Bioshock: Morally creepy
August 30th, 2007, 10:48 am · Post a Comment · posted by electrikALIEN
 Last night I finished 2K Studio’s latest game, Bioshock, for the XBox 360.And I want my mommy more than ever before.Bioshock is primarily a first person shooter, but that’s where the game’s similarities with other games of the genre end. Bioshock is filled with creepy sounds, visually frightening areas and psychopathic enemies. It feels more like an interactive horror movie. A really good one. But with guns. Underwater.
The game begins miles above the Atlantic ocean in an airliner. The year is 1962 and you are en route to an unknown destination. Suddenly the plane dives and crashes into the midnight black ocean below. You survive and find yourself swimming to a mysterious island with a single lighthouse topping it. Inside is a single passenger submarine. Odd enough setting yet? Descending into the fathoms, a vast underwater city spreads out before you. Rapture. A city built by men at the bottom of the ocean to refuge the scientific outcasts and slightly deranged geniuses that could find no freedom in the moral world above. But, of course, something has gone terribly wrong. And by wrong, I mean really, really wrong. A perfect setting for a game intent on telling a genuine, if frightening, story. Bioshock is a game of choices. Your own morality will be put to the test time and time again as you trudge deeper and deeper into the secrets of Rapture. The citizens of Rapture (yes there are tons of them still around) must live with their own choices; one of which will be to inflict fear and pain upon a newcomer like yourself. In Rapture, the locals have discovered the key to unlocking human potential: Plasmids. Plasmids are genetically altering substances that give the user special abilities. Some of these include lighting things on fire, freezing or electrocuting foes, or even producing a swarm of bees from your own flesh to annoy or distract anyone around you. While down in Rapture, you will find plasmids, called tonics, that will increase your abilities, physical dexterity or allow easier hacking of steam powered machines.
It’s a game for those who enjoy being scared. Be sure to leave the lights on. (Rated M for Mature. 18+) |
The creepiness of Bioshock never really fades as the game progresses. There aren’t very many parts that will make you wet yourself, but the growing dread of what the next area might entail will definitely have you hugging your teddy bear. Oh, and little, big-eyed girls in pink dresses who drink blood doesn’t help much either.
