BioShock

Aug 14, 2007

We've been all over BioShock ever since we first saw it at the E3 of old. Even back then it stood out and captured our full attention; it looked like nothing else before it, had a captivating premise, and was beautiful to look at. Now the release of this first-person action game is less than one week away and a playable demo is available for download on Xbox Live Marketplace. We decided to give you our full impressions of this demo in case you don't own an X360 or you, for some ungodly reason, have an X360 but don't have Xbox Live. This means there will be spoilers in the following paragraphs, so consider yourself warned!

As the demo opens you'll find yourself seated in the smoky cabin of a passenger plane. Yes, it's 1960 and the term second-hand smoke probably hasn't even been invented yet. Your character looks at a photo of his family and a voiceover monologue talks about how you're destined to do great things. Next thing you know, your prop plane is plummeting towards the water in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. You awaken in the murky depths of the ocean and swim towards the ocean. The night is illuminated by burning jet fuel and parts of the plane are slowly sinking into the water. Nearby is a tower lit with lights. You have no choice but to swim for it.

While tail section of the plane slowly sinks into the depths of the ocean you enter the strange tower. Just as you walk past the threshold the door slams shut, drowning you in darkness. Then, one by one electric lights click on revealing a room with a large statue of a man in the center. In front of this statue is a bright red banner with the phrase, "No Gods or Kings. Only Man." Below this statue is a plaque inscribed with a quote from a man named Andrew Ryan saying, "In what country is there a place for people like me?" An old-time-sounding instrumental version of "Somewhere Beyond the Sea" plays on speakers hidden throughout the tower.

You'll then make your way down two flights of stairs to a room with a spherical bathysphere in it. With no other choice, you enter it and descend into the Atlantic. As you dive further and further a projection screen will appear. A short message from Andrew Ryan plays. He talks about how the sweat of one man's brow should belong to himself, and introduces the city of Rapture to you. As this underwater metropolis comes into view Ryan's recording tells you that it's a place where science no longer being hindered by "petty morality" and "the great will not be constrained by the small".

As your ride ends in a dock within one of the many underwater skyscrapers that compose rapture you'll see a man waiting for you, but before he can do anything he is attacked by a deformed man with scythes where his hands should be. These creatures are called "Splicers". This Splicer kills the other man and then jumps onto the top of the Bathysphere, punching holes in it and rendering it useless. After the damage is done the Splicer leaves.

This is when you'll notice a radio in the Bathysphere. You pick it up and are contacted by a man named Atlas. As all the Ayn Rand fans get a little chuckle you'll be told that you're in grave danger and that you need to get to high ground. The door to the bathysphere opens and you take your first steps into the city of Rapture.

Rapture has seen better days. There are ads everywhere for something called "Plasmids". You'll also see discarded protest signs with slogans like "Rapture is Dead" and "Ryan Doesn't Own Us" written on them. Blood splatter is a regular sight, a smoky mist is everywhere and most of the lights in the place can only flicker off and on. As you venture deeper into the city you'll come face-to-face with a Splicer, but an automated gyrocopter armed with an automatic gun swoops in and scares it off with a burst of gunfire. It's here that you'll pick up your first weapon, a large wrench. It gets the job done for close encounters and it's not long before you find yourself in your first melee battle. It doesn't take long for you to beat down your enemy.

Next you'll find a locked door. In the same room is a plasmid dispenser. Inside is an Electro-bolt power-up syringe. Once you activate it you'll inject yourself, triggering a cutscene where you'll fall unconscious, get prodded by Splicers, and get your first glimpse of Little Sister and Big Daddy, a little girl and a monstrous man-thing in what looks like an old-fashioned deep-diving suit with a drill in place of a right hand. Both groups will leave you be and eventually you'll regain consciousness. Once you do you'll use your new Electro-Bolt to shoot out electricity from your left hand and open the locked door.

This leads to a walkway from one building to the next. Your first few steps into this walkway are suddenly interrupted as the tail section of the plane you crashed in floats down to the city and smashes right into the walkway. As water floods the area you'll make your way to the next building where the door will seal behind you, preventing further flooding. Now you'll encounter another Splicer, but this time you have your Electro-Bolt. Atlas uses the radio to tell you to use a "one-two" combo, shocking your enemy with your Plasmid power and then hitting him with the wrench for a one-hit kill. The technique works marvelously.

