System Shock 2 is - possibly - the very definition of a cult classic. A game that - to this day - enjoys a small but loyal following. To the discerning eye, the graphics are horrible and dated but beneath that exterior is a compelling, involving story and fantastic gameplay... but because of various circumstances, it never had a sequel but now it has a spiritual sequel. Bioshock.
Bioshock - in contrast to its ugly sister - is pretty. Maybe not the most beautiful game there is but close... and really, it looks great. The water effects are wonderful and while it's not quite Half Life 2 when it comes to physics, it does fairly well in that respect.
Of course, while most FPS games are about running around and just shooting things until you win - Bioshock is much more plot driven. It's not just "KILL EVERYTHING!" There are reasons to the murder you commit and of course, thanks to the structure of the game, it's entirely possible to avoid a lot of the conflict... or alternatively you can arm yourself to the teeth, shoot first and ask questions later. It's the kind of game - much in the style of System Shock 2 and Deus Ex - which you could play several times in quite different ways.
The game is relentlessly atmospheric and even in the later stages when you can school the average enemy with relative ease, you'll still find yourself creeping around and hiding in the shadows when you hear enemies on the prowl. The false hope of Rapture is quite compelling... never thrown in your face - merely the quiet tragedy of it all. The game is quite wonderful for that and the fact you can occasionally just look out into the sea is fantastic and quite inspiring.
All of that atmosphere is helped by the story, which pushes you along through this decaying underwater city. As well as the standard weapons you get, the most obvious deviation from a standard FPS is the variety of Plasmids and tonics you get, these give you access to new skills. Everything from telekinesis and electricity to hacking better or hitting harder. To gain these powers you need ADAM, which you can only obtain from creepy little girls... protected by the aptly named "Big Daddy", easily the hardest enemies in the game outside of the bosses. Of course, if you leave them alone - they'll leave you alone but then you'll be denied the Adam you need to stand a chance of beating the later bad guys. You start out with just two slots for each set of skills but you can increase that, as well as your total health and EVE. Of course, there are more tonics and plasmids than there are slots - so you're forced to make some gameplay decisions... although, you're able to change these around at stations in the game.
Another interesting facet - also taken from SS2 - is that you can research your enemies. This is achieved by means of a camera... snapping pictures of enemies eventually allows you damage bonuses and access to new tonics/abilities. It also adds an extra element to gameplay as you sneak up on enemies or quickly photograph them as you're killing them.
There is a limited capability to upgrade weapons... only two upgrades per weapon and the upgrade terminals (one use only) make it a lot less versatile than Deus Ex in this respect. An inventory system would actually have been quite a nice touch but it wasn't really something that was required... although, it may have given the game a tad more depths... as it is, you just hit ammo limits... which are fairly reasonable. Of course, the Plasmids are far more satisfying. Freeze enemies, set them on fire, throw things at them, electrify them, make them attack their enemies or several other things.
In a somewhat surprising contrast to System Shock 2, there isn't a trade off between combat and hacking and such. You can be good at everything... by the end of the game, you WILL be, probably. This means you can run around, hack things, heal up, shoot stuff up and so on and so forth... this means there's no real trade off as you had in Deus Ex... you may favour one style of play but ultimately you can do it all, which makes things somewhat less interesting. The only thing that really limits you, are the number of slots you have (a maximum of six) and that is quite a lot.
Still, it's a pretty game with a great variety of powers, a compelling plot, a wonderful atmosphere and fun gameplay... not for the faint of heart, certainly but easily one of the most enjoyable FPS/RPG type games of recent years... not that there are many of those but still... This really shows what can be done with games when people put some love into them. It's hard not to admire the game and feel a twinge of regret as it's all over...
