A lot of hype surrounded LAIR before release and with good cause.   Not only is it one of the first PS3 titles to actually make use of the ginchy Siaxis controller but preview pics showed quite the graphical masterpiece.  Unfortunately most of the reviews post-release really dug into this title for its ridiculously hard and messy control scheme.  I will be agreeing with this in part, but it was still a nice first try.

            The world you play in is split into two separate factions.  The Asylians and the Mokai.   The main protagonist is part of the “skyguard” for the Asylians.  Their function is to protect their bountiful lands from anyone who would try to invade. They do this by riding fire breathing dragons into battle.  Not surprisingly two seconds into the game you are soon attacked by the Mokai by their opposing dragon army and the elders of your country decide it’s high time to go to war with them.  You take to the skies and proceed to fight their sky darkening army of dragons anywhere they come from. 

The dragons in the game are very versatile in their actions.  They can breathe fire, shoot fire bolts at targets, land to eat or otherwise obliterate ground troops, and even get into mid air brawls with other dragons.  Although the game allows all these cool functions to take place, actually pulling them off is a different matter entirely.   The only way to move the dragon in the air is by tilting the Siaxis controller.  This is difficult because the controls don’t catch what you’re attempting to do half the time and you can’t just switch over to the thumb sticks.  This will get mighty frustrating for the normal player mighty fast.  

            The graphics however are crystal with no choppiness and real detail built into the landscapes and architectures.  The enemy bases you have to stealthily navigate your dragon through are particularly well drawn and thought out.  Your homeland of Asyria is a stretching mountain range with castles spewing out from every nook and cranny.  The soundtrack has a medieval feel that leaves you with that “I am saving the free known race on my dragon” type of emotion.  Although it is a little hard to hear considering your screaming curses every two seconds at the screen cause your dragon won’t go in the right direction. 

At the end of the day no matter how you cut it you’re still playing the buggy ill controlled first try game of the series.  Buy it if you simply must know what all the hype is about but realize there are a lot of more fun games to play out there right now.  I can’t give this game a good rating because it is almost unplayable.  But the story and idea of it makes me hopeful for a much more streamlined sequel.   

Jake’s Rating (6.0 out of 10) – Rough start. 

The plane you’re on takes a sharp nose dive into the middle of the Pacific and you’re the sole survivor.  Gasping for breath you see a small broken down structure and head for it.  Inside is what looks to be a deep sea diving bubble. Having no options left and no chance of rescue you take the submarine down.  Through the porthole as you descend you see what looks like the bastard child of Atlantis and Chicago in the 1950’s.  You don’t know it but before too long you’ll be staring into the face of an angry behemoth in a scuba suit and what looks to be a 9 year old girl with a giant syringe.   Welcome to Rapture.     

            Bioshock has one of the better stories out there for video games.  Basically a scientist becomes tired of the morality and ethics involved in experimentation and decides to create an underwater city to escape from both.  With no restraints he creates ADAM which is a substance that can change a person’s genetic structure giving them superpowers.  The adverse effect is that it turns the populace of Rapture into ADAM junkies and they start wreaking havoc on each other.

            The objective of the game is to somehow get out of Rapture alive.  You follow a linear level by level path through some of the best graphics ever created.  The game takes you through leaky nightclubs, laboratories, morgues, and a very well drawn transit system of pipes.  The soundtrack includes most of the top songs from the 1940’s so be prepared to have the oldest recorded tunes known to man going through your brain for weeks to come.  The fighting engine is definitely the best there is to offer and the auto aim in particular is dead on.

Scattered around Rapture are a vast array of older normal guns and weapons but you also have the ability to use EVE powers.  EVE powers include freezing people, telekinesis, and computer hacking powers just to name a few.  You will use all of the weapons in your arsenal to take on some of the ugliest looking mutated freaks going.  Most of them are just regular people who are hideously deformed from over usage of ADAM. 

The best fights in the game come from little sisters (little girls with big syringes) and their protectors the Big Daddies (huge submarine suit wearing death dealers).  If you can defeat them you can retrieve ADAM from the little sisters and use it to beef up or get new superpowers.  Once there protectors are dead you get a choice to kill the little sister and get more ADAM or extract a lesser amount of ADAM from her and leave her alive.   Morality at its finest. 

To me, Bioshock proves yet again what a good amount of other developers still have yet to grasp.  Great developing team + Attention to every detail = FRIGGIN KICKASS GAME.  My only hope is that the sequel won’t take too long.  This game gets the best rating that I have yet to hand out.   Perfect Score. 

Jake’s Rating (10 out of 10) – Buy It.