In part one of our in-depth BioShock hands-on, Dominic Rozenberg takes us through the opening sequence of the game, and gives us an overview of the controls, enemies and abilities in BioShock

To those who played it way back in 1999, System Shock 2 is the sort of game that is whispered about in mystical, reverential tones. Widely held as one of only a few classic titles like Thief and Deus Ex to push the First-Person Shooter into new and different directions, this classic space-horror title was met with much critical and popular acclaim. Despite its success, development of a follow-up has been plagued by issues of ownership rights and it seemed like we would never receive a sequel. That is until 2004 when Irrational Games, co-developers of System Shock 2, announced a ‘spirtual-successor’ to their pioneering effort, entitled BioShock.

For those of you living in a submarine these past few years, BioShock has been steadily gaining steam as something of a killer-app for story-based FPS gaming. And when it was announced that the game would be berthing on not only PC but also Xbox 360, it was hard not to be excited about the prospect of another quality first-person experience on our beloved `box. BioShock promises to be all that and more: equal parts action and horror, shooter and suspense, it is set to deliver a narrative-driven experience unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. So does it make good on the promise?

The answer is a resounding ‘YES!’ I recently headed to Microsoft HQ to spend some quality time with the 2K Games title, spending a solid hour and a half playtime with BioShock, pausing only to quickly imbibe the provided libations and grudgingly give someone else a turn at the controller. In that time I managed to finish the first two levels the demo code provided, entitled ‘Welcome’ and ‘Medical’, which encompassed the opening introduction right through to the first boss encounter. So read on, but beware, here be spoilers!

The very first thing you notice about BioShock is the setting. Trading in System Shock’s spaceships and futurism for the Cold War era and an underwater city, BioShock is truly a sight to behold. The introduction opens with you on a plane looking at a present from your folks, when suddenly, like a bad Lost flashback, the engine catches fire, the plane starts to break up, and you crash into the ocean. As gallons of avgas burn on the surface of the water, your only chance of salvation is a mysterious lighthouse in the middle of nowhere, which turns out to be the entrance to Rapture.

No, you won’t be meeting Jesus in mid-air as you ascend to heaven, sorry folks. Rather, you’ll be going the other way, deep, deep down to a privately constructed underwater utopia, the brainchild of eccentric billionaire industrialist Andrew Ryan. One part Citizen Kane, one part Charles Manson, Ryan is a man disgusted and horrified by post-war, post-New Deal America, who, predicting more strife and suffering, sets about creating his own paradise deep below the surface and far from the prying eyes of governments, unions and businesses.

By all accounts, things were going fine in Rapture for the first decade – the city was founded in 1946 – but the source of the city’s prosperity was also going to be its downfall. In the dark abysses that surround the city of Rapture, never before seen sea-slugs create and exude a mysterious substance known as Adam – a potent mixture of stem-cells that can heal or even alter human biology. As more and more applications are found for the substance, its use becomes more prevalent and its side-effects become ever more pronounced. Eventually Ryan becomes so paranoid that he cuts off all contact with the surface, convinced the combined evils of capitalist America and communist Russia will discover his paradise and try and seize it for themselves.

This is where you crash in; an outside from the surface stumbling into the middle of a ferocious civil war and social upheaval miles under the sea. Your initial descent in a bathysphere has all the classic hallmarks of Half-Life; a limited interactivity on-the-rails section that reveals the world to you as you descend. At first it’s all bright neon lights (yes, there’s advertising in underwater utopias!) but as you descend you begin to see that all is not right in Rapture. This becomes all too apparent when some kind of disfigured psychopath with claw-like hands kills an unarmed man just outside the bathysphere, before trying to break into your little steel bubble. Once they depart, your adventure will really begin.

Chatting with Joe McDonagh, Senior Designer at Irrational while I played the game, it was immediately apparent that the team had set out to correct a few of System Shock 2’s few failings: the controls, the interface, and inventory micro-management. This shows the instant you’re given full control of the character: the user interface is minimal and well laid out, all your useful items are either visible on-screen or available with a single press of a button, and the controls feel exactly like a console First-Person Shooter ought to. The right trigger fires or swings your weapon, the right-bumper cycles through them, and the left mirrors these functions for your plasmid abilities.

If you’ve seen or read anything about BioShock then you’re probably familiar with plasmids already, but they are essentially special abilities you discover or unlock during the course of the game. You can harness electricity and discharge it in a blast, hurl fire from your fingertips, utilise telekinesis and lots more, and these provide a great counterpoint to your more traditional weaponry. Each ability I had the chance to use handled in much the same way as your primary weapon, but most had creative alternative uses; melting ice or setting pools of oil alight with fire, and zapping a bunch of enemies standing in water or temporarily frying security systems with electricity. Telekinesis on the other hand has no direct fire mode as such, it is used to catch thrown grenades and return them to sender, or pick up objects to use as a shield or hurl at your opponent.

On the subject of opponents, I encountered a healthy variety of enemies in just the first two areas of the game. The mainstays of Rapture’s rapacious revenants are known as Splicers; once human, they have consumed so much of the addictive Adam that they have been driven mad, doing unspeakable things and in their more salient moments, hating themselves and what they become. Many wear masks to hide their shame and disfigurement, but each and every one of them is armed and dangerous. I encountered three distinct groups during my brief undersea adventure: Thuggers, the most common foes in the early game, are armed with melee weapons and will charge at you swinging and screaming; there’s also Splicers armed with pistols and other firearms, as well as grenade-throwers who run around cackling madly as they lob explosive goodness in your direction.

Check back soon for Part Two of our in-depth BioShock hands-on feature, when Dominic Rozenberg tells us more about the weapons, environments and the upgrade system in the game, as well as an exclusive sneak-peak at BioShock’s Achievements and as-yet unrevealed secrets!

Head to Part Two...