Warning – some *minor* spoilers contained herein!

“Ken Levine touched me in an inappropriate place!”, exclaims Dan Amrich, Future Publishing, as Ken Levine, Lead Designer for Bioshock takes a seat next to him on the couch. “He does that to everyone!” shoots back Hogie de la Plante, one of Bioshocks many artists, and the lucky one chosen to spend the week of E3 demoing one of the most anticipated titles of this summer. And Bioshock itself will touch you in some ‘inappropriate’ places – sending tingles of excitement down your spine as you watch the world of Rapture unfold before your eyes.

We’ve all seen and read a good deal about Bioshock since last year’s E3 so we won’t rehash all the details here. Suffice it to say Bioshock is being put together by the team behind the classic System Shock 2 which still stands as one of our all time favorites. The story begins when your plane crashes in the middle of the ocean – quite coincidentally on top of a submerged Utopian city called Rapture built by a megalomaniac gazillionaire named Andrew Ryan. As you’ll find out within the first ten minutes of play – Utopia ain’t it’s all cracked up to be.

For the purposes of this E3 demo, Ken and Hogie showed off a sequence roughly 5-6 hours into the game which takes place within Arcadia, an underwater forest within Rapture. Andrew Ryan – quite simply - wants you dead. Consequently he’ll pull out all the stops to punch your expiration ticket – even if it means defoliating his precious forest in order to block your passage. In Rapture’s fragile eco-system the absence of foliage means you’re not going to get through due to a lack of oxygen, and we all know suffocating does bad things to your health. Enter – the Lazarus Vector. 

To keep the demo short the guys already had the Lazarus Vector in-hand and were loading it into the machine which will process the vector, effectively re-foliating the forest and allowing you to pass to Ryan’s personal residence within Rapture. But as videogame logic goes – you won’t be allowed to simply stand by and watch the progress meter tick by while the vector processes. Ryan has decided he’s none too happy about your little plan and has sent a welcoming party to see that you don’t succeed. Your mission – which you’ll have no choice but to accept – will be too secure the perimeter and hold off the onslaught while the vector does its thing. Good luck – you’re going to need it.

By this point in the game you will have an arsenal of Plasmids at your disposal to use in holding the line. The following five minutes left us jaw on the floor - we simply could not process all that had just happened. With little time wasted thinking about the best solution Hogie proceeded to defend the perimeter and at the same time demo just about every last power available to you.

Proximity mines were set at strategic locations. Trap bolts were set into the walls just waiting for an unsuspecting enemy to pass by. But the real fun – and as Todd Howard at Bethesda will tell you, “Violence done well is fun!” – comes when you get a little creative with your methods of dispatch.

For example: Your enemies will attempt to heal themselves if they find a nearby med station. So why not hack that med station so they’ll instead be poisoned. Watch as they ‘heal’ themselves to death – Muahahhaa. Unfortunately – you won’t have time to watch. Too simple? OK, how about some mini-cyclones placed on the floor so pursuing enemies get jacked into the waiting ceiling. Or – hop on top of a wheel barrow in a water filled room – let the crazies fill up the salon and then send some electro bolts into the water and shock those monkeys!

For a little holiday fun Hogie offered up a Winter Blast to a few assailants which froze them in their tracks giving you time to pull out your shotgun and shatter them into a million tiny pieces. Of course – if you’re running low on tricks you can use telekinesis to lift just about anything – including the corpse of a recent victim to toss at oncoming combatants. Take it to the next level and plant a proximity mine on a fuel barrel – instant super bomb – just toss and enjoy!

To make the situation a bit more complex – Ken and his team saw fit to place a Big Daddy into the setting. As if a couple dozen freaks trying to take your head off with pipe wrenches and scythes wasn’t enough you now also have to worry about aggravating Big Daddy…but wait…maybe you can aggravate Big Daddy on purpose and let him rampage on your attackers? A quick shot of Enrage oughtta do the trick!

In all the combat lasted around just over five minutes with Hogie swapping back and forth between the above tactics all the while continually repositioning so as to keep his attackers on the run. It was mind-boggling to watch it all unfold but clear that you’ll need to master these options available to you if you want to survive in Ryan’s Utopia.

After the demo, we pulled our jaws back off the floor, and then Ken let us play the first ten to fifteen minutes of the game. I’m not going to spoil any of it for you here but let’s suffice it to say you’ll want to turn down the lights, have plenty of refreshments nearby and lock out the world for a good 24 hours once Bioshock releases August 21st.