Last weekend, I finished BioShock. Immediately after finishing BioShock, I installed BioShock 2, and I will play through BioShock Infinite after that. While this is going to be a review, it’s going to be difficult to write an unbiased review. BioShock is a game that got me into console gaming, as it was the first game I played on my Xbox 360 after only playing Halo 3 for months. It’s one of the few games I have replayed multiple times. I want to say this is at least my third or fourth time playing through BioShock. It’s been enough that I have lost count. I don’t really have anything new to say about BioShock; I think the game still holds up nineteen years later.

BioShock opens with Jack, who survives a recent plane crash. As the sole survivor, he swims away from the wreckage and finds a pillar in the middle of the ocean connected to a set of stairs. Upon climbing up, he walks into a sphere that lowers him into the sea to a city called Rapture. Rapture was created by Andrew Ryan, a place he had hoped would be a utopia, free of government control. What Jack finds is nothing of the sort. He’s attacked by splicers, enemies that are addicted to a drug called ADAM, which changes someone’s genetic makeup. Jack can find Plasmids, which give him powers like shooting fire or electricity. He’s contacted by Atlas, who encourages him to find his family. Unfortunately, his family is seemingly killed by Andrew Ryan, so now Jack needs to confront Andrew Ryan and try to save Rapture to the best of his ability.

The most impressive part of BioShock is the graphics. For a game released in 2007, this game still feels modern. Rapture is still the gritty, underwater, dystopian city I was familiar with. Rapture has elements of the 1940s, and it feels like the city is trapped in time, which adds to the horror element of the game. I’m the first one to admit that I’m not a horror game person. You will not catch me playing Silent Hill any time soon. BioShock has elements of horror without having too many jump scares, which works for me. Sure, you can hear the splicers off in the distance, and they can sneak up on you, but I find that isn’t too much.

While I have played through the story several times, I find I like the familiarity. Andrew Ryan, as a villain, isn’t the most physically imposing, but he still is a villain nonetheless. He’s a billionaire type who went into this with good intentions, and then things turned south. I think it makes Andrew Ryan scarier in a way because he’s not unlike the billionaires we see in today’s society. The Big Daddies are still as formidable as ever. Big Daddies protect Little Sisters who carry ADAM, so to progress in the game, you need to take them out and harvest ADAM. You can either save the Little Sisters or kill them throughout this process. I’m too nice in video games, so I saved them rather than killing them. It also unlocks the better ending in the game. I played the game on Medium because I wanted a challenge, but also, I wanted this to be a relaxing experience. I don’t need to play every game on the toughest difficulty anymore. Frank Fontaine, he sucks. He’s arguably worse than Ryan, but he gets his comeuppance in the end.

While playing BioShock, I love all the details. The collectibles in the game are audio logs from several key characters. There are a few from Andrew Ryan, Dr. Tenenbaum, Fontaine, and even some audio recordings from minor characters. It makes collecting things in the game fun because you unlock so much more of the story when you do. I found myself combing through various rooms in each level, trying to find the next recording. With BioShock being a horror game, it helps to go through every safe, finding ammo, money, and other trinkets to help craft items such as different ammo. It hinders the game if you only try to play through the story because you will run out of items fast. I loved getting lost in the game and not focusing on the main objective simply because I wanted to collect what I could find.

BioShock is still the game I remembered it would be. It remains one of my favorite video games of all time, and that will never change.