Take 2 Interactive Bioshock

Let down

Strengths: Fun and balanced gameplay

Weakness: Not for fans of System Shock 2. Poorly stated hardware requirements.

I was rather excited about this game, being a big fan of System Shock 2. Bioshock is supposedly the "spiritual successor" to SS2. Well, it does inherit certain aspects of SS2: story being told through logs and diaries left behind, RPG-like skill management, and a well-done tense atmosphere. First, the good points: It runs pretty smoothly on my 3 year-old computer, and only very rarely does the...
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I was rather excited about this game, being a big fan of System Shock 2. Bioshock is supposedly the "spiritual successor" to SS2. Well, it does inherit certain aspects of SS2: story being told through logs and diaries left behind, RPG-like skill management, and a well-done tense atmosphere.


First, the good points:

It runs pretty smoothly on my 3 year-old computer, and only very rarely does the frame rate drop to unplayable levels.

Combat IS fun. There are a wide range of weapons and plasmids to choose from, the environment can be lethal, and enemies are reasonably intelligent. Even though the game itself is rather linear (for the most part, you only have one goal at a time to achieve), combat itself is quite variable.

Also, all the weapons and plasmids are useful and due to the availability of ammo, you would be well-advised to use all your weapons in rotation instead of sticking to one or two favorites.

Respawning is a much debated topic, but in my opinion, it helps keep the pace of combat without interruptions. If you're not happy with respawning, you can always just pretend you're dead and reload the game from your last save instead of continuing.

The levels are also well though out, giving a good sense of pace to the game.

Ambient music is good but not outstanding.

Now the bad parts....

Installation started off badly. I use Microsoft's Process Explorer regularly, and didn't disable it during installation. Since the installation program itself uses SecuROM (copy protection software) to download the actual Bioshock.exe near the end of the process, and SecuROM doesn't like Process Explorer, it just died with a few cryptic warnings. I wasn't sure if the game was installed, but after some checking I decided I did have to disable Process Explorer and restart the installation from the beginning. After the installation, the SecuROM activation was painless for me, though there has been other reports of various issues.

The official requirements state "Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 512MB RAM (NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT or better)". What they really mean is a Shader Model 3.0 (SM3.0) graphics card. Most people would just go "Shader Model 3.0? Wazzat?" It just means a relatively new graphics card, not just any DX9 graphics card. The game will start without complaints on an older card, but you will notice graphical glitches right away. There are some fan-supported projects to fix this (search for "ShaderShock"), but it seems like 2K games is not going to do anything about it. Understandably, it takes resources to support older (and in fact, nearly obsolete hardware in the gaming industry), but it doesn't seem too hard, based on what the fans have succeeded doing so far. The game is unplayable on an older DX9 card without the fan-made fixes. The 2K forums have complaints and even a petition, but to no avail.

Next, 5.1 surround sound is glitchy. I'm using an Audigy 2, and the sound will cut out shortly into the game. There has been complaints on the 2K forums too, but no real solution. I'm currently playing with only stereo sound. Depressing, considering the game advertises Creative's Advanced HD audio for surround sound.

Voice acting is of poor quality. Considering that the game relies heavily on audio diaries to tell its story, it's disappointing that the voice acting is in such a sorry state. What gets me most are the inconsistent and inappropriate accents. But it's not all the fault of the voice actors. The volume and quality of the recording itself is also inconsistent, indicating poor work by the sound engineers.

Finally, the game lacks the suspense and tension of SS2. Don't get me wrong, it's good in its own right, but I've seen better. In SS2, I never felt powerful --- I always felt as if I was a pawn in a game and I'm never sure if I'm being manipulated. Also, I don't get the same feeling that the world was gradually decaying and destroying itself while being half-aware of it. Considering that Ken Levine wrote the story for both SS2 and Bioshock, I wonder why the discrepancy? I suspect its due to Bioshock's attempt at satirizing culture and this meant compromising the suspense in order to put in details to support the satire.

