Imaginative art and style with a mix surreal horror make every turn possibly your last.

We can’t say why, but something about a featureless diving-suit monster scares the hell out of us in ways no horny demon from hell ever will. Dubbed “Protectors,” the hulks of metal and gunnery shamble stoically around Rapture searching for “Gatherers” -- young children who harvest Adam from dead bodies, ingesting and internally recycling it into a reusuable genetic resource. The Gatherers scuttle out of ventilla-tion ducts and hop rides on Protector backs or hold their hands on the way to the bodies. Why? Rapture’s become one messed up habitat, and a third group of metahumans called “Aggressors” roam its ocean-infiltrated hallways, attackin other surviver relentlessly. Without the Protectors, it’d be open season on the Gatherers: though, where the Gatherers take te harvested Adam is one of the game’s many myteries. And there’s one more thing the Protectors are guarding these frail, battered children from . . .you!

B

(Hard) Eye Candy

PREVIEWS BIOSHOCK XBOX360

What Else We Know . . .

Publisher

Available On :

BioShock is the spiritual successor to

System Shock 2, a groundbreaking and

original survival-horror shooter designed

by Irrational Games in 1999. Judging by

our early experience with BioShock, the

game might be even more risky and in-

spired than System Shock 2. Needless

to say, it looks phenomenally promising.

Little Sister

Moral Outrage

Big World

Format

Developer

Release Date

Rapture incident. As a plane crash survivor, you find a strange structure protruding from the middle of the ocean. You pilot a submersible into the twisted depths of the utopia-turned-disaster Rapture, your only chance at survival.

The developers at Irrational have made it clear that BioShock is about choice. That means not only role-playing choice and strategic choice -- it means moral choice. BioShock asks a simple question: how far would you go to stay alive? The answer: pretty damn far, especially when you get a look at some of the perverted freaks that skitter through the leaky corridors of Rapture.

Plenty of games allow the player to indulge in selfish, senseless acts. But BioShock takes that con-cept one step, or even ten steps, further. Crawling around the hallways of Rapture are characters the developers call “Little Sisters.” These harmless hu-manoids look like malnourished eight-year old girls. And that’s because they actually are malnourished eight-year girls. But the problem is, Little Sisters contain vast quantities of a life-giving serum called “Adam” (as in, Adam and Eve). The player desper-ately wants Adam, because it works like money and enables the player to upgrade his abilities and buy other goods. The trouble is, you’ll have to forcibly extract the serum from the little sisters, an alarm-ing enough process in and of itself. Are you willing to drain the life out of little girls in order to make yourself stronger and progress?

The moral question becomes even more interesting when you factor in a huge, hulking character dubbed the “Big Daddy.” The Big Daddy is nearly unbeat-able, and each one has formed a sort of symbiotic relationship with the Little Sister, and will unfailingly protect the Little Sister in every situation. The rela-tionship between the Big Daddy and the Little Sis-

ters is a cornerstone of the game; the Little Sisters know they’re be-

ing hunted by virtually every organism in the entire facility, and will cower behind the protection of the Big Daddy when threatened. As such, a direct assault against a Little Sister is doomed to failure. Instead, you must try to distract or lure away the Big Daddy in any number of ways. Some abilities will allow you to trick the Big Daddy into attacking other enemies -- opening up the Little Sister to attack -- while oth-ers will trick the Little Sister into seeking protection with you (big mistake!).

quently forgotten. By the time you arrive there, there’s evidence everywhere of the denizens attempting to manipulate their environment to survive. In addition to rearranging their disheveled surroundings, some of the inhabitants have ingested too many of the genetic modi-fiers littered around, driving them mad.

The demo started out with your character in the middle of a marble hall, surrounded by glass windows and wooden planks for reinforcement. Cracks, debris, and other signs of wear were all over, proof that Rap-ture’s residents no longer cared for cleanliness. Their concerns were decidedly elsewhere, irrefutably proven when we met the first shambling character. From behind a walk stalked a Big Daddy, a hulking humanoid covered in thick, cumbersome underwater equipment. Instead of charging right at us in a murderous rage, he slowly stepped by, aware of but uninterested in our presence. This gave us a sense of Rapture’s autonomous natures. We’re not the person around all the action revolves; every enemy is just trying to live its own life.

