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This atmospheric adventure game actually has a great FPS attached to it as well!
August 2, 2007 | 12:25 PM PSTDisclaimer: AMN’s previews are designed to inform you of a game's progress, so far. These previews are not reviews, and we reserve final judgment of each game until it is finished and released. These previews offer an honest opinion of what a publisher chose to demo to us. So, without further ado, read on.
What the Game’s About
BioShock is the spiritual successor to the critically acclaimed System Shock titles. The game has no narrative ties to the previous games and doesn’t share too much in common with their gameplay either, but the creepy atmosphere and thoughtful design that made the System Shock games so special are fully intact and betray BioShock’s unspoken heritage. Futuristic space-stations have been replaced by the underwater city of Rapture, a dystopian 1950s society where ambition and hubris caused the population to self-destruct. Irrational Games have streamlined the RPG and inventory systems from their previous games and rebalanced the experience with a greater focus on combat. Now as much a shooter as an adventure or RPG, BioShock gives players a host of weapons and abilities to dispatch and manipulate enemies at their discretion.
What’s Hot
The combat in BioShock is as exhilarating as it is creative. Irrational Games have been beating a drum as of late, exclaiming again and again that BioShock is a shooter first and an adventure second. There will be plenty of time to look around and discover the secrets of Rapture, but those expecting the same slow pace and sporadic flashes of combat found in the System Shock games will be in for a shock (no pun intended). In the demo, the player was tasked with activating a device called the Lazarus Vector inside Rapture’s irrigation system. In attempt to prevent that from happening, the primary antagonist used his control of the city to redirect enemies toward the player’s position from every direction. We saw waves of enemies approaching through the winding glass tunnels leading up to the irrigation hub, and prepared for the onslaught.
The irrigation control room had several entrances, so the obvious first step was to close all the blast doors to buy ourselves some time. The solid steel wouldn’t be enough to keep the enemies at bay for long, so laying traps was essential. This particular sequence offered a perfect scenario for trap setting, but the developers are keen to point out that players can use the environment and their abilities to lay traps for enemies anywhere throughout the game, and doing so is often more efficient than attacking groups of enemies head-on. Since the demo was set several hours into the game, the main character had several weapons and abilities to make use of at this point. One of the most useful abilities was the vortex ability, which players can place on the floor to hurl unsuspecting enemies into the air, making them easy targets for shotgun blasts. A mine-launcher also came in handy for decorating the area around the vault door, while the hallways were strewn with electrified cables shot from a crossbow. But those were the boring traps. Combining abilities made for far more devious obstacles. For example, it’s much more fun to apply a vortex trap just in front of the door and place a couple mines above the door frame, then watch as enemies are launched straight into an explosive surprise.
The traps did their job on the first several enemies to charge through the doors, but as the waves kept coming, the action quickly became extremely frantic. Creative use of the plasmid powers makes circumstances such as these far less painless than they would be if players were relying solely on standard weaponry. For example, right after the initial rush of enemies met their demise at the hands of our traps, members of a second wave managed to duck under one of the electrified lines draped across the hallway. Using the telekinesis power, the player can avoid letting a perfectly good electrified wire go to waste by hurling it at an enemy, electrifying them and any other enemies that can’t react fast enough to avoid running into the newly-positioned wire. Waste not, want not. Players can follow that up by using the mine-launcher to place a mine on an explosive barrel, and then using telekinesis to throw said barrel at the doorway and take out several enemies at once. Using the environment is also effective. For example, if a group of enemies makes the mistake of maneuvering through a puddle of oil leaking from the surrounding machinery, the player can use a fire plasmid to set the oil and the enemies ablaze. If a few of them live, they'll run to water in efforts of putting themselves out. Once they're busy dousing the flames, the player can use an electric plasmid to electrify the water and deal more damage. Reactions like this from the dynamic AI not only make the action more convincing, they add a huge dose of tactics into the mix. Players can anticipate reactions, and think three steps ahead of the enemy in order to maximize damage dealt and minimize damage taken.
