E3 07: BioShock Hands-On
I arrived nearly an hour late to my meeting with 2k Games (thanks Sony) huffing and puffing and apologizing profusely to the poor confused PR people standing at the door. They were very gracious however and soon I was ushered into a dimly lit room to finally check out the game I have been drooling over for a year, BioShock. And if that wasn’t treat enough, I was led in by none other than Irrational Game’s creative director himself, Ken Levine.
After I finished gushing all over him I sat down on the couch while a young man named Hoagie (hope I spelled that right) guided us through a later level of the game where we battled Splicers and mutants and even took down one of the gargantuan Big Daddies using an arsenal of weapons and powers at our disposal. We saw some of the inventions system and how you could use your powers in tandem to create some truly devastating traps. My personal favorite was the use a mine attached to the ceiling, with a cyclone trap set underneath. The Splicer stepped on the cyclone trap only to be propelled up to the ceiling right into the waiting mine and KABLAM. It was gorgeous. another wonderful use of powers was the fire system which worked in real time. Nothing just burst into flames all at once, but rather you could watch the trail of fire follow along the gas puddles to eventually set a corpse on fire which you could then use your telekinesis to lob said flaming corpse at your enemies.
We even got to experience the saving of a Little Sister and watched her turn back into a cute little girl, Ken talked us around the level and the different plasmids and methods of using them and I have to say it was stunning. Everything we’ve seen up to now, as great as it is, doesn’t compare to the actual experience of playing it. And as I have noted before, listening to Ken Levine talk about his game is a wonderful experience. You can tell just how much love and work he put into it.
After the demo was over, they let me try the game for myself and for the ten minutes I played, I was in absolute heaven. It controlled beautifully and I spent a fair amount of time just walking around and looking at things. The attention to detail was incredible. Everything was done up to the nines and I paid many compliments to the art team for a stupendous job. One of my favorite things that Ken and I talked about was the use of water in a representational fashion in the game. The whole game’s setting is a metaphor for the cracks that appear in the facade of these great utopian society as the water slowly seeps in to destroy it.
I didn’t get nearly enough time to hands on with the game and I plan on going back and checking it out some more although I am slightly reticent as I don’t want to ruin the e3xperience when I play the game for the first time in August. But, I fear the pull of Rapture is going to be to much to resist.
As I was walking back to my hotel with Tiny after we left another appointment, I was waxing rhapsodic about the game and Ken Levine’s great attitude and demeanor. When lo and behold, who was walking down the sidewalk right in front of us? Ken Levine! I said hello to him again and introduced him to Tiny and we had a wonderful three or four block walk with him to our hotel, talking about games and life in general. He’s an incredibly laid back and friendly guy and I’m thrilled that I got the chance to sit down with him and see his game through his eyes.
The long and short of the story, however, is this; BioShock is going to be BADASS and spending time with it has just galvanized my feeling of wanting to get it the minute it hits the shelves on August 22. I will be taking the day off of writing just so I don’t have to spend even a minute away from the beautiful, rotting utopia beneath the sea.
Fruit Brute
Posted to E3, Hot Stuff, Video Games on 11 July 2007
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: Bioshock, E3, hands on
Gah! Hands-on with BioShock!
Well color me jealous
Wow. That hands on sounds amazing! I am so jealous too. I can't wait to play this. Using the powers and setting the traps sound so cool. Glad to hear even with all the hype -- it is even better in person.
This is one of those titles that's making me hang onto my 360 and not trade it in (along with Mass Effect).
Looks totally awesome. Thanks for the impressions!