BioShock

Rapture's greatest resource - the one thing that everyone in the city needs - is Adam. Adam however, can only be harvested by another sub-human race, the Little Sisters. The Little Sisters have a symbiotic relationship with their protectors, the greatest denizens of Rapture - the Big Daddies. Amongst the toughest creatures a video games have ever featured, the Big Daddies are a passive lot as long as the sisters are allowed to go about their business. In Rapture, that is not allowed to happen, with the Splicers trying their best to ambush the sisters at every opportunity. The Little Sister's cargo also forces you into the game's main moral dilemma. To survive this world, you too will need Adam to bolster your genetic power. If you kill a sister, you will receive a massive amount of Adam. If you decide to rescue her, the reward is far less however the girl will live. Whether you decide to try and be a 'Hero' in a world gone mad or revert to the demand of survival will have a profound effect on the outcome of the game. This decision however is left entirely up to you.

Bioshock certainly achieves many of its aims, introducing special powers to supplement the usual shooter action. The cinematic setting and progressive storyline are amongst the best that any shooter has served up to date. So what are the downs? The game is a perfect length, with a couple of story twists which will keep you eager to get into the action up the end. The main problem is that the different parts of the city all look much alike, and progression through these levels is very linear. Whilst you have a wide variety of powers and ammo to dispatch your enemies, you don't have much of a choice in how you will progress the storyline itself.

Another aspect of the game which I found overly simple are the Vita-Chambers. Initially these seem like a fair way to bring you back from the dead into a level. Your reproduction happens instantly, although as it doesn't act as a restart, any enemies you were fighting will still have their health depleted when you return to finish them off. In theory this sounds ideal, but it actually makes the punishment for death very minimal and makes some situations in the game much too easy. I like my Infinite Lives cheats to remain as cheats, thanks.

The new powers are varied and well designed, however I would have preferred more variety of weapons and ammo types - especially as you have the ability to invent your own at vending machines later in the game. The AI of your opponents, although very good, can still be used to your advantage. Setting a Splicer on fire will always cause them to dive into the nearest pool of water to put the flames out - sparkle a few thousand volts into the pool to deep fry.

Bioshock delivers thrills in a single player campaign which is much more cohesive and dramatic than anything else so far this year. I can't fault the lack of a multiplayer either, as it may well have ended up as a tacked-on afterthought. If you're interested in mixing magical powers and guns online, Shadowrun would be a great place to start. Bioshock does not reinvent the genre completely, but it brings the best of the FPS genre together in a fantasy setting so well written and with enough original ideas that no FPS or Sci-Fi fan can afford to miss it.

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