Draining the life force out of little girls is disturbing enough, but BioShock isn’t done yet. Some residents of Rapture will beg you not to hurt them, even bribing you with special, unique rewards in return for safe passage. Of course, there are plenty of drooling, mutated freaks. We saw an example of one, a deranged female human that scurried across walls and ceilings to get at the player. The residents of Rapture boast some freakish mutations thanks to their reckless experimentation with genetic manipulation. There are countless variations of enemies, and the way they in-teract with each other (and you) will clearly provide for limitless scenarios.

By Matt Peckham

Top: One of the many ProtectorsLeft: Spectacular sculptures and waterfalls capture the deep sewer system.

The World of Bioshock

Through fire and the element you walk and meet up with almost impenetrable foes.

Irrational Games

Xbox 360

City of Lost Children

First Quarter 2007

First Person Shooter

DETAILS

The Little Sister runs on a pathway in the fauna-filled corridors. Here are some of the Art Deco, 1920’s

and 30’s style poster decorating the futuristic underwater city of Rapture.

2K Games

www.controllermag.com068 Controller Mag June 2008 www.controllermag.com Controller MagJune 2008 069

Visually, BioShock is flat-out phenomenal. The spar-kling, rippling, shimmering water effects are easily the best-looking ever seen, blowing away former heavy-weights like F.E.A.R. and Half-Life 2. The rest of the visuals are jaw-dropping, too, with tons of creepy

details and every next-gen trick you can think of. We’d go so far as saying that BioShock is one of the gorgeous Xbox 360 games we’ve seen yet.

Bioshock is about choice. It’s about explora-tion, problem solving, and survival. It’s also about scaring the crap out of you. If you’re wondering what the best game at the show is,

this may very well be it. We got in at 2K Games’ both to see a 20 minute demo of the game in action, and got to see a number of gameplay mechanics, as well as gaze at its gorgeous graphics. Bioshock’s setting is a large part of its appeal. Set in the underwater city of Rapture, the environments are a striking blend of sci-fi machinery and art deco designs. Since Rapture is under enormous aquatic pres-sure, the city is constantly leaking, meaning there’s a significant amount of spraying water mixed in with the settings. The city was created in secret and subse-

BioShock’s world takes place in an underwater utopia called “Rapture,” a safe haven originally designed for the greatest minds, the prettiest faces, and the most capable bodies. In short, Rapture was designed to

be a paradise, free from the ungainly pressures and forces of the real world.

But something went terribly wrong. The residents of Rapture discovered a strange genre-altering substance, a substance that

allows humans to adopt new, and some-times frighteningly inhuman, abilities. A sort of civil war broke out amongst the residents of Rapture, and all contact has been lost. That’s where you come in. It’s

1960, a year after

A scenic look at some of Bioshock’s environments, with window views of the fishes outside.

Top: One of the many art-deco posters that surround the city.

One of the Protectors on a search for energy in an eccentri environment.

Only Gears of War might have more visual flair. Despite its first-person perspective, Bio-Shock is a survival-horror adventure at heart. Let’s hope the financial backing of 2K Games will help Irrational Games finally find the widespread sup-port they never got with System Shock 2. Because judging by what we saw, BioShock might be a top candidate for Game of the Year when it hits in 2007.

Keep BioShock on your radar -- you’ll be hearing plenty more about it in the coming months as more emerges on this fantastic title.

Top and sides: All in-game footage of you tak-ing it out on the very tough Big Daddies.

A hulking Big Daddy on the search

Art-Deco neon lighting. Cool!

Beautiful lighting effects and shading. Blasting away at your

various enemies.

More exploration of a dark blue environment, in destruction.