There is a definite reason that BioShock has earned GameSpy's Game of the Show for the last two years at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. While some have called developer Irrational's magnum opus "the spiritual successor to System Shock 2" (the PC title widely hailed as one of, if not the, greatest games ever realized), we are more inclined to label it as the spiritual superior. That's not a statement that we take lightly, mind you, but when confronted by a masterpiece of this magnitude -- a game that is almost more of a quest of self-discovery than a mere plaything -- it's impossible to not recognize the brilliance flooding your senses.

Wrapped up in Rapture

From the moment that you plunge into the frigid Atlantic waters, a victim of the dangers of air travel, BioShock lives up to its name by delivering a profoundly visceral experience that gets inside of you, consuming your thoughts, monopolizing your time and staggering what is soon to be your very fragile psyche. It may sound like a ridiculously silly cliche to describe a game set in an underwater dystopia as immersive, but while the pun may not be intended, it is wholly unavoidable because BioShock will completely enmesh you within the fully-realized broken-down paradise of Rapture.


The game's rich, textured tone derives in large part from the underwater setting of Rapture, a visionary (yet decidedly failed) social experiment of a city created by industrialist mastermind Andrew Ryan. Rapture takes on many forms as you progress through the game, but most of those forms are variations on an undersea tomb from which you are likely to never return. Claustrophobic, oppressive and downright terrifying, Rapture manages to impose all of these feelings with its art deco style and straining bulkheads -- at no point can you forget that you are at the bottom of the ocean with tons of water aching to crush the steel and glass of Rapture like a delicate chrysalis.

Irrational has augmented this unforgettable setting with superlative storytelling, making it impossible to escape BioShock's clutches. You are free to explore at your leisure (provided that you can take time out of your busy schedule of surviving the terrors within Rapture) and tidbits of the game's incredibly deep plot in the form of bulky tape recorders (beautifully indicative of the era in which the game takes place) that are scattered about the submerged city. If you're looking for spoilers, though, you'd best go elsewhere, because Rapture's tragic tale of paradise lost is easily the most engaging part of BioShock and to let even the tiniest sliver of detail slip out could be considered a crime against the gaming community. Let's just say that there are twists, revelations and prickly moral decisions aplenty and leave it at that.

Might and Magic

Of course, BioShock's intensely awesome story is also driven by those unfortunate souls you'll meet within Rapture. As you are likely already aware from our exhaustive coverage, these hapless existential iconoclasts that sought to forge a new society within Andrew Ryan's underwater citadel have degenerated into jacked-up gene freaks, twisted by the unchecked and reckless progress of genetic science. As soon as you arrive, you are greeted by the sad outcome of a society that has cannibalized itself in the hopes of improving... of course, it's important to note that said "sad outcome" is a vast population of genetically enhanced monster-people, so while you might initially be tempted to sympathize with them for their folly and hubris it's probably best to come out swinging.

Fortunately, the very same science that mutilated these creeps into bloodthirsty scavengers is available to you as well, and you'll need to make use of it in order to simply survive. There's never any question of whether or not you'll start "splicing" yourself, because it's a foregone conclusion that if you're going to make it out of Rapture alive you're going to need decent biologically-grafted weaponry. The arsenal of plasmids and tonics that you encounter as you progress through BioShock both reinforce the tragic setting of Rapture and are a hoot to use. Who wouldn't want the power of telekinesis? Well, if it meant that your underwater paradise would be reduced to ruins and your flesh would rot though you continued to exist in painful perpetuity, you might want to think on it awhile. Granted, you just need to get out of this place alive, so again the question of whether or not you're going to splice yourself up is exceptionally moot.