BioShock Preview

By Tom Bramwell Published 23 July, 2008

A season for all things.

2008 may be "the year of PlayStation" in Jack Tretton's E3 phrase, but for some PS3 owners "the year of PlayStation" might as well be the time it takes multiformat games to arrive on Sony's flagship console. But before you lynch us for saying so, we're well aware that patient PS3 owners have found the gap can work in their favour - the spit and polish-filled hydraulics of time elevating competent games to a more accomplished level - and with the standard set by the likes of Overlord: Raising Hell, developers are keen to present their overdue PS3 conversions as special editions with all sorts of extras.

Hence 2K's announcement at E3 last week that BioShock - of all games - will be receiving exclusive downloadable content on PS3, pricing TBC. A story-driven first-person shooter plotted with half a mind in Atlas Shrugged and designed to echo the qualities of undersold PC shooter System Shock 2, it's not exactly crying out for new levels and a downloadable Brucie Kibbutz costume. Or so we thought. But after ten minutes watching 2K producer Melissa Miller demo one of the new levels, we've changed our mind. "We're not trying to retrofit some new level or new story into the existing game," says Miller. "We're very respectful of the original experience."

And when you think back to that original experience - beyond the battle of philosophies in a punctured fantasy at the bottom of the sea - its success was as a versatile action game that let you solve puzzles and kill your enemies using whatever combination of weapons, traps and genetic enhancements held the most appeal. You swam out of the oil-slick of a plane-crash in the middle of the ocean, descended into the city of Rapture - a society established to host and enable the best and brightest people in the world - and crisscrossed the gradually-flooding former utopia battling its crazed citizens with a mixture of conventional weapons (shotguns, crossbows, a wrench) and genetic modifications designed by seafloor scientists unencumbered by surface ethics: an electric-shock discharge, for instance, or telekinesis. The plot choices provoked the most headlines, but the gameplay choices were more important.

The single-player campaign, described above, inevitably remains, although we're not shown much of it at E3. The Challenge Rooms are the focus, and come across as tributes to the elaborate puzzles of Portal, designed to utilise BioShock's strengths in a different way. "The fact is, you can play through the single-player game however you want," says Miller. "You may have used weapons, you may have used a lot of gene tonics and constantly switching them out, and me personally I used the plasmids all the time.

'BioShock' Screenshot 1

The DLC Ferris wheel. We went on one of those in Santa Monica last week. It made California cold.

"Challenge Rooms make creative use of all these tool-sets in new and fun ways." They "retain the flavour of Rapture", she says, but they are discrete. "We've kind of been joking around that they're the pulp adventures of Rapture," she says, and to illustrate this we're shown how the levels will presumably be presented to the player - via comic book covers bearing names like Sander Cohen's Chamber of Thrills. To access the contents, you'll download from the PlayStation Store and go straight to them from the main menu.

In the E3 example, a Little Sister (Rapture's lifeforce-harvesting brats are as cute and sinister as ever) is trapped at the top of a Ferris wheel, and you have to save her by sending half a dozen jolts of electricity through the busted control panel to bring her basket to the ground. "In-keeping with the problem-solving nature of the Challenge Rooms, we actually don't give you the most obvious electrical tool in BioShock: there's no electro bolt plasmid anywhere in this level," Miller explains as her colleague explores the on-screen atrium. "So the player's going to have to think very creatively about all the ways they can get electricity in the game and get it over to the control panel."

The first of these is easy - a single round of electric buckshot provided at the spawn-point - but the level quickly pushes the player in other directions. One room is home to an iron safe, but it turns out to be booby-trapped, and electrified trap-bolts rope off the exit. Fortunately there was a telekinesis plasmid pickup on the way in, so the player coolly unhooks the bolts without touching them and redirects them to fry the safe, blasting it open in the process to reveal a crossbow with its own trap-bolt - good enough to put another jolt of electricity through the control panel. This is followed by a bit of light mountaineering, riding an elevator to a balcony and then dropping a level down onto a small platform to collect a static-discharge plasmid. Static discharge is like an electric shield, lashing out with a jolt whenever you're struck in melee combat - and the level inevitably introduces a few splicers - Rapture's warped citizens - to help with that.

