Bioshock Demo

So, I downloaded and played the Bioshock demo the last two days.

Oh....my....God.....

Those are the first words that come to mind when talking about this demo. From it's graphics, to it's moody atmosphere, to it's surprisingly clever voicework, to it's streamlined gameplay, this game just screams "Breakthrough Hit".

I know that last paragraph made me sound like I am on IGN or Gamespot's payroll, but I can't help it, that is exactly how I feel. As my good buddy Brandon can attest to, I have been singing Bioshock's praises for quite awhile now (Brandon is a PS3 man, I am an Xbox 360 guy myself, though I do own a PS3 now, which is a story for another day), but to have the game in my hands (proverbialy speaking, it is on my hard drive) only solidifies those hopes/dreams/belief's I had for the game. Let's do this as a brief rundown of the demo.

Right off the bat, it get's odd (which is another adjective that will be used often for this game, but in a good way) where there is a brief voice over by the protaganist (who is unseen and unnamed thus far) explaining how his parents always said he would do great things, and they were right. It isn't altogether clear at first, but it seems you are on a plane, as you suddenly crash into the ocean, grasping for air, various debris floating around you, you eventually pop up to the surface and gain control of the character for the first time. The scene then becomes very remeniscent of Castaway with the burning plane wreckage, the tail of the ship sinking, and you all alone on the darkened sea (by the way, this is a real fear of mine, in that, I have an acute case of potamophobia, fear of rivers and running water, in my case, any water with living things in it). You quickly make your way to the only place you can go, this bizarre, lighthouse like structure jutting out of the water.

Normally, this is the part where one would ask themselves "Where in the hell did that come from?!" and believe me, I did. I am just not sure the "normal" will end up applying to this game. The opening narrative explicity shows that this happens "In the 1960's" and there are overt references to both America and the Soviet Union. The art design of the structures, clothing, advertisements (for the Plasmids, more on that later) and various other scenery objects scream 1950's art deco. And to top it off, there is a very real, very obvious, and very intentional "Ayn-Rand-meets-George-Orwell" feel to the dialogue and story. That's not to mention all the various science ficition elements that will come into play shortly. In that kind of cocktail, where does "normal" fit in? I am hoping, however, that there is something that will have this whole "Plane crashed, guy decides to go ahead and head down to the underwater in a bathysphere from a strange out of nowhere structure" scenario make sense, but it will be tough to do that.

The game moves quickly into the surreal from there. You enter the lighthouse, where automatic lights and the song "Beyond the Sea" start up, you walk down the corridor to the aforementioned bathysphere and begin to descend into the ocean. As you do, you get your first appearance of "Andrew Ryan" who is the founder of the undersea city you are heading to, called Rapture. In a brief movie (literally a movie projected on the front wall of the bathysphere) Ryan talks about how America, the Soviet Union, and even the "Church" all are trying to take the "sweat from your brow" and how here, in Rapture, you can keep it for yourself. I am not ashamed to admit I lapped this up like a puppy. Being a social studies student, I am unabashedly pleased to see a game take such an obvious route to political discourse and mash it into a game. Ryan's bits of socio-political babble that you hear in the early parts of the game sound like a mish mosh of Big Brother and Nietzsche. He has this kind of omnipresent presence coupled with a highly individualistic approach to moral asthestics. It's rather fascinating that this has become the main concept of the game, because it is certainly both rare and obtuse. I find it hard to believe that many will ever try to delve into the more philosophical concepts involved, and I fear that Ryan will eventually become a caricature of madness that most of the characters in games tend to be, but at the present, it is a breath of fresh air (under the water!).

Once the bathysphere arrives, you get your first taste of the survival horror atmosphere that should be easily recognizeable for any fan of the genre. You are trapped in the bathysphere as....something....tears apart a man in front of you. The best part of this is the way the lighting never allows you to fully see the thing, except for the hook that is it's arm, which it uses to kill the man. Once it attempts to break through the vehichle and can't, it leaves and you are informed via a radio in the bathysphere about what to do next, thanks to a man named Atlas (obvious choice). You leave the vehicle and can start exploring.

