I finally finished Bioshock; well one of the endings. It was fantastic – definitely worth the time and effort. I played the nice guy and rescued all the Little Sisters. See? I’m not as bad as people would have you believe.
Despite a small amount of grind, this really is a magnificently designed game, where the story keeps you going as much as the action, and there’s just enough twists to keep each level interesting.
I think this is more of a shooter than the strategy 2K were pushing, but that doesn’t detract from the game itself, which looks beautiful, sounds really quite disturbing, and reminds you that not all first person shooters these days are generic. Each level has a slightly different feel to it, with only one of them – Proving Grounds – to be on rails. The rest you’re pretty free to wander, and splicer spawn points don’t feel too orchestrated. The voice acting is excellent too, and there’s some very nice set pieces, and some nice voice diaries next to set up rooms. The water effects truly were excellent all the way through, but so was the fire, and even the electrical bolts didn’t look too cheesy. This has definitely been the best looking game on the 360 for me so far. Even better than Gears of War.
It’s a shame there wasn’t any multi-player, as the level design is very tight, but since the single player goes on for about twenty hours, you wont regret the outlay in time or money. Maybe the designers felt that multi-player would’ve diluted the mythology of the game itself.
Bye Bye Mr. Bubbles.