ioshock is another franchise on my pile of shame. As a kid BioShock was the first next gen game I played on my cousins Xbox 360 - and oh boy did it set the bar high by todays standards. Looking back its unfair to compare the game to contemporise of the time, because none will compare nor stand the test as time as well. I had played BioShock maybe half a dozen times but could never carry through to finish it. There was always a reason that pulled me away and by the time I got back to it I'd want to restart. BioShock Infinite on the other hand is a game that I played through to completion. The influence of military shooters of the time is somewhat apparent, and maybe that made it more digestible at the time. But playing them back to back there's no doubt which is the superior experience. If I had to rank the series it would be BioShock, Minerva, Infinite, 2. Though each have their own strengths that make them great...
I couldn't open a discussion of BioShock without discussing the opening of BioShock. I don't think I've ever played a game that sets up the world so perfectly. A plane crash and a lighthouse. No gods or men, just a bathysphere and a slow descent. Andrew Ryan, the creator of Rapture introduces his creation as a haven from the ire of politicians and religious ideologues. And here it is revealed, Rapture in all its grandeur. Towering stone structures covered in neon 50s lights and deco art connected by glass tunnels. Whales, jelly fish and other Aquarian creatures float by and a giant steel behemoth grapples the exterior of a building and begins welding it. A testament to human ingenuity calls you to explore what mysteries it holds within. In this opening moment Irrational Games have foreshadowed and setup everything. Beyond its beauty Rapture exists to serve as a paradise from the suffering above, a libertarian paradise where everything is a luxury and you can be whatever your merit allows without social barriers. You see giant mechanical creatures grappling buildings from the outside, and appear to be building and maintaining the city with massive drills. What the hell are those? There's only one way to enter and Andrew Ryan holds the key to his city, able to lock the gates at will.
There's a slowly dying conversation in the medium that should have been put to rest years ago - and that's whether games are art. The primary counter-point is that games are not art, but simply containers of art. The game that is typically called to Games are Art defence is BioShock - and for good reason. Not only do the sum of its parts represent a level of synergy unprecedented in games, but it also has the capacity to trigger high emotions within the player and raise great questions of morality and socio-political commentary. On top of this it allows you to interact and participate in those conversations through the art in a way that cannot be replicated by any other medium of art. There is no question, the art of interactivity is a fact that can only be contested through dumbfounded denial and a lack of understanding. The world, story and lore are primarily inspired by Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. Even the primary characters names are references: Andrew Ryan, Atlas, Frank Fontaine, Tenenbaum. Everything in this world is a commodity to be bought - plasmids let you shape your body and manipulate the world around you - posters are shown around Rapture exactly how they would be used. Incinerate to light a cigarette, Telekinesis to fetch some ice for your whiskey, electro bolt provides power to whatever you want. In an under water aquarium city, the very air you breath is created, bought and paid for. It can be shut off at any time. The pinnacle of Objectivism. Of course as you pass through the doors into Rapture it's quite clear this wasn't sustainable. Humanity gives way to corruption wherever you go. Economic classes cannot be equal on merit, because we are not born equal, this gives birth to contempt. Religion and politics as detested by Ryan are not the problem, they're simply tools and as long as humans have free will, there will be someone willing to use those tools to get the upper hand for themselves or their tribe. Its human nature. As you wander the halls this becomes increasingly apparent. Humans or splicers, have spliced their DNA to the point their unrecognizable. Those plasmids that made life so easy, were produced from a substance called Adam extracted from sea slugs put in little girls, and if the power wasn't enough to twist your sanity, they're biologically addictive to boot. It questions the validity of utopia focused on hedonism, when a lack of purpose in the individual gives way to misery, suffering and degrading mental stability. The world isn't just deep in its novel 50s art deco inspiration and historical references of the time, philosophical and ideological undertones, there are many references, especially Biblical and from Greco-Roman mythology. Adam and Eve ruining a utopia, Eve comes from Adam and the two are intertwined. Lazarus is referenced and so are verses quoted by various characters. Aphrodite, Olympus, Neptune, Minerva, Apollo are all locations throughout the game. Hephaestus (or Vulkan in Roman mythology) is the God of Fire and Smithing. He smiths many of the Olympian relics from his forge in Hades. In Rapture Hephaestus uses enormous machines to draw power through fire and flame, from Volcanos below the sea bed. This is such a nuanced caveat and each of the areas are the dwellings of the Gods and their disciples - with Andrew Ryan sitting atop Olympus Heights.
