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Bioshock (Xbox 360) | 
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| From: Take 2 Interactive
Category: Video Games
List Price: £19.99
Buy Used: £14.79
You Save: £5.20 (26%)
New (3) Used (2) from £14.79
Rating:  109 reviews
Sales Rank: 1193
Platform: Xbox 360
Genre: sci-fi-action-games
Media: Video Game
Operating System: Xbox 360
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 5026555246415
EAN: 5026555246415
ASIN: B000V1VZMK
Release Date: August 24, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: second hand
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| Features:
| • | After your plane crashes in icy, uncharted waters, you discover the hidden city of Rapture | | • | It was built by a team of scientists, artists and businessmen who dreamt of a perfect world, but their ideal has been smashed and the city is now overrun with corpses | | • | Powerful guards survey the town's streets, children loot the corpses and genetically modified citizens have only one objective in mind - to kill you! Are you prepared to put your humanity on the line to save your skin? |
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Product Description
After your plane crashes in icy, uncharted waters, you discover the hidden city of Rapture. It was built by a team of scientists, artists and businessmen who dreamt of a perfect world, but their ideal has been smashed and the city is now overrun with corpses. Powerful guards survey the town's streets, children loot the corpses and genetically modified citizens have only one objective in mind - to kill you! Are you prepared to put your humanity on the line to save your skin?
Developer : Irrational Games
Official site :
Minimum age : 18 years
Game setting : Futurist
Orientation : Action / First-person shooting game
Violent : Yes
Multiplayer mode : No
Network mode : No
Processor :
Memory :
Other :
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 wow August 30, 2007
michael myers
33 out of 38 found this review helpful
I have been an avid PC and console gamer for...well, as long as there have been PC and console games, and have probably played hundreds of the darn things over the last two decades, and I can comfortably say, that Bioshock, is one of the top two or three games I have ever played, and absolutely the best console game.
It's one of those rare games, that has all of what you love about a great game, with none of what annoys you. I realized, after about 10 hours of play, that absolutley nothing was ticking me off. If there was ever a game that got everything right, it's Bioshock.
Normally, you hear much about a shooter having an "absorbing story", and you're just like: "yeah, yeah, just shut up and let me shoot you". But Bioshock, actually does. The bleak, dystopian world scenario is hardly new in gaming, but Bioshock puts a great twist on things; and the art-deco 1940's sci-fi world is very refreshing and incredibly rendered. If you are as sick as I am of endless hallways filled with crates, you are in for a helluva treat. Not only does this game look amazing, but the design is so good, and so original, that it really does "absorb" you.
The biggest suprise to me, was level of literacy, and period detail. This game wasn't really designed for modern kids, and certainly wasn't designed by one. The villian, an obvious nod to conceptual novelist Ayn Rand, ends up being more complex than the average "evil rich corporate Republican" guy we're all so sick of by now, and not only is the voice acting a-list quality, but they even speak pretty authentic 1940's dialogue, with accurate period inflection. If you watch an old movie from the 40's you'll notice that not only was the slang and colloquial language different, but so was the actual style of speech. The characters in Bioshock don't sound like modern mallrats in seersucker suits, they sound like people from the 40's. The sense of period is very accurate, moreso than most Hollywood films (although a "German" lady character has a very obiously Russian accent lol).
Even the shooting, was fabulously fun. When I first started playing, I thought "oh no..shooting old revolvers isn't fun." But don't forget, even though Bioshock takes place in the 40's, it's still a sci-fi what-if adventure, and the assortment of weapons are a gas to use. And "adventure" is really accurate. Even though it's an FPS with a fair amount of bloody shooting, it really feels and plays more like an old Sierra adventure game than a Quake-style shooter. The plot matters in this game, unlike many others, and you spend more time exploring the amazing world and solving puzzles than actually shooting, so consider that a mild warning if you are a shooting "rivethead".
