Bioshock Demo Impressions

One of the first things I did when I got home yesterday afternoon was to download the Bioshock demo onto my PS3. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't expecting much. First off, I'm not a big FPS fan. Secondly, demos of FPS games I've tried out in the past didn't do a whole lot to change my mind about the genre. Perhaps this is because most FPS games concentrate too heavily on some sort of multi-player or online aspect and not enough on one of my favorite part of games - the story.

But, because I've heard so many good things about Bioshock, I decided to give the demo a shot. What I played through last night was surprisingly deep (pun not intended, so hush) and immersive. It really drew me into the demo so much I felt I was playing a full copy of the game. The atmosphere the game presents almost right off the bat is unlike anything I've really seen in a game before, especially not the FPS genre. I was thinking the whole time, "This would make an awesome RPG". The environments bring out your imagination and make you believe something like this underwater dystopian city of Rapture could really have happened. The whole 1940s/50s feel to everything is just icing on the cake that is the look and feel of the game.

The controls were easier to grasp than I would have imagined, because most FPS games are unnecessarily complex. The left trigger buttons are for activating and using your "powers", the right are for physical weapons. The four face buttons are equally simple in their use for in-game actions. The audio just added to the immersion, playing tunes from the middle part of last century and providing eerie voices for the more unfortunate citizens of Rapture, as well as diary entries from when the city was a safe haven. Your constant companion, a survivor of the devastation, is with you always, guiding you through what is a game tutorial, but it doesn't feel like one.

And, need I remind you again, this is only the demo. I look forward to playing the entire game in the not-too-distant future. Unfortunately, there are way too many games coming out in the next couple months that I'm unsure when I'll get around to picking this one up.