Next you'll enter a room, kill a flaming Splicer, and take an elevator up a few floors. During your elevator ride Atlas will tell you that his family is here in Rapture and that he needs your help to get them out of this watery hellhole. As your elevator ride ends you'll come across your first female Splicer. She'll be cooing to…something in a baby carriage. Deciding to take no chances we shocked her and killed her with our one-two combo. Inside the carriage you'll find a revolver. You may choose to tackle this differently. As you move to the next area you'll see a set of restrooms, if you go into the "Dames" room you'll see your first ghost, and find your second Plasmid power, Incinerate. This power envelopes your enemies in flames, you'll get to try it out right away as a Splicer will jump out of a stall before you leave the restroom.

Rather than head into the men's room next, we went downstairs where a male and female Splicer are having a bit of a spat. We torched them both and searched the area for medical kits, Eve Injectors (Eve powers your Plasmid abilities) and weapons. We were able to get a good bit of ammo for our revolver. This same room also had two other Splicers standing in ankle-deep water. We used our Electro-Bolt power on the water and took out both of them with one shot. The room itself is decorated for a New Year's party one year ago. Banners with "1959" printed on them are all over the place. You'll eventually find an audio recording of a journal left by Diane McClintock a woman who refers to herself as someone "silly enough to fall in love with Andrew Ryan". The end of her journal, made on New Year's Eve, sounds like all hell breaking loose.

After filling up on med kits and Eve injectors, we go back upstairs, head to the men's room and go through a hole in the way. This leads us to the upper floor of the Footlight Theater. Atlas will chime in here and tell you to lower your weapon, then he'll give you your official introduction to Little Sister. Below you is a small theater and in the middle of the room is a disheveled little girl with a very large syringe. She hums to herself pleasantly while examining a dead body. A Splicer armed with a revolver then appears and attacks her, but before he can do any real damage a Big Daddy shows up and brutally dispatches of the Splicer and then leads the Little Sister away to safety.

As you work your way downstairs and out the door you'll find a Thompson sub machinegun and a couple more Splicers. After taking them down you'll come across your first security camera. Life will be much easier if you sneak up under it when it's not looking your way and hack it. Hacking in this game involves a minigame where you'll connect a number of pipes of different shapes to direct a slow-moving liquid from one end of a box to another. It's fairly simple but there is a time limit in the form of the traveling goo. If the goo gets to a point where it has no where to go, your hack will be unsuccessful. You can also just use cash to make an instant hack. Now whenever the camera picks up a bad guy it'll send out an automated gyrocopter to deal with the threat.

Next you'll drop down into a room with gated doors leading to a medical pavilion one one side, and an open door leading to the Neptune's Bounty restaurant on the other side. There is restroom between the restaurant and the medical pavilion. Before heading towards Neptune's bounty find the disabled gyrocopter bot on the ground. Hack it to make it your friend, you'll need it. Then head into the bathroom where you'll see a sentry gun. Quickly hit it with your Electro-Bolt power before it can open fire on you and then hack that as well. Once you're done with that a female splicer will come in after you. Let your gyrocopter and sentry gun take her out.

Next you'll head to Neptune's Bounty. Before you get there the doors will close and the bunch of Splicers will start to swarm into the room. Fortunately, to get to you they'll have to jump into a pool of water. Once they land hit them with your Electro-Bolt. You'll be able to take out multiple groups at a time this way while your hacked bot buddy will take out any stragglers. If anyone manages to actually get through to you, take them down with whatever you like using, wrench, revolver, or Thompson. As the alarms blare Atlas will open the doorway to the Medical Pavilion for you. Run into it and head to…the end of the demo. We won't spoil what happens next, because we just don't have the heart to ruin everything for you.

Because BioShock is so open-ended, you can play through this demo any way you want. Some of us have played it through four or five times and still love it. If the demo is this addictive, we can't wait to see the full version. Be sure to keep an eye out for our full review of BioShock coming soon.