The thing that strikes me most about this game is the art direction. A lot of research must have gone into 1930s Art Deco, which is the visual style of this game. It’s everywhere, from the buildings and signs to small details like the content of posters, taps in the toilets. Everything has been lovingly and authentically created and comes together as an design experience, and is perfectly complimented by a tasteful selection of soundtracks from 40s and 50s epitomized by Bobby Darin’s “Beyond the Sea (La Mer)” echoing.

The sound is used very cleverly to create atmosphere. The music is in 3D, which means it has a source, and we often hear it emanating, with some distortion, from some distant room which generates an eerie atmosphere that reminds me of how the same technique was used in the movie “The Shining” where we hear the haunting strains of Al Bowly’s “Midnight and the Stars & You”. The sophisticated music constrasts starkly with the dystopian state of the society and half-ruined locations

Sound effects are also well implemented. As we wander through Rapture, we hear footsteps, muffled voices that and other inexplicable sounds close by…

Lighting and shadows are technically spot on, but go one step further in that they are also used to further increase the atmosphere and suspense of the game, such as when we see the shadow of something waiting for us round a corner…

“Water, water, everywhere. And not a drop to drink”. Well, not exactly…the underwater city is leaking and flooding, and you won’t see better water effects in any other game - I promise. It’s quite amazing. I read somewhere that the developers hired a programmer just to work on the water effects. He did an excellent job and set a new standard for these kind of effects in computer games.

If you’ve read other reviews, you will hear a lot about narrative. For me the unfolding story of the game, which you get to know by finding tape recorders strategically place around each level, puts a nice frame around the FPS experience, making it more like an interactive movie. In this sense it reminds me of that most excellent game of a few years ago “Mafia”. However, like Mafia, it is an FPS. And although we have a wide range of weapons and abilities to find, master and use, and a few puzzles to solve, the bones of the gameplay is to shoot your way through each level through waves of enemies. Personally, I get a bit bored with this, and this game had enough going for it to offer something slightly different.

Oddly, like “Mafia” of a few years ago, there is no multiplayer, which is a shame since it has a nice physics engine that allows you to toss objects and bodies around, as in “Half-Life 2″. Mulitplayer would have ensured its longevity, and it would have been great to play with a map editor!!!

Like “Mafia”, when “BioShock” is over, you’ll feel a bit of a come down, like you might feel if you’ve been to see a really good film at the cinema. And then you’ll find yourself wishing you hadn’t played it, so that you could play it all over again for the first time!!

Definitely a significant game in the history of PC games, and deserves a place in the Hall of Fame.