Bioshock preview

We saw AI behave in combat on par with the very best AI of late. As in S.T.A.L.K.E.R and FEAR, Bioshock bad guys will use intelligent tactics in gunfights. They’ll take cover, but not stay put. They flank, they use the right weapon for the situation, and use it well. Furthermore, the AI will react differently according to which weapon you hold. Levine explained that the team’s experience developing SWAT 4 helped a lot with getting realistic combat just right.

But most impressively, the AI uses the world itself, and everything in it. We saw a gunfight where an enemy was set ablaze with a flamethrower. The burning creature ran straight for the nearest pool of water to douse itself. Impressive enough, but the player then switched weapons and electrocuted the poor beast while it was knee deep in water.

That’s why Bioshock will rule. The outcome of that particular combat scenario was far from certain, we’re assured, and that the beast could have been dispatched various ways. Irrational has worked especially hard to ensure that each player’s experience is different, which also equates to good replay value. The world offers countless opportunities to use your head in ways other game worlds haven’t been able to.



Shock gun
You’ll play using three main weapons: First, conventional weapons. These are a regulation mix of FPS guns, with many having an appearance of being MacGyvered together from odds and ends found in the world in desperate times before your arrival.

Second, the Plasmids. These bio powerups give you special powers and form much of the mini-RPG nature of character development. Some may be temporary, others permanent. Plasmids are the result of research into the magic slugs, and are as desirable to in-game NPCs as they are to you. To a degree plasmid availability and effect will be “dependant on moral decisions you’ll face in the game”. Irrational was not prepared to divulge the exact nature of these, lest it spoil the unfolding story, although it did explain that a player can switch sides during the game, and that the general tendency towards good or evil comes from whether certain characters were killed for a short term advantage, or left to live, which comes back to benefit you later.

Bioshock isn’t an RPG though. Levine: “We wanted to get away from inventory management and keep choices limited to what’s interesting and away from RPG clunkiness and managing little inventory grids.”



Lastly, the environment itself is so much of a tactical resource it’s fair to consider it a weapon and part of your arsenal. The use of objects and game world mechanics is key. For example, booby traps can be disarmed and redeployed to your advantage. Sentry devices can be commandeered. Stuff can be picked up and chucked around.

Physics, the darling of gaming since Half-Life 2, is a big thing in Bioshock. Most items in the game can be picked up and manipulated. Instead of simply running over something to collect it, old-school FPS-style, you pick it up. Then do with it as your will and the game’s mechanics allow.