I got this game and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for my birthday in a combo pack. While I was dissapointed by Oblivion, Bioshock pleasantly surprised me. Bioshock is definitely one of my favorite games of all time, and I can't decide between COD 4: Modern Warfare and Bioshock for my best game of all time.
I really like a good story, and this game delivers. I didn't expect the twist from this game, but it was amazing, and I didn't know what would happen after it. The atmosphere is great, and I believe that some games, like Metro 2033, took a page from this game's book. The city of Rapture, which has to be one of the most iconic places in modern gaming, actually feels as if it is dying, and that you are looking at a world that used to be beautiful, but has fallen on hard times. The graphics are great, and really bring this city even further to life. The gameplay, which will either make this game great or good, thankfully does the former. It is fun to use guns and plasmids, and plasmids are a real change up for FPS fans like me. The characters are great, and varied. It feels as if every character has different opinions and feelings about the way things are going. The voice work, which I don't usually care about too much, is amazing here, proving just how top notch voice acting can get. The endings are all good, and can either make you feel like a good person for helping out the little sisters, or make you feel extremely bad for harvesting them for their adam. The coolest characters are the ones that don't speak. I'm, of course, talking about the big daddies. These hulking baddies are very difficult to take down, although the penalty for death is almost nonexistent. They are just so cool, from design to the sounds that they make, and the now iconic drill that they use as a weapon.
This game is just amazing on too many levels to count. This game is the posterboy for the perfect game. I was sort of dissapointed by Bioshock 2, and Bioshock Infinite was a different game entirely, so I do like to go back to this game every now and again to see what a great game should be, so I can't talk myself into thinking that games like Resident Evil: ORC is actually good. Everybody should own this game, and nobody should skip it.