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| I love Greek Mythology. |
The cast carries this world to the very end - they're all colourful and interesting - flawed and brilliant in their own way. When I think of a genius, to have a level of intelligence that extreme, I wonder what personality traits have been sacrificed in their DNA to an extreme to tip the scales. Are they socially awkward, arrogant, bipolar? I won't go into each character because there is far far to many. Andrew Ryan the Creator, is a Walt Disney-esque visionary, arrogant with a messiah complex. Lording over Rapture with his Ryan Industry automatons. Everyone is equal but the city is his creation, so he is God above all others. Ironic isn't it? Frank Fontaine helps the people, but at the same time is a product of bottom feeding and wants to fight his way to the top, sacrificing others by feeding them plasmids and creating an addicted army of splicers. The epitome of ambition at all costs, an agent willing to manipulate and corrupt a free market. Yi Suchong created the sisters with their "mother", Dr. Tenenbaum. He also imprinted Big Daddy's on to them, before one put a drill through his chest. J.S. Steinman or the Picasso of Surgery "helps" reshape the splicers as they become more and more deformed. His higher calling is to create a "perfect being", in his hallucinations of Aphrodite. Sander Cohen is an interesting fellow, and represents the upper class of Rapture and Hedonism. Inviting us to act the main lead in his play of depravity, immortalised in death as the highest form of art. Atlas is the only remaining normal human and needs your help so he can escape with his family. The way these characters are intertwined in their own conspiracies and lore in the fall of Rapture is nothing short of brilliant. The lore... I just can't. It's as if this game was developed by a hive mind with every aspect of it perfectly synergised, everyone understanding what they're working towards. Ken Levine and the other creative leads must be be brilliant leaders.
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| The siren call of Rapture... |
When BioShock characters come to mind, the forerunner is without a doubt the iconic Big Daddy. Towering, lumbering, echoing, miserable, sad. If it wasn't already creepy enough that some miserable bastard gets sealed in one of these suits, they essentially become subservient zombies. They serve as a reminder of what happens when someone falls in Rapture, unable to pay their debts to survive (until Fontaine recruited them all of course). The Roman serfs. Upon your arrival their purpose has been long diminished, they've been imprinted upon the creepy Little Sisters. Seeking them out as they collect Adam, protecting them. They're not hostile unless you get too close. If the Big Daddy was on one side of a coin in BioShock, The Little Sister is the other. Creepy children that have been indoctrinated and experimented on. The way they walk, talk, call dead bodies "angels" and stare at you, yellow eyes wide with innocence and incomprehensible is always unsettling. And no wonder why, the developers have stated that they're based on the Grady Twins from The Shining. There's something entirely disorienting about the innocence of a child and miscomprehension when it comes to morality. Like a blank canvas that can be shaped to your will; a statement of nature vs nurture. Every time you murder a Big Daddy, you're rewarded with a choice. Save the Little Sister and capture some Adam, or sacrifice them and take all of their Adam from the source, a sea slug inside. It's a hard choice, especially considering you're going to need a lot of Adam if you hope to see the light of day again.
