Bioshock: A Retrospective

Bioshock sits, unspinning, inside the disc drive of my XBox360 as I type this. Sighing a breath of relief, it recovers from the harsh extraction of data that I have subjected it to over the past four days. I have completed it, but mournfully. I feel much like the last Christmas present has been opened, and soon, the ribbons and shimmering wrapping paper will be tucked into neat garbage bags, and discarded.

I am writing this less like a review (which Justin will write for tomorrow's paper, and write better than I could, more newspapery), and more like a flashback to a fond memory. If you are looking for a review, here it is. Bioshock is perfect. 10. Two enthusiastic thumbs up. I would call it the greatest game of all time, but I know that my judgment is clouded, as all of my mental faculties are still enthralled with its looming architecture, its morally demanding choices, its brave new methods of storytelling.



Bioshock is so very much more than the sum of its parts, though its parts are many, and the way they complement each other is astonishing. It is a first person shooter, that much is evident from videos and screenshots. But the word "shooter" is misleading; as you will find yourself dispatching more enemies with the use of your handy "plasmids", or, in layman terms, superpowers. Why fire a pistol at an enemy when you can turn your hands into beehives, which are capable of releasing hundreds of angry, dedicated bees with the snap of your fingers?

It's not just a role-playing game, but you do have complete control over your character, deciding how to upgrade your weapons, what plasmids you carry with you, what "tonics" (passive improvements to your skills) you want to use. It's not exactly a survival horror game, although you must worry about your survival, and it is horrifying, at points. It's not an adventure game, but you do spend a lot of time trying to figure out the mystery behind Rapture, the underwater city you have found yourself in, largely through the discovery of journals of the former residents of the city.

2K Games has blended elements of the most successful games ever created, and they have done so masterfully. They've created a unique hybrid genre - an "everygenre" which should not work. It should collapse under the weight of its own auspiciousness. And yet it does not. It stands strong, as a beacon for game designers for years to come.



That's a Little Sister. They carry a substance called ADAM, a genetic building block which everyone in Rapture wants to get their hands on. Even you - ADAM allows the player to buy more powerful plasmids, tonics, improve their total health, or EVE (which lets you use plasmids). ADAM is a good thing. But Little Sisters are the only way to get it. The problem is, each Little Sister has a guardian called a Big Daddy (seen on the cover of the game, above.) And you can't get that ADAM while the Big Daddy is still around. And that drill is awfully unfriendly.

Should you best a Big Daddy, the hardest decision a game has ever presented will be yours to make. Do you rescue the Little Sister, killing the parasite inside her that has transformed her into a sub-human monster, receiving a little bit of ADAM on the side? Or do you harvest the Little Sister, extracting the parasite, and gaining the maximum amount of ADAM, at the price of the child's life?

When the choice came to me, I actually paused the game, and walked away for a while to think. I'm not one to see children come to harm, even those of the digitally rendered variety, but my Electro Bolt plasmid could use some powering up - and my health could be a bit higher...

Don't worry, I rescued them. In fact, I rescued every last one of them, giving me what Wayne's World would call a "super happy ending." I imagine the other endings were... not so pleasant.

But this choice, the choice to kill a child to improve your character, is new to the world of video gaming. It is a taboo of the highest caliber. The world's reaction to this alarming choice is not yet evident, but something tells me that we'll be hearing about it in the news. Like, by tomorrow night.



I do not know what else to say. It's the best game on the console, hands down. The game which previously held this honor in my mind was Elder Scolls IV: Oblivion - but while Oblivion's massive story painted a wondrous fantasy realm with royal assassinations and magical prophecies - Bioshock shows us a real world morality play. It gives us a glimpse of a world with no taboos, no organized religion, and complete freedom for progressive thinkers to do what they want. It shows us the collapse of a Utopia. It shows us the choices that men must make - between the advancement of mankind, or the protection of that which is sacred. And this theme is paralleled in the choices the game provides to the player.

It is a completely unique experience for me to think while playing a videogame. I don't mean to say that my cerebellum isn't taxed when I play Myst or even Brain Age - no, I mean to say that no game has ever forced me to look inward, to examine myself, and that which I hold sacred, and to decide what I am willing to sacrifice to further myself. And I doubt that any game ever will again.

Until Bioshock 2, which I pray is currently under development.