Playstation 3 owners finally get their own slice of rapture as Bioshock permeates on the Playstation 3. The underwater horror filled shooter is one of last years stand out titles that deserves another stroll down its dreary halls.

** For a full review on Bioshock and its features you should reference our review from the Xbox 360 version HERE. In this review I will focus on how the game runs performs on the Playstation 3, any changes to the game and give a final thought. Story details and gameplay particulars can be all read in our earlier review. Enjoy!


Last August Bioshock was praised by all those who stepped into the submerged halls of Rapture. Here at Extreme Gamer, Bioshock scored a solid 9.5/10 along with capturing a number of Game of the Year Awards including Best Shooter and Best Graphics. Not much has changed in a year’s time, except that Bioshock has been ported over to the Playstation 3 console. For PS3 owners who haven't had the pleasure of playing Bioshock yet, you can finally find out what all the hype was about.

Since I have already completed Bioshock once, I decided to stroll down memory lane on a higher difficulty on the Playstation 3. As soon fell out of the sky to immerge in the watery entrance of Rapture, I knew I was home once again to re-live the adventure in Andrew Ryan’s utopia. Even though I knew all the Splicers tricks, have seen and defeated all the Big Daddies and Rosies, Bioshock was still as entertaining as I remembered. The storyline holds up perfectly and reminds me that no shooter has been released that has tried to tackle the atmosphere and raw accomplishment that Bioshock achieved. The Adam-mad citizens of Rapture really give us a unique style of game with the merger of machinery in the form of weapons and magic called plasmids.

In my original run through, I was a savoir to the Little Sisters, so the second time around I decided to turn my heart black and slaughter these innocent worker drones. This made me realise that Bioshock has two distinct ways to play the game, although it’s not as deeply profound as other games that focus more on the light and dark side of humanity. In Rapture your choices affect minor plot twists and power-up abilities. Besides the mood set by the game, you’re not really making an impact on the world, its impacting you.

In the Playstation 3 edition of the game you will find all the free downloadable content from the Xbox Live Marketplace has been added into the game. This means more choices for the gamer to pick from as you load yourself up with tonics and plasmids. The new additions don’t really change the way you play the game besides using a different plasmid once and a while. Truth is the downloadable content wasn’t as good as I expected in the first run, so I knew it wasn’t going to impact the PS3 greatly. It would have been nice to see a few new exclusive Plasmids, or even a multiplayer mode added onto the Playstation 3 version, so PS3 owners would have something to brag about, and gamers who already pawned their old version of the game could consider re-purchasing it. Sadly this isn’t the case which makes the extra content a ho-hum addition.

More interesting then the old added downloadable content is the upcoming release of PS3 exclusive content in the form of Challenge Rooms. The Challenge Rooms are going to be short little puzzling levels that have you turning your brain off auto pilot and focusing on the task at hand. The promise of new content is one reason someone might want to repurchase Bioshock for a second console. It sounds like a blast and a good diversion from creeping around dark hallways... unless the have a challenge mode called “creep down a dark hallway” (bad joke, sorry)

A new level of difficulty has also been added to the Playstation 3 version called “Survivor Mode” In this mode you will need to be very familiar with Bioshock and ready for a fight, the game even gives you a slight warring underneath the option for this mode with “every bullet counts”... yikes! The survivor mode was above my patience level, but it is filled with less of everything that is helpful with harder enemies to put down. Survivor Mode is for all the gamers who breezed through the game on the normal difficulty and want a near impossible challenge. If you can take on Bioshock on Survivor then you truly are a member of the hardcore elite.

Onto the graphics, you would expect the Playstation 3 edition of Bioshock to look better then the Xbox 360 since they are a year apart. Unfortunately this isn’t the case as the Playstation 3 version is only on par with older Xbox 360 version. There are still a few slight flaws like framerate stutters and minor clipping spots, but these never affects the gameplay. It is too bad they didn’t use the time a little extra umph into the mix. You would have figured that after you wait through the long install on the PS3 it would have put out a slightly better performance. Nitpicking aside, Bioshock is still an impressive game with a remarkable blending of art, atmosphere and special effects.

Gamers who love their points will be ecstatic that Bioshock has shipped with Trophy support. For those who want to grab a few quickies while blast through the game, Bioshock is here to help. The Trophy support for Bioshock covers a whopping 48 Bronze Trophies, 2 Silver trophies, 3 Gold and 1 Platinum Trophy. The big daddy of Trophies, the Platinum Trophy is deserving freebie trophy for all the gamers who unlock all the other trophies in Bioshock. This isn’t an easy trophy to pick up because the gold trophies included “A Man Chooses” for beating the game on Survivor difficulty, “Brass Balls” and “I chose the impossible” for completing the game on hard without using a vita-chamber on either hard or survivor difficulty. If you are up to the challenge, it is certainly there and if not well, Bioshock throws a lot of easy bronzers you way for completing plot objectives and other giveaways like hacking units, or reaching splicers.

Bioshock is still one of the best shooters ever released and it goes without saying, if you haven’t played Bioshock yet, you need to experience what the hype is all about. No PS3 owner who doesn’t have a 360 should be without a brand spanking new copy of Bioshock in their collection of games. Bioshock is just too good to overlook. The only real negative point to hash out about the PS3 porting of Bioshock deals with some minor graphical hiccups and the promise of future exclusive content. It would have been nice to have some exclusives besides an ultra-tough extra level of difficulty. For the good side of the port, challenge room downloadable content is on its way this month and trophies are fully support on launch. Revisit Rapture and explore the one of the best shooters ever released.

Gameplay:9.5, Graphics:9, Sound:9, Innovation:9, Mojo:10 Final: 9.3 / 10