Innovative combat?
So, after searching for my first weapon, which disappointingly was a wrench, I broke through some planks blocking a stairwell and walked up towards a lounge area only to see a bench come hurtling toward me in flames. It's easily avoided, but it's a good indication that Bioshock will be full of little surprises throughout to keep you on your toes. At the top of the stairs you're treated to the first bout of combat as a splicer (a genetically modified inhabitant of Rapture), wearing a masquerade ball mask leaps at you armed with what looks like a spanner. Armed with the wrench, you bash him across the head a few times and he's down on the floor; it's a fairly simple combat sequence and there's more of the same to come; decent A.I, impressive animations, but nevertheless nothing we haven’t experienced before.The lounge area gives you the first chance to pick up a plasmid from a vending machine, giving you the first taste of using a secondary weapon, the electro-ball. It's then a case of moving onto the next area, which is easy to find thanks to a well-detailed map which shows the location of your next goal, and using a zap then whack technique to take out further enemies who emerge out of the shadows screaming obscenities. So, you use the left trigger to electrocute the enemy and then move towards him and take him out with the wrench and your right trigger. Once you have more plasmids in your arsenal, you'll be able to scroll through them with the LB button and your primary weapons with the RB button. It's an intuitive control system, which is simple to use, but nevertheless the fighting sequences you'll encounter won't blow you away, not like Gears of War did when I first played that.
Click for larger image
Click for larger imageIt's not that there's anything particularly wrong with the combat, it's just that I was expecting more innovation based on the hype. Bioshock will undoubtedly be a success, but not because of the incredible gameplay, it's about the whole package – the excellent storyline, some great creatures to battle against, stunning graphics and design and the atmosphere created by the development team. The first person shooter segments themselves are merely decent. If Irrational do deliver on their promise to alter our expectations of an FPS, I'm in no doubt that Bioshock will be one of the finest shooters of 2007 and an award winning title, but as it stands I'm still undecided.