Tuesday 3 October 2006

"The goal of BioShock is to redefine what players expect from a first-person shooter." While we would normally treat such a bold statement with a level of cautionary scepticism, another dip into developer Irrational Games' underwater adventure gives us every reason to believe that the game's creative director, Ken Levine, isn't just blowing fanciful bubbles.

So, how exactly will BioShock make waves in the expansive ocean of shooters? "By giving the player a huge amount of choice... BioShock lets the player define a lot of his own goals and, most importantly, how he solves problems in the world."

To underline his point effectively, Levine talks us through a new demo (catch up with our first glimpse of the game here) that illustrates the number of possibilities available to the player when hunting one of the game's huge, lumbering Big Daddy enemies.

The Big Daddies that inhabit Rapture - the submerged city where BioShock takes place - are imposing brutes dressed in antiquated, armour-like diving suits. They act as bodyguards to Little Sisters, seemingly vulnerable children that roam Rapture in search of 'Adam' - a genetic material and vital resource - which they extract from corpses and carry in their own bodies.