Tenenbaum's Sanctuary - the process for creating little sisters is as harrowing as you'd expected. Lets talk about the best moments. The first of course being the opening, this is followed shortly by injecting your first plasmid. It's exciting to see a power manifest itself in this way when no game to date (I can think of) has done this before. Visually injecting lightning liquid into your veins as it recodes your DNA, providing you a pool of Eve (stamina used to generate plasmids) which knocks you out from the sheer trauma of such a miracle. You awaken only to be gate crashed by several ugly splicers and realise you're outnumbered. But hold on, I'm in a city of water, with lightning at my finger tips. This opens the first possibility of experimentation in BioShock. Electrify the puddle beneath an enemies feet, and pulverise their skull with a wrench. Simple yet effect. Then comes incinerate and oil. Frostbite and a shotgun slug. Oh you thought the big daddy was scary? Try different ammo types. Lightning shotgun shells or liquid nitrogen. Well, what about Telekinesis, an explosive barrel stuck with several sticky grenades, all flung to the face? I just love the animations for plasmids, clicking your fingers like you're a member of the Rat Pack to ignite someone is ohhhh so smooth. The plasmid you're using is always present on the screen, immersing you in that world consistently. Telekinesis hangs in the air, ready to lazily pour yourself a drink. Frostbite has icicles protruding your hand, ready to chill your drink. Insect Swarm, my favourite, has bees crawling in an out of your hand, ready to sweeten your drink. Posters litter the halls demonstrating exactly how they were used in Rapture, which I love, adding so much lore to their old world purpose. Certain areas can only be accessed if you have the right plasmid equipped giving the game a Metroidvania design that's almost always addictive, and keeps the back tracking fresh and interesting. Especially when enemies are constantly changed up in these area - new plasmids, new enemies. Perfect. All this serves as a testament to the synergetic design, the combat is fun and experimental, wild and wacky, yet grounded in this reality and completely believable - serving both the gameplay, story and world. Then you throw in the tonics - perks that improve your passive abilities or plasmids - such as alcohol giving you Eve or your wrench doing more damage on shocked enemies. I could do an entire playthrough of this game with telekinesis and weapons. Explosive barrels are plentiful. You can lob grenades back at enemies or even pull the hats off their head, stunning them momentarily. The AI is no slouch either. They flank, they run, they take cover, they press you when you're outnumbered and they run to health stations and heal when they're injured. They live in this world and they go about their day, they attack Big Daddy's when they find a little sister, their addiction overcoming their sense for survival. This is their home, a hellscape they created and you're the intruder.
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| Who could forget donning the big suit and walking in their footsteps... |
I only have two real criticisms of the gameplay. It feels a little floaty at times, especially the original version of the game compared to the remaster. I can see how people who play modern shooters or BioShock Infinite first disregard BioShock for what it is. A good friend of mine is among them. But ultimately BioShock is a strategy-shooter, not a run and gun game. Still, the controls could be tightened up a little - possibly in a remake or future iteration without sacrificing your soul to casual shooters like Infinite did. Resident Evil 2 Remake did this perfectly while still maintaining the limited movement and controls integral to the original core experience. The second are the vita-chambers. These aren't really an issue because I could turn them off in the options. But they suck. I really hate in-game revivals and immortality. It removes consequences and tension from a game. It's unrealistic and unbelievable, it breaks immersion. And for a game all about immersion, it totally pulled me out of the experience.
Oh I almost forgot about the minigames. I'm not a puzzle guy but the hacking minigame is one of my all time favourites in any game. Hacking turrets and helicopter drones to do your busy work never gets old, throw in a few tonics and it's a viable playstyle. Then there's the camera. Such a cool idea, capture, study and research an enemy from a distance to find the weak spots and flaws in their behaviour. I would have loved to see this explored more - maybe it introduces new mechanics or weapons or ammo types to deal with enemies. Like goggles or a tonic that highlight vulnerable mutations or tumours inside their body, providing even more critical damage than a headshot. You're literally exploiting their disease, dark as fuck and in keeping with the game. Or kinks in Big Daddy armour to shoot and knock off armour plating.
A city is built, a sea slug is discovered, the power to manipulate elements is abused, the city falls. Setting this after the fall was the right decision, as it let you unwind what happened, the betrayal and corruption while working your way through the creaking glass and steel halls of Rapture. Speaking of which the art design is nothing short of phenomenal. The underwater fallen city, damp carpet, rusty walls. It's all compounded by a 50s aesthetic, jolly vending machines, music boxes, vinyl, tapes, cigarettes and whiskey. The design is geometrically perfect, a symmetry that can only be achieved by the brilliant minds drawn to Rapture. Everything is malfunctioning and that leaking ceiling is a constant reminder of just how much pressure this city is holding up above your head. We experienced the city before the fall later in Burial at Sea DLC - which was nice but it did not have the same character - the same eeriness the things are not right here and never will be again. A decaying city and slow descent into insanity that crawls under your skin that is all too Lovecraftian. The splicers have given up on the city, to defend yourself you must become like them, reshape your DNA. If you don't you will surely perish. How can you escape that? Terrifying. You're against the clock and the clock is your sanity, everything around you is a constant reminder of that. This is a game I like to take my time with to notice different things. If the characters, story and lore weren't already deep enough the environmental storytelling is like no other. Every time I see a window I just stop and gaze out at the ocean city - almost any window could be a painting in itself.