There's a few more jolts still to go, but Miller and colleagues end the demo to make way for another developer in 2K's showcase hour. "This is only a portion of the full add-on content," Miller says before she disappears. "We're not speaking about any other portions today but I can tell you they encompass a wide variety of gameplay - from puzzle elements such as we're demonstrating today to the more traditional combat that BioShock is known for."

They'll also take advantage of the PS3's Trophy system, we learn subsequently, with Trophies tied into things like the speed with which you complete the levels (a timer's ever-present in the top-left). "Systems like Researching, Modifying Weapons, Hacking, and Crafting [in the single-player] are all loaded with awards," 2K Marin's Alyssa Finley told the US PlayStation Blog on Monday. "A meticulous player will find themselves up to their armpits in prizes." Writing on the Cult of Rapture website, Andrew Rudson from Digital Extremes (one of four studios contributing to the PS3 port, along with 2K Boston, Marin and Australia), had previously explained: "Each Trophy is graded based on its relative difficulty: bronze, silver and gold being the most difficult. Additionally, there is one platinum Trophy [in the game], which is automatically unlocked after you've earned every other Trophy."

'BioShock' Screenshot 2

Hopefully when you get her down you get the option to cut her up for Adam.

The game is still unoptimised when we see it at E3, but it runs at a fair old pelt - 30 frames-per-second seems to be the norm, despite a few dips. As ever, it will take a more forensic examination post-release to get to the bottom of the 360, PC and PS3's comparative performances, but given the amount of resource being thrown at what's effectively a very late cross-platform port, you feel 2K will push as hard as possible to achieve parity.

And Miller and her colleagues are loath to stop tweaking and playing with the potential of plasmids, genes, puzzles and Rapture, even including interactive carnival games near the Ferris wheel that allow you to win additional EVE hypos, which power your plasmid usage.

It's not the most exciting feature ever, and the level we've seen is actually quite contrived, but if the devs achieve their goal of driving players to better explore the depths of BioShock's discrete mechanics and continue to evoke comparisons to Portal, they may achieve the unlikely feat of driving 2007's most controversial 10/10 shooter back into 2008's best-of lists via downloads and Trophies. Fine, we're probably being overly optimistic with that, but that happens in Rapture, and we won't be upset about having to head back there later to contemplate 2K's work on this conversion when the game comes out later this year.

BioShock PS3 is due out later this year.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (60) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Phily50 #1 4 years ago

    Never played this......is it good?

  • GamesConnoisseur #2 4 years ago

    Where have you been Phily50?!

    BioShock is certainly a game that stands out in 2007 gaming, great artisitic themes and glad for PS3 owners to have an exclusive extra to make up for the wait. I m only not sure that i will want to retreads it all again, as whilst the game is fanastic I dont find it have too much of an attraction for replaying whole thing after two runs.

  • systems #3 4 years ago

    Phily - it looks good and sounds good, but the much touted "choice system" boils down to having your choice of how to kill everyone, and whether or not you harvest or save the girls (with pretty much identical result no matter what you do). Well worth playing if you've not played System Shock 2, but I would be misleading you if I didn't say that the ending quarter of the game is pure arse and was rushed to get it out.

    IMO the demo was the best bit. The attention to detail is great in the demo (even more so that the finished game, as they kept working on the demo after it went gold). An absolutely essential rental.

  • SeesThroughAll #4 4 years ago

    I'm sure someone at EG who hates the platform the game is going to released on (any idea who?) will probably review it "with high standards", and knock down a couple of points with the bullshit claims that "after all, it's one year old already and didn't evolve that much". Nothing to do with being released "in that console", no sir!

