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BioShock (Xbox 360)

Manufacturer: Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. Part number: 29963

CNET Editor rating:
4.5 stars Spectacular
Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 21 reviews

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Gamespot editors' review

BioShock (Xbox 360)

price range: $23.99 - $39.99

Reviewed by: Jeff Gerstmann
Reviewed on: 08/20/2007
Released on: 08/21/2007

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While on the surface it might look like little more than a very pretty first-person shooter, BioShock is much, much more than that. Sure, the action is fine, but its primary focus is its story, a sci-fi mystery that manages to feel retro and futuristic at the same time, and its characters, who convey most of the story via radio transmissions and audio logs that you're constantly stumbling upon as you wander around. All of it blends together to form a rich, interesting world that sucks you in right away and won't let go until you've figured out what, exactly, is going on in the undersea city of Rapture.

Rapture is an amazing city that sits at the bottom of the ocean, but something's gone horribly wrong down there.

BioShock opens with a bang, but the overall plot focuses more on making an emotional impact than an explosive one. The year is 1960, and you're flying over the Atlantic Ocean. One mysterious plane crash later, you're floating in the water, apparently the lone survivor, surrounded by the flaming wreckage of the aircraft. But there's a lighthouse on a tiny island just at the edge of your view. Who in their right mind would put a lighthouse this far out? You swim closer and discover a small submersible called a bathysphere waiting to take you underwater. After catching a breathtaking view of what's below, you're sent into the secret underwater city of Rapture. Masterminded by a somewhat megalomaniacal businessman named Andrew Ryan, this city is driven by its own idea of total freedom, with capitalism completely unhindered by governmental meddling and science unhinged from the pesky morals of organized religion. Sounds like the perfect society, right? Well, even before you step out of your bathysphere and into the city, it becomes obvious that everything has gone horribly wrong down here. The city is trashed, and genetic freaks called splicers roam around, attacking anything that gets in front of them. At the heart of the matter is a powerful, corrupting substance called ADAM, which makes all this genetic tinkering possible and allows you to get your first plasmid power, the ability to shoot lightning out of your fingertips.

Character customization is a key trait in BioShock. You have a limited but increasable number of spaces in various customization categories, and you can totally reconfigure all of your different plasmids and tonics at will, at no charge, at specific locations in-game. Plasmids are the active, weaponlike genetic enhancement. Many of these are very straightforward. Incinerate lets you burn things and melt ice. Telekinesis lets you use your left hand as if it were Half-Life 2's gravity gun. But others are a little more subversive. Security bullseye is a little ball you can toss at enemies, causing any nearby security cameras, turrets, or sentry bots to point in his direction. Enrage can cause enemies to fight one another. Insect swarm causes your arm to shoot bees at your enemies, which unfortunately is far less cool-looking than it sounds. You can also place decoys, plant swirling wind traps for enemies, and so on. While it's fun to mess around with a lot of the indirect attacks, facing your enemies head-on with the more direct plasmids feels a bit more effective.

Tonics are skills that are slotted just like plasmids, but they have passive effects, like sportboost, which increases your movement and melee attack speed, or natural camouflage, which makes you turn invisible if you stand still for a few seconds. So if you want to make your swinging wrench attacks more powerful, you can slot up things like wrench jockey and wrench lurker, which increase your wrench damage on all attacks and when catching opponents off-guard, respectively. Add bloodlust, which gives you some health back every time you club someone with your wrench, and you're a melee master with health and plasmid energy (called EVE) to spare. You can also slot some defensive stuff, like static field, which zaps anyone who touches you with a electric radius effect, and armored shell, which reduces the damage you take from physical attacks. There are more than 50 tonics to collect, giving you plenty of options to play around with.

ADAM and EVE combine to let you shoot fire, lightning, ice, wind, bees, and more out of your fingertips.

Most of those plasmids and tonics will have to be purchased using the raw ADAM that you collect from harvesting vessels called little sisters. They're little girls with a big needle that they use to collect the sought-after stuff from dead bodies, and they're protected by the baddest enemies in the entire game, hulking armored monsters called big daddies. This is where the game makes you decide to be selfless or selfish. If you harvest the girls, they die, but you get 160 ADAM from them. If you free them and return them to normal, you get only 80 ADAM. There are a limited number of girls to deal with in the entire game, making it very possible that you won't be able to collect every single purchasable plasmid and tonic, so choose wisely. Either route has benefits and consequences, and there are story considerations as well.

Before you start thinking this is some kind of role-playing game or something, let's stop right here and say that in addition to all the toys that plasmids and tonics for you to play around with, you're also going to be carrying around some more conventional firepower. Your melee weapon is a wrench, and you quickly collect a pistol and machine gun. Being that this is 1960 filtered through the isolation of an undersea world that has the art deco style of the first half of the century, the weapons aren't nearly as high-tech as the genetic code in your body. The machine gun is your basic tommy gun, and the grenade launcher appears to have been cobbled together from coffee cans and other spare parts. You'll also get a shotgun, a crossbow, and so on. You can also collect different types of ammunition, such as exploding buckshot for your shotgun or missiles for your grenade launcher, and upgrades that increase damage, speed up reloads, and so on. The weapons are functional and the upgrades are pretty good, but the firing action isn't nearly as exciting as a combat-focused first-person shooter would be. The weapons are loud but don't feel especially right, and seeing shotgun blasts not even do 50 percent damage to an unarmored human target (on the default difficulty setting) just feels wrong. But that might also say something about the general lack of enemy variety.

