First Look: BioShock: A Classic in the Making
BioShock is the spiritual successor to System Shock 2, a groundbreaking but survival-horror shooter designed by Irrational Games in 1999. Judging by our early experience with BioShock, the game might be even more risky and inspired than System Shock 2. Needless to say, it looked phenomenally promising.
BioShock's world takes place in an underwater utopia called "Rapture," a safe haven originally designed for the greatest minds, the prettiest faces, and the most capable bodies. In short, Rapture was designed to be a paradise, free from the ungainly pressures and forces of the real world.
But something went terribly wrong. The residents of Rapture discovered a strange genre-altering substance, a substance that allows humans to adopt new, and sometimes frighteningly inhuman, abilities. A sort of civil war broke out amongst the residents of Rapture, and all contact has been lost. That's where you come in. It's 1960, a year after the Rapture incident. As a plane crash survivor, you find a strange structure protruding from the middle of the ocean. You pilot a submersible into the twisted depths of the utopia-turned-disaster Rapture, your only chance at survival.
The Big Daddy will unfailingly protect his partner
The developers at Irrational have made it clear that BioShock is about choice. That means not only role-playing choice and strategic choice -- it means moral choice. BioShock asks a simple question: how far would you go to stay alive? The answer: pretty damn far, especially when you get a look at some of the perverted freaks that skitter through the leaky corridors of Rapture.
Plenty of games allow the player to indulge in selfish, senseless acts. But BioShock takes that concept one step, or even ten steps, further. Crawling around the hallways of Rapture are characters the developers call "Little Sisters." These harmless humanoids look like malnourished eight-year old girls. And that's because they actually are malnourished eight-year girls. But the problem is, Little Sisters contain vast quantities of a life-giving serum called "Adam" (as in, Adam and Eve). The player desperately wants Adam, because it works like money and enables the player to upgrade his abilities and buy other goods. The trouble is, you'll have to forcibly extract the serum from the little sisters, an alarming enough process in and of itself. Are you willing to drain the life out of little girls in order to make yourself stronger?
The moral question becomes even more interesting when you factor in a huge, hulking character dubbed the "Big Daddy." The Big Daddy is nearly unbeatable, and each one has formed a sort of symbiotic relationship with the Little Sister, and will unfailingly protect the Little Sister in every situation. The relationship between the Big Daddy and the Little Sisters is a cornerstone of the game; the Little Sisters know they're being hunted by virtually every organism in the entire facility, and will cower behind the protection of the Big Daddy when threatened. As such, a direct assault against a Little Sister is doomed to failure. Instead, you must try to distract or lure away the Big Daddy in any number of ways. Some abilities will allow you to trick the Big Daddy into attacking other enemies -- opening up the Little Sister to attack -- while others will trick the Little Sister into seeking protection with you (big mistake!).
The Little Sister is a commodity to be exploited
Draining the life force out of little girls is disturbing enough, but BioShock isn't done yet. Some residents of Rapture will beg you not to hurt them, even bribing you with special, unique rewards in return for safe passage. Of course, there are plenty of drooling, mutated freaks. We saw an example of one, a deranged female human that scurried across walls and ceilings to get at the player. The residents of Rapture boast some freakish mutations thanks to their reckless experimentation with genetic manipulation. There are countless variations of enemies, and the way they interact with each other (and you) will clearly provide for limitless scenarios.
Visually, BioShock is flat-out phenomenal. The sparkling, rippling, shimmering water effects are easily the best-looking ever seen, blowing away former heavyweights like F.E.A.R. and Half-Life 2. The rest of the visuals are jaw-dropping, too, with tons of creepy details and every next-gen trick you can think of. We'd go so far as saying that BioShock is one of the gorgeous Xbox 360 games we've seen yet. Only Gears of War might have more visual flair.
Don't mess with the Big Daddy -- he's nearly unstoppable!
Despite its first-person perspective, BioShock is a survival-horror adventure at heart. Let's hope the financial backing of 2K Games will help Irrational Games finally find the widespread support they never got with System Shock 2. Because judging by what we saw, BioShock might be a top candidate for Game of the Year when it hits in 2007.
Keep BioShock on your radar -- you'll be hearing plenty more about it in the coming months as more details emerge.
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