This is when the power of the Unreal 3 Engine truly shines. Walking around the ruined room you can immediately glimpse all the clever nuances that only HD graphics can give you. Small pockmarks in the walls, noticeable blood stains and pools, the dimmed lighting that accents the room, the placards from now gone protestors, saying they want to leave Rapture and that Rapture is dead, and of course, the window that displays the vast underwater city. I could go on and on all day describing it, and it wouldn't even begin to do it justice. It those little nuances that really bring the flavor of a game out, and the ability to actually see them is key. The suffocating atmosphere is almost palatable thanks to it.

After you walk around a bit, you watch a type of drone with automatic weapons fight off the thing that was after you and Atlas gives you a very brief description of where you are. You make your way to a type of a lobby where you are forced to quickly subdue what appears to be a crazy person who was searching a body. Upon defeating the man you can actually search his body for med-packs and other items. My guess is this is where those "RPG elements" people are talking about come into play. The ability to search bodies and other items (you can look through things like trash cans, boxes, and discarded bags) for usable items. Indeed, it gives the game (coupled with its clearly FPS style control) a feel of "Oblivion under water" at this point, even though the games aren't really all that alike.

Once you are finished there, you move upstairs and see this vending machine type thing that clearly has an item for you. It's a syringe with a red liquid in it that you immediately stab into your arm (yeah, I don't know about you, but I always stab strange syringes lying around right into my arm). You then have this electrical shock pass through you as you scream and Atlas explains that your DNA is being resequenced and it will pass. Unable to handle the stress of what is going on, you actually fall from the overlook of the stairs to the floor below. As you fade in and out of consciousness, you notice two more of these crazed people searching you for something they call "ADAM" (a substance that will come into play later) and as they are doing so you notice that they have these weird fish faces (which turn out to be masks later on). Soon, however, the hear a noise and they tell you you would be better off with them than the "Big Daddy" and they flee. That leads to your first encounter with the already iconic Little Sisters and Big Daddies (the big dude with the drill arm) where the little girl creepily talks about light from your belly and how you'll soon be an angel. They leave, as you are not dead yet, and you regain control.

Here is where the wrinkle in the game play comes in, as you now have use of "Plasmids", basically, magic. You use the left bumper and left trigger to cycle through them and use them, respectively. While the right bumber and right trigger are used to cycle through and use your weapons, respectively. This leads to a kind of dual-wielding with them, whereby you use the left trigger to hit a Plasmid and the right to shoot your weapon. The first Plasmid you get is a kind of electrical shock that allows you to stun enemies to hit them easier with your wrench (the only weapon you have at first). They also show in a video at the end of the demo using things like ice, to freeze your enemies in place, and telekenisis to move objects to do things. Very interesting.

From here, Atlas asks you to go find his family, and as you do, you watch as a Little Sister, harvesting "ADAM" from a dead body, is attacked by one of the "Splicers" (the crazy guys). This leads to a sequence whereby the Big Daddy kicks the crap out of the guy and saves the girl. Clearly this is a combo not to be trifled with. You end up getting another Plasmid, this fire ability to burn your enemies, and setting off a trigger alarm which forces you to fight off a bunch of Splicers at once with a tommy gun (which is as cool as it sounds). They also show off some of those "interactive environment" concepts they have been talking about, like allowing you to hack into the flying drones to control them, or choosing to shut down the alarm before triggering it (by hacking it) or shooting your electricity Plasmid into the water that the Splicers are standing in, and shocking both of them at the same time.

You eventually get trapped in a room next to where Atlas's family is, and you apparently hear them get killed as Ryan appears in all his Big Brotherness on a screen in front of you, asking you who sent you, the KGB or CIA (I am guessing about the CIA, I couldn't make it out fully over the screens) and saying that Ryan is not another oligarch to be pushed around, as splicers start to breakdown the plexiglass shielding you from them.

Thus the demo ends.....

It would be remiss of me to not mention this strange hallucination you have at one point when you enter a bathroom, where you apparently shift into some sort of haze and see weird spirits or something. I am guessing this is going to play into something from story perspective, but I don't know what else to say about it at the moment, so I will skip any speculation at this point.

Really, the only thing I can think about is what I said at the beginning. Oh my God. This game is utterly fantastic already. I am worried about how much of a replayability it will have, given it's nature, and I am concerned that it will eventually devolve into your typical "creepy shooter" faire by making Ryan a caricature and not adding enough variety to the game play methods, but, you know what, it may not matter. Games this finely crafted just don't come out everyday and you would be doing yourself a disservice to not check it out on the Xbox 360 or PC.