Lotsa BioShock Previews

Nine new hands-on previews of Irrational Games’ BioShock have reached the web, all of which are based on the first couple of hours worth of gameplay. The first is at GameSpot:

We know BioShock will tickle the fancies of System Shock 2 fans the world over because we were fortunate enough to sit down with an Xbox 360, the latest game build, and a pair of headphones to actually play the first two hours straight from the title screen. Taking a cue from the old “if it ain’t broke…” adage, Irrational has simply mapped System Shock 2’s core narrative and gameplay concepts onto a new storyline, as well as a fresh milieu. The list of similarities is long and striking. BioShock too will see you happen upon a nearly deserted environment ruined by a recent, disastrous sequence of events. Again, you’ll piece together the story of what happened as you uncover the recorded audio logs of the poor souls who perished–or worse–in the catastrophe. And again, you’ll be remotely guided through danger by a mysterious informant. This time, your informant is a man named Atlas, whose identity wasn’t revealed during our brief time with the game, but whose wife and children we do know are imperiled somewhere within the underwater complex where the game takes place.

The second is at GameSpy:

Set in 1960, BioShock begins with you flying over the Atlantic (the sight of someone smoking on an airplane is a nice touch) when your plane crashes into the middle of the ocean. After momentarily blacking out — during which time the game’s logo is splashed across the screen — you quickly regain consciousness underwater and swim to the surface, where you’re greeted with the sight of flaming wreckage everywhere in sight. As you swim away from the debris, you spot a lighthouse oddly placed in the middle of nowhere, and swim towards it. Entering the lighthouse, instead of finding stairs leading upwards, you make your way downwards past strange symbols until reaching a bathysphere. The whole thing is very Myst-ian, and being a videogame, your character is of course compelled to forget all about that traumatic plane crash you survived mere moments earlier to take the bathysphere for a little ride to… wherever.

The third is at FiringSquad:

You quickly learn that Rapture was created a number of years ago and headed up by the character Andrew Ryan who wanted to create a Utopian society dedicated to expanding human technology. You hear Ryan’s voice at the beginning of the game describing the lofty ideals that Rapture was supposed to fulfill. However as you begin exploring the city you know that this utopia has turned into anything but the perfect society. The place is a wreck with water leaks everywhere, as well as splats of blood. This combo of style combined with ruin is one of the big attractions of BioShock. There are hints of Myst in the game’s art style but unlike the static world that game, BioShock is interactive and alive. Indeed, it’s alive in more ways than one. As you progress in the game you get to see how Rapture’s remaining population has changed.

The fourth is at Games Radar:

Immersion is in the details, too. Everywhere in BioShock, there is something to see, hear, touch, examine, read or search. The walls are covered in old photos, paintings, advertisements and messages scrawled in blood. The air is filled with strangely outdated music, catches of song, snippets of announcements and the occasional scream or cry. The diaries of long gone residents litter the ground and their desks, safes, boxes, purses and, yes, bodies are all searchable. You probably won’t… probably can’t experience it all, but the fact that so many layers exist for absorption is what makes BioShock feel uncomfortably real.

The fifth is at IGN:

While moving through Rapture we were given constant objective updates, like searching for mad scientists or investigating certain areas. There was a map available that noted our position and indicated the location of our quest goal. Back on the gameplay screen we were given an arrow at the top of the screen that always pointed toward the currently selected quest’s destination, making it hard to get lost. During our play session we were free to travel back and forth between previously visited areas as we pleased. This doesn’t seem to be a stage-based game, more of an open world, which let us return to vending machines and health items we’d passed earlier on. Like in System Shock 2, much of the plot is told through audio diaries picked off the ground, which can all be accessed afterward through a menu log. This, in combination with the game never leaving the first-person perspective, contributes to augmenting the immersion factor established by the excellent visuals.

The sixth is at Shacknews:

Big Daddies are monstrously tough and incredibly powerful, and require some level of foresight to battle effectively. There was one Big Daddy combat encounter in the hands-on demo, but we were also shown a few different approaches to the same encounter, as played by an Irrational team member named Dean. In one instance, Dean ran into a room with Big Daddies and other assorted enemies. He used the Rage power on the Big Daddy, causing the big guy to go berserk and start attacking the other enemies. This gave Dean a chance to take some well-aimed crossbow shots. Of course, once the Rage wore off, the Big Daddy was rather peeved, but Dean had also set up a perimeter of trip mines around the Big Daddy, which proved to be the foe’s undoing. In another instance, Dean used the game’s hacking ability (represented by a brief, enjoyable pipe-constructing mini-game) to convert some enemy turrets to do his will. He then used his Incinerate ability to light numerous enemies on fire; when they ran into a pool of water in panic, he zapped the water with lightning, fatally electrocuting all of them.

The seventh is at TeamXbox:

Later, I found another machine that sold us Physical and Combat tonics, which can permanently improve your attributes. The Physical tonics basically increase your health level or give you powers like “hack and heal,” which converts power from hacked machines into health. The Combat tonics, on the other hand, help you during battle by offering stuff like Armored Body, which reduces the amount of damage that you take. These are just one of the many RPG-style elements the game has to offer, some of which we haven’t seen in action yet. We know that you’ll be able to upgrade your weapons, as well as use the aforementioned Adam to buy more plasmid slots (you can only have a certain number equipped at a time). You’ll also be able to get Engineering tonics to help with security systems and the like, although we didn’t get to use it.

The eighth is at Eurogamer:

Special mention must go to the design of the Splicers. Alive, they terrify with lunging movements and screeching, barely comprehensible rants. On one occasion, what appear to be husband-and-wife Splicers can be heard screaming domestic abuse at each other, before turning their attention to murdering you once you intrude.

And the ninth is at WorthPlaying:

The storyline shares that same multifaceted approach. There are several survivors in Rapture, from Andrew Ryan himself to a man who calls himself (Atlas,) who wants you to help him reach his family in another part of the city. Each of these survivors has a viewpoint and an agenda, and none of them are obviously right or obviously wrong. Ryan is an idealist; he’s an elitist scumbag who thinks you’re a KGB agent, but an idealist nonetheless. Tanenbaum, the woman who created the Little Sisters, is a classic sociopath, but offers you the option to fix her mistakes and save the Sisters’ lives. Atlas seems to be on your side, but urges you to kill the Sisters and, eventually, to kill Andrew Ryan himself; he’s strangely bloodthirsty. Bioshock is very much a game about decisions, and about playing sides against the middle.

Whew!