I’m sure not many of you have actually heard of this little known game known as BioShock. Yeah right…unless you aren’t on the web, don’t play video games of any sort, and are living in an Amish community (not that there is anything wrong with living in an Amish community…) everyone has heard something of BioShock. It is perhaps one of the best games of 2007, if not the best game. Yet, for all of it’s pro’s, BioShock does actually have some negatives (Shocker!).

So in reviewing BioShock, I will continue to use the same system I used with Overlord. I’ll look at the game as an over all experience. Being defined on the following questions that I ask myself while playing a game. Did I have fun, was the game play smooth (ie was it buggy, good/bad controls and/or interface, etc), was I able to enjoy it with my buddies (co-op or multi-player), would I want to play through this game again (replayability), and did I feel like I got my money’s worth. I’ll expand upon each of these (scoring each on a ten scale) so hopefully you can see where I am coming from. Pretty simple stuff.

Fun (10/10)

There is one thing that I find really scary, and apparently so does Hollywood and video game creators…Little Girls! The Little Sisters in BioShock are some of the creepiest things in the game. Sure there are slicers (those who OD’d on Plasmids) who haunt your dreams…no seriously, I had dreams about them hunting me after playing the game until 4 am three nights in a row, but even slicers are your usual scary monster type of mob. Sure they talk and say creepy things that echo through the halls (and ocassionally cast shadows while talking to their baby gun in the carriage!). But none of that is as creepy as the Little Sister walking around (I swear I saw one skipping around!) followed by her protector Big Daddy.

The couple make the center point of this game for me. Horrific, yet sad. Scary and terrifying, yet one of your main targets. The Little Sisters lie at the center of your game…do you save them or harvest them? Personally I chose to save all of them (mainly since I am a Gamer Score addict) but also because it made sense at the time when I was forced to make the choice. I know that the Mad Professor Ven is harvesting them…the butcher! (Be sure to read his review!)

Beyond the dynamic duo of evil, the game itself sucks you in. Not only is it gorgeous, but the story line itself pulls you along and slowly opens up the story of life in Rapture (the city, not the ecstatic feeling) and all that has happened over the last few years within it’s confines, (good and bad…mainly BAD). Throughout the game, you find tape recorders that tell the tale of it’s citizens, and they just amplify the feeling of horror (including several that have the recording of the owner being murdered). There were times when I jumped, times that I felt like crying (in terror…ok maybe that is an exaggeration but it does show the emphasis of the point right?) and there were times when I just could not go to sleep (gotta just get to the next zone…or kill that last Big Daddy to save the Little Sister…or well you get the idea, see the note about three 4 am game nights above.)

Game Play (10/10)

Well, what can I say? The game is SMOOOOTH. The controls are natural, the lag/stuttering is minimal (although it did stutter once on me when I had a Big Daddy lit on fire and he was kind of stuck, then he got unstuck and killed me.) The interface is great, very simple and very intuitive. Ok, I did have one beef, but it’s not totally a game play/breaking issue…when you find a new plasmid, you have to equip it. While this really isn’t much of an issue later in the game, I was annoyed at first…until I realized that to move forward I needed the Telekinesis Plasmid equiped.

Co-op/Multi-Player (0/10)

Well this gets a zero, cause it doesn’t exist…sad, but true.

Replayability (7/10)

Normally I would score a game like this very low since there are really only three different endings to the game with similar story lines (the core story doesn’t really change, just how you get to the end). Yet with BioShock I have given it bonus points, not for the additional endings, but for my desire to keep playing even after winning the game (saving all the Little Sisters and eventually raising them as my loving extending family!) This is the sort of game that I can see revisiting from time to time and playing through the various endings. Halloween pops to mind, not sure why, but it does…

Money for Value (9/10)

Hmm, let’s see…the game has NO MULTI-PLAYER and yet I rave about it…me, Mr. “I only play online games” Johnson raving about a game with no online/multi-player component… Hell yes, this game has money for value! It’s worth every penny. Buy it, play it, live it, fear it, and then play it again!

Last W3rd

I have to just restate, just in case it wasn’t clear above, I love this game. The story is great, the characters are great (and creepy), the setting is awesome, and the game play is second to none. In scoring the game below, I have actually given it two scores. The first game score is including the Co-op/Multi’s 10 points in it’s percentage (which is why it is so low). So the second score is the score that reflects the quality of this game and has probably opened up a new scoring system for non-online/multi-player games for me in the future.

Pros: Great Game, Great Story, Great Gameplay

Cons: No online/co-op or Multi-player modes, Game ends…

Go out and buy this game…seriously…

Here’s a quick link to buy it from us @ our Amazon store…BioShock

Game Score: 72%

Score without Multi-player factored in: 90%
Rent it or Buy it: BUY

Pictures from IGN & 2K Games