  • bad09 #5 4 years ago

    PS3 owners, would you kindly buy this game, you won't be disappointed. One of the highlights of last year (it is a little repetitive though)

  • paul_haine #6 4 years ago

    Brilliant, people are now making pre-emptive complaints about the score the game will receive.

  • Phily50 #7 4 years ago

    I heard of it just never played it. I know it was out on the xbox and looking in to it a bit further it seems that it received pretty excellent reviews. I'm gonna buy it I think when its released, if only for that fact that you can 'harvest' girls!

  • CannonAnBall #8 4 years ago

    I have to say it was one of my greatest gaming experiences. I just loved the whole environment and explored every bit of it in the process.

    Some people didn't like it and it was at this point in 2007 that I realised that some people will just about bitch about anything.

  • Kryon #9 4 years ago

    Does it have exclusive jaggies? Does it have exclusive forced install for every single level?

    LOLLERSKATES!

    /runs

  • GamerG #10 4 years ago

    This game is amazing!

    Its only £11.99 @ Zavvi online at the moment for 360 owners who have not given it a whirl!

    PS3 owners should defo pick it up.

  • Widge #11 4 years ago

    I think this games seems good now its coming out on the PS3

  • Weezer #12 4 years ago

    "I think this games seems good now its coming out on the PS3"




    What?

  • SuperNashwan #13 4 years ago

    Dont....feed...the...trolls......!

    Essential to at least play this to see what the fuss was about. One of the best realised gamiong worlds I have ever seen, even if the game runs rapidly out of steam as others have said.

  • drumbaby #14 4 years ago

    "Brilliant, people are now making pre-emptive complaints about the score the game will receive. "

    That's the trouble though, when it's Eurogamer who will be reviewing this game in the future. You just know the way it'll pan out.

  • Fayt #15 4 years ago

    I played the 360 version and whilst it was a very good game, it was far from the near perfection that most reviews seemed to suggest. On occassion I found it to be repetitive, especially some of the latter moments of the game and didn't like the fact that due to the overy generous checkpoint system there was next to no challenge in the game. but the atmosphere and story were both easily the strongest elements and to play, it was solid (though flawed)
    Edited by 1 at 23/07/08 @ 09:14

  • wewillselfdestruct #16 4 years ago

    BioWhat? If this game doesn't have giant historical battle crabs, then I'm not interested.

    @Widge:
    Awesome.

  • ps3owner #17 4 years ago

    so in a nutshell it's a hyped game.

    I'll give it a pass (and wait until it's priced around £20)

  • SuperNashwan #18 4 years ago

    Metal Slug 3 fan ?!

  • johnnybrn #19 4 years ago

    Just finished this game and its very very good. Well worth a purchase on the 360 and PS3 when it comes it out.

    Artisticly beautiful like no other game, I did have a thought though the feel of the game seems more 30's than 50's even down to the music. The new Indy movie (bad as it was) captured the feel of the 50's whereas this felt more like the Untouchables of the 30's. Just a thought.

  • SuperNashwan #20 4 years ago

    Wouldn't say it is necessarily over hyped, for the first couple of hours (to me at least) it seemed like next gen gaming had finally arrived. Stunning graphics, fairly adult theme, multiple ways to approach enemies and so on.

    However you then realise that there are basically two types of enemies in the game and half the much vaunted pasmids and weapon combinations are fairly useless. Freeze - shotgun, repeat will see you to the end. You will of course keep playing to see how the game ends and what is round the corner but it just can't sustain the initial buzz. The regeneration chambers also make the encounters with big daddies far less tense than they should be.

    10/10 game for the first two hours you are playing it, solid 8 when you are sitting at the end.

