After our toe-deep tickle into BioShock with our previous preview, the GameSpy team took the chance to dive headfirst into the game at Irrational's recent San Francisco showing. After hours of play, Irrational's representatives had to all but peel our team members away from our gaming stations. If it wasn't for the chance to interview Ken Levine, BioShock's creative director, we'd probably still be in that hotel room. And when BioShock's release date of August 21st hits, we expect to not emerge from it for quite some time. Whether you're interested in the graphics, the design, the ground-breaking combat, or the story, it looks like BioShock will have something for you to drown in.
My Parents Told Me I Was Very Special
As mentioned in our last preview, you begin the game as the survivor of a plane crash. Even in the intro, though, clues are ready to drag you deep down. Your character reminisces that his parents told him he was "someone special," and that he was meant for great things. Innocent enough, until he ends up in Rapture. And across the inside of both his wrists, your character has three-link chains tattooed, a mystery that Levine politely refused to shed any light on. And beyond physical clues, even the earliest experiences seem to reflect what BioShock has waiting for us.
When your plane crashes, your character is trapped deep underwater, struggling to avoid drowning. This is trickier than it sounds. When you're underwater, especially deep underwater in the dark, there's almost no way to find "up." Your inner ears are confused, your eyes can't find the right information, and you aren't pulled "down" particularly hard by gravity. What's stunning about this early, almost non-interactive sequence is that it really captures the terror of that situation. Never before has a video game captured the fright of drowning with such a perfect combination of sound and graphical power. The moment of terror peaks when you realize it's not a cutscene, and you've been wasting precious moments you could have used trying to find the surface.
Struggling to escape the scene, we realized that we had that same fear choking us that we'd experienced learning to swim (and nearly drowning a few times) in the Pacific Ocean. For the rest of our time with BioShock, that initial experience set the tone. We were in new waters, out of our league, but most importantly, coming from a world of "me too" shooters and "more of the same" characters, we couldn't shake the feeling that we were coming up for air when we needed it most.
