BioShock (Xbox 360)

Next stop: 30,000 fathoms. All aboard.
1/31/2008 12:00 AM | 0 Comments | Page 2 of 3

Like DOOM, we got our standard-issue first-person shooter arsenal -- shotgun? check; machine gun? check; grenade launcher? check, etc. -- but we also got the chance to do a little plasmid splicing of our own. After only a few levels, we were able to send lightning shooting from the fingertips of our left hands, shoot flames, and pick up and toss items via telekinesis. In later levels, we were able to launch swarms of bees and even freeze enemies solid with ice.

We spent much of the game getting into scrapes with splicers, but every now and then we'd have to square off with a Big Daddy, hulking beasts wearing what looks to be a diving suit straight out of a Jules Verne novel. A Big Daddy's job is to protect Little Sisters, zombie-like little girls who sap a substance called Adam from corpses scattered about Rapture.

The Big Daddy and Little Sister wouldn't bother us, just as long as we didn't bother them. But provoke either one of them -- which the game makes clear we absolutely need to do at a certain point -- and trust us, there is a shit-ton of hell to pay.

Our first Big Daddy fight, to put it mildly, did not go well. There was much running, much hiding, and more than a little dying. We were attacked with a kind of balls-out viciousness unlike anything we have seen before. It was like being mauled by a pit bull on steroids. This big, bad bastard just would not let up.

After limping our way through our first few Big Daddy battles, we got wise: We set traps for him; left a trail of landmines for him to follow; arranged turrets and attack bots to swarm him; and basically, very carefully, we learned how to orchestrate his demise.

Taking down a Daddy always left us with a moral dilemma: What to do with the now-defenseless Little Sister? BioShock gave us two options: Rescue or Harvest. Rescue results in turning her back into a nice, normal, sweet little girl again, but getting only a small amount of Adam for your troubles. Harvest means getting much more Adam, but -- that's right -- killing the girl in the process.

Yes, BioShock continues the relatively new trend of asking gamers to make ethical and/or moral choices, and then forces them to live with the consequences. Being the big, liberal, tree-kissing saps that we are, we were completely and utterly helpless when it came time to choose. Translation: "Harvest" was never really an option for us.

The Big Daddy battles function as non-traditional boss battles in the game (though there is one disappointing, all-too-traditional boss battle very late in the game). But beyond that, whether the Big Daddy is angry and doing everything in his power to take us out, or, after having lost a Little Sister, lumbering about the level, looking lonely and bereft, these hulking creatures clearly form the spiritual heart and soul of BioShock. (Not to mention that the Big Daddy has achieved icon status, and, to our mind, is now as indelible a character among the videogame community as, say, Pac-Man and Mario.)

Finally, what makes BioShock a landmark achievement is Rapture itself, which seems so very, very far-fetched, and yet, at the same time, the game makes us wonder, "Well, why can't there be a damn city at the bottom of the sea?"