One of the defining games of the last generation of gaming, BioShock succeeded largely by creating such an engaging and creepy environment with a strong narrative conducted primarily through exploration. Before going on, I have to admit that BioShock was one of the first video games that I fully got sucked into, so while it generally is regarded as one of the best games, it holds a special place for me as a key gateway game.
BioShock is a first person shooter with a horror/suspense theme, but it doesn't really play like other shooters. Exploration, powers, and even just avoiding enemies are key parts of the game as well. Given the spacial limitations of the claustrophobic Rapture, you also don't engage in giant firefights. This creates suspense as you often turn corners to find enemies you must attack head on or hear enemies in the distance that you can't see yet. Additionally, it prevents the typical style of run and gun familiar in the FPS category.
It's also one of the better designed shooters to date. Not only do they limit the space you can move around in; they also wisely split up your powers from your weapons. It takes a moment to swap between a power and returning to your gun. You can only use one thing at a time, which further enhances the tense feeling of combat. If accustomed to your typical military shooters where you always have your gun out, it can seem a bit frustrating at first. Even later BioShock games get away from this a little bit, with BioShock 2 allowing you to speedily use guns or powers simultaneously, and Infinite swapping very quickly to match the increased tempo. Perhaps it takes a little time to get used to the controls in that way, but it's a well thought out element of game mechanics, really.
The powers themselves are a lot of fun to use, with such a wide (and strange) diversity of things. You can light people on fire with Incinerate, or you can go with the more odd Insect Swarm which sicks a swarm of bees on your opponents. These powers are often key to surviving, especially in those moments where either you face a large number of enemies or even worse, you find yourself in a section of the game where ammo and money is limited. You won't often run out of ammo, but you will run low at times. This creates a necessity to become proficient in both power and weapon usage, as well as requiring updating and improving these things as you progress. Weapons can be upgraded through "Power to the People" stations spread throughout the game while powers are upgraded by acquiring ADAM - the source of powers.
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The narrative is one that unfolds through exploration. As you move through Rapture, you get contacted by characters over the radio who give you insight into the world. There aren't really cut scenes, and most of the narrative unfolds in real time in a completely non-disruptive way. You don't have to stop or slow down while listening to the radio like in some games (*cough* Gears of War).
The story itself is quite poignant. One of Ryan's catchphrases is, "A man chooses. A slave obeys." This is the central theme. Being a game, it often feels like you have a choice. You can go run off over here, or you can go explore over there. You can ambush those splicers, or you can try to avoid them. You can harvest Little Sisters for more ADAM now, or save them in hopes of getting greater rewards later. Gaming inherently makes it feel like you're making all these little choices. In the end though, you are always following a path. At the start, you are just following Atlas, a man who seems to be the only thing not wanting to kill you. By the big plot twist, you're simply following instructions from Tenenbaum, a woman responsible for the creation of Little Sisters who is suffering from extreme guilt and looking for redemption.
In the end, no matter how much "choice" a video game might give you, you are ultimately following a guided path. BioShock - one of the most "meta" games out there - loves to point that out. Your character, Jack, even has chains tattooed on both his wrists. He is forever shackled to the world of Rapture, no matter what.
Even more than just being a somewhat meta commentary on gaming in general, it also frames it around some very real world political philosophies. Ryan leaves the surface world and builds his own because he is sick of the government taking people's hard earned money and spreading it to those less fortunate (or as he puts it, the "leeches"). Rapture functions as almost a temple to Ayn Rand. The basic idea is that only the best and brightest can enter - except for those lowly folks willing to do the manual labor of actually constructing his city. Then, it's just a true laissez-faire system. No government is really in place, so there's no tax and no social welfare programs.
"No gods or kings. Only man" reads a giant sign behind a statue of Ryan as you arrive in Rapture. This is a place where no one is constrained by someone else. "...where the artist would not fear the censor; where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality; where the great would not be constrained by the small!" Basically, he's arguing that the social consciousness is bad for the individual; it holds us back. One can interpret this back into the commentary about traveling on someone else's path. We are each individuals and walk our own way, but at the same time we exist in a larger society.
As one might imagine, things go pretty poorly. One cannot simply overlook that one lives in a society. One works in a society. One makes money by participating in a society. And so by ignoring this, Rapture becomes home to a massive social upheaval, where the increasing number of have-nots are fighting back against the haves. Further, the science loosed with no restraint leads to the abduction and genetic manipulation of young girls for the sake of exploiting ADAM. This creates an uproar as well. Again, Ryan's ideals aren't quite applicable in the real world. He encouraged scientific progress at all cost, free of moral implications, and yet in the end, those ethical failures lead to greater kickback from the people. Additionally, Ryan finds himself at odds with his ideals, often resulting in violent and aggressive regulation to enforce his society, which is supposed to be built on a lack of it. He actually winds up turning into an oppressive dictator, himself becoming the censor that artists have to fear (as evident by his public executions of reporters who criticized him). There are many political themes in the game, and there are many ways to interpret them, which is a huge reason why the game is so great.
Not everything in the game is great, of course. BioShock isn't without its flaws. Hacking security bots and safes is a cool element, but the way to hack them is strange. The game gets interrupted with a game of Pipe Dream, which is fun, but feels pretty out of place. The final boss similarly feels tonally misguided. For a game built on many non-traditional design elements, it does seem jammed in there to make it more of a video game. The morality system is also a bit overly simplistic and reductionist.
Otherwise, the game hits almost exclusively high notes. The environment is so well developed that you wind up getting sucked in almost immediately. It's an eerie atmosphere, only made stronger by its old time jazz soundtrack. It's also nice to have a game that feeds you the story without interrupting the game play - except at moments where the point is to highlight the lack of control you ultimately have. All of the BioShock games are incredible; all are worthy of being considered art. Personally, the first installment was one of the first to really suck me in that badly.
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