BioShock

published by 2K Games in 2007-08-21, developed by 2K Boston / 2K Australia, running on Windows
type: shooter
genre: Horror, Science Fiction, First-person shooter, Immersive sim
series: BioShock
perspective: 1st person
player options: single player
game engine: Unreal Engine 3
languages: eng fre ger ita spa
4.2/5
GFXSFXPresent.ControlsMusicVoiceStoryObjectiveAtmos.
STEAM Powered

Personal reviews (2)

Una ambientación y estética únicas en una especie ciudad sumergida art decó, que presenta una acción directa con el doble uso de armas y plásmidos y una historia que baila entre la nostalgia y lo grotesco.
Además tiene una dosis de elección muy superior a un juego de acción al uso.

8 de 10


# 2014-12-28 12:12:03
No encounter ever plays out the same way twice. No two gamers will ever play BioShock the same way.

This is because the game has quite rapid respawn rate (enough rapid to be irritating and making the game into forced slugfest), causing encounters to happen even if not wanted and the creatures wander around aimlessly through the levels with apparently nothing to do. They sometimes huddle over corpses as if there was something interesting there, but there really isn't (I had scavenged all valuables from those corpses long ago).

Though I have to admit that I did play it on the hardest difficulty, so maybe that's (the rapid respawn) the only way they could think of how to make it more difficult. Didn't have much chance for stealth or alternative approaches when the guys were running everywhere.

Although it was advertized that munitions were supposedly scarce, I never really ran out of them, actually I was almost constantly maxed, except in the particular weapon I had taken a liking of and after fighting swarms and swarms of suddenly script-spawning enemies or after fighting a Big Daddy (they really can take a beating).

The only ways this game is better than Quake 4, Doom 3 or the like is that it's more free roaming (though there's very little use for it), has conversations and some sort of plot twists as well as the light RPG-ness in form of weapon and plasmid upgrades.

The number of choices of approach are quite limited actually, either you shoot them or you.. well.. shoot them. Sneaking past them is usually impossible, or simply just ridiculously difficult opposed to just shooting them and the game has too many scripted sequences where you have to shoot them regardless of how you wanted to do it.

The reliance on scripted sequences for variance is too old, but gives stronger story (scripted sequences are required to have a story, but the use of them outside it is not very good). Some of the things that happened were also very retro FPS-like, for example the one case where I picked up a new gun and swarms of new Mobs were spawned so I could "test it out".

Sad little game in that regard, but can be fun if you ignore all that.

On the confrontation with Ryan, I heard a rather poor explanation for it once (if I remember it correctly, they simply assumed Ryan was raving mad). My own interpretation of it, however, is different.
Ryan first demonstrates the protagonist's dilemma, he's been "programmed" to follow orders of others, with key words activating certain behaviour and in this case, simple "please" would force the protagonist to do as was asked. Protagonist ridiculously follows Ryan's brief orders ("turn around", "run", etc.) followed by "please", until finally Ryan gives him a golf club and tells the protagonist to "kill" (please), while the protagonist is beating him to death, Ryan solemnly repeats a motto: "Man chooses, slave obeys." which he had said earlier (IIRC). This is where some might think Ryan is insane, however, to me he seems idealistic or something that the protagonist is not a slave as he was made to be (which he also demonstrated with his earlier commands), but a free man, able to choose his own actions. Unfortunately, the protagonist is unable to break through the "programming" (mind control) and finally kills Ryan.



# 2007-10-20 01:41:02

Official descriptions (2)

BioShock is a shooter unlike any you've ever played, loaded with weapons and tactics never seen. You'll have a complete arsenal at your disposal from simple revolvers to grenade launchers and chemical throwers, but you'll also be forced to genetically modify your DNA to create an even more deadly weapon: you. Injectable plasmids give you super human powers: blast electrical currents into water to electrocute multiple enemies, or freeze them solid and obliterate them with the swing of a wrench.

No encounter ever plays out the same, and no two gamers will play the game the same way.

* Biologically modify your body: send fire storming from your fingertips and unleash a swarm of killer hornets hatched from the veins in your arms.
* Hack devices and systems, upgrade your weapons and craft new ammo variants.
* Turn everything into a weapon: the environment, your body, fire and water, and even your worst enemies.
* Explore an incredible and unique art deco world hidden deep under the ocean.

Valve - # 2007-08-27 09:48:01 - official description - source
BioShock is the "genetically enhanced" first person shooter that lets you do things never before possible in the genre: turn everything into a weapon, biologically mod your body with plasmids, hack devices and systems, upgrade your weapons and craft new ammo variants, and experiment with different battle techniques in an incredible and unique underwater city.

