“Who’s your Big Daddy?”

There hasn’t been an enemy character in a first person shooter for a long time that carries the same impact as Bioshock’s Big Daddy. They’ve got loads of health, a disorienting roar, and a powerful rivet gun that will make you go through every last first aid kit, but the Big Daddy makes a big impression before they even come into view.

That’s because with Bioshock’s extraordinary attention to audio detail, you can hear the whale-like song of these lumbering creatures from several rooms away. Every thud of their heavy metal boots rumbles your eardrums, and if you’re close enough, the controller too. They’re the protectors of the Little Sisters, who are your key to unlocking more abilities and resources in the underwater mega-mall of Rapture. And they’re the defining characters in a utopia that placed perfection over humanity. In this way, the Big Daddies are the perfect combat foes, and the Little Sisters are the perfect victims.

The plot of Bioshock is fairly straightforward and linear, with little deviation in the way abilities are achieved but a great deal of strategy in choosing what to use, when. The security system of Rapture, for example, is easily hackable (with a Pipe Dream style minigame that is a nice distraction from the action, if a little simplistic), and there’s no greater joy than watching chaos ensue from a Big Daddy fighting off three or four hovering security bots. You can even cause the Big Daddies to fight each other, with a plasmid power-up that causes one Big Daddy to protect you as they would their Little Sisters.

Compared to the Big Daddies and Little Sisters, the other enemies you encounter are fairly limited and plain. There are splicers that carry wrenches, guns, bombs, and hook-wielding enemies that climb on the ceiling. You can research these foes with a camera, but most of the time you’ll end up shooting them on sight. Other than the splicers and the occasional human boss fight, the best encounters are between the Big Daddies and the environment.

Oil, water, and even bees are the elements which contain most of the fun of Rapture’s firefights. You can light objects aflame, use telekinesis to rearrange traps, or fool enemies into fighting each other. You can also shock water, sting with insects, and booby-trap health stations. This all adds up to one of the most cleverly designed combat arenas in recent memory.

As close as Bioshock comes to being a perfect game, there are still a few minor problems which keep it from achieving a perfect score. The plot, while mature and engrossing, is still extremely linear, with little room for exploration or alternate paths. The major branching path in the game comes from whether or not you exploit the Little Sisters, but in gameplay terms the result is almost the same (you get half the resources for “rescuing” as you do for “harvesting”).

As beautiful as the game’s interiors are, setting the entire game in Sea Lab means that there’s not a grandiose sense of scale or adventure. Many times you are forced through arbitrary gates that open and close only upon reaching certain objectives. As great as the scripted story moments are, it would be nice to see less scripted action and more player-defined moments.

Another thing which keeps this game from achieving absolute perfection is the absence of multiplayer. While Bioshock is without a doubt one of the best single player experiences available so far this year, what keeps the game from infinite replayability is the lack of underwater multiplayer deathmatch. The traps, environments, and weapons seem well suited for melee matches, and perhaps we can hope that a sequel or spin-off allows for some type of online play.

Still, the production values are top notch in Bioshock and it plays like a dream throughout. There are many disturbing moments, several stunning revelations, and one of the most compelling stories ever seen in a game, much less a first person shooter. It’s right up there with Half Life 2 and System Shock 2 in terms of a complete gameplay experience told through a first person narrative.

The great thing about scoring a game in the upper eschalon of the review scale is that it invites endless debates about what would work better, what little tweaks or changes could possibly make it truly perfect. I’ve suggested a couple here– multiplayer mode and a more open environment– but every player who experiences Bioshock will likely come away with their own take on the subject. Perhaps the game relies too much on scripted events, or the audio logs, to tell the story, but it’s still a story that goes so far beyond “saving the princess” or “stopping the terrorists” that it qualifies as thought-provoking entertainment. From start to finish, and hopefully long after, Bioshock deserves a place on your shelf and in your Xbox 360.

Tags: 2K, 2K-Games, Bioshock

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