Heather Newman
Detroit Free Press


"BioShock."
Developer: 2K Games.
Format: For the Xbox 360 (also PC).
Price: $59.99.
Rated: M (Mature).
Four stars (out of four).

MCT

I was moderately impressed when I first played "Bioshock" at a convention last year, though mostly by the grandiose claims of its developers.

"Look at how beautiful it is!" they said, pointing to unfinished graphics. "Look at how the creatures have their own internal logic!" they said, pointing to creepy people that I got to see for half a second before they were dead. "It's going to really stun shooter fans!"

Yeah, right. We've all heard that before.

But darned if they didn't deliver, and then some. "Bioshock" is easily the most impressive thing I've seen for the Xbox in a while. It's a hoot to play, has just the right mix of shock, creepiness and story, and yes, it's absolutely gorgeous.

You follow the story of a man who escapes a plane crash only to descend into the underwater "utopia" of a mad scientist, determined on giving researchers without morals the place to develop their most sinister creations.

Part of the fun of this title is that the scientists (what's left of them) are pretty much indistinguishable from the creations by the time you get there.

The scenery is flat-out stunning: this underwater art deco city has delicious detail and some of the best water effects you've ever seen. The people - well, they don't get the same generous detailed love, but that's all right. You're probably only going to see them for a few seconds each anyway.

Once you arrive, you pick up an ally who communicates with you via radio, offering you a way out if you'll help rescue his family. This gives you a definite series of goals, which makes the game feel like a graceful, scripted whole - you're not just defending yourself in the dark.

"Bioshock" includes several difficulty levels, which range from hold-your-hand-easy to downright hard. But thanks to good level design and intuitive controls, you're not likely to feel lost or frustrated, the danger in a shooter that also includes some puzzle elements.

You'll have lots of choices about how to dispatch your enemies - shoot them with a pistol, machine gun them, fry them with your electrical fist (bonus points for doing that when they're standing in water), beat them over the head with a wrench and so on - and you can even hack and enlist machines along the way, using an engaging little moving-tiles maze puzzle that gets harder as you go.

Hack a health machine and it hurts monsters who try to use it (and yes, they really are that smart). Hack a turret - also known as a machine gun strapped to an office chair - and it'll fire on them when it gets a clear shot. Hack a vending machine and you can get extra stuff, and pay less for what you do buy.

"Bioshock" is a nice surprise, an escape from the summer videogame doldrums, and one I guarantee you'll want to play through to the end. I wish they had included some kind of multiplayer, but that's a small quibble when the single-player campaign is this good.

© 2007, Detroit Free Press.