Bioshock
Bioshock is one of the least unique in terms of gameplay, but most unique in terms of artistic style and story. Despite the fact that the gameplay is somewhat recycled, the story and art make the game one of the most memorable games to date. The game of Bioshock takes place in a fantastic underwater city of Rapture, built in the 1950's by Andrew Ryan, fleeing from the oppressive governments and religions of topside. You reach Rapture after something horrible has happened, and you struggle to survive.
Gameplay
Gameplay is sort of an RPG/shooter hybrid. You shoot dudes, and you cast what are essentially spells. These spells are “Plasmids,” genetic modifications to the player's body that allow the injector a variety of abilities from electric bolts, incinerate, telekinesis, and other fantastic powers. These, in combination with the various guns, kill the various “Splicers” throughout the game; denizens of Rapture before the incident. The “bosses” of the game are the Big Daddies- the protectors of the Little Sisters, harvesters of ADAM. According to the game “Adam is like a genetic canvas, but plasmids...are the paint!”. Adam makes the use of Plasmids possible. Throughout the game, you are forced to kill the Big Daddies to get to the Little Sisters. This is where you encounter the game's big “moral decisions” point- kill the Little Sister, and get more ADAM, or save her, and get less ADAM? I honestly thought this was a worthless little aspect- you get more ADAM in the end by SAVING the sisters, which most people would do to begin with. The gameplay usually works, the shooting feels great, and the plasmids are a little useless sometimes. The only problem I found was the whole difficulty thing. If you want to be a cheap bastard, you can just use the wrench through the whole game, using the Vita-Chamber system. This is basically the respawn system of the game, but because you can use them over and over, you can kill a Big Daddy- the boss of the game- by repeatedly wrenching them in the bum over and over. Besides this, it's a great game.
Sound
The sound in this game is amazing. The CLOMP, CLUMP, CLOMP of a Big Daddy always scares and excites me. The music is fantastic, with jukeboxes and radios playing period music throughout the levels. I especially enjoyed the voice acting in the audio journals, as well as the shortwave radio you use to communicate with the various friendly characters throughout the game. This voice work was quite good, and never broke my immersion. I am quite happy with the sound design of this game.
Graphics
The graphics are actually quite phenomenal. Running in Unreal Engine III, the game looks decent, and maintains a decent frame rate. The graphics and physics are both governed by the Unreal Engine III, and the physics work well enough.
Replayability
The replayability is probably one of the places where the game falls flat. As it is a pure story-based, single player shooter, there is no real reason to go back to the game, except for the fact that it's so horribly amazing.
Value
As of mid-november, you can pick up Bioshock used for like $25-30. This is certainly worth it, the game is worth full price even now. I wholeheartedly recommend this game.