In this golden age of gaming when there's a steady stream of first person shooters all year round, things can feel a little monotonous. Many games feel as if they were released just because the genre has become so popular; WWII shooters are becoming increasingly hard to tell apart and very few shooters take things in a unique or interesting direction, fewer still doing so in a way that really works. But now, seemingly out of nowhere, BioShock has risen from the depths to make an earnest attempt at redefining the fundamentals of the genre.

It's 1959 and you play the role of Jack, on board a plane that's literally about to enter 1960, but instead enters a world lost to time and everything we know when it goes down in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. At this point you're thrown into control as you float around in the middle of an ocean in flames, with your plane slowly sinking into the depths. Before long, a huge lighthouse shaped structure is revealed before you. Seeing as it's your only place of refuge, and there would be no game if you didn't go in, Jack takes the plunge and before long finds himself in the middle of a huge underwater metropolis named Rapture.

Before your plunge, you see a projection style video that explains a little about the history of Rapture. This, along with the fantastic art-deco design of the architecture throughout the entire city really sets the unique tone of the game. This isn't just an underwater city, it's an underwater city in the year 1960 and BioShock captures that beautifully. As if it wasn't enough that BioShock already has an incredibly unique setting and a great introduction, the city itself features a rich backdrop with a great deal of history that unfolds as you explore and ultimately sets up the main storyline for your adventure.

Rapture is a self-sustained city, requiring nothing from the world above. As such, it has unique resources and along the way one of those discovered was what became known as ADAM, a material that could genetically enhance humans. A war broke out over ADAM, ultimately leading it to become the most valuable form of currency; however, those who were changed too much by it ultimately became something that barely resembled their former selves, the main antagonists known as Splicers. These enemies are all genetically mutated and deformed, many with hooks for arms or other abnormalities that give them the edge in battle. Some of them simply attack you with physical strikes, while others lug around a giant case of grenades and pelt you from a distance, running for their life if you get too close to them. They're the only real inhabitants of Rapture you'll run into, for the most part...

All of the ADAM on Rapture is now contained within what appear to be young girls, known as Little Sisters, who in turn are guarded by large Bio-Mechanic monsters whose only function is to protect the Sisters, called the Big Daddy. These giant lug-heads, as seen on the cover of the game, have a drill for one arm and can be heard a mile away, clanking about. They have absolutely no problem with you unless the Little Sisters are fearing for their life, in which case the Big Daddy makes it his mission to see you dead, then when you do die, you can expect the path back to him to be covered in land mines to protect the sister. At the core, Andrew Ryan controls Rapture with a corrupt fist and a stranger known as Atlas is relying on you to save his wife and daughter, while keeping his full motivations concealed.

Exploring the underwater metropolis is reason enough to pick up BioShock. In the early stages of the game you'll be mesmerized by the view outside the dome-shaped windows of the underwater towers and truly awestruck when you see a piece of your crashed airplane come sinking into the tube you're walking through, flooding it with water at a rapid rate. Beyond the city, sea creatures swim through a living environment, while the city itself is full of the influence of the Fifties. However, the real joy is that no two rooms share the same design or layout. As you continue through the game, your environment is constantly changing and offering new things to see while not making you feel completely lost. It truly immerses you into the world like no other game, largely because it's so unique and well conceived. You'll notice patterns in the architecture throughout Rapture, making it feel like it's own continuous world, but never like it's a recycled design. As you progress you'll continue to see the civilization decaying more and more, yet by looking around you can tell what it once was - a stunning achievement for any videogame. You can tell that the obsession of genetic modification and the resulting civil war has decimated a once magnificent, self-sustained city, and this setting makes for some awe-inspiring visuals.

ADAM leads to all sorts of unique modifications to the human body, and ultimately is what forms the most interesting aspect of BioShock. While a first person shooter to the core, the game has a great number of unique RPG elements and powers that are rarely found elsewhere in the genre. You can equip Plasmids to the left trigger and bumper, allowing you to do anything from snap your fingers and cause fire, shoot lightning out of your hands and freeze targets to more obscure things like controlling the monstrous Big Daddys and tricking gun turrets into attacking specific targets. You can even equip a telekinetic Plasmid that allows you to throw objects or catch projectiles in the air. There are a great number of these powers ups to find along the way and while certain ones are required at specific moments, the level design is set up in a way that you can usually equip whichever powers you enjoy most and find a way to use them to your advantage. You never feel like you're being forced to use one set of Plasmids over the others, although there are certainly a couple that come in handier than others. Nevertheless, they all manage to come in handy without the levels trying to cater to one specific ability, creating various situations and puzzles to solve with more than one solution.

While these abilities are the most prominently featured uses of ADAM, there are numerous Tonics that can be equipped and run in the background throughout your game, affecting many other aspects of the gameplay. For example, physical gene tonics can make you more resilient to certain damage or change the way your character reacts to toxins, whereas engineering tonics can give you new abilities relating to hacking into rapture's numerous security devices or objects. One of my personal favorite tonics is one that causes a small electrical shock to emit whenever you're struck by an enemy, damaging them, while another one I love allows all the food and drinks you find scattered around to increase your health bit by bit, giving you that little extra boost when you're trapped behind a desk under fire.

These tonics really add a lot of depth to the gameplay that's rarely found, the closest and most obvious example being Oblivion. However, it may take you a while to fully utilize all the tonics and plasmids, as there as a limit cap placed on the amount of enhancements you can have in each category. Upgrading the limit requires ADAM, which requires you to either harvest or rescue the girls holding this mysterious resource. Rescuing girls gives you less ADAM than harvesting does, but it offers rewards later on in the game; essentially this is the BioShock version of good or evil. It can be frustrating at first, as you'll acquire a great deal of abilities at a quick pace and want to use them all; BioShock does a superb job at getting you into the flow without boring you with dull training levels, and introducing new items at a gradual but steady pace, so you'll be spoilt for choice early on.

