BioShock -- The Story and Final Opinion.

I have fully completed BioShock with all achievements unlocked. The previous entry covered the great dynamic gameplay. This one covers the story. BioShock is the story of Rapture, Adam and Eve, Big Daddies and Little Sisters. The story is predominantly told through taped messages from the inhabitants of the city. The more thorough the player is, the more he's rewarded with the full story. These recordings are a brilliant device in the hands of the makers of the game. Every last one of them manages to be very revealing as well as exceptionally entertaining. Thanks to the game's great writing and voice acting. There isn't a single throwaway one in the bunch. The game is also rather smart being steeped in allusions to literature. Ayn Rand's philosophy of objectivism takes center stage in the tale. With major characters inspired by those appearing in Atlus Shrugged and The Fountainhead. And to a lesser extent the game is inspired by both Percy Shelley's Prometheus Unbound and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus. The game's story is one of the most well told in the whole of gaming, but it's not entirely perfect. From the good ending side of the issue, things work well. The motivations of the player character make sense. From the bad ending side, they don't make as much sense. It's a small distraction in an otherwise great story. I've already covered how the gameplay is pretty much perfect in the previous entry. And I touched on how the city of Rapture comes off as a character itself. How it inspires in the player the desire to explore every last nook and out of the way place. Just because how brilliant the level design is in both the layout and the art direction. The game captures a true sense of time. Rapture is a city frozen in time. BioShock manages to capture this feeling just about better than any other game I can think of. It does this with period art design, but also period music, and even a way of speaking. If you've ever seen a movie from the 1930s or 1940s the people have a different way of speaking, a different vocal delivery, and you'll know what I'm talking about. This is captured perfectly in BioShock. The music is probably the biggest contributing factor. It's an utterly brilliant choice. Every last track. But special mention should be given to Billie Holiday's God Bless the Child. It scarily almost seems written for BioShock, it's that fitting. The original score is  also no slouch. It works wonderfully with the game and in the transitions between the score and the soundtrack. BioShock is the clear front-runner for Game of the Year 2007. I'm thoroughly impressed with the game and I'm going to go all the way and give it a 10. BioShock is the kind of experience that renews one's faith in video games. It's that good.