Ever since this game was announced back in 2005, i had no doubt in my mind that I had to get it. Between its stellar visauls and eerie storyline, I knew it would be a game like no other. From the moment you pick up the controller, to the final minuites of the last cutscene, it is simply an experience that you will never forget. The story starts off with you being some unknown character (for the time being) who is traveling by plane to go visit his family. Everything seems fine when all of the sudden your plane immediately becomes a huge fireball and dievbombs down into the middle of the ocean. From there its simply about your discovery of a city known as Rapture, which was a designed to be a sort of utopia during WWII. When you first enter the city, you can tell right off the bat that something has gone horribly wrong. Everything is falling apart between the once beautifully florescent lights to the large cracks along the sides of the wall which relinquish tiny streams of water. But more than that, it is simply the eerie silence that tells you that something has gone astray. You would think in a city like this there would be people chatting about the usual and people just walking around exploring what the city has to offer. Not so here. After exploring for a while you will eventually come across your first weapon which will aid in exterminating any enemies that threaten you at the time. As you progress through the game, you will be able to ugrade other weapons you find throughout the game giving them anything between stronger fire power to faster weapon speed. While the guns to hold their own pretty well throughout the game, What really stands this game apart from other shooters is the powers you get that will give a strategic advantage over the enemy and help you solve puzzles throughout your journey. In order to ge these powers you need a source known as atom whic is the stuff that people use to upgrade themselves. Sadly, adams affects have vastly changed the people of the city, turning them into hideously deformed addicts who crave the source of adam and will do anything in their power to get it. Unfourtunately, the only to get adam is by killing the source which are known as "little sisters". They in turn are gaurded by "big daddy's" which are huge creatures who's only mission is to protect the little sisters. You will have to kill the big daddy's if you have any intent of using the vast powers that are at your disposal. Most of these fights will be difficult, but since dying only results you in being revived in a cell known as a vita-chamber, its just a matter of wearing them down and finally killing them. Once you do, the little sister will be at your disposal, with which you can either harvest (in other words kill) ot rescue. Harvesting does give you more adam but puts you on bad terms with the creator. On the other hand you can rescue them, which gives you less adam, but will eventually allow you to collect more adam from the creator depending on how many you decide to rescue. Either way, the amount of adam you get turns out to be pretty much the same in the end, so basically you'll to chose by which ending you want to get. The other categories which require small amounts of adam are things called tonics. These are mainly passive abilities which can do anything from increase your hacking abilities to uping amount the damage you do to any given enemy. You will find most of these by exploring the city around you. Unfourtunately the game does encourage you to venture of the main storyline to find these, so you'll have to go exploring on your own and check every nock and cranny should you chose. Also, there are multiple vending machines along the way which give you more health packs or more ammo should you need it. Your probably wondering to yourself "man, that sounds like alot of stuff to keep track of in this game, what if i replace a tonic i wanted to keep, or what if a power isn't what id thought it be, how can i change them out?" No problem, simply find a gene swap bank, which are located in numerous areas around the city, and swich out the useless powers for the ones you need. While all this techincal stuff seems fine and dandy, the really big question is how is the game overall? I could use so many words to describe and go on and on about the graphics and the immersive that im sure you've heard so much about. Instead, im going to sum it all up into once sentence that'll hoepfully convince that it is simply a game you must have: You've seen the screen shots, you've heard the hype, and now its time for you to go on your own adventures into the city and find out what shocking secrets Rapture holds; Welcome to Bioshock
