Avatar

Source: Flickr

The praise that Bioshock has received from other critics is – after having played through the game – definitely well earned. Even though I'm usually not exactly a very good FPS player, I managed to get through the whole game. And it definitely was worth it. The world building in Bioshock is excellent, be its embedment into the historical background, or the rich story that shines through at every corner, or finally the beautifully captured art deco architecture, which simply is a joy to explore and walk through.

Gameplay itself is reasonably varied as well. While some parts leave the player wondering whether they were just added to draw out game length¹, the "magic" abilities one receives over time offer enough variation and allow the player to change his tactics over time.

Later in the game, some near-failure states are added: at one point, one continually looses maximum health, forcing the player to react faster. At another, the player isn't able to choose his currently activated plasmid. Not only is the game randomly cycling between the equipped plasmids, but between others as well, allowing the player to test out previously unavailable plasmids – and requiring him to change his tactics to deal with splicers every minute or so.

With Bioshock having distinct horror elements as well, sound plays an important element as well.