There has been a lot of hype around Bioshock, just about every 360 and PC gamers have gone out and purchased it over the last week or so.

I personally only really started taking notice of it about a month ago as i get swept up in all the excitement from other people and i felt i needed to check out some of the gameplay videos. At first was i wasn't that impressed, it looked just like any old shooter in a mid-50's area, although in a stunning engine.

A few more videos and  was bordering on pre-ordering that day. One video covered a few of the Plasmids that are in the game and ways to use them, which gave Bioshock something a little different from the run of the mill FPS titles.

Bioshock takes place in 1960 in the underwater utopia Rapture, this setting gives rise to some stunning effects and areas and although completely fictional there are heavy influences from the 1950's in the world such as the advertising and clothing style. It works well as is a fresh change from  World War 2, Modern or Futuristic era which are so common for FPS games.

Plasmids are the equivalent to Magic, your left hand “casts” them at enemies or objects. Your hand deforms depending on the Plasmid chosen, “Winter Blast” sees your hand turn white as Ice covers it and then a few shard pierce through your skin freezing solid as spikes, when “cast” at an enemy they freeze solid in what ever position they are in, even if they are in mid air, you can then smash them to kill them easily without taking any damage.

One Plasmid combo that is common and shown a fair bit in videos is setting an enemy on fire and they will dive in to water to put out the flames, the player can then electrocute the water to kill the enemy. There are quite a few good combos like this to do in the game that will help to get rid of enemies fast.

Aside from Plasmids there are more conventional weapons at your disposal, pistols, shotguns and a Tommy gun are just to name a few, often you will need to balance your usage of plasmids and your weapons so that you don't run out of either as things go a lot smoother if you have both.

There are a few things that you have to collect in this game. “Eve” is the equivalent of Mana, it is used to power your Plasmids. “Adam” is a substance that is in all living things that is used to purchase Plasmids and Tonics. “Money” used to buy Ammo, Health packs and Eve injections.

The game earns it 18 certificate quite early on due to the graphic detail of the world, the main enemies in the world of Rapture are called Splicers, they have altered their bodies with plasmids to the point of losing their minds. The twisted nature of some of the Splicers is quite nasty, there is a fair bit of blood and swearing in a lot of the audio.

I had previously played the Demo which came across as a creepy atmospheric shooter, but in the full release a lot of the creepy atmosphere is lost due to there being so much going on. You never really feel alone as if it's not the mumbling of a Splicer that is hunting you, there are audio logs of the inhabitants of Rapture from before the City fell in to complete chaos. I was a little disappointed that the atmosphere wasn't really there as i am a big fan of atmospheric shooters like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. but Bioshock still manages to deliver a great experience.

As well as the main story line there is a choice that you have to make every so often, in Rapture there are little modified  girls called Little Sisters, they walk around the levels looking for dead bodies to extract “Adam”, when you come across a Little Sister you can chose to rescue her, turning her back in to a normal little girl, Harvest her, which will give you all the “Adam” she has collected but will kill her, or just kill her with your weapons. This choice will effect how you play the game as saving her will get you less “Adam” but will give you other rewards. These choices will also effect the ending you receive.

Although you have this choice there is an obstacle to the Little Sister, this is the Big Daddy. They are huge creatures created just to protect the Little Sisters, they are the strongest enemy that you will come across apart from boss's.

Bioshock delivers a great FPS experience, probably one of the best FPS games i have played in years, graphically there isn't much better  and it runs beautifully on most mid-range systems.

Although Bioshock gives a rather linear experience there are quite a few areas and parts of Rapture that the main quests do not have you travel too and so you are free to explore to gain more money, eve and plasmids. Exploration will gain you far more of everything than just following the mission objectives but can also lead you in to Splicer traps and ambushes.

One nice feature is that no area will stay empty for long, you can kill everything in an area, but if you come back a while later, new splicers will have taken over.

Bioshock is a must buy for any FPS fan, if you have a decent system you should probably already be playing it rather than reading this review.