DigitalBattle.com

It’s another rarity for you this time around, folks–one of those handful of FPS shooters that didn’t leave me wanting to give back my lunch.  It’s BioShock, and it’s probably never been so relevant.

Positing an underwater city by the name of Rapture, a place where artists and scientists and industrialists can pursue their craft without fear of reprisal or societal backlash, in full accord with the principles of Ayn Rand’s objectivism movement.

You’ll have to go through Rapture and discover that maybe, just maybe, a little societal reprisal might not have been such a bad thing, in retrospect.  Especially when you consider just what they were up to down there in Rapture—they’ve developed weapons out of spare parts.  They’ve also been doing genetic research down there, leading to a line of personal genetic abilities called Plasmids.  And they sell them in VENDING MACHINES.  Anyone with a few bucks can basically buy a syringe full of genetically-altering whatnot, shoot themselves up, and be a pyrokinetic.  You literally have the ability to turn your forearms into hives for a race of killer bees, which you can telepathically order to attack targets on sight.

Anyone else think that maybe life in Rapture is just a little too goofy?  I don’t think even Ron Paul would’ve approved of being able to buy explosive ammunition from a vending machine shaped like a clown.  (The joke is, I’m not kidding. It’s called the Circus of Values.)  And frankly, I really don’t like the thought of trying to raise kids in an environment where they can, literally on demand, go down to the corner vending machine and shoot themselves full of lightning juice.  I mean, what’s next?   “Ward, the Beaver’s all jacked up on plasmids again.  He and Lumpy have been throwing lightning bolts around since two this afternoon and there’s a hive full of killer bees in the TV.”  “I’ll have a talk with him, dear.” “Great, Ward…while you do that I’ll go put the fires out and defrost the cat.”

Anyway, on your way through, the first thing you’ll notice about Rapture is that it’s a wide-open environment, which probably goes a long way toward being a first-person shooter that doesn’t churn my stomach.  There’s a lot to see and plenty to do in Rapture, and when you’re surrounded by the surprisingly authentic art deco environments, it’s hard not to wind up immersed in the storyline.  And that’s great.  The storyline is easily one of the best things about BioShock.  It’s unique to see 1950s-era science fiction taken so incredibly seriously (perhaps the only other game to do this was the Fallout series), and I welcome it.  Even better, there will actually be scary parts–parts that are just so incredibly plausible that they will give you a momentary chill down your spine as you realize, hey, someone could DO THAT.  And this might be the effect.  That’s scary no matter how you slice it.

Great gameplay, great sound, great visuals…there’s very little about this game that isn’t amazing.  Sure, the setting’s a bit outlandish.  But that actually improves things—the bizarre nature of the setting allows you to put a little extra weight into suspension of disbelief, which lets the rest of the strangeness go down smoothly.

I loved this game, to be perfectly honest, and I’ll recommend it to anyone.  BioShock has all the fun of a shooter with all the brainteasers of a full-on puzzler and a thoroughly engrossing storyline besides.  There’s literally no reason to not enjoy this.