BioShock [Xbox 360]

"The Bioshock reviews I read were very positive, so I was looking forward to playing it. I was expecting a good FPS, but it turned out to be more than that. Wow, what a ride. Bioshock is indeed something special, mainly because of its great story: Some scientist has built a city underwater, called Rapture, its inhabitants all genetically enhanced. Of course something went wrong and all of em turned into some kind of zombies (called Splicers). You arrive in the city by accident (plane crash if I remember correctly) and then gather bits and pieces of the story as you go. I won't spoil the rest of the plot, but it has some cool twists.

Bioshock's graphical style is something special too, it has some kind of fifties sci-fi look. It looks great, especially the water effects. I did have some framerate problems in the first levels, but strangely enough these problems were gone the next day I continued the game. Maybe my 360 was overheating?

The game has a very elaborate weapon system. There's a lot of different weapons, each having multiple types of ammo. Several upgrades are available for each of the weapons too. To survive in the city of Rapture you also need to genetically improve yourself, using so-called Plasmids. Each Plasmid gives you a specific power, e.g. throw fire, electrify opponents, telekinetic powers, etc... The Plasmid powers need fuel, called Eve, just like your weapons need ammo. All powers can be upgraded too.
Sounds complex? Well, there's more: you can have only a limited number of Plasmids active at one time. If you own more then you can use the Gene Bank machines to choose which ones are active. The same goes for other genetic upgrades, there are a limited number of slots for Physical, Engineering and Combat tonics. Ammo and Tonics can be purchased using the money you steal from dead Splicers, but you need "Adam" to buy new Plasmids and their upgrades.
In short, there's lots of upgrade possibilities, a bit too much if you ask me. It's all a bit overwhelming, especially in the beginning. I ended up upgrading my machine gun to the max and buying machine gun ammo only.

For a sci-fi shooter, Bioshock doesn't offer much variety in enemies. There's several kinds of Splicers and there's the Big Daddy's, large dudes with fish bowl helmets on. I was hoping for more spectacular large bosses (I always enjoy the "WTF!"-moments when you encounter a new boss), but there weren't any. The Splicers do get tougher near the end though.

A nice touch is the "Kill or Rescue" choice you get when you free a Little Sister from its Big Daddy. Kill the girl and get lots of Adam or rescue her and get surprise gifts (and a small amount of Adam). The choices you make throughout the game determine the ending you get. I rescued them all and got a very happy ending. I am not sure if the last section that leads up to the grand finale is different too if one chooses the dark side. The game was so cool that I am tempted to play it again, now killing all those whining little girls.

I completed the game within two days, in about ten hours, so it is a bit short. I played it on Easy, so if you choose a higher difficult setting, you may take longer. I don't mind short games though, as long as I enjoy the ride and I sure enjoyed this one. Highly recommended."