Dview: BioShock (Xbox 360)

Bottom Line:
BioShock was one of the most immersive and impressive games i have played - on the first playthrough.  The well placed period music and the unique environment of Rapture (a Capitalist utopia turned dystopia) make it an interesting game.  However, the game seems somehow different in subsequent playthroughs.  Basically it is a first person shooter with light RPG elements (like leveling up weapons, acquiring tonics to augment the character and also plasmids - which are like magic spells, sort of).

Somehow, the Dream of Andrew Ryan went wrong.  Living in isolation and the discovery of Adam led to a different society.  New advances were possible (especially in regards to genetic manipulation).  Unfortunately, there were forces on Rapture that hastened its demise as the idealistic paradise. Unfortunately, he let people into his Utopia that he shouldn't have.

Grade:
B+

What to Expect:
* A first person shooters with limited enemy types, mostly Splicers (people who abused Adam).  This seems to be focused slightly more on exploration than most "shooters".
* Big Daddies to kill - sort of an iconic creature in the game, Little Sisters to harvest or save
* A story line that finds you entering in a war torn rapture and maybe a little deception
* 100 diary tape entries that give you some of the back story
* Numerous tonics and plasmids to find/buy
* Limited penalty for death (for most of the game)
* A main character that seem like a throw-away
* A kind of annoying camera "weapon" used to research enemies that allows for bonus damage or reward tonics
* A kind of interesting under water place called Rapture - which is really the star of this game.

How i Played:
Difficulty: Casual
Time Spent: 10-12 hours (second playthrough getting all diaries 10-12 hours)
Achievements: 49/51 for 960/1,100 points (didn't get the Hardest difficulty ones)

Achievements:
There are two difficulty based achievements in this game - one is for just beating the game on Hard (the whole game not just the boss), the other one is for beating the game on Hard without dying and turning the Vita Chambers off.  Other than that you have: story related, collectible, upgrade, dealing with Little Sisters, researching enemies, hacking and miscellaneous side tasks.  Most of them can be done in under 20 hours.  However, you may want to use a guide to find all of the weapon upgrade stations (one tricky) and audio diaries.