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b2@dpu's BioShock (360)
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| [June 9, 2008 10:08:30 AM]
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“I’m Andrew Ryan and I’m here to ask you a question: Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his own brow? No, says the man in Washington. It belongs to the poor. No, says the man in the Vatican. It belongs to God. No, says man in Moscow. It belongs to everyone. I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose… RAPTURE!” This quote from Andrew Ryan is given at the introduction of the game as Jack (the main character and player’s character) is lowered in the bathysphere to the underwater city of Rapture. This quote is quite ironic because after hearing this introduction the player would expect that he is going to enter a Utopian Paradise, Atlantis, or the Garden of Eden; however, when the player reaches Rapture the city is anything, but a paradise is a deteriorating underwater city that the Atlantic Ocean is slowly taking back.
In the bathysphere Jack, the player, is contacted by Atlas. Atlas is a citizen/survivor of Rapture and explains that the society of Rapture has deteriorated through the use of Eve and Adam, substances that give people special powers. These substances have changed the inhabitants of Rapture to crazy overly aggressive junkies called splicers. As the player leaves the safety of the bathysphere he is attacked by splicers and must kill them to survive. Then through the guidance of Atlas, the player is instructed on how to make his way through the city. During Jack’s adventure he gains powers through the use of Adam and Eve and is guided by Atlas through the underwater city. During his journeys through the underwater city Jack encounters Little Sisters, who are the keepers of Adam, and Big Daddies, who protect the Little Sisters. Atlas urges Jack to kill the Big Daddies and Little Sisters, but Dr. Tennenbaum intercepts Atlas’ message and urges Jack (the player) not to kill the Little Sisters. Now Jack has a choice… weather to kill the Little Sisters or to let them live. As the story progresses Jack learns that Rapture is under a civil war between Andrew Ryan and Atlas and that he is really Ryan’s son. After being commanded by Ryan to kill Ryan, Jack must now with the help of the Little Sisters (if he chose to save them) defeat Atlas.
Game Play:
Game play is descriptive in that when you do perform an action there is a reaction… something explodes, dies, scatters, or you receive something. This and the interactive environment make the game really life like. When this descriptive game play is paired with the non-linear game play of the game it makes the game seem really real. Game play in Bioshock is also evaluative because the player is faced with many choices of how they will play the game. For example, each player must choose weather to kill or free the Little Sisters and this will affect the player later in the game. Therefore game play is also integrated because choices the player makes changes the outcome of the game.
Review:
I found this game to be incredibly enjoyable, while at the same time very thought provoking. As I was playing the game I always found myself asking myself what message the designers of the game were trying to get through to me. Some of the ideas that came into my head were ethics and moral issues in using science to adapt human genes, how much control should the government and religious institutions impose on people, and what is the ideal government or society. This though provoking nature of the game, the action, and the incredible graphics is what kept me hooked on playing this game for hours. However, I gave the game 5 beers out of a six pack because in my current position (finishing college and working too much) I found the game to be too time consuming and would have preferred to be playing a racing game. So I had to drink one of the beers while I was playing to keep my mind off the other things I should have been doing.
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b2@dpu's BioShock (360)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Sunday 1 June, 2008
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