"In what country is there a place for people like me?" - Andrew Ryan, creator of Rapture

BioShock has been one of those buzz titles that whip gamers into a frenzy of anticipation and worry for some time now - anticipation to finally get their hands on it and worry (for the PC gamers anyway) that their system may not run it. The screenshots that capture the dramatic lighting and the best water effects seen in a game to date go a long way but as we approach next week's release of the game on both PC and Xbox 360 it's time to move past screens and movies and think about how it plays. Earlier this week Microsoft released a playable demo of BioShock on Xbox Live and, similar to the Stranglehold situation, a PC demo is yet to be seen. The BioShock PC demo is promised to be "soon" and "before August 21st", but until then all we have to go on is the Xbox 360 demo. It's a good thing then that the demo is absolutely awesome.

View the BioShock slide show (24 images)

The demo opens as the game does in 1960 with the player in an airplane over the Atlantic ocean. You're given just the briefest introduction to your character before the plane mysteriously crashes and you awaken while sinking to the bottom of the ocean. The character swims to the surface of the water and this is where the player is given control. It's disconcerting to say the least but after the initial what-do-I-do panic caused by being in dark water surrounded by the burning remains of a sinking jetliner wears off you'll find yourself swimming to a lighthouse structure. This is where you'll truly - and literally - become immersed in the BioShock game world.

You'll experience a quick fly-through of the underwater city of Rapture while descending.

The first thing I noticed was the excellent bump-mapping and use of high specularity to give the stone surfaces of the lighthouse a very convincing rough and wet look. The game looks beautiful on the 360 and I can only imagine how it will look on a high-end PC. The graphics and the lighting are all part of the immersion and the atmosphere. If BioShock excels in one thing it's atmosphere. The first thing you see when you enter the lighthouse is a giant statue of a man scowling down at you with a banner saying, "No Gods or Kings. Only Man," hanging in front of it. The statue is set in the wall in such a way that is very oppressive and intimidating. It is anything but welcoming. My first thought was that it was falling out of the wall but after a closer look I realized that it was intended to appear that way. This is something about BioShock that may make or break your game experience with it: the desire to explore. I spent quite a bit of time exploring the wreckage in the water and the lighthouse before entering the bathysphere and descending to Rapture where the game proper begins. BioShock just makes you curious and it does this by presenting you with hints of the greater story.

The architecture and visual design of the underwater city of Rapture has that 60's sci-fi retro-future look to it but at the same time it's all in ruins and splattered in blood. When you first arrive after traveling down to the city in the bathysphere and watching a brief orientation video from the city's creator Andrew Ryan you're treated to seeing a guy disemboweled and mauled to death right in front of you. The demo uses this horror trick a couple of times to great effect. It places you in a spot of safety but in sight of violence that threatens to spill over into where you are. BioShock may be classified as a first-person shooter but there are elements of survival horror thrown in there as well. Players of System Shock and System Shock 2 will see familiar threads all the way through the demo. The ominous presence of Andrew Ryan in recorded form may not cause the same nightmares that System Shock 2's SHODAN left us with, but that may change by the time you're finished with the full game.

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