You are a cast-away in Rapture, an underwater Utopia torn apart by civil war. Caught between powerful forces, and hunted down by genetically modified "splicers" and deadly security systems, you have to come to grips with a deadly, mysterious world filled with powerful technology and fascinating characters. No encounter ever plays out the same, and no two gamers will play the game the same way.

BioShock is loaded with some of greatest, most modifiable weapons to ever blast their way into a shooter. But guns alone won't be enough to defeat the devious AIs of Rapture. There are literally hundreds of other strategies players can use to take out his enemies. Here's just a few things you can do a foe:

* Catch his Grenades in Mid Air and Toss Them Back at Him
* Freeze Him Solid and Shatter Him with Smack of your Wrench
* Lead him and his comrades to water and Zap them all with 1000 Volts
* Burn Him Up With Home-Made Molotov Cocktails
* Booby Trap Healing Machines and Watch Them Blow up IN his Face
* Brainwash Him to Become Your Personal BodyGuard
* Invent your own Ammo Types to Prey on his Vulnerabilities
* Turn his own Security System Against Him
* Light Him on Fire and Launch Heat Seeking Missiles At him
* Torment Him with Plagues of Insects
* Take Research Photos of Him to Learn his Weaknesses
* Send Him Flying into the Ceiling to Knock him Senseless

No encounter ever plays out the same way twice. No two gamers will ever play BioShock the same way.

2K Games - # 2007-06-07 06:09:29 - official description - source

Descriptions (2)

Both the full game and the demo use SecuROM 7.x copy protection. SecuROM is used to enforce CD-in-drive, enforce an online activation, to damage the data on the CD to try to prevent coping it, and was for a much hated "installation limit" that prevented more than 3 install attempts. The geniuses at 2k game didn't want people installing the product on multiple PCs simultaneously and figured that limiting attempts would do the trick. Ingoring the fact that the CD-in-drive restriction already prevents multiple installations from running simultaneously. In reality, it caused the game to be uninstallable if the install process was abandon 3 times (due to errors, or failed requirements such as HD space, or just someone changing their mind). It also forbid reinstallation in cases of a crashed PC or transfer to new computer or in cases of system restore. Any finally, it was possible to successfully install 3 copies on 3 PCs simultaneously, this restriction failed in its purpose! After much complaint, 2k games announced, "Good news! As promised, all activation restrictions, including install limits, have been removed from BioShock PC as of today. You don't have to patch or install anything for this to go into effect for your copy of BioShock – it's already done! " This is NOT and announcement of removal of SecuROM! 2kgames later said "Our other methods of copy protection remain. You will still have to activate your copy, and you will still need to keep the disc in the drive. SecuROM has not been removed" So the cpremoved tag does not yet apply.

(Zerothis) - # 2007-10-27 19:26:50
In the middle of the north Atlantic, a lighthouse juts out of the water. Inside waits a rusted bathysphere, which takes you deep under the ocean to Rapture, a city sprawling along the sea floor.

A man named Andrew Ryan, a former Soviet citizen, built the city in 1946, and the society was envisioned as the ultimate capitalistic and individualist paradise, with the elite achieving for themselves, rather than for the whole. Protected by a network of giant sea walls and consisting of a cluster of enormous skyscraper-shaped hive towers, Rapture was designed to be entirely self-supporting, with all of its electricity, food production, water purification and defense systems powered by volcanic vents at the bottom of the ocean.

At one point Rapture's population numbered several thousand at its peak during the early 1960s, composed of those people Ryan viewed as the best examples of mankind. A large and tiered economy grew among the people, with different quality products catering to different levels of the society.

The grand Art Deco architecture is at once futuristic and archaic, but as you step into Rapture, you find the city a shell of itself. The walls are crumbling and the ocean is seeping in. The hallways are littered with corpses, those who were once the best and brightest of the world above are now mutated and mad, roaming the corridors and waiting to ambush you at every turn.

(2K Games) - # 2007-04-30 15:29:09

Comments (2)

flash - used for the map at least.

Sanguine # 2010-05-07 15:12:42
2007-08-21 as boxed
2007-08-24 on Steam

Sanguine # 2009-03-20 15:24:45

Technical specs

display: textured polygons
Minimum requirements:
* Windows XP or Vista
* 2.4 GHz Pentium IV CPU
* 1 GB RAM
* 128 MB VRAM (GeForce 6600 or Radeon X1300)
* 8 GB free HD space

Note: Game requires Internet connection for activation

Recommended:
* Core 2 Duo CPU
* 2 GB RAM
* 512 MB VRAM (GeForce 7900 GT for DX9, GeForce 8600 for DX10)

Sanguine # 2007-07-10 02:18:08 - 1 reply

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External reviews (2) - average: 96.5%

review sourceissuedatescore
IGN2007*9.7/1097%
Metacritic2007*96/10096%
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