BioShock [X360]

Bioshock starts with a plane crash. After a brief idyllic moment in which the main character - you - reads a note from his parents and considers an unopened gift, he is plunged suddenly into the sea. After struggling through water and fire, he comes to an obelisk jutting out of the water, here in the middle of the ocean. A doorway leads to a bathysphere, which in turns leads to a spectacular descent into an underwater city. A squid darts among the skyscrapers, and then a whale floats by where you might expect a zeppelin. The neon suggests Broadway. The art deco suggests Fritz Lang's Metropolis. The deep blue water suggests Atlantis.

Welcome to Rapture, an underwater utopia where something has gone very very wrong. This is the setting of what promises to be one of this year's most provocative and memorable games. Bioshock is the creation of Irrational, a developer known for an assortment of different games ranging from SWAT 4, to Freedom Force, to TRIBES: Vengeance. But Bioshock mostly recalls their debut game, System Shock 2, in which the player explored a spooky abandoned space station and uncovered a rich storyline in the process.

Bioshock revisits this basic concept, but at a different time and place. You're deep under water, and it's the 1950s. "Here comes the cast of Guys & Dolls," lead designer Ken Levine jokes as a group of "splicers" attack, clad in period outfits. The denizens of Rapture are called splicers for how they've been genetically modified, often to ghastly effect. They attack with pipes, rakes, and guns. They're mad, in more ways than one. But they aren't stupid.

"They react according to what you're holding," Levine demonstrates. "A splicer with a melee weapon won't rush you if you've got a gun equipped."

With the help of designer Dean Tate, they demonstrate Bioshock's combat. "We're going to show you a battle with a broad tool set," Levine says. It's developer talk for 'You get to play this however you want'. They run through the battle a couple of times, and it unfolds differently each time based on what skills and weapons are used.

There are proximity mines and a trip wire that fires an electrical shock. There's a chemical spray gun that freezes splicers so you can shatter them with a single blast from the shotgun. There are genetic powers called "plasmids", such as the enrage power that causes enemies to turn against each other, or an electrical bolt that shocks splicers standing in a flooded room. You can swap out the tank on the chemical sprayer to shoot fire into a puddle of oil. Use telekinesis to fling furniture, hold up bodies as shields, or even to catch and throw back grenades. You can hack turrets, security drones, or even first aid kits that will spray poison when bad guys try to use them for healing.

Or you can just shoot and pummel the bad guys.