BioShock Demo: First Impressions

With the memories of Rapture slowly crushing itself into digital oblivion still fresh on my mind, it’s a bit unnerving to see my hands actually shaking as I’m writing this First Impressions article of the Bioshock (Xbox 360, PC) demo that recently became available for download on Xbox Live. Yes, they’re actually shaking; yes, Bioshock is THAT scary; yes, even as a demo, Bioshock is THAT darn good.

While I can still taste the girlish screams of panic I’ve choked down so as my colleagues here over at QJ.net will not throw any doubt to the hardness of my core as a horror game fan, let me start you off on this guided tour of the underwater city of Rapture by giving you a warning: this game is NOT for the faint of heart.

Being a fan of games with horror and supernatural elements – Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Fatal Frame – I happily dove head-first into playing Bioshock’s demo, thinking that it could never come close to the raw, intense fear that came at you in bucketloads from those iconic horror titles.

I was expecting a “meh”. The game got a OH GOD PLEASE NO BIG DADDY NO from me.

In any case, here is the first impressions of the Bioshock demo, by yours truly. Here’s hoping you have someone with you as you’re playing – or spare underwear.

The full first impressions after the jump!

With the memories of Rapture slowly crushing itself into digital oblivion still fresh on my mind, it’s a bit unnerving to see my hands actually shaking as I’m writing this First Impressions article of the Bioshock (Xbox 360, PC) demo that recently became available for download on Xbox Live. Yes, they’re actually shaking; yes, Bioshock is THAT scary; yes, even as a demo, Bioshock is THAT darn good.

While I can still taste the girlish screams of panic I’ve choked down so as my colleagues here over at QJ.net will not throw any doubt to the hardness of my core as a horror game fan, let me start you off on this guided tour of the underwater city of Rapture by giving you a warning: this game is NOT for the faint of heart.

Being a fan of games with horror and supernatural elements – Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Fatal Frame – I happily dove head-first into playing Bioshock’s demo, thinking that it could never come close to the raw, intense fear that came at you in bucketloads from those iconic horror titles.

I was expecting a “meh”. The game got a OH GOD PLEASE NO BIG DADDY NO from me.

The Bioshock demo starts us off with a slick, yet simple opening cinematic – pretty much a first-person view of you looking at the back of someone’s chair. You pull out your wallet, you glance at a photo of your own family waiting for you down at terra firma. Everything’s cosy, everything’s peaceful on the passenger plane you’re on. Nothing unusual.

Then, a curve ball. Your airplane crashes into the sea.

A moment later, we’re waterlogged – your character is gasping and coughing as he watches the airplane he’s been comfortably sitting in burn in a fiery blaze. Control is given to us at this point, and we can move across the water pretty quickly. It’s to note that the graphics, even right at the beginning, pull no punches to astound you – the water looks absolutely beautiful, and the blaze that burns from what’s left of the sinking airplane is reflected magnificently off the surface. The airplane itself is sinking, so we swim towards what appears to be a small island.

Gasp, cough, hack, wheeze. Our character’s thankful we got out of the water quickly enough. We pull ourselves up onto the island, walk up its stairs, and into an entrance that seems to lead to something else deep underwater. We find a bathysphere, and, being the curious feline about to flirt with death – we activate it with a pull of a lever (done by pressing A, the context-sensitive interact button) and we wait as we’re sent deep into the unknown.

10 fathoms. 18 fathoms. Looking out the Bathysphere’s porthole, we get a glimpse of Rapture – and it’s a gigantic, bustling metropolis flourishing under the sea. Buildings with inviting neon lights stretch out from the ocean floor while a giant whale swims past us, seemingly unperturbed by the encroachment of human civilization upon its habitat.

The graphics wow us more over here – it’s really something to see something as massive and as detailed as the exterior of Rapture glowering at you from the Bathysphere. Really awesome.

Just when we’re starting to feel comfortable, though, things go downhill the very moment we get to the end of our Bathysphere journey. We witness in real-time a cold-blooded murder of a civilian – the murderer a bloody, mutated creature that was once a man, and with hooks instead of hands. A clever use of lightning and darkness plays here and amplifies the tension, so much that I reflexively looked around for a way to escape. No such luck, we’re trapped in a freaking metal ball!

The creature then turns its attention to us, and it tries to get at us. Fortunately, it only manages to give us a scare, and soon gets tired of us. We take a moment to collect ourselves – and change any soiled underwear if need be – and continue on our journey, taking with us a radio that might probably be our only sane companion in this twisted tour of Rapture.

The radio crackles and speaks to us. The bloke on the other end seems to be named Atlas, and from what we could gather he’s one of the few people left sane in Rapture. He’s pretty much the game’s way of giving us tips and mission objectives – the first of which is to get to a location in the city, where he believes his wife and son are trapped. Our character is his last hope on finding them – and as such, he’ll be helping us along the way.

That’s the first few minutes of the Bioshock demo – and it’d be criminal of me to spoil the entire thing for you, as it really needs to be played. The visuals are breathtaking, and very high-end. Sound and lighting are all used to create one of the most frightening atmospheres ever, and you’ll find yourself being all too sensitive from the smallest peep you hear as you trek the halls of Rapture.

The AI here is also ridiculously smart, with your enemies using a number of different tactics every time you try and take them down. They’ll flank, use cover, dive out of your range – and most disturbingly, lunge at you in a deadly melee attack, even after you’ve set them on fire with an Incineration attack. This little quirk of theirs always got me into a panic myself, with me emptying the machine gun I managed to recover into a splicer even though it’s already been put down. No, my ammo!

If you’ve been looking for a demo to play, the Bioshock demo is IT. There’s so much to this game than meets the eye, and that’s a whole lot. Great visuals, mind-screwing special effects, a dark anti-establishment undertone reminiscent of Fallout, it’s all here. The moment you see the game’s logo float up into the screen, dripping with the seawater it rose up from – it’s going to be one hell of a ride from that point forward, until you’re left gasping and shaking from the demo’s tension-filled cliffhanger ending.

As for this writer, while I’m certainly glad to get out of Rapture for the time being, I can’t help but feel excited for the day when we’re not only given a taste of Irrational Games‘ Bioshock, but we’re given full access to the whole smorgasbord. Rapture may not be a very good place to live in right about now, but it sure as hell is fun – the scares and frights included – to visit.