Would You Kindly? The Enduring Brilliance of Bioshock
Over the last year, I have made it a mission of mine to finally tackle my gaming backlog, the ever-growing list of games that for years I had never tried to get round to playing, but really wanted to. Overall, it has been a resounding success; I discovered what is probably my favourite RPG of all time in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, played multiple indie games such as Firewatch and the Ori series, with all these games giving me an immense satisfaction in their quality and the enjoyment I received from them.
However, there has been one game that I have been somewhat ashamed about not playing for over a decade, one that I have heard, read, and watched so much about, yet resisted the call even though it pretty much ticks all the boxes in terms of games that I enjoy. I am of course, talking about Bioshock.
Released in 2007, you play as a character called Jack, the sole survivor of a plane crash, who swims towards a mysterious lighthouse in the middle of the sea. Upon arrival, you are greeted with what could be the modus operandi of the entire game, a statue with the words inscribed below it “No Gods or Kings, only man.”
What follows is one of the best games I have ever played, with a best-in-class opening 15 minutes introducing you to the world of Rapture, an underwater city founded by Andrew Ryan, who is one part well-meaning, with his free market and lack of Governmental overwatch an idealistic view aimed to give the citizens of Rapture a Utopia to live in. The only problem with this is that everything in the city has gone to hell, with crazy DNA splicing leaving most inhabitants going berserk, and a criminal underworld that has used this unrest to its advantage. And with Andrew Ryan more concerned about keeping the Rapture free rather than safe, by the time you arrive, it is more akin to a war zone than a prosperous city.
The story of Bioshock is still one of the best in any medium, 14 years after its release; I can only imagine how mind-blowing it must have been back then, but still now it is able to say so much about a myriad of topics that most texts barely touch on. You will ponder questions about humanity, what it means to be free, and if the way that our society is built is best for us as a species. Quite a lot for your standard FPS, although this game is everything but ordinary.
What the game does so well, is the way that the story is perfectly weaved in with gameplay. For example, take the concept of ADAM. In gameplay terms, this is a substance that you use to power Plasmids, abilities that you can fire out of your left hand. This can be anything from an electric bolt, to fire, and even telekinesis. This is fully explained through the lore of the game; a sea slug that contains the substance is discovered and then refined for human use. The only problem with it is that it rewrites your DNA, meaning that most go mad. There are so many examples of Bioshock weaving its narrative with gameplay, with the overarching effect being an unparalleled sense of immersion within Rapture.
The gameplay itself is perfectly constructed. With this being a spiritual successor to the legendary System Shock 2, developers Irrational Games built of these strong foundations with a great level of improvement. Along with 9 Plasmids, you also get access to a variety of different weapons, which crucially, all feel powerful and have specific uses. You can also upgrade these weapons as stations dotted around the world, but it is easy to miss them. The enemies range from your standard cannon fodder to the iconic Big Daddies, big, hulking humans in tank armor strewn around the game world that look after Little Sisters, young girls who have been. You see the sisters are able to harvest Adam through quite horrifying genetic mutation, and in order to gain more for your crusade across Rapture, you must gain some from them.
This is where Bioshock effortlessly weaves narrative and gameplay once more. When you kill a Big Daddy, you are given the choice to revert a Little Sister back to a normal girl, or, for even more Adam, you can murder them and extract the Adam slug that lurks inside. The choices you make define which ending you get; I could not bear to murder any of them so only watched a YouTube video of what happens if you harvest them — it's brutal stuff and I am glad I did not.
Before I get onto gushing about the world of Rapture, I must mention the infamous plot twist that occurs near the end of the game. Sadly, this had been spoiled for me many years ago, but it was still brilliantly done, and I had a great time counting all the “would you kindly” utterances before the reveal.
The world of Rapture is still one of the best in Videogames, at once claustrophobic and expansive; both beautiful and horrifying in equal measure. The detail in each level is extraordinary for 2007, putting 99% of games in that year to shame, barring the original Crysis. While not an open-world game, you are fully free to explore each level and stray far from the beaten path, which is often where you will find some of the best backstories in the game. I imagine if you were to just storm through each level, the plot and messaging of Bioshock would easily pass a player by, but Irrational makes it exciting to search areas, with visual storytelling doing lots of the game's narrative heavy lifting. As well as this, you need to scavenge for ammo, health packs, and boosters for your ADAM supply, so once again, narrative elements are steeped into gameplay.
With older games, the biggest testament I can pay to them is how well they hold up. Without trying to sound hyperbolic, Bioshock has not aged a single day. It still feels as vital as it ever was; in most cases, I would argue that it still surpasses FPS games today by some way. The other day, I played and finished Titanfall 2, a fun FPS campaign, one that has been adored by critics and fans alike. However, throughout the entire experience, all I could think about was Bioshock and how brilliant it is, almost like a mind-controlled plane crash survivor, wantonly following the orders of their master. Now, if you have not already, would you kindly stop what you are doing and play Bioshock? I can guarantee you will not regret it.