Plasmids that take advantage of the game’s AI ecology provide even more options for combat. In the case of the demo level, the player needed to keep track of several choke points around each of the doors into the area, and race back and forth between them to prevent enemies from getting to the irrigation system and destroying it. That’s a lot of work for one person, but thankfully players can recruit back-up on the fly. Skilled hackers can quickly disable flying security drones instead of destroying them, and then reprogram them to follow their commands. Activating one in the midst of a battle can help turn the tide, or at least keep a group of enemies busy long enough to flank around or check on one of the other choke points. As bodies pile up, don't be surprised to see a Little Sister and their Big Daddy escort arrive on the scene to extract genetic material from the corpses. Players can use the Big Daddies to their advantage though. Hitting one with an enrage plasmid will cause the Big Daddy shift from defense to offense and attack anything in sight, so players can just stand back and let the giant bruisers clear out the room for them. If you’re feeling particularly gutsy, you can try and stay out of sight while the berserk Big Daddy is attacking enemies, and use the opening to take out the Little Sister and steal her precious genetic material. Stay behind long enough, and you might even catch a glimpse of the Big Daddy bending down and sobbing over the Little Sister’s body.
Phew. That’s a lot more description than we’re supposed to give in these previews, but we figured that offering a few examples of what’s possible in BioShock would be more effective than opining about what you’ve probably realized by now. The combat in BioShock is creative, tactical, action-packed, and extremely fun.
What’s Not
The version of the game we played was close to final, and at this stage the game feels damn near flawless. The only problem we ran into was the fact that with so many different weapons, ammo types, and plasmids for players to use, scrolling through the available options and picking the ones we wanted to use took a little longer than we would have liked, especially in combat. The developers have made the controls and equipment selection menus as intuitive as we can imagine possible on the Xbox 360 controller, but there were still instances where we took some damage because – for example - we couldn’t quite navigate to the telekinesis ability fast enough to catch a grenade and throw it back. It’s a problem that will likely fade as we grow accustomed to the pace of the game and learn to anticipate the action. That said, those gamers with the hardware necessary to run the game at its highest settings on PC might want to think about picking up that version, if only for the ability to hot-key each of the abilities.
Outlook
Declaring BioShock as a 2007 game of the year candidate after walking out of the non-playable demo at E3 2006 may have been a bit of a leap of faith. Not this time. After getting our hands on a nearly complete version of the game, we can say with some certainty that BioShock will be one of the best games released this year, and will likely be one of the most memorable titles released this generation. It’s unlike anything we’ve experienced in the genre to date. We can’t wait to play through the final game, experiment with the combat and dynamic AI, and discover the dark secrets of Rapture.
What the Game’s About
BioShock is the spiritual successor to the critically acclaimed System Shock titles. The game has no narrative ties to the previous games and doesn’t share too much in common with their gameplay either, but the creepy atmosphere and thoughtful design that made the System Shock games so special are fully intact and betray BioShock’s unspoken heritage. Futuristic space-stations have been replaced by the underwater city of Rapture, a dystopian 1950s society where ambition and hubris caused the population to self-destruct. Irrational Games have streamlined the RPG and inventory systems from their previous games and rebalanced the experience with a greater focus on combat. Now as much a shooter as an adventure or RPG, BioShock gives players a host of weapons and abilities to dispatch and manipulate enemies at their discretion.
What’s Hot
The combat in BioShock is as exhilarating as it is creative. Irrational Games have been beating a drum as of late, exclaiming again and again that BioShock is a shooter first and an adventure second. There will be plenty of time to look around and discover the secrets of Rapture, but those expecting the same slow pace and sporadic flashes of combat found in the System Shock games will be in for a shock (no pun intended). In the demo, the player was tasked with activating a device called the Lazarus Vector inside Rapture’s irrigation system. In attempt to prevent that from happening, the primary antagonist used his control of the city to redirect enemies toward the player’s position from every direction. We saw waves of enemies approaching through the winding glass tunnels leading up to the irrigation hub, and prepared for the onslaught.
The irrigation control room had several entrances, so the obvious first step was to close all the blast doors to buy ourselves some time. The solid steel wouldn’t be enough to keep the enemies at bay for long, so laying traps was essential. This particular sequence offered a perfect scenario for trap setting, but the developers are keen to point out that players can use the environment and their abilities to lay traps for enemies anywhere throughout the game, and doing so is often more efficient than attacking groups of enemies head-on. Since the demo was set several hours into the game, the main character had several weapons and abilities to make use of at this point. One of the most useful abilities was the vortex ability, which players can place on the floor to hurl unsuspecting enemies into the air, making them easy targets for shotgun blasts. A mine-launcher also came in handy for decorating the area around the vault door, while the hallways were strewn with electrified cables shot from a crossbow. But those were the boring traps. Combining abilities made for far more devious obstacles. For example, it’s much more fun to apply a vortex trap just in front of the door and place a couple mines above the door frame, then watch as enemies are launched straight into an explosive surprise.