The graphics hold up surprisingly well, especially the water which is infamously difficult to get right. Walking into a bathroom may reveal a dead splicer on the ground, with a message HELP written in blood on the wall, turning around will reveal an assailant right in your face. The splicers are undeniably insane, and this gives way to some of the best moments in the game. That first time you happen upon a lady singing to a baby in a crib. Surprised at your presence as she turns around to defend her child and you're forced to kill her; after dusting yourself off you wander over to the pram and realise it's not a child, bug a gun... She was singing to a gun. This highlights the first of many unsettling moments of why this game is so creepy. Splicers talk, sing and yell at themselves. Even when they're amongst others. Audio logs of inhabitants long lost to the depths of insanity can be found across the city. Stories of class warfare, children disappearing, suicide and desperation. Cohen's art pieces are littered across Rapture, plastered figures of wax in various poses. In BioShock you walk in the footsteps of these ghosts. A museum dedicated to Troy, Atlantis and El Dorado. A lost city to discover its mysteries and treasures. A story is only as good as its characters, and holistically Rapture is the greatest character of all.
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| Sander Cohen is more of an eccentric madman then you could possibly imagine. |
Last but not least I have to discuss the finale. Now a family friend of mine spoiled the fact that Atlas was Fontaine - that was annoying but nothing compared to the final twist. In the end, BioShock is a battle of ideologies, exactly the extremes that Andrew Ryan sought to escape in a time quickly heading into the greatest battle of ideologies -
The Cold War. He, your father, reveals to you that you're a slave and you must make a choice. Would you kindly? Familiar words he says as he hands you a golf club. Would you kindly he repeats as the 9 iron in your hands comes down upon his head. He repeats and repeats this against this will until you've taken his own life against your will. Are you a slave or a man? Would you kindly are the words that Atlas, or Fontaine rather, and Dr. Tenenbaum programmed into you as a child - taken from your mother under the extreme pressures of the ultimate laisse faire capitalist society. A free market that gave way to someone like Fontaine, powerful and smart enough to manipulate the market and bring it to it's knees. Well Andrew Ryan cauterized that wound, sinking the city he was in, but not before he underwent reconstructive surgery and sent you to the surface as a sleeper agent. You were destined to do great things they told you, and you did years later, hijacking a plan over the North Atlantic, murdering dozens of innocents. Tenenbaum, mother of the little sisters helps you find an antidote, in exchange for saving her sisters. What follows is a race against Fontaine (or the plot) to stop him turning into an Adam Plasmid Super God.
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Foreshadowing...
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What you thought would be a final boss fight against Andrew Ryan, who stood between you and escaping was anything but. Instead it reveals to you that you were not in control this entire time. Why did you do the things that you did? Why did you trust Atlas over Andrew, a stranger in an insane city? Even in its final moments BioShock is a commentary on video games. A character tells you to do something, so you follow them down corridors and you kill the bad guys. Why? Are they the bad guys or victims of circumstance? In video games you're a slave to the designer. But you had a choice - you had choice with the Little Sisters. And your father sets you on a path to making a choice as a man, defying the master and rescuing what innocence remains on this forsaken sunken city. Returning to the surface with the Little Sisters and raising them as orphans, as you are yourself. Fontaine was a great villain, ambitious, flawed, evil. But even yet you can sympathise with him. Starting at the bottom and clawing his way out, he earnt his success through merit, even if it was through sacrifice of others he's a product of the environment that surrounds him. His writing and performance is nothing but superb, always antagonizing in the true sense of the word, trying to demoralise you and undercut your goal. "What are you gonna do, go back to your fake family with your fake memories and dreams?" So it was all the more disappointing when you fight him as the final boss. If it was removed from the game the experience would be better for it. And of course it sticks out - when everything else is so perfect that one blemish is going to catch your eye. For such a deep and symbolic conclusion with Ryan, tethering everything and everyone together, the final run of the mill boss goes in the face of what makes the game so great. Especially for a villain that was so well acted, and the game overall defies other shooters and redefines what a game can be.
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| The ending warms my heart - I love a good "they live out the rest of their lives" epilogue ending |
All in all this is the kind of depth BioShock provides. Every time I return to this game I discover something new. Something I hadn't seen before, a connection between characters I didn't make or a story of a side character hidden away in Raptrues dark halls. Even now after the big reveal I realise the tortured and murdered prostitute tied to a bed was your mother. Rapture is your home and your legacy. The story, world, lore, characters are best described as an interactive mural. Each time you participate you discover something new, a new detail that sheds light on the overall picture or lets you see it a different way.
Next time I think I'll tale twice as long to soak everything in.
