Shocked By BioShock

Not to be confused with my recent review of ShowerShock, BioShock is in fact a recently released game for the Xbox 360 and Windoze. Which isn't to say that the game doesn't share a great deal in common with caffeinated soap, but rather that the game was never in fact meant to be used in conjunction with water nor meant to keep one clean. It will, however, keep you up at night and on rare occasions induce wild shivering that only caffeine can cure, much like the soap. The soap aside, the game takes place in the delightfully war-torn, underwater, art deco-style city of Rapture. The player is marooned there via plane crash, and forced to try and survive amidst of an ongoing civil war. A variety of options (some of which are comically sinister, if not perverse) are left open to the player, including the use of fantastic genetically-based weapons called "plasmids". My favorite plasmid riddles the player's forearm with holes from which hornets emerge, becoming the player's own personal hive to command. The lighting in the game is fantastic, the design flawless, the game play heart-pounding and the story compelling. My only negative opinion of the game is that its hectic pace doesn't give you much time to stop and enjoy the deep and detailed environment. BioShock represents perhaps the most compelling FPSRPG yet released this year, and among one of the freakiest things I've ever seen, played, or even heard of.