Going beyond "run and gun corridors", "monster-closet AIs" and static worlds, BioShock creates a living, unique and unpredictable FPS experience.

After your plane crashes into icy uncharted waters, you discover a rusted bathysphere and descend into Rapture, a city hidden beneath the sea. Constructed as an idealistic society for a handpicked group of scientists, artists and industrialists, the idealism is no more. Now the city is littered with corpses, wildly powerful guardians roam the corridors as little girls loot the dead, and genetically mutated citizens ambush you at every turn.

Take control of your world by hacking mechanical devices, commandeering security turrets and crafting unique items critical to your very survival. Upgrade your weapons with ionic gels, explosives, and toxins to customize them to the enemy and environment. Genetically modify your body through dozens of Plasmid Stations scattered throughout the city, empowering you with fantastic and often grotesque abilities.

Explore a living world powered by Ecological A.I., where the inhabitants have interesting and consequential relationships with one another that impact your gameplay experience.

Experience truly next generation graphics that vividly illustrate the forlorn art deco city, highlighted by the most detailed and realistic water effects ever developed in a video game. Make meaningful choices and mature decisions, ultimately culminating in the grand question: do you exploit the innocent survivors of Rapture...or save them? [2K Games]

Alright, let’s get this out of the way. It’s best for you, it’s best for us. It’s best for you because then you’ll no longer have to hear us banging on about how much we’re looking forward to 2K and Irrational Games’ underwater FPS epic… and it’s best for us because then we can put BioShock to bed and move on to banging on about how much we’re looking forward to Mass Effect. It’s win-win. Kinda.

So, without further ado, here’s a gathered peek at what the critics are saying about BioShock. To be perfectly honest, the scores and comments you’re about to see are, well, unprecedented. They are also likely to exist as a truly monumental yardstick of quality that almost all succeeding FPS offerings (regardless of host platform) are going to struggle to reach, let alone surpass.

Spend or Lend Spend?

100% - EuroGamer - "[BioShock] takes the tired, worn-out FPS genre by the scruff of the neck, reinvents and bend it out of shape in such a breathtaking fashion that it's going to take something very special to top this in the months and years ahead. For a game to be so outstanding in one department is one thing - to manage to tick every single box from graphics to audio to gameplay depth to atmosphere and innovation is pretty much unprecedented."

100% - Game Informer - "BioShock is a title that needs to be played, simply because you will never look at an FPS the same way again. Of the 15 to 20 hours of gameplay that it delivers, there isn’t a second wasted. Once you finish the game, there’s little chance that you’ll take it out before playing it again to see the second ending."

100% - Games Radar - "This is the really bewildering thing about it: it succeeds so stunningly on three different fronts. Not esoteric ones, either, these are the big challenges developers have been struggling to master for decades: narrative, emergence, a sense of place. If another game did just one of these as well as BioShock, it would immediately qualify as a classic. When a game comes along that does all three, we can only be baffled and thankful."

100% - Gamer.tv - "The opportunities for variation are massive. BioShock has managed to instantly stake its claim as one of the best FPS titles in gaming history."

100% - Official Xbox Magazine UK - "Amazingly written and beautifully constructed, it's a complete emotional rollercoaster which we can't draw any parallels with...You'll be playing this game for months to come, exchanging story elements to build up the bigger picture, and arguing about what it all means."

100% - 1UP - "Taken as a whole, as an experience that's richly and utterly complete, and one that engages the player in a constant dialogue, BioShock is virtually unassailable. And that makes you feel good."

100% - GameSpy - "An unparalleled achievement. No other game comes even remotely close to it in terms of raw emotional connection."

100% - GamePro - "What if a game's narrative was as intricate and as immersive as its graphics? What if as much attention went into dialogue and atmosphere as went into pixel shaders and high-resolution textures? What then? Ladies and gentlemen, the answer is BioShock, one of the most playable, thought-provoking, and just downright impressive games to emerge on a home console since, well, ever."

97% - IGN - "There is art here, despite what many would say isn't possible with games, from Roger Ebert to game designers like Hideo Kojima...BioShock stands as a monolithic example of the convergence of entertaining gameplay and an irresistibly sinister, engrossing storyline that encompasses a host of multifaceted characters. This is an essential gaming experience."

95% - TeamXbox - "It's inventive and entertaining, with a number of twists and unexpected situations that'll have you on the edge of your seat...It's rare to find a game that has both quality in its engineering and quality in its gameplay."

Verdict: Seriously?

Footage provided by GameTrailers.com.