Horror shooters and action horror Horror

BioShock

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A drowned utopia, its broken citizens and the giants that guard its children.

Platforms: PC, Xbox
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (94% of 32,244 reviews); Metacritic 96 (PC)
Players: 1
Made by: 2K Boston and 2K Australia (published by 2K)
Released: 2007

What frightens Rapture, a ruined art deco city under the Atlantic, is dark, leaking and full of Splicers, its citizens twisted by the gene-altering ADAM, who stalk you through flickering halls. Hulking Big Daddies in diving suits guard small girls who gather ADAM from the dead, while posters and neon still advertise the perfect life it promised.
Content: violence, blood, dead bodies.

BioShock is a first-person shooter from 2K Boston and 2K Australia set in Rapture, a failed utopia at the bottom of the ocean. You fight its gene-spliced survivors with guns and plasmid powers through dark, flooding halls, and decide what to do with the Little Sisters the Big Daddies protect.

About BioShock

BioShock is a first-person shooter from 2K Boston and 2K Australia, released in August 2007 on Windows and Xbox 360. It opens with a plane crash in the Atlantic: the hero, Jack, finds a bathysphere that carries him down to Rapture, an art deco city built under the sea as a utopia and now in ruins.

The city's people have destroyed themselves with plasmids, genetic modifications powered by a substance called ADAM. What remains are Splicers, deranged and disfigured survivors who stalk the halls, and the Big Daddies, huge drill-armed figures in diving suits who escort the Little Sisters, small girls who gather ADAM. You fight with revolvers, a grenade launcher, a chemical thrower and a wrench, and inject plasmids of your own: electricity, fire, ice, a swarm of hornets from your arm. You can hack devices and systems and turn the water and fire around you against your enemies.

The horror is in the place more than in jump scares. Rapture is dark and leaking, its posters and neon signs promising a perfect life over corridors full of bodies and wreckage, the Splicers come at you out of the dark, and every Big Daddy is a hard fight you choose to start. How you treat the Little Sisters, harvesting them for ADAM or rescuing them, shapes the ending.

The Steam version is the original 2007 release; BioShock Remastered, sold separately and in BioShock: The Collection, is the version on PlayStation 4 and Switch. BioShock suits players who want a story-driven shooter with a frightening setting, closer to System Shock 2 or Prey than to a game where you hide.

How to play BioShock

Explore Rapture area by area, following your current objective.
Fight Splicers with guns, the wrench and plasmids, switching between them to suit each enemy.
Pick up ammunition, money and ADAM, and spend them on new plasmids, upgrades and supplies.
Hack devices and systems to turn them against your enemies.
Face the Big Daddies when you are ready, and decide whether to harvest or rescue the Little Sister each one guards.

Screenshots

A Big Daddy charges with its drill raised while the player aims a tommy gun

A Big Daddy and a small girl in a green dress stand over a body on a dark floor

The dim Medical Pavilion entrance in Rapture, with art deco lettering and lamps

A poster reading 'Pick your plasmid and evolve' hangs over a dark balcony in Rapture

Tips

Use the setting: electrocute enemies standing in water, as the game itself suggests.
Do not start a fight with a Big Daddy without full health and your strongest ammunition.
Search rooms thoroughly; ammunition, money and ADAM are scattered through the levels.

Questions

Is BioShock a horror game?

It is a first-person shooter with a horror setting: a dark, ruined underwater city full of deranged Splicers and giant Big Daddies. It frightens through atmosphere and enemies more than through jump scares, and you are well armed.

Does BioShock have multiple endings?

Yes. Whether you harvest or rescue the Little Sisters decides which ending you see.

What is the difference between BioShock and BioShock Remastered?

This page is the original 2007 game, sold on Steam and on Xbox. BioShock Remastered is a separate later release with sharper graphics and extras such as a director's commentary, and it is the version sold on PlayStation 4 and Switch.

Is BioShock in English?

Yes, with full audio in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.