BioShock (Xbox 360)

They might trigger a security turret or accidentally miss you and hit a window; the security recognises this as an act of Vandalism and sends out security bots to deal with the threat. There's always something going on in the city and it's interesting to backtrack sometimes from the later levels and take a look over old ground to see if a new area might have opened up that you couldn't access previously.

BioShock has some pretty decent AI, the wandering and interaction AI is something to see when you're exploring and you can often use the paranoid nature of Splicers to lure them into a trap or a confrontation with a Big Daddy. In fact it's quite fun to set up sub-traps and try and get the whole thing to play out how it does in your head, from electro-trap bolts to cyclone plasmid traps. Hack a security turret to add spice to the proceedings and watch how the AI tries to deal with it when an enraged Big Daddy chases them down.

Hack a Health station and watch as a wounded foe runs to use it, invariably dying since a hacked station causes damage to enemies. Light up a Splicer with inferno and they will run for a water source, trying in vain to douse the fire. Zap it with an electro-bolt and fry them as they cool off. In combat the AI will make use of the environment, weapons and its DNA enhanced trickery, expect some vicious boss-style battles from the Big Daddies in later levels and on the hardest difficulty settings as you run from room to room, trying to avoid a wailing, screaming angry monster from the depths.

The audio in BioShock is perfect. There are 1960's scratchy-records and a beautifully sweeping score to listen to. The voice acting is utterly top notch with the dialogue being crisp and totally in character for the time period. Listening to women being described as Betty's for instance brought a smile to my face. I never really snapped out of the suspension of disbelief and there were no times I thought that the carefully crafted audio was anything but authentic: high praise from me.

There are one or two faults that mar the overall experience. The hacking feels tacked on, it's still fun and definitely done in the Steampunk style of the game world, it does however become repetitive later on and you really wish for a bigger supply of auto-hackers (there is a certain thing to ease hacking, a lot, of turrets and bots, but that would spoil the game, so I'm not telling you how to get it).

I noticed there were some odd texture pop-in glitches at times and for 95% of the game it ran silky smooth. A couple of times it juddered a little and the whole thing ground to a shaky halt until the cause (in this case a Big Daddy) had passed on by.

That said, it shouldn't put you off the game at all and I really only have one more thing to say: Would you kindly pick up a copy and play it!

Note: If you complain that the story makes no sense, then you haven't really played the game to completion.