  • Darren #21 4 years ago

    BioShock was my own personal Game of 2007... absolutely loved it and couldn't stop playing it until I'd completed it. Then I played through it again. An absolute gem of a game IMO... PS3 owners who've never had the pleasure of playing this should be getting rather excited. In some ways, I wish I could blank my mind of the game and experience it anew again for the first time... it's that good. And I make no apologies to anyone who doesn't agree either. :p

  • systems #22 4 years ago

    @johnnybrn - I agree that it feels more 1930's, but that's because the Art Deco movement ended in 1939. I think Rapture was intended to emulate the world as it was before WWII so they kept that style even though it's set in the 1950's (I think it may have been 1960 in fact).

    Edit - yes, Bioshock is set in 1960. Rapture was built in 1946.
    Edited by 1 at 23/07/08 @ 09:42

  • mikeck #23 4 years ago

    "Freeze - shotgun, repeat will see you to the end."

    Well if's that how you play the game then you're missing out. Firstly freezing the enemy means you gain nothing from them, therefore no item drops etc...and secondly, with the multitude of clever ways you can kill enemies if you follow this tactic then you're missing out on large parts of the action. I love sticking prox mines on neraby objects, and then moving said object with telekenisis and sending an explosive little device headlong into splicers and big daddies, great fun.

  • Drogul #24 4 years ago

    But its a shooter!!! PS3 owners don't play shooters, shooters are for XBOX360 stupid kids....Ok, ok, just kidding. Glad to see a great title coming to PS3.

  • doragor #25 4 years ago

    My favourite game of 2007. Imperfect, sure, but an outstanding gaming experience.

  • johnnybrn #26 4 years ago

    Thanks systems :)

  • bioreit #27 4 years ago

    So SeesThroughAll, seeing as you're 'brave' enough to make that kind of comment, why can't you just come out and present a list of EG staffers who you see as being biased against PS3?

    More to the point, if this is such an issue for you:

    WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?

    Also, if this game gets a decent review, will you retract your claim and admit you were wrong? Or will you just ignore it completely? Or (my personal belief) twist some kind of generic criticism of the game, rather than the console, into some kind of 'proof' that EG IS biased against the PS3.

    I really say this with all my heart - sod off and crawl to a PS3 fanboy site, as that is obviously what you crave.

    On Topic:

    The Challenge Rooms sound like an awesome way of prolonging the game past the single-player story. Anything which apes Portal is to be approved :-)

  • zuljin #28 4 years ago

    Random request - for the review, is there anyone in the EG office that hasn't played this yet? To me the story really added a lot to the game and I loved it, but it wasn't half as much fun playing it through the second time around.

  • Concrete #29 4 years ago

    They arent Splicers, they are Sploicers!
    Edited by 1 at 23/07/08 @ 10:05

  • SuperNashwan #30 4 years ago

    Don't get me wrong, I didn't just rely on Freezing and shooting etc my point was, that (a bit like CoD 4) under the gloss there is a very simple game mechanic you can utilise should you wish. I suppose you can argue this with any game as they all have limitations but this combined with the vita-chambers means that players can run through it without perhaps getting as much from it as they could.

  • zuljin #31 4 years ago

    @mikeck
    I agree... I was surprised to see at one point that setting an enemy on fire would cause them to run for water! Having 3 enemies in the water together + electricity = easy kills! I hope the extra levels will show that there really is a surprising variety to take enemies out.

  • Killerbee #32 4 years ago

    Great game. And were it not for the fact I've played it already on the PC, I'd definitely be excited about this coming to the PS3.

    The extra DLC sounds interesting, but sadly not enough to warrant another purchase. Anyone who hasn't played it already should definitely get it asap. For my money, only the last level, the final boss battle and the actual ending let it down slightly. The rest of the experience is top quality 10/10 goodness.

    I'm pretty sure I will play it through again one day.

  • Pedrolot #33 4 years ago

    I've got no idea what the games all about but ill give it a shot none the less..

  • Steroyd #34 4 years ago

    Oh yeah it comes out next month...

    might skip it.
    /lazy

    actually it's not lazy it's because EG rated the game 10/10
    Edited by 1 at 23/07/08 @ 10:20

  • bitesize #35 4 years ago


    puzzle sections sound like a neat addition, good to see them doing something a bit different with the game...

