Irrational Games' spiritual successor to their acclaimed System Shock series is like no other game on the market, a wildly ambitious, literature sci-fi FPS which hurls viewers into the beautiful underwater city of Rapture, where all hell breaks loose and survival isn't easy. In addition to its unique art style, the game boasts a number of inventive gameplay mechanics such as Plasmids, upgrades which allow the player to do things such as shoot fire at enemies, and are vital against the game's bigger enemies later on. However, Bioshock is a game that, while challenging, ensures not to make itself too hard on players, for death results in you being revived in one of the many Vita Chambers scattered around Rapture, allowing you to resume play without having to commit to repeating 10 or 15 minutes of tasks you've just completed. To some it might make the game too easy, but it cuts down on the frustration factor and is a huge credit to the series. More so than the actual story, it's the game's other characters who really make this one a winner: Andrew Ryan, the father of Rapture, and Atlas, a revolutionary looking to overthrow him, are brimming with personality and a joy to observe. Without giving anything away (if, for some reason, you haven't played this game yet), the game's barmy finale serves up one of the smartest and most shocking plot twists to any game of the last decade, and is well worth losing yourself in.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