The traps did their job on the first several enemies to charge through the doors, but as the waves kept coming, the action quickly became extremely frantic. Creative use of the plasmid powers makes circumstances such as these far less painless than they would be if players were relying solely on standard weaponry. For example, right after the initial rush of enemies met their demise at the hands of our traps, members of a second wave managed to duck under one of the electrified lines draped across the hallway. Using the telekinesis power, the player can avoid letting a perfectly good electrified wire go to waste by hurling it at an enemy, electrifying them and any other enemies that can’t react fast enough to avoid running into the newly-positioned wire. Waste not, want not. Players can follow that up by using the mine-launcher to place a mine on an explosive barrel, and then using telekinesis to throw said barrel at the doorway and take out several enemies at once. Using the environment is also effective. For example, if a group of enemies makes the mistake of maneuvering through a puddle of oil leaking from the surrounding machinery, the player can use a fire plasmid to set the oil and the enemies ablaze. If a few of them live, they'll run to water in efforts of putting themselves out. Once they're busy dousing the flames, the player can use an electric plasmid to electrify the water and deal more damage. Reactions like this from the dynamic AI not only make the action more convincing, they add a huge dose of tactics into the mix. Players can anticipate reactions, and think three steps ahead of the enemy in order to maximize damage dealt and minimize damage taken.
Plasmids that take advantage of the game’s AI ecology provide even more options for combat. In the case of the demo level, the player needed to keep track of several choke points around each of the doors into the area, and race back and forth between them to prevent enemies from getting to the irrigation system and destroying it. That’s a lot of work for one person, but thankfully players can recruit back-up on the fly. Skilled hackers can quickly disable flying security drones instead of destroying them, and then reprogram them to follow their commands. Activating one in the midst of a battle can help turn the tide, or at least keep a group of enemies busy long enough to flank around or check on one of the other choke points. As bodies pile up, don't be surprised to see a Little Sister and their Big Daddy escort arrive on the scene to extract genetic material from the corpses. Players can use the Big Daddies to their advantage though. Hitting one with an enrage plasmid will cause the Big Daddy shift from defense to offense and attack anything in sight, so players can just stand back and let the giant bruisers clear out the room for them. If you’re feeling particularly gutsy, you can try and stay out of sight while the berserk Big Daddy is attacking enemies, and use the opening to take out the Little Sister and steal her precious genetic material. Stay behind long enough, and you might even catch a glimpse of the Big Daddy bending down and sobbing over the Little Sister’s body.
Phew. That’s a lot more description than we’re supposed to give in these previews, but we figured that offering a few examples of what’s possible in BioShock would be more effective than opining about what you’ve probably realized by now. The combat in BioShock is creative, tactical, action-packed, and extremely fun.
What’s Not
The version of the game we played was close to final, and at this stage the game feels damn near flawless. The only problem we ran into was the fact that with so many different weapons, ammo types, and plasmids for players to use, scrolling through the available options and picking the ones we wanted to use took a little longer than we would have liked, especially in combat. The developers have made the controls and equipment selection menus as intuitive as we can imagine possible on the Xbox 360 controller, but there were still instances where we took some damage because – for example - we couldn’t quite navigate to the telekinesis ability fast enough to catch a grenade and throw it back. It’s a problem that will likely fade as we grow accustomed to the pace of the game and learn to anticipate the action. That said, those gamers with the hardware necessary to run the game at its highest settings on PC might want to think about picking up that version, if only for the ability to hot-key each of the abilities.
Outlook
Declaring BioShock as a 2007 game of the year candidate after walking out of the non-playable demo at E3 2006 may have been a bit of a leap of faith. Not this time. After getting our hands on a nearly complete version of the game, we can say with some certainty that BioShock will be one of the best games released this year, and will likely be one of the most memorable titles released this generation. It’s unlike anything we’ve experienced in the genre to date. We can’t wait to play through the final game, experiment with the combat and dynamic AI, and discover the dark secrets of Rapture.
February 8, 2010
