I’m A Scaredy-Pants or: Playing “Bioshock” (PS3)

Bioshock is a first-person shooter. I usually don’t play this kind of game – I nearly always have trouble with the controls (probably because I’m slow) plus I’m a wuss. Which means, if I play one, I usually need more than double the time than other players. But Bioshock comes highly recommended for its story, the Boyfriend was interested, too, and it was on sale – so we bought it last month.

I took a look at it on the weekend.

Bioshock takes place in Rapture. Rapture is a city under the sea. Basically, it’s a city without rules for science, art, industry… Everything goes. You’re playing a survivor of a plane crash. The game starts with your character adrift at sea. You see a lighthouse in the distance. You go up to it and, with no other way to go, you enter the lift in the building and go down. And end up in a utopia gone wrong.

Right away, my wuss-factor kicked in. I heard voices that signal that I’m not alone. And because it’s a shooter, I know that most of those voices belong to beings who aren’t all that friendly. So I inch forward, take seconds to shore up the courage to turn a corner, and then I’m still startled when something jumps at me. As I said, I’m a scaredy-pants. This of course means I bungle the controls and get hit. Even better are the times when I finally turn a corner and find – nothing.

But even though I’ve only played a few hours, there’s something to this game. It has a great atmosphere and I like the philosophical background. It also has a puzzle element that I like. I’m also expecting a few twists (I just know there have to be some with this story) so I’m going to inch forward with the game. And I’m already scared as hell because I know I eventually will have to go up against a Big Daddy – a kind of protector for “little girls” (the bubble headed thing in the trailer). These Big Daddies can turn nasty as hell. When I went looking for a trailer for this post, I came upon one that showed a fight against a Big Daddy. The way this Big Daddy used its drill – sick. The game isn’t rated “Mature” for nothing.

Bioshock – rated M

Here’s the beginning that details more about the vision behind Rapture:

And here’s the launch trailer, showing mostly Big Daddies (not the one I talked about above):