Bioshock, Greatest Game Ever for the XBOX 360?

I pre-ordered the Limited Edition version of Bioshock and picked it up on the release date of August 21st with very high expectations considering all the hype that has surrounded this game since its first debut. The time period of Bioshock is 1960. The game centers around your central character, that has a mysterious plane crash somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean and when you surface from a near drowning, you find a mysterious tower jutting from the ocean while your plane wreckage sinks to the abyss. Apparently you are the only survivor and become drawn to entering this ominous beacon of desperation. You enter the tower cautiously, when suddenly the doors behind you shut with a deafening boom and lights begin to illuminate your predetermined path to destiny. As soon as you enter the bathysphere and descend to the city of Rapture, you know you are in for a treat.

A man named Andrew Ryan created the city of Rapture for all of the worlds greatest artisans, scientists, and other great minds to escape the corruption of the outside world and live in a utopia under the sea. The denizens of Rapture began gene splicing ADAM (the genetic material) and creating special powers such as an electric projectile. After a while, the effects of the gene splicing became apparent, disfigured bodies, insanity, and even death. As the ADAM became harder to find, the inhabitants broke off into two factions vying for control of the ADAM which inevitably brought about the destruction of Rapture. Little sisters were created to harvest the ADAM from the dead and store it in their bodies. The little sister were basically little girls that had a parasite implanted in them that would allow them to store the ADAM with no ill effect. The little sisters needed protection from the splicers who wanted the ADAM, so the Big Daddy was created to be their personal bodyguard. The Big Daddy is basically a person or creature inside a large antique diving suit, with a large drill grafted into one arm and a choice of a few weapons in the other. They are fairly powerful and can handle most splicers with ease.

The gameplay is like most first person shooters, where you have a bunch of weapons to choose from pistols, shotguns, machine guns, grenade launchers, and even a few twists like a crossbow that shoots trap bolts that allow you to string an electrically charged wire across two points and a grenade launcher that shoots proximity mines. The standard weapons have great secondary and tertiary fire alternatives which you can gather or invent later with raw materials you collect throughout the game. Your other weapons are called plasmids, genetic material that is injected into your arm and can either be collected throughout the game or bought at a vending machine called the gatherer's garden. The plasmids range from typical fire and ice projectiles, to insect swarms and mind control of big daddies. The innovation comes from how you choose to kill your opponents.

For example, in one instance I laid electric bolt traps over a pool of water and then some proximity mines near my side of the water. When the splicers came to attack, I hit them with a fire projectile which then caused them to jump in the water for safety where they were electrocuted by the trap bolts. One was able to pass through the water with minimal damage from the electricity and ran into the proximity mines which promptly dispatched him. There are numerous ways to kill your opponents from simple shotgun blasts to the face to intricate traps which lead to much satisfaction. Also, there are many security cameras and security bots ready to identify and annihilate you should you trespass through their domain. You can hack the cameras and security bots to work in your favor and dispose of your enemies. You can also hack vending machines to decrease the cost of goods and save a few dollars in the process.

The other innovative feature in gameplay is the ability to harvest or save Little Sisters. After you dispose of the Big Daddy, you have the choice of either harvesting the ADAM from the Little Sister which essentially kills her, or restoring her to a normal human and being rewarded later greatly. I saved all the Little Sisters the first time I played and now I am harvesting them all to see if I get a different ending.

Now for the graphics, the visuals in this game are amazing, every light source, art on the wall, even the introduction video clips to the plasmids you obtain, all give me the sense that you really are in a underwater city built in the 1940's. My only complaint with the graphics are a few textures not loading up on some of the dead bodies in the level and a few frame rate hiccups. Nothing serious that detracted from gameplay, but something to mention as no game is ever perfect.

SPOILERS
The water effects looks amazing except for the beginning when the plane crashes through one of the glass tubes you are walking through, and the water level amazingly does not rise...

The music and sound effects fit in perfectly with the time period they were trying to present, with old jukeboxes playing "Under the Sea" and other great old songs from yesteryear. Even drops of water sound natural and not synthesized.

The storyline is the greatest achievement with this game, from the way the city was created, to the individual stories of some of the inhabitants (which you listen to through audio diaries scattered throughout), to the main story through which you progress, learning in the end that the man who has assisted you to traverse Rapture is in fact Fontaine, (Ryan's adversary) and you were merely a pawn from the beginning.

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My only complaints for the game are the graphical glitches and the tedium of hacking when you reach the second half of the game. There are just too many bots, cameras, and vending machines to hack, that you quickly begin to get bored of doing it and start hoping to buy them all out. Other than that, the game was a crowning achievement in gaming and should be game of the year.