Product Description

BioShock is a revolution in the shooter genre that will forever change the expectations for the FPS. Going beyond "run and gun corridors," "monster-closet AIs" and static worlds, BioShock creates a living, unique and unpredictable FPS experience. BioShock is the Shooter 2.0.

After your plane crashes into icy uncharted waters, you discover a rusted bathysphere and descend into Rapture, a city hidden beneath the sea. Constructed as an idealistic society for a hand picked group of scientists, artists and industrialists, the idealism is no more. Now the city is littered with corpses, wildly powerful guardians roam the corridors as little girls loot the dead, and genetically mutated citizens ambush you at every turn.

• Take control of your world by hacking mechanical devices, commandeering security turrets and crafting unique items critical to your very survival.
• Upgrade your weapons with ionic gels, explosives and toxins to customize them to the enemy and environment.
• Genetically modify your body through dozens of Plasmid Stations scattered throughout the city, empowering you with fantastic and often grotesque abilities.
• Explore a living world powered by Ecological A.I., where the inhabitants have interesting and consequential relationships with one another that impact your gameplay experience.
• Experience truly next generation graphics that vividly illustrate the forlorn art deco city, highlighted by the most detailed and realistic water effects ever developed in a video game.
• Make meaningful choices and mature decisions, ultimately culminating in the grand question: do you exploit the innocent survivors of Rapture... or save them?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #381 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Take 2
• Released on: 2008-10-17
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Platform: PLAYSTATION 3
• Format: Unknown format
• Original language: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish
• Dimensions: .33 pounds

Manufacturer's Description
Considered to be one the finest games in the history of interactive entertainment, Bio Shock is a watershed entry into the world of video games. As one of the most lauded franchises of the past decade, Bio Shock introduces gamers into an exciting world filled with fascinating characters, intelligent enemies and complex moral choices that define the foundation of the game world. With its rich story, meticulous attention to visual detail, tense action and infinite replay value, Bio Shock delivers the perfect blend of storytelling and first person action.

These Challenge Rooms are stand-alone levels, each of which presents various puzzles, exploration and combat with the ultimate goal of rescuing a Little Sister in each one. Keep an eye on the PlayStation Store for these amazing new experiences and challenges in Rapture.

Customer Reviews

A gaming masterpiece
I for one, regrettably was slow off the mark in buying Bioshock. Even though I had a demo, which blew me away, other games kept popping up which too priority over it, such as MGS4, Resistance 2 and Killzone 2, so I only bought it last month, a long time after its release - and I had no idea what I was missing!!

Bioshock is an incredible game - its something you experience as well as play. Very few games in the last few years have even come close to this deep, immersive, atmospheric game. Even though at the grass roots, it is fundamentally an FPS, it strives and succeeds to achieve a lot more. The setting itself, the underwater art-deco utopia of Rapture is like nothing I've seen before, yet captures every element of every fantasy film, whilst retaining a very real, and gritty base. The characters themselves (mainly splicers) are themselves victims or casualties of the DNA splicing that makes this world what it has become. But I can't emphasise it enough that the atmosphere is just breathtaking, graphically it is beautiful yet deep and solid, you really feel like you're, but not just because of the graphics, the sound and music is also oustanding a really adds to the tension and feel, all this and I haven;'t even mentioned the gameplay!

The feel and control of the game is solid, the weapons handle with enough bang and fizz, especially when upgraded, the characters move and react so very reaslistically, you also have additional DNA enhanced powers called plamids, which are mainly used offensively to compliment your arsenal and open up genuine creativity and ingenuity as to how you assault each enemy. You are further drawn in by the addictive nature of enhancing your abilities, both physical, engineering and skills - whcih as the game gently but assertively progresses, you will need all the help you can get.

Which bring us to the final point I wanted to cover, the little sisters and their huge, mute, protectors - the big Daddies. Its this partnership itself, that makes this game utterly unique and completely spellbinding - NEVER has a FPS achieved such an emotional pull from its gamer. Their co-dependancy is fascinating, and you will never have seen anything a game before that really invites you to ask questions about your self and the decisions you make - it almost literally makes you accountable - as the little sisters carry the basic element - Adam - which can fuel your powers and make you stronger....but you risk a lot in trying to get to her and then you risk her life if you decide to take it - it really does yank at your heart-strings.

I could literally take days to explain and cover everything that I love and is great about this game. But it is an absolute one-off. I only regret not buying it sooner, it is the most, well concieved, beautifully realised and utterly immersive experience I have ever enjoyed on a console. An absolute masterpiece.

The definitive version?
For the long overdue PS3 release, a new difficulty mode has been added - Survivor - where every bullet counts. Items and cash are also restricted during this mode, adding a new layer of tactics for hardcore players.
There's full trophy support, with slightly more than 360s achievements. Downloadable content is soon to be added. Called `Challenge Rooms', these will present new puzzles and situations in Rapture. Little else is known at present.
Furthermore, the download-only plasmids that were made available after the 360 release are now included as standard. So the mighty `Sonic Boom' is available at the Gatherer's Garden in Neptunes Bounty. Plasmids give the game a freeform approach, tactics are only limited by your imagination. Many powers turn the environments against your enemies, providing genuine choice when approaching a firefight (rather than a tacked on afterthought).

For the 14 months its taken for Bioshock to surface on PS3, this should be the definitive version. Yet the slowdown that cropped up in the 360 version is still present, and occurs often. Load times are as long as 360, and there's a mandatory install process.
The lighting has been subtly improved, and the visual style makes Bioshock hugely immersive. On many occasions I stopped playing and simply admired the surroundings. However, the atmosphere, plot and unique concept make Bioshock really stand out. This quality holds throughout, which is a rare thing.

