When I heard of the game BioShock, two classic games comes to my mind: System Shock and System Shock 2. I played those two games when I was a kid, but I didn't beat them because those two games are so scary and got complicated controls, especially System Shock. Anyway, BioShock have similar, but improved, gameplay mechanics to System Shock 2 which is good.
You play as a silent protagonist that survived a plane crash to the sea. You swam to the nearby lighthouse. Inside, you'll find this vessel called Bathysphere that brings you to the underwater city called Rapture. In this city, you will encounter some kind of insane and deformed drug addicts called Splicers that will do anything to get some substance called ADAM. You will also encounter Little Sisters accompanied by Big Daddies. Don't worry though, you are assisted by Atlas and few NPC's via radio. You as a main protagonist must arm and splice-up in order to solve Rapture's mysteries and survive.
GAMEPLAY
BioShock is a first person shooter, but not like your typical military-type shooter that have linear missions. You don't have regenerating health and you have a EVE gauge that depletes as you use Plasmids, BioShock's "powers".
BioShock is a single player game, you'll explore the dark ruined city of Rapture. Audio Logs scattered around the city have some important information about Rapture's past and its current state. Audio Logs might contain passwords that will open up new paths and secret areas.
Mostly you will fight Splicers. They all look the same, but they use different melee and ranged weapons, some of them can also use Plasmids. Splicers have different combat behavior depending on what weapon they are using.
The most notable type of enemy in BioShock are the Big Daddies (the big guy that you see at the game's box art). Big Daddies are hulking humanoids that wears a big metal diving suit as heavy armor. A Big Daddy guards its Little Sister that harvests ADAM from corpses. If you want to Harvest/Rescue a Little Sister for ADAM, you have to get through her Big Daddy first.
BioShock's gunplay is a combination of classic and modern shooting style. You can fire normally, you can also aim down the sights of your gun (optional) for more accuracy. You can carry all available (and upgradable) weapons in the game and it's easy to change weapons (press and hold R1 and turn the right analog stick) thanks to the radial weapon selection.
Plasmids and Gene Tonics will give you active and passive abilities that will improve your health and skills. For example, a certain Plasmid can make you fire lightning from your hands by spending EVE, while some Gene Tonics improve your hacking skills etc. Plasmid selection is the same as weapon selection, just press and hold L1 then turn the right analog stick. You can find Plasmids and Gene Tonics lying around the city, you can also spend ADAM to buy one at the Gatherer's Garden vending machines.
You can't fire a weapon or use a Plasmid at the same time. You have to switch between weapons and Plasmids by tapping the L1 or R1 buttons. L2 and R2 fires the Plasmids and guns respectively. It's cumbersome, really. They improved this mechanic in later Bioshock games.
You can sneak behind enemies which is important if you want to conserve ammo and EVE. Since you don't have regenerating health and Eve, the game's kind enough to put lots of health/EVE replenishing items in the game. You can also buy items and ammo in vending machines. And if you die, you will respawn in Vita Chambers. Vita Chambers can be disabled in the config menu.
Hacking is a mini puzzle game that will reward you with discounts and/or free items if you successfully hack a vending machine. Hack mechanical objects (surveilance cameras, turrets, security bots) to turn them against your enemies. Failing to hack will hurt you and sometimes will trigger an alarm that will send flying security bots to kill you.
GRAPHICS
BioShock uses the Unreal Engine and runs at 30-45FPS. The game looks great. The environment are mostly dark and partially lit, but you can still see lots of detail because of the lighting. Character and environment shadows looks great and gives some scare factor. Water is pouring from the ceiling and it distorts your vision when you get through it, which is cool. Different lighting and particle effects enhances the look and mood of the game. You can turn the game up to 60FPS if you set the "Unlock Framerate" option to "on".
Gun models are really detailed, and as you aim through the gun's sights the gun gets blurred for perspective effect. Enemy models looks great, it shows how deformed and ugly the Splicers are. Big Daddies looks cool, I like their design and their in-game model.
MUSIC/AUDIO
The music in this game only plays during in important events and scenes only. The game uses ambient sounds to increase the eerieness of Rapture. You can listen to lots classical music being played on the turntables you stumbled upon (and loading screens).
Voice acting is great, The characters' way of talking and tone really fits the 1950's to 1960's era. Some characters have diffrent accents, like Atlas. Sometimes it's fun to hide and listen to the Splicers talking at each other.
The guns and other objects like the vending machines, sentry guns, etc. sounds great. I can't complain about it.
REPLAY VALUE
BioShock's single player campaign lasts for around 14 hours. It will take more time if you explore and search for all the upgrades and important stuff lying around Rapture. BioShock is a kind of game that you will play many times because it sucks you in, and it's easy to get back to this game.
CONCLUSION
BioShock is a great game, now would you kindly go and play it. It's really cheap now and also included in BioShock: Infinite's retail copy. Why should you play this? Because of it's story, it's really good and I don't want to spoil it even today. Gunplay is great and have a variety of Plasmids, weapons and upgrades. And yes, the graphics look good too. The game is available for PS3, XBox 360, PC and iOS (I'm serious).
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