Pros
1stly ill say I have played allot of games, none have storylines that pull you in as deep as bioshock, your not playing the game... your playing a character in the world.
Sounds corny i know but you will get what i mean.
I have been reading some reviews that call the game linear, lucky I never felt this, I could go off and find other things that would skip the current mission without breaking the games flow or story.
The story is so good I wont say a thing about it, as so not to ruin it.
Level of detail is amazing also performance is great for the amount of shaders and world detail.
The start was disappointing to me, when it first shows rapture it was shocked at the lack of detailing on the outer faces of the buildings.
That soon changed when I entered raptures buildings.
The architecture, neon's and lighting match in a perfect meld on aesthetically creepy level, more than I had expected.
Sounds, wow from the voice acting to the weapons the sounds feel smooth and inplace, no huge banging cracking realistic sounds.
Personally I think this was a good choice by the developers a immersive game needs sounds that wont distract the player from the games story and the audio quotes.
The sound of the vending machines is a tad annoying at first but when your keeping though halls and you hear a clown laughing it can spook you a bit, same applies with the splicers chatter and screaming, however it all fits in perfect.
Game play is good but not great, the plasmids set it apart, with out them this wouldn't be even half the game it is.
Shooting splicers and big daddies is fun but freezing them then zapping them, or setting them alight makes you grin time and time again.
The gun improvements make them look more fun but don't really add much on a game level, the plasmid upgrades are the things you will be using to take care of the harder splicers.
Over all I feel the game play mechanics could have felt smoother and been expanded upon, but for what has been implemented and how it plays, its a feat in its own and is almost faultless in every respect.
Graphics...Amazingly not used as a selling point of the game.. a pleasant surprise seeing as the graphics are very cinematic, you will start the game thinking your still in the intro. This Unreal 3 Engine as they are calling it should be re named to "the bomb", or at the moment at least... try this open up the fire plasmid on full graphics and walk up to a wall...
You will see the light flicker, soft shadows and volumetric clouds look awesome and threes very little loading time or lag even in levels with allot of leaves and plants, looks like modders will have a great time modding this engine there's allot of potential... it packs a punch.
Cons
This game is pretty much faultless, It looks, plays and feels great, except for a few minor graphic glitches.
Issues like shadows through floors and quirky layouts that bring you back from your immersion are minor spoiling points very late in the game.
Water effects are good, but the water flowing out of holes or streams feels cheap and doesn't fit in with the other great graphical features and water effects.
Physics don't feel real, you shoot a pan and it bounces around the room like a rubber ball, all items seem to have the same physical properties.
Shoot something small and shoot something big, it all seems to "feel" the same.
Damage, at the start feels just about right but there's nothing to make the splicers at the end of the game so hard, they look just the same... it would be cool if they had improvements or metal/ leather armor. This is properly the most annoying and un-immersive feature of the game and its only fault.
Shine, over done, way over done in some areas. I get its under water but not everything is wet and should shine like a mirror.
Like ut2k4 and source you can see if something's not "world" or "brush" based there is one spot that you can tell a object will split or crack open
bit of a shame really on such a advanced engine.
Mouse movement is the biggest letdown it feels slow and console like if you dont have a mouse with a live DPI changer, you may have trouble finding a nice smooth setting.
Conclusion
Overall a amazing game definitely one for the books alongside half life 1.
You wont need a big rig to run the game either it will run at low to medium on a machine that can run hl2 on high to full.
It will run on full very smoothly with little lag on most high to mod end machines.
+ Great Story
+ Innovative Plasmids
+ Cinematic Graphics
+ Very Immersive
+ Sounds
+ Voice Acting
+ Unique and pleasing architecture and style.
- Laggy Mouse
- Bad Physics
- Graphical Flaws