To label Bioshock a first-person shooter would be oversimplifying. It is a unique experience that combines elements from several different genres to create a game that you won’t feel like you’ve played before.

From the get-go, you’re an ordinary man with no means of defense save for a wrench. Quickly though, you’ll have access to the first of many special abilities called Plasmids. The result of a morally unhindered scientific community, Plasmids modify your genetic makeup and allow you to make use of various different abilities throughout the game, both offensive and defensive. In the beginning, your only plasmid will be a simple lightning bolt, but as you progress you will collect a great deal of others. From setting your enemies on fire to forcing them to do your bidding, some plasmids will prove quite useful in your visit to Rapture.

Unfortunately, Plasmids aren’t all they’ve been cracked up to be. Lauded as revolutionary game mechanics that would give rise to new methods of play, their state in the final game is nowhere near “revolutionary”. Some of your most basic plasmids such as Lightning and Incinerate will prove useful, but most of the other plasmids end up being swept under the rug. They will do their job if you want them to, but there is never a point in the game where you feel as if you’re going to need any plasmids other than your most basic ones.

Plasmids aren’t the only enhancements you’ll find though. In your travels you will also come across Gene Tonics. These are passive boosts to your stats, and will increase your performance in various regards. Some Gene Tonics will allow you to receive more health from health packs, slow down the timer in the hacking mini-game, or allow you to deal more damage with certain attacks. Unlike plasmids, your configuration of Gene Tonics will have a dramatic impact on gameplay, so it’s advisable to put some time and effort into determining which Tonics you will use to suit and augment your personal style of play.

The majority of your fighting will be accomplished with conventional weapons though. The weapons in Bioshock are nothing new, but the versions presented are decidedly unique from what you’ve seen before. You’ve got your Pistol, your Shotgun, your Machine Gun, and a few other standard weapons. The real draw for these weapons comes from the customization. Each weapon has three distinct ammo types. The Pistol for example has ordinary Pistol ammunition, Armor-Piercing ammunition designed for Big Daddies and armored targets, and Anti-Personnel ammunition, effective against unarmored targets like your standard Splicers. In addition to the varying ammo types, each weapon can be upgraded at a Weapon Upgrade station to augment things like Rate of Fire or Damage.

In order to collect Plasmids and allow more slots for Gene Tonics, you’re going to need ADAM, the genetic material that keeps Rapture alive (Although that all depends on your definition of “alive”.). The only way to collect this precious material is from the small girls roaming the halls of Rapture, known as “Little Sisters”. Don’t expect them to simply hand you the ADAM though. Taking ADAM is as easy as taking candy from a baby, if the baby is protected by a lumbering behemoth in a divers’ suit whose very footsteps will melt your subwoofer and rumble your controller. I speak of course of the Big Daddy. Bodyguards to the Little Sisters, Big Daddies are extremely protective of their young companions. If you ignore them, they’ll ignore you, but if you so much as breathe on a Little Sister, her Big Daddy will let out a deafening roar, and proceed to engage you in what is usually quite a one-sided bout.

The Big Daddies are noteworthy for their contribution to the game’s stellar atmosphere. As you wander the deadened halls of Rapture, a chill crawls up your spine and is likely to remain there for the entirety of the game. 2K Boston has done a fantastic job of establishing setting, and making the player understand that this dead city was once, however briefly, the thriving utopia that it’s residents had hoped for. Echoing through the halls, you’ll still hear the choppy playback of record players, steadfastly recounting the cheery tunes of Bobby Darin and others, despite the death and destruction that has befallen the city.

As you progress, you’ll come across devices which appear to be a rudimentary version of a cassette player. These serve as audio logs of Rapture’s residents. Most of these logs are completely optional, but by listening to them you can piece together the growing tension that led to Rapture’s downfall, as well as a peek into the personal lives of the citizens.

One significant complaint with the gameplay in Bioshock is the lack of any real penalty for death. Upon your death, you will be revived at a nearby “Vita-Chamber”, with nothing in the gameworld altered. You lose nothing at all by dying. For example, if you manage to bring a Splicer down to half of his health before he kills you, you’ll be revived at the Vita-Chamber and be able to continue fighting him, and he will not have recovered any of his health. Because of the non-existent death penalty, the first three quarters or so of the game will post little to no challenge to most players. In the final quarter, the difficulty ramps up significantly to the point of becoming downright frustrating. Enemies will suddenly be able to take much more damage than they probably should, and plasmids will prove almost always ineffective. Even more distressingly, this sudden surge of difficulty happens around the same point that ammunition will suddenly become much more scarce. So you’ll be scavenging for ammo while trying to survive with a wrench.

The gameplay in Bioshock is superb, but complaints like the relative irrelevance of Plasmids, and the incredibly frustrating difficulty of the fourth quarter prevent it from reaching perfection.