I played the HD port of Bioshock on my PC in 2023. I remember playing it for about ten minutes on my 360 when I was a kid and did not get into it. I am glad to have experienced it recently as it is one of the better games I have played in recent memory.

The atmosphere of the game is phenomenal. The environmental and enemy design is completely unique; the underlying moral issues with Rapture as a whole is evident in these artistic choices. Uncovering the mystery of what happened and getting out drives you forward in the campaign. Unfortunately the game includes a handful of different minigames that are utilized more often than necessary, causing some parts of the experience to feel like a chore, but overall the package is complete and distinctive.

Most enemies can be dispatched in similar ways, so it comes down to how creative you can be in dispatching your foes. Plasmids play a key role in this as you can electrify water to take out a group of enemies or telekinesis to throw furniture at them. I personally liked using the hornets to distract enemies while I took out their comrades. Most powers exist to deal damage in specific ways and while some offer other utility, the general combat flow consists of shooting your gun and launching elemental damage at the opposition until they die. It’s all fairly simplistic but it gets the job done.

The fights where you really have to think are the Big Daddy centered ones. They do not discriminate, so you may find them fighting with the psychopaths in some areas. Fighting them is a choice, but the rewards for doing so were too good for me to pass up. Fortunately death is not too punishing as you simply warp to the last Vita-Chamber you passed. Once you defeat a Big Daddy you are presented with the choice to purge or kill the Little Sister. I could not bring myself to kill them and that choice later impacted my playthrough in an unexpected way. In either scenario you are granted some power that you can invest in your character in many ways. The choices you make with Little Sisters and your skill tree deeply impact how you play the game. Interweaving the narrative and gameplay in a way that is conducive to the overall experience.

Exploring Rapture is a mixed bag of experience. There are a ton of pipe puzzles for arbitrary things. Luckily these can be bypassed with lock picks, however they can be tough to come by until late game. The penalty for failing these results in security drones chasing you down for far too long. There are some traits that reduce their chase time, but using one of your precious skill slots for these felt like a waste. The best option is to shock them and whack them with your wrench, which is not fun. Being that the game was released in 2007, I’ll cut them some slack on the design of this system. It is not egregiously bad, just frustrating because of the frequency of these puzzles.

The narrative starts with a simple premise; you are shipwrecked and an underwater city in the middle of the ocean is your only place of refuge. Upon entry you discover the place is overrun with psychopaths and you must find a way to escape, learning about what happened as you go. Some plot beats were lost on me, but the air of mystery kept me engaged throughout. There are some moments that made me say “WHAT” out loud and the plot twist was one of those. Any story that has something like that done well, deserves a thumbs up in my book. The author Brandon Sanderson does something like it in the original Mistborn trilogy, so if you like this storytelling style, take a gander at that series.

I enjoyed my time with Bioshock. There are games nowadays that do most of these things better, but the experience of Rapture is still one-of-a-kind. The worldbuilding is immersive and feels realistic, though the design inherently is fantastical. One day I might play the second and even third games if they improve on the existing system. Bioshock one was a solid foundation for which to build a great series. I hope they achieved what they were setting out to do. Would you kindly give it a shot?