Incredible Art, OK Story/Gameplay

I am currently running this on a baseline 2013 Macbook Air on maximum settings. With the resolution lowered, Bioshock can run at 60 frames per second with no fan kick-ups. Despite the low system requirments, the game looks beautiful. The art deco design of the underwater dystopia Rapture captivates and haunts you. A good pair of headphones is reccomended for full immersion. The interesting dialogue from recordings and secondary characters along with a tremendous soundtrack full of orchestrated music and hits from the 1940’s really set the tone of Rapture. On deeper analysis, Bioshocks Rapture is a biting criticism of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism, though it’s also an intriguing look on the human condition and some of the pitfalls of excessive capitalism in general.

While the design and lore of Rapture amaze, the main storyline has some issues. The narrative builds up to a memorable plot twist, though the ending feels underwhelming. No meaningful plot points or themes are introduced after the twist, limiting the game to a series of empty shootouts leading to an uninspired final boss fight. The story ends with a cliched double ending that’s determined by the moral decisions you have made in the game, though they are very black and white. Both endings are very expected and feel a bit too resolved.

Bioshocks gameplay on the other hand was remarkably fluid for a first person shooter on a laptop. All the weapons and plasmids (unique powers like fire, telekinesis, etc.) have accessible hotkeys. The trackpad worked well and preciesly when aiming. The regular weapons werent genre defining, though the plasmids were a blast!

While Bioshock had great controls and fun mechanics, the game was too generous with revivals. You can never die/receive a gameover in this game regardless of the difficulty. Whenever your character loses all of their health, they are revived at a nearby Vita-Chamber a few feet away. No items/currency are lost and enemies retain the same damage inflicted on them. With perseverance, you can kill the most powerful enemies by whacking them with a wrench. With no penalty for death, I lost my initial fears of the ominous environments and never felt pushed to play the game skillfuly. It broke the experience for me.

Salsander about BioShock