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User reviews

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Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 21 reviews
My rating: 0 stars

Showing opinion 1 to 10 out of 21

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9 stars

Great exploration game

by behemothcarrier on August 22, 2007

Pros: The Best Art Direction since Gears of War

Cons: No skill shot rewards, No Multiplayer option

Summary: In a world that needs a little artistic flare in video, this one has pulled it off in spades. It may less than 12 hours for a hardcore gamer to ...

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Summary: In a world that needs a little artistic flare in video, this one has pulled it off in spades. It may less than 12 hours for a hardcore gamer to beat this game, and for those people I feel sorry because this game requires you to open your EYES AND LOOK! This truly is a high definition experince, and since we take our eyes for granted so much, rushing through the game just doesn't satisfy me. I think the game should have put acheivement points in for consecutive head shots, as they are hard to pull off. If you waited for a game to appeal your aquatic senses, this is your game. Wait until the game vendors have enough for everyone and buy it, you won't be disappointed.

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3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
8 stars

Entrancing

by joemyers on August 22, 2007

Pros: Good graphics, good story line.

Cons: Mediocre skill level, no saves.

Summary: Being a hard core gamer used to Halo and Gears of War I can only give this game an 8, because it lacks some of the challanges I am used ...

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Summary: Being a hard core gamer used to Halo and Gears of War I can only give this game an 8, because it lacks some of the challanges I am used to. I do think it is going to be a great game in its own right though.
Updated
I just started the full version last night, I have finished the welcome level, knocked off 3 Big Daddies and harvested both little sisters, my opinion is still the same as when I played the demo, this is a good entertaining fast paced game, but does not measure up to Gears or Q4. I am 68 years old and have been around gaming from the beguinnig, starting with the first FPS, Wolfenstein 3D, which came on a floppy, I have played just about every shooter in the last 20 years or so and am somewhat knowlegable about gaming. Like I said, yes, it good, is it great, not quite.
Updated
I retract the no saves remark, it is still a mediocre but fun game.

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3 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
10 stars

This is why I love video games!

by mbgibbs13 on August 26, 2007

Pros: Graphics, Gameplay, Story

Cons: No Multiplayer

Summary: If you have a 360, don't listen to all of the PC whiners lowering the score of this game. This is truly one of the most enthralling games I'...

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Summary: If you have a 360, don't listen to all of the PC whiners lowering the score of this game. This is truly one of the most enthralling games I've ever played...and I've been playing since the late 80's. The graphics are excellent (comparable to GOW), the gameplay is outstanding (much better than GOW), and the story/presentation is top notch (blows GOW out of the water). Now, there's no multiplayer, but I've been tired of all the foul-mouthed teenagers polluting Live since the days of Halo 2... I've been looking for a great single player game for a while now, and I've definitely found it.

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2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
10 stars

Best game for the 360

by aronhalt1 on September 28, 2007

Pros: Story, you can feel the environ in your living room!

Cons: Some of the sounds are repetitive, hard to see at times.

Summary: This is how it should be done. This is what happens when a company puts though and passion into a game instead of throwing money at and idea or a ...

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Summary: This is how it should be done. This is what happens when a company puts though and passion into a game instead of throwing money at and idea or a superhero movie.

Not as scary as Doom III. More real than Doom III. Every room and every halway is different...no repeated sections. This makes it easier to find your way around. Every corner of the game is creative. The bad guys talk to each other and if you listen is entertaining. The little girls are cute and demented at the same time. You are given choices that will test your "game morals" and .... thats all I can say about that. The game is a big mystery with a couple of twists and I really didn't see some of it coming.

POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT:

One tip for everyone that plays this game. Make sure to read the Acheivement list before you start...trust me, there are no re-dos and you will miss big points if you don't follow my advice!

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1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
5 stars

An average shooter with a fresh coat of paint.

by Forever Finite on August 29, 2007

Pros: Many different weopons and powers to test.

Cons: Dull sequences, easily guessed plot twists, and terrible objectives.

Summary: SPOILER ALERT!!!

Bioshock. Thats the word on the mouth of all gamers currently. You'll hear many claims of the games "amazing depth, and scope." All of these claims are

...

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Summary: SPOILER ALERT!!!

