BioShock Reader Review

I�ve just made that word up, it�s good isn�t it? I�m a bit of a neologistical verbarian you see. And no, I didn�t make those up, they�re actual real words, honest. I learnt them after quaffing down a vocabulary tonic to augment my banterisation.

Yes, I�ve finished BioShock. (There be spoilers up ahead cap�n�) Not Finished as in completed every inch of an achievement available, but completed as in played to the end of the game, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was poop-in-the-pants scary at points (the part with the splicers who looked like Sander Cohens statues being the worst for me) and exceptionally atmospheric. I enjoyed the story up to a point - that point being the main plot twist - everything after that was just a bit of a downhill ride. I�m not a professional video game story writer type, but to put it into a film context, it would be like finding out who Kaiser Sose is 2/3rd of the way into the Usual Suspects then finishing that final 1/3rd off as a lame by-the-book fugitive on the run style gun down. It would still be good, but it wouldn�t have been as good as it could. And that�s the feeling you get with BioShock. As soon as you hit the twist and find out who�s behind it all, you just want to kick two shades of shit out of him immediately, and that would be a great place to have ended it but it seems to drag on too long before you get the opportunity to lay the smack down on his spliced up arse. While I�m on a complaining roll, it could have done with a better ending, though, as I was a nice chap and saved all the little girls, I can�t comment on how the other, less moral, ending went. After such an amazing start to a game, it seemed a shame to end it with more of a pop, than a bang. It wasn�t a bad ending, it just wasn�t great.

I can�t see myself playing it through for a second time to try and pick up all the plasmids and tonics I missed, and trying out the different morality route, because I can�t see myself being as engrossed in the narrative as much. As it has absolutely no multi-player to pick up the slack at this point, so it looks like its one that�ll be spending the majority of its life on the shelf - which is a shame for such a good game.