Hacking is another element that plays a strong role in the gameplay, though it's very different compared to most hacking mini-games. In BioShock you're presented with a series of disjointed pipes covered up by tiles on a small grid. As you select tiles, a pipe is revealed that's either straight or curved, and after a certain amount of time a liquid comes out of the starting pipe and starts flowing through the network of pipes that you've created. You have to select the pipes from the grid to connect the beginning and end points before the liquid spills out beyond what you've already laid down [Sounds like this is based on the classic Pipemania from days of old! Ancient Ed.] The concept is simple but at times the grids are very challenging, with obstacles that can get in the way and liquid that gets faster depending on what you're hacking. Tonics can help your chances and you can find autohack devices that allow you to bypass the process completely. While hacking isn't essential to the gameplay, it makes things a lot easier. Turrets that give you a hard time can be hacked after you temporarily disable them with an electric attack, and while you could save time by destroying them, hacking causes them to automatically attack any of your enemies that come within range. Also, hacking vending machines or health stations creates new opportunities, such as lower prices, new items or manipulating a health station not only to heal you, but also to damaged enemies who are trying to recuperate.

There's a large assortment of these machines scattered throughout Rapture. Some exclusively supply ammo, while others supply medical kits or EVE boosters, used to power your plasmids. Some stations allow you to create items by combining random objects you've collected from desks, bodies or simply off the ground along your quest, while others are built exclusively for your Gene Management, allowing you to swap out tonics and plasmids for others. The stations can be found all over the place and since the game is built with an open world concept in mind, you're free to backtrack to the last machine as much as you like. In fact, you might do this a lot whether or not you want to, thanks to the unique checkpoint system.

You see, when you're killed, the game doesn't revert to a previous checkpoint, but you're instead transferred into the last known regeneration chamber you passed, keeping all the items you have. This makes it difficult to jump right back into a fight if you're low on supplies, but enemies also retain the same health they had when you were killed as well; essentially, everything you've achieved and all actions you've taken are still in effect, you just get reverted to an earlier part of the city.

I've talked a lot about the many different aspects of the gameplay in BioShock, but I'm yet to touch on the area most common to the FPS genre - the weapons! Though they all have incredibly cool designs and multiple functions, I just need to get it out of the way right now that it's a good thing that BioShock has so much going for it, because the guns themselves aren't the best I've ever used. They feel quite flimsy and awkward to control, with rather jerky movements and an iron-sights zoom feature that throws the gun off more than anything. However, the unique Aztec-inspired look of the guns meshed with the retro design of the Tommy gun and bolt action shotgun make them a real treat to play with. Not only can the guns be greatly upgraded and customized with new features, but each gun also has three different kinds of ammo; for instance, the shotgun has regular bullets, explosive shells and electric charged blasts that keep the weapon fresh and handy for a variety of situations. The pistol and Tommy gun can use armor piercing rounds that make them great for use against the fearsome Daddys, while the Chemical Launcher can act as a flame thrower or freeze ray, depending on what kind of substance is used with it. Each gun and ammo type can be put to good use against a multitude of enemies or situations - for example, shooting an electric shell from the shotgun into a pool will fry any enemy in contact with the water, making a quick substitute if your electricity plasmid isn't equipped.

This type of open-ended, multiple approach gameplay is really what makes BioShock shine; almost any situation can be played out differently and there's always at least a couple of approaches you can take. You can lure enemies into traps that you either set yourself or manipulated (such as moving a tripwire into the front of a door you know enemies will come from), you can use plasmids to set foes on fire, causing them to run into a pool of water to extinguish the flames, then electrify the pool. You can catch projectiles with telekinesis and throw them back, or you can hack turrets and lead foes their way. You can even get a Big Daddy to protect you and obliterate any enemy that threatens you. As you go on and unlock a wide assortment of Plasmids, you'll see each situation in a whole new way and most likely want to go back and play the game some more just to try out different approaches.

The entire presentation of BioShock is infused with the Fifties theme, with the menu display fitting in with the rest of the city's design perfectly, even with the sound it makes when scrolling through. Furthermore, if you freeze a turret, or any object, before hacking it the menu presented is completely frozen as well - a superb small touch among many more. The rest of the audio is perfectly executed as well, from the sound of the ocean outside the window to the clanks of a Big Daddy around the corner, the cries of a Little Sister and the voice diaries you can find scattered throughout the world of Rapture, offering a small insight into the bigger picture. Though you don't hear Jack, your own character, Atlas serves well as the plot-pusher and keeps the story moving as you help him find his missing family during Rapture's civil war, guiding you with some truly unique and well done voiceovers. Finally, while music doesn't play a huge part in increasing the tension, it does an amazing job at further enhancing the setting and timeline of the game, featuring many Rat Pack-esque ballads playing in the background through TV and radios you find on your journey. Everything feels very authentic and it's these little touches that really help immerse you in the experience.

Even without any multiplayer, BioShock stands (or floats?) as one of the genre's greatest accomplishments. There's a reason that this game got some much word-of-mouth buzz before release; everything about it has been incredibly well thought out, and I haven't even gone into a huge amount of detail regarding much of it. You'll notice really small but crucial touches throughout your descent in Rapture that make it easily one of the most engaging, fun and unique shooters of any console. Whether you're looking for an action game, an adventure game, a good story, a unique concept, or hell, even an RPG, BioShock's brilliant campaign will make you realize that the first person shooter genre can and needs to be so much more than it is. This is well and truly a next generation shooter and every other developer should be taking notes, while every gamer needs to experience it.

Reviewed by Christopher Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).