Bioshock is a very long game, but it was so addicting, that I played it almost non-stop for 4 days and finished it. I actually just rented it, because normally games that are centered on plot don't have a lot of replay value for me, but this one I can imagine playing over and over, so the lack of multi-player doesnt really matter to me here. I'll be buying this sucker as soon as payday hits.
In short, the hype around Bioshock is no hype. This game even killed Half-life and Halo for me, and that's saying a lot. Halo3 is going to have a helluva climb to even get near Bioshock, and i never thought I'd say that.
To wrap-up, even though much of Bioshock's conceptual nods and references will probably sail over the heads of most modern teen gamers, it won't matter a darn. They'll be to busy being knocked out by the best visual world and gameplay mechanics I've ever seen.
Atmospheric action at it's very best. September 23, 2007
Ian Tapley
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
If this just a normal FPS set in a decaying urban environment, then it's graphics alone would make it brilliant. When I first played it, I kept waiting for the FMV cutscene to end, before I suddenly realised I was looking at in-game graphics!
But it's not just a normal FPS. The designers have added layer after layer of additional good stuff that make's it so much greater than the sum of it's parts. Here's a few:
The setting and story - the jaunty but decayed art deco city of Rapture is a beautiful thing to behold and, much like the classic 'Resident Evil' games, clues you can collect throughout the game allow you to piece together the city's short and troubled history. There's a great twist in the story with a 'Usual Suspects'-style reveal which will leave you thinking "How come I didn't notice that before?".
Weapon upgrades - As well as the usual rack of weapons, you are given the chance to create a customised arsenal by using the limited number upgrade machines to increase the killing power of your weapons, be it reducing the recoil of the Thompson or adding a 24-round autoloader to your six-shooter.
Plasmids - these are the genetic power-ups discovered by Rapture's scientists. Some you will have to pick up, but others can only be aquired by entering secret areas or by using your camera to research your enemies. There are different types of plasmid too, ranging from offensive ones such as Incinerate to passive ones such as the one which makes you invisible when standing still (great for sneaking up on enemies). The Adam used to buy plasmids also leads to the game's important moral decision for the player - to save or damn the Little Sisters.
Hacking - Rapture is littered with autodefenses such as security cameras (which unleash security bots), machine gun turrets and rocket turrets. The game allows you to use a puzzle-based system to hack into these elements and turn them into your allies. So, whilst you're all alone in Rapture, you don't necessarily have to be without backup. The hacking system can also be used to reduce the cost of supplies and unlock new ones.
Atmosphere - the makers of 'Bioshock' have gone to great lengths to increase the fear factor of the game. They've done this through intelligent use of light and sound; meaning that you'll see the shadow of some terrifying new enemy before you see the enemy itself or you'll hear there footsteps or demented singing (I never knew how scary the words "Jesus loves me, this I know..." could be).
Taken separately, all these elements would be good. Put together they make one of the best games I've played in a long time.
Atmospheric March 3, 2008
Azlak (Scotland)
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
This is the first time I've taken up a First Person Shooter on my own (only played Halo 3 on coop), and I was a bit nervous. After discovering that I'm actually quite good at shooters, I realised that my nerves were purely down to the atmosphere this game creates. It's completely other worldly which at the same time, having areas reminiscent of horror films. (The hospital and grotesque experiments reminded me of House on Haunted Hill with the sinister doctor)
Basically you're the survivor of a plane crash and swim to a strange island. Upon entering a biosphere, you're taken under the sea to Rapture, a city created by Andrew Ryan which he envisaged to be his 'Utopia'. Unfortunately, the occupants of Rapture have become increasingly murderous as they stock up on EVE (a substance which allows the user to evolve their DNA to use various powers such as electiricty and incinerate from their hands). Rapture is basically caving in on itself. Decay is everywhere, yet underneath the rust and leaking walls, there is something completely beautiful about Rapture.
This underwater city is where you find yourself, completely disorientated and doing anything you can to survive the murdeous intent of the splicers (humans who have evolved into beings who want only to harm). With the help of the myserious man named Atlas, you complete various tasks to unravel the myserty of where Rapture went wrong and the story behind the ellusive Andrew Ryan.
