM from dead bodies. Tensions came to a head on New Year's Eve of 1958, when Atlas ordered an all-out assault on Ryan and his supporters. The conflict turns Rapture into a war-torn crumbling dystopia, resulting in societal collapse, countless deaths, many Splicers becoming disfigured and insane from ADAM abuse, and the few sane survivors barricading themselves away from the chaos. In 1960, the protagonist, Jack, is a passenger on a plane that crashes in the Atlantic Ocean. As the only survivor, Jack makes his way to a nearby lighthouse that houses a bathysphere terminal, which takes him to Rapture. Jack is contacted by Atlas via radio, and is guided to confront the perils of the ruined city.
To see the full game, go
here or below:
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Graphics/Art-10
+ Back in 2007, BioShock was stunning to look at! Excellent lighting, environments, textures, and character models. A lot of the illumination comes from the many windows and underwater lights of Rapture. Very few rooms have full lighting.
+ The art deco design really sells this game's environments with a 1940s to 50's aesthetic.
+ The remastered visuals of the Collection gives everything a boost: things are sharper and a little more polished than the original console releases. The frame rate has better consistency too. Everything now runs in 1080p and 60fps.
- The remastered graphics don't seem dramatically much of an upgrade. There may be some quick draw-in when loading a level or saved game, but not as noticeable as before.
Sound/Music-10
+ Excellent voice acting, sound effects, and sound mixing. A lot of the story background is told through voice recordings you find littered throughout Rapture, from everyday citizens all the way up to Andrew Ryan himself. Their voices and mannerisms sound very close to early/mid 20th century films and radio dramas.
+ Hearing the speeches and recordings of Andrew Ryan make him out to be a complex antagonist. He isn't scary, but you do feel he is someone not to be trifled with.
+ The background music really pulls you into the dystopian atmosphere and can also turn unnerving when you get into situations of ambush by enemies sent to kill you.
+ There are some licensed music tracks mostly from the 1930's to 50's you will hear at certain points of the game via phonographs including
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? by Bing Crosby,
(How Much is That) Doggie in the Window? by Patti Page, and Bobby Darin's
Beyond the Sea. The music retains that classic, LP monaural sound of the period. A full list of BioShock's licensed music soundtrack can be found
here.
Control-9
+ The controls are mostly consistent with FPS shooters. In BioShock, the left trigger buttons are for Plasmids, the right for weapons.
+ The controls are what I remember from the Xbox 360 version, so it didn't take long at all to reacquaint myself to it.
- The mapping of the "X" button to use your limited supply of EVE Hypos can backfire when you're trying to hack something just out of reach or do some other action with the "X" button. You end up wasting some of them when you didn't want to.
Gameplay-8
+ BioShock is a first-person shooter with role-playing game customization and stealth elements, and is similar to System Shock 2. You take the role of Jack as he is guided through Rapture towards various objectives. You collect multiple weapons and plasmids as you work your way through enemy forces. You can switch between one active weapon and one active plasmid at any time, allowing you to find combination attacks that can be effective against certain enemies, such as first shocking a Splicer then striking them down with a wrench. Weapons are limited by ammunition that you collect; many weapons have secondary ammo types that can be used instead for additional benefits, such as bullets that inflict fire damage. Plasmid use consumes a serum called EVE which can be restored using EVE syringes that you collect or by consuming cigarettes and alcohol. You have a health meter that decreases when you take damage. You can restore your health with food or medical packs found throughout Rapture. If your health reduces to zero, you will be regenerated at the last Vita-Chamber that you passed with limited amounts of health and EVE. A patch for the game allows players to disable these Vita-Chambers, requiring players to restart a saved game if the character dies.
+ The game provides several options for players to face challenges. In addition to direct combat, you can use plasmids to lure enemies into traps or to turn enemies against each other, or employ stealth tactics to avoid detection by hostiles including the security systems and turrets. You can hack into any of Rapture's automated systems; the hacking process is done via a mini-game similar to Pipe Mania where the player must connect two points on opposite sides of a grid with a limited set of piping within a fixed amount of time, with failure to complete in time costing health and potentially sounding alarms. Early in the game, you're given a research camera; by taking photographs of enemies, you will cumulatively gain knowledge about the individual foes which translates into attack boosts and other benefits when facing that enemy type in the future.
+ You collect money by exploring Rapture and from the bodies of defeated foes; this money can be used at vending machines to restock on ammunition, health and EVE, and other items; like security cameras, vending machines can also be hacked to reduce the costs of items from it. You will also receive rewards in the form of ADAM from completing some tasks, as well as from either saving or killing the Little Sisters after defeating their Big Daddy guardian. ADAM is used to purchase new plasmids from Gatherer's Garden machines scattered around Rapture. In addition to plasmids, you will also collect and buy tonics that provide passive bonuses, such as increasing Jack's strength, using EVE more efficiently, or making Jack more resistant to damage. You can only have a limited number of plasmids and tonics active at any time, and can swap between the various plasmids and tonics at certain stations located throughout Rapture.
- Given it's recommended to hack a lot, it can be time consuming and repetitive. It slows the game's pace down considerably.
- While searching for items is part of the experience, it can also slow you down too. Backtracking becomes more common because of this.
- There isn't a big variety of enemies, but they do mix up the Splicers in your encounters. While the concept of gaining bonuses from the camera is kind of novel, it feels like dead weight and leaves you open to attacks.
- You can only carry $500 maximum on you, so you are encouraged to spend it and then go back and search for money you couldn't take because your wallet was full. Again, this affects the game's pace.
Fun/Story/Misc-9
+ Despite some pacing issues with the gameplay, BioShock is still fun to play. Customization of Plasmids and a basic morality system can give you good reasons to replay it once or twice more.
+ Definitely the highlight of the game's story is the character of Andrew Ryan himself, who is a mixture of late famous real-life people and espouses Ayn Rand's Objectivism philosophy. The idea of Rapture is interesting, but it would be an obvious failure in real life once you take out God, religion, morality, and liberty. I think the game's criticism of free market Capitalism is harsh, but this was the mid-20th century so it's more of "working out the kinks" of Capitalism back then.
+ The game has two endings: the best and canonical ending will play out if you rescue every Little Sister, but the bad and worst endings play out if you have killed any of them - more so if you killed them all.
+ This remastered version includes a challenge mode and the Museum of Orphaned Concepts. I never played the challenge mode, but the Museum showcases concepts that the developers ended up abandoning in the final game and some artwork.
+ Scattered throughout most levels in this remaster are film reels that play developer commentary movies.
- Bugs from the original release are still present in this remaster. There is no excuse for this and they should have been patched! The game crashed when I saved my game before the end of a level that I was forced to replay that level from the beginning via an auto-save. I was also robbed on a couple of Xbox achievements too: I found every audio diary and upgraded every weapon in the game, but those achievements never materialized as the counter claims I haven't reached 100% of them. Total bullshit!
Total: 46/50 (Grade Level: A)
The main BioShock: The Collection website is
here. The old Gametrailers.com review is
here and the Wikipedia article is
here.
Next Game: BioShock 2 (Xbox One)
Currently playing: Shantae (3DS Virtual Console - GBC)