Pros: This game is gorgeous in every way.
Cons: You can't shoot bees from your fingertips (well not right away)
The bottom line: This game is a work of art, sounds beautiful, looks beautiful and will immerse you when you play.
Imagine if you will, a perfect video game! The graphics would be awesome, beautiful even. The world created would be one you had never seen before. Perhaps instead of a forest, a dungeon and a lava level, it would be an underworld city all done in art deco. The story wouldn't be about rescuing a princess, no, it would be something grand, something epic and tragic on the order of Atlas Shrugged.

Your character would be awesome too. Weapons would be included, but that wouldn't be the only thing you could do, no a perfect video game would let you be a computer hacker and use telekenetic powers. It would let you freeze things or throw fireballs. Heck, in a perfect video game you could Fire Bees from your fingertips!

Alright, in the game Bioshock all of the above is present, except of course for firing bees from your fingertips, I mean that is a bit ridiculous!

Welcome to Rapture!

Rapture is the stunningly beautiful underwater city and civilization set up by Alan Ryan, a clear nod to Ayn Rand, the author of Atlas Shrugged and the ideas of objectivism. (an explanation of this political line of thought would take a whole essay, but in short, those who work hard are rewarded). My son recently got X-Box 360 and we had read a lot about Bioshock so we took it home. I have the X-Box hooked up via component cables to my Optoma HD70 projector, and we play the game on a 105" Da-lite Cinemavision movie screen. This game is totally worthy of this setup, the game just looks absolutely gorgeous in 720p! It is film like in detail and enthralling. (I can only imagine it to be a bit brighter and shinier on 1080p!). From the moment you descend via biosphere and look out the glass windows at the art deco world of Rapture, you will be in rapture.

50's style ads line the walls, and huge neon lights light up the underworld utopia. Outside the large glass windows that are everywhere, fish swim by, and you can see the skyscrapers of other buildings and the glass tubes connecting them all. The scenery reminded me of an Art Deco exhibit that the Boston Museum of Fine Arts had a couple years ago, the game design is really that beautiful.

Alas, all is not as it seems, the city is in ruins, and you first meet a "Slicer" who disables your biosphere. Fortunately, Atlas (another not so subtle reference to Ayn Rand's novel) helps you via radio transmissions to guide you through this ill fated civilization and its underwater city.

Big Daddies and Little Sisters

In the game "little sisters" harvest ADAM, one of the games chief resources. You will need ADAM to gain powers and use PLASMIDS, which are the super powers you can gain in this game. The scientists all went a little (okay a lot) crazy with the idea of genetic research untampered by religious concerns, so telekenesis, pyrotechnics and invisibility are within every citizens reach! Just stop by a "Gatherers Garden" and you can use ADAM to purchase a number of special powers. Trouble is that the only way to get ADAM is from a little sister. You can either "harvest" them or save them, either way you will get ADAM to use and spend as you see fit.

Oh, yeah, back to the Big Daddies in the title. Before you can just rescue or harvest a little sister, you have to defeat the Big Daddy protectign her, and that my friend is no easy task. They are harmless and docile until you try to confront them or their "little sister". Then the Big Daddy will unleash all hell on you. You've been warned.

It is up to you whether you will harvest or save the little sisters. I saved mine of course, I like to be good in games and save my arsenal of firepower for the bad guys.

Raptures other citizens

Of course the remaining citizens of Rapture, who are mostly crazy, may attack you or may ignore you, but you have plenty of ways to take them out. Of course Rapture also has security cameras and remote robots protecting the city, but you also have many ways of taking them out, including hacking them over to your side. At one point in the game you even get a special camera that you can take pictures with and do research to gain insight into enemies weaknesses. It reminded me a bit of the camera in Fatal Frame. The camera itself doesn't do damage, but will provide upgrades when your research is completed.

ADAM and EVE and other resources

Okay, I told you that you needed ADAM taken from the Little Sisters, but you also need EVE which is basically like magic in RPG games. They are blue syringes found throughout the game that let you use your plasmids (Special powers). You need to have EVE to use plasmids (just like you need some amount of magica to perform magic in most RPGs) You can also find weapons, ammo and health kits a plenty or buy them from machines with the money you've found. You also find a number of tapes that the citizens left behind, so you can hear the story of the tragic collapse of Alan Rand's perfect Objectivist Utopia.

The Music and sound effects

This is the Woody Allen of video games! Ever notice how Woody's movies always have GREAT soundtracks? Opera, Classical, blues and jazz guitar? Welcome to Rapture my friend. Along with the classical score, don't be surprised to hear famous 40's figures like legendary jazz guitar player Django Reinhardt, or famous blues singer Billie Holiday! The soundtrack adds a sense of total immersion into the game. The surround sound on this game is also incredible, you will hear things ahead of, next to and behind you.

Controls

Controls feel totally natural once you get the hang of it. Trigger buttons on left and right allow you to fire weapons or plasmids, and the shoulder buttons let you scroll between equipped plasmids and weapons. X button allows you to interact with objects. The right analog stick is for movement, the left for camera view. The select button will bring up the map, game hints in review and other information. You can even press Y in this screen or hold the right arrow on the directional pad for a displayed hint if you are stuck. B will give you a health kit.

What happens if I die?

Well, some may complain, some may rejoice, but you actually cannot die in Bioshock, you just get reborn with your inventory intact in the nearest "VitaChamber". Whatever you accomplished to that point remains.

The Hacking Screen

In any item that you hack, you get a mini game in which you swap out pieces of pipe to connect water flow. You get vertical and horizontal pieces along with different direction elbows. You have to navigate around broken pieces and alarms. Upgrades make this game really simple to play, and once successful in a hack you can buy goods cheaper in vending machines, turn robots to your side, or make a health machine dispense poison to your enemies!

But What about shooting Bees from my fingertips?

Alright, it turns out that you CAN shoot a swarm of bees at your enemies with one of the plasmids available in the game. Technically, they sort of come out of your arms, and don't shoot out your fingertips, but they are pretty cool.

Rating and thoughts on the game

This game is rated M for Mature due to violence, gore, sexual themes (amounting to some scantily clad adversaries, nothing more), disturbing images and mature subject matter (political ideas and such!). In other words, my 12 year old son absolutely loved the game too. He stopped playing Oblivion and Two Worlds to sit down and play this one non stop (well after he finished his homework). I have to wait for the weekend to finish my game, he brought it to his Mom's for the week. This is the first game I've played in quite a while that has just completely fascinated me and risen far above the usual cliched genres of First Person Shooters and role playing games.

Summary

This game just feels right, looks beautiful, sounds beautiful and for me was perfect in every way. There is a reason that there is so much "buzz" around this game and it is there because of more than the ability to shoot bees from your arms. It really is a five star game and one that you will replay even after you've defeated it.