At least one professional reviewer said the game could have been so much more. That's my opinion too. Water could have played a bigger part of the game, both as a force of nature to be feared and a weapon to be wielded. Also, plasmid use could have been more costly to the player. Instead of just the (over-hyped, in my opinion) moral dilemma of the little sisters, there could be some negative repercussions of using plasmids.

Overall, Bioshock is a good game and probably the best game this year, but I'm not sure if it lives up to the legacy of its predecessor. The issues with graphics and sound are very annoying too. Instead of focusing on shallow social commentary, the designers could have played with the other novel elements of the game and carried them further.

By limoo - Sep 23, 2007

Awesome game

Strengths: Looks great and sounds great

Weakness: AI could have been smarter

You need a high end graphics card to really enjoy the game as it has a lot of details that just make it creepy. The plot line is pretty good as well. There is pretty much no death penalty so if that bothers you then this game may not be for you. If you die you are regenerated with all weapons/ammo intact.

By alex1432 - Sep 23, 2007

B i o s h o c k

Strengths: Graphics, Gameplay

Weakness: none

Love this game! Running it with all settings maxed using 2GB RAM, C2D e6750 & 256MB X1950XT @ 1600x1200 resolution. Smooth as silk gameplay. The graphics are awesome, the environment is fantastic, and the storyline brings it all together. You owe it to yourself to play this game.

By Bisquick - Nov 29, 2007

Nothing Special

Strengths: Atmosphere, visuals, sound

Weakness: Respawn system takes away any feeling of accomplishment you otherwise may have had. Gameplay gets old.

Bioshock is a game that starts off great, but may end up wearing on you before it's conclusion. As much as I loved the game at first, I couldn't help but feel the gameplay got stale somewhere around the halfway point. Despite the wide assortment of weapons and ways to kill enemies, combat gets repetetive. This may be due to the fact that the enemies don't feel varied. Sure, there are people with...
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Bioshock is a game that starts off great, but may end up wearing on you before it's conclusion. As much as I loved the game at first, I couldn't help but feel the gameplay got stale somewhere around the halfway point. Despite the wide assortment of weapons and ways to kill enemies, combat gets repetetive. This may be due to the fact that the enemies don't feel varied. Sure, there are people with crowbars, guns, grenades, and a couple slightly more interesting varieties, but in the end they feel too similar. Big Daddies are awesome though.

Then there is the hacking mini game which is neither challenging or fun. This is annoying because it comes up every time you want to hack something, which can be quite often. Fortunately, there is an abundance of auto-hacking tools in the second half of the game that allow you to skip this mini game.

On the positive side of things, the atmosphere in this game is fantastic, thanks to the excellent visuals and sound effects. It does a really good job of pulling you into the underwater city of Rapture and, at times, creeping you out.

By Schwowsers - Sep 17, 2007

The best video game ever made

Strengths: Great story, graphics & play

Weakness: Among the nVidia cards, only the best will do

Overall I find it to be the very best video game I have ever played, going back for 24 years now. It is, however, very demanding in terms of hardware (if you want to run at high resolutions) - much moreso than what's recommended on the box. I had a system with two 8800GTXs in SLI, and that simply wouldn't cut it beyond about 1280x720 or so. But now, with dual 9800GX2s in Quad SLI, it runs as...
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Overall I find it to be the very best video game I have ever played, going back for 24 years now. It is, however, very demanding in terms of hardware (if you want to run at high resolutions) - much moreso than what's recommended on the box. I had a system with two 8800GTXs in SLI, and that simply wouldn't cut it beyond about 1280x720 or so. But now, with dual 9800GX2s in Quad SLI, it runs as smooth as oil at 2560x1600, and I must tell you - something no one wants to hear - you DO get what you pay for, in terms of these expensive graphics cards. This game appears SO much better at the max resolution, that it's like experiencing it for the first time.

By Mason Storm - Apr 22, 2008