  • miiiguel #36 4 years ago

    "I'm sure someone at EG who hates the platform the game is going to released on (any idea who?) "
    FFS, would you please chill? What is that, anyway? Pre-whining?
    Edited by 1 at 23/07/08 @ 10:36

  • Xerx3s #37 4 years ago

    It's oke now, you can stop hating it! :D

  • Retroid #38 4 years ago

    For a game with "zero replay" value I've played it through twice.

  • Negotiator #39 4 years ago

    An old 360 game crawls it's way onto the PS3 with framerate problems in tow, what a joke.

  • 3william56 #40 4 years ago

    "As ever, it will take a more forensic examination..."

    No. Please don't. Just review it as a *game* the majority of PS3 owners haven't played. Few dual console owners are daft enough to buy it again. So forget the 360 version, and just review it against other PS3 games please. Quit feeding the trolls.
    /refers Tom to EG's own new year resolutions

    "May achieve parity" indeed... you really do ask for bias accusations, don't you?
    No chance it could actually be *better*, like Oblivion, eh?

  • Steroyd #41 4 years ago

    It's oke now, you can stop hating it! :D

    I've never hated it, it's just that... EG gave it the 10/10 rating of death. So I stopped paying attention to it. >_>

  • Widge #42 4 years ago

    This will be the best game on any console and will defeat Nintendo

  • kangarootoo #43 4 years ago

    I thought Bioshock was great. Clearly not everyone agrees with me, and I don't mind a bit so long as they don't foam at the mouth about it.

    Everyone who thinks they might be interested in this type of game should definitely give it a whirl. Everyone who doesn't should probably try something else. Whining kids with self esteem issues because should hold their breath until told otherwise.

  • Steroyd #44 4 years ago

    No. Please don't. Just review it as a *game* the majority of PS3 owners haven't played.

    That's a stupid way to review it, you wouldn't rate Blue Dragon a 9/10 game on Xbox 360 because it's the best JRPG on that console, if it's a sub standard JRPG if it was on the PS2 plzdonthurtmeitsjustanexmple then it's only fair to rate it in comparison to that
    Edited by 1 at 23/07/08 @ 11:05

  • Machetazo #45 4 years ago

    "It's not the most exciting feature ever"

    Well, obviously I haven't played this version (and didn't really play the previous one, either that much!) but it sounds like a great idea, and use of the PSNs DLC facility, to me. Take a game where you use various mechanics, in combinations of your choice, and make additional scenarios out of them to puzzle through, and tie the whole lot seemingly into leaderboards and the like? Lovely idea. :)

    The persistent and determined look like they'll have the opportunity to play without the restart tanks, according to the playstation.blog, which is a way to earn trophies (that concept again, tying in to the idea of a game in which the player can approach situations however they choose, with the powers provided)
    I'm quietly looking forward to this game.

    3william56: The site regularly does a platform comparison with all manner of high tech capture equipment to compare the technical (graphics/framerate) differences between versions of the same game. I highly believe that was what was being referred to, by those comments.
    Edited by 1 at 23/07/08 @ 11:15

  • Batfink #46 4 years ago

    This sort of gameplay is what the original game should have been about. Rather than choosing which way to kill the same enenemies over and over, we should have got these lateral thinking and environmental puzzles.

  • JediMasterMalik #47 4 years ago

    It's certainly a very good game, but more so if you avoid the hype it built up around launch. There was certainly alot of things about it which could have been impoved.

  • zisssou #48 4 years ago

    They should recall those copies of 'Only On 360/Windows' kind of false advertising ;)

  • captain_MAXIMUS #49 4 years ago

    This is going to be good I love the underwater setting.

  • mikeck #50 4 years ago

    "Don't get me wrong, I didn't just rely on Freezing and shooting etc my point was, that (a bit like CoD 4) under the gloss there is a very simple game mechanic you can utilise should you wish. I suppose you can argue this with any game as they all have limitations but this combined with the vita-chambers means that players can run through it without perhaps getting as much from it as they could."

