Bioshock
Ok, let’s stop for a moment and imagine a world where art, science and commerce are completely unchecked. Picture a world where the strong have no responsibility towards the weak. I’m talking about a world where anybody can purchase strength, intellect and a vast assortment of superhuman powers. While some idealists might think this sounds awesome any realist in the group knows that such a world would crumble in no time.
Such is the world of Rapture, a self sufficient undersea colony built by a mad visionary and populated with the brightest minds of his time. Thanks to a scientific breakthrough the citizens become able to reprogram their genes. These genetic cocktails unbalance everything since they represent every power fantasy rolled into an addictive drug. Citizens fight over the small supply of ADAM (the miracle drug in question) and Rapture is torn to shreds by riotous factions. And that’s when you enter the game, as the unlucky survivor of an airplane crash in the middle of the ocean. Seeking refuge inside Rapture you are immediately contacted by Atlas, a man who is willing to help you survive if you help him rescue his family captive family. As a disembodied radio voice, he acts as both narrator and guide to the nightmarish wonderland that is Rapture.
At this moment you are probably realizing that the story sounds pretty ambitious for a first person shooter, since the genre is usually content with saying “stop the terrorists” or “shoot the aliens”. While I have to admit that the designers set the bar way too high for themselves the results are still rather admirable. The underwater setting is imaginative and full of beautiful special effects. The art direction is a beautifully retro 1940’s art deco utopia. The Randian and Orwellian setting dispenses with the notions of good and evil taking place in a mostly gray moral environment. The game delivers on most of it’s promises except for that of creating a complex ecosystem of autonomous beings. While your opponents have a semblance of personality and purpose they are still just there as a target to shoot at and either killing them or avoiding them does nothing to affect the worlds balance.
Also unlike most first person shooters you are given a lot more freedom as to how to proceed, although unfortunately that is not saying much. The main choice you make in the game regards some entities called Little Sisters, a group of girls who go around harvesting ADAM from dead bodies. These mutant children are always accompanied by a giant bodyguard called a ‘big daddy’. If you defeat their guardian you can steal the ADAM they have harvested, either by setting the little sister free for by literally ripping it from their bodies. While it’s almost unprecedented to be burdened with such a moral choice in a game honestly it loses it’s novelty after the 20th time you make the same hard choice accompanied by the same damn animation and audio clip. In the end all you are choosing is “do I want ending #1 or ending #2”.
What this game does get right is that it elevates environmental awareness to a new level. Most games offer a heavily scripted experience, much like a movie. You know what I’m talking about, those games where enemies always jump out in the same spots and always fall for the same tricks. While Bioshock retains some of these trappings the world is a lot more dynamic and your foes don’t exactly stand around all day waiting for you to shoot them. Better still you can use your surroundings as a weapon, such as electrifying a flooded room or setting your opponents barricades on fire. More interesting still is your ability to hack into the security devices that protect Rapture and turn them against your enemies. Honestly if you are clever enough you can get a lot done without using the fully upgradeable weapons the game provides.
Despite its pretensions Bioshock is a first person shooter through and through, but easily the best one since FEAR and Half-life 2. For gamers like me that’s a pretty big endorsement.
