In playing the much-hullabalooed demo released this evening for BioShock: The Cult of Rapture on the PC, I quickly came to two conclusions.



1. Damn this game feels amazing. Without giving away any spoilers, the opening scene is a crazy ride that shoves you right into the moment. For the first chunk of the demo, there aren't even any HUD elements at all. Just a spooky, visceral environment which really looks and feels (and sounds) alive... and creepy.
2. I am an utter coward. I admit it - I don't like being spooked. And the stuff in here is, suffice to say, messed up. Little girls stabbing mutilated corpses, cascades of blood intermingled with streams of water leaking into this underwater utopia gone terribly wrong, enemies who shriek and cry when their companions are killed mid-conversation and who then proceed to avenge their deaths. And while on paper, this could all come out incredibly cheesy in a video game, the presentation here is so incredibly good that these scenes are just plain unnerving - particularly for a coward, like me.

So, I don't know. The genre really hasn't been my cup of tea in the past, but the story here is intriguing and I may just have to pick it up to burn off some steam after my last final on Thursday. (Summer school has been another kind of torture altogether, but so help me god I am graduating Spring 2008.)

I've also been jonesing to get some reading done during my one week break. Planning to pick up Chasing Kangaroos and finishing Forged on Fire, which I've been sitting on for far too long. But I'll definitely be giving BioShock some serious consideration...