    I see - sorry I thought you meant you did, and yes you're right, people can if they want to play to a very simplistic plan of attack and never utilise some of the more clever tactics and elements of the game. Those vita-chambers are evil too, I never used them, sucks some of the fun and challenge out of the game.

  • johnnybrn #51 4 years ago

    evilfoxhound,

    'One day this war's gonna' end.'

    Yes it will but then it will start up again when the next round of consoles arrive because thats how we are. :)

    Who remembers who won Speccy/Commodore or SNES/Mega Drive? Who cares because the fun was in the fighting.



  • Doctor_What #52 4 years ago

    @SuperNashwan

    I completely agree with you. It's a 10/10 for many hours and only towards the end does it begin to drag a bit. I'm just playing it through for the second time after an eight month gap and I'm loving it again.

    It's great that this title is going to be available on the PS3 too. I won't be getting a second copy just for the extra bits, but it's nice that there are additions to compensate for the lag.

  • johnnybrn #53 4 years ago

    In conclusion,

    I will say this game is original and unique and deserves to be played by everyone.

    It has flaws for sure, but they dont detract from what is one of the best games of the generation.

    Its that good :)

  • darc #54 4 years ago

    I was personally disappointed w/ Bioshock. I'm pleased to see it described here as a "story-driven FPS" as I think the tendency last year to call it an FPS/RPG hybrid was a bit of a stretch. Bioshock was an extremely pretty game, the problem was that the FPS mechanics were sort of lame (even on PC) and the RPG-ish elements lacked depth and seemed sort of peripheral to the game proper.

    That said, I'm interested in these "challenge rooms". They sound like exactly the sort of content that would have salvaged the game had they been incorporated into the original single player. I have a feeling they'll be more legitimate fun than the main campaign.

    Wonder if they will ever be released as PC downloads... or did I throw that disc away when I finished?

  • Widge #55 4 years ago

    Motorstorm is a laugh... I really am looking forward to the next iteration!

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #56 4 years ago

    As I said in another post:

    Bioshock is a great game. Played it all the way through. My only gripe was that it started to become a bit of a chore half way through as it lacked either great puzzles/platforming or lots of killing/action. I think you need either one of these to make a great FPS game.

    It seemed to rely on the plasmid thing as if this added a RPG element to the game but it didn't really - you could get away with flame, electricity and telekinesis for the whole game.

    Fortunately the story, voice acting and the way you could listen to the recordings while playing was great.

  • bonker #57 4 years ago

    I had the biggest boner ever for Bioshock on 360 until I realised it was "just another shooter", f*cking gutted I was ...

  • darc #58 4 years ago

    "Bioshock is a great game. Played it all the way through. My only gripe was that it started to become a bit of a chore half way through as it lacked either great puzzles/platforming or lots of killing/action."

    Bioshock is one of those games that a lot of people seemed to really want to like. (I know this because I was one of them when I first started it.) So you get strange, dualistic statements like this, paraphrased: Bioshock is a great game even though much of it is no fun whatsoever. If a game becomes a chore halfway through (IMO it became a chore earlier than that) shouldn't it be disqualified from "greatness" status?
    Edited by 1 at 23/07/08 @ 21:18

  • Cider86 #59 4 years ago

    Like GTA4

  • BonzoBanana #60 4 years ago

    People who love high quality graphics and atmosphere will be pleased but people who like more variety in the action and more open playing arenas won't be. I played it once through and didn't bother to go through again to see the other ending. I quickly sold it on while it was worth something and that was that. In comparsion something like Half Life 2 I have played about 5 times through on the xbox, 3 times through on the 360 and I'm currently playing through again on the ps3. The way I'd describe it is a rather wierd camp jacque cousteau meets phantom of the opera type setting. I'd give it 6/10 personally. I think its a more hit and miss experience than some games and I was one of the people it didn't work for.