BioShock

Sep 28, 2006

During this year's E3, there was one game that everyone was talking about. Although Irrational Games' BioShock was only shown to media from select outlets, those that saw it were positively blown away by what they saw. Here was a first-person shooter that expertly combined a creepy atmosphere, horrific enemies, and intense action with wide-open gameplay and one of the best visual styles we've seen in quite some time. All of these elements came together to make the game one of the early candidates for Game of the Year -- whatever year it ends up being released. We've been dying for more info ever since, and we finally got a bit more directly from Irrational's Ken Levine at Microsoft's X06 event in Barcelona.

While the first demo we saw focused more on the game's atmosphere, storyline, and other essential info, this one was solely dedicated to the title's intense, violent combat. The title of the demo was "Hunting the Big Daddy," the term that the team at Irrational has given to the hulking, old-fashioned diving suit-clad foes that protect the Adam-carrying Little Sisters (the ultra-creepy little girls that appear throughout the game). They're the only ones you can get Adam from, as they harvest it from the dead bodies scattered throughout the seemingly abandoned Art Deco hallways. And why do you want it? Well, mainly because it allows you to do everything from hacking to inventing.

When the demo began, Levine told us that the game sports an amazingly deep invention and research system, allowing the player to modify everything from his weapons to his own body. This, in turn, encourages experimentation, as there are dozens (if not hundreds) of ways to approach any given situation. The team really wanted to give players a lot of choice as to how they deal with the problems and puzzles that the game forces upon them. To emphasize this, our demoer took on Big Daddy, one of the toughest enemies we've seen in the game.

However, he first had to take down a Splicer, one of the game's most common enemies, yet one that shouldn't be taken lightly. Splicers are teleporters, and they'll disappear into a cloud of red smoke and fleshy bits, reappearing a few moments away in a different spot. It took a few shots from our hero's shotgun to take the terrifying foe down, although one of our blasts ignited a small fire that quickly grew in intensity, burning both the Splicer and our character. Levine explained that fire will actually spread dynamically, something that can be both a blessing and a curse.

Once the Splicer was down, Little Sister came out to collect the precious Adam from his dead body, working quickly until she saw us. Once she did, she let out a yell, which was immediately followed by a bellowing sound emanating from Big Daddy. He grabbed Little Sister and quickly put her behind him, turning on us and charging toward our hero. Our shotgun blast did little to slow the behemoth down, so we immediately teleported to safety. BioShock allows the player to set a teleport spot before heading into action, meaning they can hot-tail it out if they're in danger.

While in relative safety, we used one of our (nasty) genetic powers to disgustingly force a pulsating ball through the palm of our hand. Called a Splicer Irritant, you can toss the ball at your target, and any Splicers in the area will immediately head toward it. One toss at Little Sister helped to even the playing field a bit, as Big Daddy was too busy trying to fight off the now-attacking Splicers to notice our blasts. We blasted away until we were seen by a security turret, which opened fire on us and called in flying drones as soon as we were spotted. This gave the demoer an idea, however, and he quickly rushed into the room to hack the security system, allowing him to have the heat-packing drones attack Big Daddy.

Now, rather than getting our behinds handed to us by one of the game's most powerful foes, we were able to sit back and watch as Big Daddy had to battle the airborne drones. Not wanting to be shut out of the action, the demoer shot a nearby gas tank, releasing a steady stream of flame. Since he knew that burning objects would just keep on burning, he used his telekinetic powers to lift a teddy bear off the ground and touch it to the flame (who said kids' toys are flame retardant?), before tossing it at Big Daddy. He quickly went up in flames, as well, although that still wasn't enough to take him down. At last, we spotted a Splicer on a balcony who was tossing grenades down on us, and we snatched the thing directly out of the air, launching it at the still-burning Big Daddy. After a solid 10 minutes of combat, the behemoth was felled.

Although we had seen BioShock before, previous demos mainly focused on the game's cerebral aspects. While this action sequence undoubtedly made us think quite a bit, we also could have gone the brute force route, simply taking down Big Daddy with (a lot of) blasts from our weapons. Or we could have just sent Splicer after Splicer at the big brute, taking care of Little Sister while he was distracted. Basically, the stuff you can do is only limited to the gear you've got on hand and your imagination. Levine told us that the game will feature six weapons (each of which can be heavily modified), as well as dozens of genetic upgrades.

BioShock looks to revolutionize (or perhaps reinvigorate) the first-person shooter genre in a number of ways, and it's a visual stunner to boot. The water and particle effects are amazing, as are the impressive physics and AI engines. Best of all, it looks like one of the rare action games that you can play over and over again, as it offers the perfect mix of an enormous (and visually appealing) environment and wide-open, do-whatever-you-want gameplay. BioShock looks to be the real deal, and we can't wait to see more of it.