BioShock Demo Impressions

So in case you didn't catch the big news last night, there is now a demo of BioShock on XBLM. As soon as I heard the news, I started the download and made a round of phone calls and IMs letting everyone know, then settled in to wait for the precious demo to finally be mine. Apparently the news was spreading like wildfire and the more people that started downloading, the slower it got until finally it stuck at 55%. An hour later and it was still stuck at 55%. So, I calmly collected myself and restarted the system, as orthodox though it may be. I turned it back on to discover, to my horror, that my download had backed out to 45%, but within moments it was chugging along like normal and ten minutes later the glorious moment finally arrived.

A lot had changed in Rapture since the last time I visited it at E3. There were more ambient sounds and music plus some cut scenes that weren't included in the earlier demo. But it was just as beautiful as I remembered it, if not more so. I spent a fair amount of time (much to Toot's chagrin) wandering around just looking at things and soaking in the amazing attention to detail that attracted me to the game in the first place. Everywhere you turn there is something to look at and every shot is an art piece in and of itself. The cinematic tricks employed during the revealing of the storyline and characters is equally as intriguing and highly effective. The introduction of the Big Daddy is astounding and one particular scene involving a woman with a baby carriage is enough to make Hitchcock proud.

The gameplay is top notch and it is definitely not your average FPS. We get introduced to two of the 70 plasmids in the demo, the Electroshock Plasmid and the Fire Plasmid, both of which can be used to great effect right off the bat. Weapons are readily available, but it became pretty obvious that one can not rely on weapons alone. Judicious use of the plasmids in combination with your arsenal is the most effective way of taking down the various Splicers and Security Bots that infect the halls of Rapture like a plague. And speaking of the Security Bots, they found a rather clever way to work a nice puzzle into the process of hacking the bots giving a nice break from the action. You can choose to pay money to hack the bot right away, thus tricking it into fighting for you (which is quite a smart thing to do) but the puzzle is fun so why not enjoy it?

In an effort not to give too much away for those of you who will be playing it later today, I'll end my fanboyish rant here. But just know that once you have finished downloading it you'll have as close to a perfect demo waiting for you as you can get. Your trip to Rapture, short though it may be, will be one that you'll remember long after you finish playing and will leave you pining for the game's full release on the 21st.

Fruit Brute
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 13 August 2007 · Comments (10)
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