Bioshock. Thats the word on the mouth of all gamers currently. You'll hear many claims of the games "amazing depth, and scope." All of these claims are overexagerated. They claim you cant beat the game without "creatively blending plasmids and weapons." Thats because near the end enemies are basically immune to all weaponry, leaving plasmids as your only option. Though, many of your plasmids are terribly undereffective as well, use the "Insect Swarm" ability and you'll see what I mean. I will admit there were a few things to do which were just overwhelmingly fun which keeps this games review as high as it is. The trip wire bolts from the crossbow are a good time, along with telekenesis. Though we've seen a better version of that in the Half-Life 2 gravity gun.
I now move on to the stoyline of the game. It's told through a series of voiceovers which while vaguely interesting, can be hard to pay attention to when in combat or when too many are found in quick succession and your interest fades. The big plot twist at the end is so blatant if you do pay attention to these tapes, that it isnt even worth mentioning. I'll give you a hint: Peach Wilkins tells you outright what it is.
The game for all it's polish and flair is surprisingly unrefined. Why does water run down the vision of this main character and even leave specs on his bare eyes? Why when you become a big daddy do you still fight with basic weoponry instead of a big daddys rivet gun, or drill arm? Why arent you wearing gloves as a big daddy?
The objectives too are terrible, all you do is search for the next plasmid or weapon you need to do your next painfully obvious objective.
All around one playthrough will suit you. just to see what all the hype is about, but you'll be left unsatisfied and ready for the next mediocre shooter to tied you over.

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1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
10 stars

Best game in a long time

by tinler on August 27, 2007

Pros: Beautiful yet scary atmosphere (sound & gfx); emotionally provoking

Cons: NPC chatter repeats too much

Summary: Haven't encountered any hiccups as mentioned in the CNET review. It might be a sign that CNET's 360 is dying, not a fault of the game. In fact, ...

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Summary: Haven't encountered any hiccups as mentioned in the CNET review. It might be a sign that CNET's 360 is dying, not a fault of the game. In fact, I usually get Dirty Disc erros in other games (I think the DVD drive parks and gets an error when spinning up), yet in Bioshock, the drive dynamically loads content, preventing my disc problem.

Bioshock has been masterfully designed in that its immersion makes the player want to explore and discover all that Rapture has to offer. I also like the character customization, as I'm half way through and am already looking forward to another play-through with different combat specialization.

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1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
8 stars

Interesting

by dbtwin28 on August 26, 2007

Pros: lighting and sound, bloody art deco, tongue and cheek advertisement

Cons: targeting system is a little weak

Summary: What's cool about this game is the fact I hadn't heard any mention of it until the day before it's release. I'm not much of a ...

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Summary: What's cool about this game is the fact I hadn't heard any mention of it until the day before it's release. I'm not much of a first person shooter, but the intro alone was enough to peak my interest. I want to know where this is going. i'm biolocked in....

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1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
10 stars

Miraculous!

by woobnoffer on October 3, 2008

Pros: Visually and artistically unparalleled! Bioshock's story, graphics, sound artistry, and concept put it ahead of any other Xbox 360 game, and is probably the best game ever made for any system, period!

Cons: Occasionally, some of the plasmids and extras were difficult to figure out.

Summary: I would highly recommend this game! Overall, this was a very functional game without any hangups on controller or having to work endlessly to get to your weapons. Everything is ...

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Summary: I would highly recommend this game! Overall, this was a very functional game without any hangups on controller or having to work endlessly to get to your weapons. Everything is very accessible.
The world of "Rapture" is quite breathtaking. It is a world that is very fun to explore. Expansive and visually stimulating, Rapture would keep you occupied for hours even if there were no game play involved.
Overall, BioShock is the best game I have ever played! Whatever price you pay is small in comparison to what you get in this game.

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10 stars

Engrossing, enjoyable, one of the best for 360 to date

by ilnymhorrim on July 25, 2008

Pros: Game design, sound design, playability - PLOT

Cons: Sleeplessness, unexplained absences from work, losing touch with reality

Summary: This game combines the best aspects of an RPG (leveling up, customization) with the best aspects of FPS (action, immersion) and throws in a great plot, fantastic writing, and a ...

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Summary: This game combines the best aspects of an RPG (leveling up, customization) with the best aspects of FPS (action, immersion) and throws in a great plot, fantastic writing, and a thoroughly enjoyable environment to explore and do battle in. This is one of those games where your pulse actually quickens when you need to fight a Big Daddy... immersion, immersion and submersion. It garners a 10 not because it's flawless, but because it was so enjoyable and engrossing to play. In my top ten of all time best games.

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9 stars

Great game - what Halo 3 would like to be !

by kenmil01 on March 8, 2008

Pros: Deep,absorbing environment. Clever storyline

Cons: Ended too soon

Summary: Makers of that crap Halo 3 should take note. This is what a game should be like.

Summary: Makers of that crap Halo 3 should take note. This is what a game should be like.

Showing opinion 1 to 10 out of 21

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Specifications

Manufacturer: Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.
Part number: 29963

Product Basic Spec
Platform Xbox 360
ESRB rating Mature - Drug Reference,Strong Language,Blood and Gore,Intense Violence,Sexual Themes
Genre Action
Number of players 1 Player
Customization Downloadable Content
Sound Dolby Digital 5.1
Resolution 480p,1080i,1080p,720p,Widescreen

Game
Developer 2K Boston
ESRB Mature
ESRB descriptors Drug Reference,Strong Language,Blood and Gore,Intense Violence,Sexual Themes
Release date 2007-08-21

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BioShock (Xbox 360)

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