For those who havent experienced Bioshock, there really is no time like the present. The most original game in some time. And a true masterpiece.

Good, but don't believe the hype
You know, hype is a cruel thing. Hype can capture the imagination of people all over the world, raising excitement to fever pitch and elevating games to greatness they could never otherwise achieve. Unfortunately, hype can also create unrealistic expectations that few games ever manage to live up to. Thus, whenever a game comes out with tags like 'best game of the year' or 'magnificent and breathaking in its scope', I tend to view them with a fair share of skepticism. Such was the case with Bioshock.

Things started out promising, at least. One moment I was a passenger on a plane somewhere over the Atlantic, with only stale peanuts and deep vein thrombosis to worry about, the next moment I was swimming for dear life as the flaming wreckage of my aircraft disappeared beneath the waves around me. Making for a nearby lighthouse, I soon found myself descending in a bathysphere to the underwater city of Rapture, a failed utopia created by the enigmatic millionaire Andrew Ryan. Clearly something bad happened there, as the place was falling apart and the city's inhabitants had been reduced to jabbering subhuman mutants intent on helping themselves to a slice of my face. A bit like Glasgow on a Saturday night, then.

The upshot of all this is that you're trapped in Rapture, surrounded by enemies, and it's your job to fight your way out while learning more about the history of the city, your own past, who exactly Andrew Ryan is, and what he wants with you. How exactly you go about this is up to you, but your choices in the game will have repercussions. Sort of.

And this is what sets Bioshock apart from the other first person shooters out there - moral choice. At various points in the game you have the choice of helping characters for a small benefit, or killing them and reaping a much larger reward. The problem is, there are no incentives or punishments for either course of action until the final cutscene, by which point it doesn't really matter. And it's all so black and white - you're either hailed as a messiah or a tyrant, with nothing in between. You can almost imagine the switch being flicked from Good to Evil within the game's code, and that's not how it should be. Just take a look at Fallout 3 for an example of a game where your choices subtly influence the world around you.

Still, at least it's something a bit different, which is just as well because in most other respects, there's nothing remarkable about Bioshock's concept or its execution. You wander around, kill enemies and pilfer their corpses for ammunition and equipment. You solve the occasional not-very-challenging puzzle, you get sent on pointless and annoying side quests and you fill in the backstory through audio logs and flashbacks. If this is different from any other modern first person shooter, feel free to let me know.

In graphical terms, levels are well designed and varied enough to hold your interest, and the underwater setting provides some interesting gameplay possibilities, but none of it takes your breath away - games like Metal Gear Solid 4 offer a far better visual experience. Maybe it's the fact that the graphics engine is over a year old now and the game industry has since moved on - I don't know, but the graphics verge on cartoonish at times. The soundtrack is interesting, however - using period music rather than the usual orchestral arrangements to build the tension. There's something strangely disturbing about hearing How Much is that Doggy in the Window playing soothingly while mutated killers howl in the dingy corridors of Rapture.

The weapons are a sticking point for me. There's the usual generic selection of pistols, shotguns and rifles, none of which feel as powerful or real as they should. They can all be upgraded to some extent through single-use weapon stations, but it's not like you have to make any hard choices - there's so many that you're able to beef up pretty much all your weapons in every area.

The difficulty curve is also an issue, in that there isn't one. It's just as easy (or hard, depending on how crap you are) to stay alive at the start of Bioshock as it is at the end, although at times it does feel like the game stacks the odds against you - throwing hordes of enemies your way when you're injured and low on ammo. It's not a problem though, because there are life restoration chambers everywhere. Get killed, and you simply wake up in the nearest chamber, ready to charge back into the fray. In theory it should eliminate the frustration of having to replay the same area over and over, but in practice it simply kills the tension once you realize there's no real penalty for dying. It all just becomes a big old laugh from then on.

Another 'innovation' in Bioshock are the plasmids. Essentially genetically modified implants that you can absorb into your body, plasmids allow you to unleash special attacks like firing bolts of lightning, setting enemies on fire or even releasing swarms of killer bees. The game also provides opportunities to combine their effects - for example, setting an enemy on fire, then electrocuting them when they run into a nearby pool of water to put themselves out. It sounds great, but in practice it's easier just to set enemies on fire, then pummel them with heavy weapons fire.

And that's part of Bioshock's problem - it gives you opportunities to do really interesting things, but there's no incentive to actually do them. It's a game of great ideas, but it doesn't enforce those ideas strongly enough to make you buy into it.

The other problem is that, like a sexually confused teenager, Bioshock can't seem to decide what it wants to be, so it tries a little of everything. There are half-hearted nods to the RPG genre with the ability to develop your character in certain areas, but the customisation is so limited that it really doesn't make much difference what you choose to do. The game tries for a spot of character-driven drama, but because you don't get a chance to interact directly with any of the characters, you never end up caring about any of them. It brings in philosophical ramblings about man's inherently destructive and selfish nature, but it never brings home the point forcefully enough to make you care. It even incorporates survival horror elements, but the cartoonish character models make it hard to take this seriously.

Each of these elements does work to some extent, but not as well as they should, and this is very much representative of the whole game. It just keeps falling short of what it should have been. I was impressed but never amazed, excited but never enthralled, unnerved but never frightened, intrigued but never fascinated... Okay, I've milked that one enough now.

Basically, Bioshock is a game that sells itself on what it could be, rather than what it is. Much like Rapture itself, it was born with grand ideas and the best of intentions, but ultimately it was undermined by flawed execution and lack of leadership.