However, like TV’s Eldorado before it, Rapture soon collapsed under the weight of its own idealism. The corpse-ridden city is now patrolled by violent, powerful guardians while mutated little girls scavenge the dead. Nice.
The character spends his time in this particularly delightful environment being hunted by genetically modified ‘splicers’ and other intrinsically nasty things. It’s just as well then that everything the character sets his eyes on can be used as a weapon.
“In short, BioShock allows you to do things that you never thought possible,” says Ben Wyer-Roberts, international product manager at 2K Games.
“BioShock allows you turn everything into a weapon: the environment, your body, fire and water and even your worst enemy. You can biologically mod your body with ‘Plasmids’ and craft variant of plasmids and ammo to upgrade your arsenal.
“The first thing you’ll notice as you begin the game is that the environment in which you find yourself is unlike anything you will have seen before. It is both beautiful and disturbing.
“The characters you encounter are also unique. You’ll meet a wide range of former citizens of Rapture, including the ‘Big Daddy and the ‘Little Sister’. The way you decide to play the game will have a significant impact on your relationships with the other in-game AI characters.”
The game owes its lineage to the much celebrated horror shooters System Shock and System Shock 2, which had the same development team behind it. It also inherits the chilling undertones fuelled by the realism of its sci-fi horror style environment – this game definitely isn’t one for the kids.
“Obviously we have created this game for a mature audience,” continues Wyer-Roberts. “BioShock delivers a range of experiences from frantic combat to spine chilling claustrophobia – original characters in a fantastic setting with a truly unique story.”
The games industry doesn’t shy away from the term non-linear gaming these days, but what it often means is multi-linear. BioShock’s developers, however, claim to offer an experience that is never the same twice:
“No encounter ever plays out the same, and no two gamers play the game the same way,” states the title’s press material. Bold claims indeed, and certainly a feature that would keep gamers coming back for more.
There’s no shortage of FPS titles on the market, but few genuinely try to capture the sense of true cinematic suspense-horror that BioShock’s creators have gone for. BioShock shows all the signs of being a box-shifting heavyweight at retail
Advertisement
