Bioshock First Look Preview

As the aeroplane banks into a steep dive, the only thing visible through the porthole is the cold depths of the sea, hurtling towards you. Thoughts of family or loved ones are lost in your mind as you go into survival mode. The only lifeline is a lighthouse in the distance. You swim until you reach a strange, dark and eerie building set in an Art Deco style, chilling your bones even more than what seems like horizontal rain ever could. As you open the door and fall inside, the world descends into a heavy black mist, and as you awake in Rapture (a mysterious underground complex, deep below the depths of the ocean), the size of the situation hits you like a heart attack. What the hell is going on?

The demo begins as you wake up after the event. With no weapons, no ammunition and no clue of what’s happened, your first job is to survey the surrounding area and arm yourself as best as possible. There are no guns here. No flamethrowers or grenades, just pieces of old machinery welded together to make the best weapon with the tools provided. Sentry droids comprise of an old barber’s chair and a mishmash of drills. Everything about the game feels unique and, moreover, its compelling nature draws you in, leaving you wanting to explore everything.

Some of the scariest things in this world aren’t monsters. If you compare Jack Nicholson in ‘The Shining’ to zombies in ‘Night of the living dead’, you get the feeling of where the developer is taking you and how they want to change the way we’re used to being scared. As you begin, Big Brother and Little sister are searching for DNA to harvest, with Big Brother in an old Navy diving suit and little sister being what the name implies – a six year-old girl. Both are integral characters in the game, exemplifying the social ecology of non-playable characters and how they interact with the player and each other. Watching her walking round extracting DNA and drinking it was one of the weirdest things at E3, but in the setting, it works wonderfully well.

The world itself is vibrant and almost seems touchable in some instances, with an artist spending his time solely creating water in the game. The developers wanted to have a sense of water all around you, ready to race in and drown you at a moment’s notice. By utilising the gorgeous Art Deco interior design they’ve also managed to pull off that compressed, locked-in feeling that’s been missing from so many survival horror games of late.

As you work your way through the beginning of the level you encounter more of the A.I and it becomes evident that the ecology in the game is so important to the outcome, with multiple ways to circumvent a problem. Once you’ve found your ammo, you’re able to run and gun as with any other first-person shooter. However, you’re also able to utilise skills to affect other machines and A.I, allowing you to confuse them into thinking that you’re Little Sister – making Big Brother look after your character and neglect the real Little Sister.

Bioshock is most definitely a contender for game of the show at this year’s E3. As word spread about the game, 2K’s stand became more and more popular, with a real buzz surrounding the title by the end of the week. At a show where new controllers were touted at the true next-generation, Bioshock used stunning next-gen visuals and creative flare to show what really lies ahead for us in the next-generation. The wait for its 2007 release on Xbox 360 and PC (a PlayStation 3 version is only a rumour at the moment) will be hard, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for more Bioshock news as we follow the title through to review.