I guess what I found so brilliant about this game was the setting itself. Rapture has so many different areas from lush gardens to blood splattered hospital walls. Each time you find a beautiful area, you're promptly reminded to keep your guard up as you spy a corpse hanging from the rafters, or notice the weight of the ocean dripping through the rust stained walls.
I admit this game has made me jump on several occassions. Fantastic use is made of subtle music and sound to create a truly eerie ghost city, littered with corpses. The bit I almost jumped through the roof at was upon entereing the garden area quite near the start of the game. I saw a desk with a strange mask on it. Along I scuttled to have a closer look. As I was looking at the mask, I notice a shadow on the wall of someone standing behind me. Turned around only to be confronted by a splicer wearing a similar mask. Might not sound scary but you can hear that same splicer shouting when you enter that area so you've been trying to find him for a while before that point. I almost hit the roof.
The plasmid idea deserves a special mention. This system is fortunatly very easy to control with the plasmids being operated with the left shoulder buttons and your weapons with the right shoulder buttons. Switiching between the two is extremely quick (which is good when you have a Big Daddy trying to drill a hole in you) and combined use of the two is the most effective way to destory most enemies.
Morality is also looked at in this game (a bit like Fable). The Big Daddies protect little girls called Little Sisters. These girls are children in looks only. They live only to drain ADAM (a sort of lifeforce used alongside EVE for the plasmids) from corpses. After killing the Big Daddy you have a choice whether or not to harvest the child and the ADAM she carries thereby killing her, or to save her and harvest only a small portion of ADAM. Either way, it's left up to the player but each one will give a different ending and combining the two will give a third ending.
The hacking aspect of this game was also a nice touch (even if I am rubbish at it and prefer to destory gun turrets). Hacking involves solving a small puzzle of various difficulties to unlock the safe or machine. Hacking gun turrets and security bots will turn them friendly to you and will attack your enemies. I didn't have the patience for hacking and so bypassed this most of the time. You can also hack vending machines for cheaper prices on supplies.
The only thing I didn't like about Bioshock (and this may not be a universal moan, it's probably just me), was the process of listening to the tape recordings. It's a bit annoying to start the tape when the game background noise is loud and you can't hear what's being said. By the time the recording had finished, I was too engrossed in the game to go back into my previous findings and listen to it again.
I also found the research camera irritating. Can't help think this it would have been more sensible to place this under a different control instead of putting it alongside the weapon selection. It's very frustrating to switch from plasmid to weapon only to find yourself taking a picture of something instead of shooting it. Placing it under a different button would have made it possible to sneak up on enemies, take a quick picture, and then sneak away. Mixing it up with the weapon button was just annoying.
All in all though, this is a truly magnificent game. Visually stunning and hugely atmospheric. Even if you don't usually play FPS games, give it a go. The controls are straight forward and easy to get the hang of.
This review is based on playing the game on a bog standard tv. No high definition or widescreen. I would LOVE to play this on HD since it was created for such a screen. The effect would be mindblowing.
For those pondering between a PS3 and a 360, this title isn't on the PS3, and this game is one big reason to go for the 360. A work of art.
Best 360 game so far August 30, 2007
Phillip Fry (burgess hill United Kingdom)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
As of right now this is the best game available on the Xbox 360, and it is very likely to be better than the two biggest games to come this year - Mass Effect and Halo 3.
Bioshock, contrary to what others have said has met and, in my opinion, beaten all expectations. The twisting plotline is fantastic, and the secret of your character revealed by Andrew ryan will, without fail, make your jaw drop.
The game also helps to reveal a little bit about what kind of person you really are, based on your instincts about how to dael with the little sisters.
Bioshock has also manageed to set a new standard in achievement requirements, research photos and weapon upgrades are both fun and challenging, and will almost definitely warrant a second play-through.
The sweat of my brow has lead me to the glorious city of Rapture, and with the sweat of your brow Rapture can become your city as well.
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