I seem to be in quite a fix while writing about Bioshock because I have no clue where to start. The entire game is a masterpiece and just gets bigger, better, badder and enthralling for a first person Sucker like me.
A few years ago before System Shock 2 was released, Ken Levine and his infant inexperienced company were asked to craft out a first person shooter that would redefine every sphere that the genre spoke about, and voila this tiny company gave us a game which millions ignored but would be a defining point for a generation that never awakened to realize its sparkling brilliance.
Cut to 2007, Rapture has the globe in rapt attention and is refusing its players to seek the confines of the world above. The game has definitely been a commercial success but more importantly it has risen the bar of the genre to such a level that creating something beyond it, seems like an arduous task for developers worldwide.
So what made Rapture so unique, was it the violent residents (Splicers) who killed each other mercilessly for a vial of ADAM, was it the monstrous Big Daddy who seemed to get tougher with every defeat, was it the pleasure of harvesting those rather innocent looking little sisters and feeling the power flow when you spent on the plasmids at the Gatherer’s Garden Machine, or was it just the brilliance of the city that seemed alive and breathing 20,000 leagues under the sea.
The game as Levine had pointed out long ago relies heavily on choices. The basic aim was not to constrict the player within a boundary of decisions and they have managed to do much more beyond that they created a world which was tipping to achieve a sense of balance with the power that Andrew Ryan and his bunch of crazed scientists had created.
I’ll begin with the story. The thing that I noticed in the entire game was that I could not figure out who was the craziest out of the bunch, was it Andrew Ryan and his quest in creating a perfect city where peace and harmony reigned, was it the business man Frank Fontaine/Atlas who believed in accumulating all the power in the city, was it Dr Suchong’s and his bunch of crazy experiments, or Sander Cohen who believes in violent art? Whatever the deal may be the message that the game speaks about is the relevance of irregularities in every form of life, striving to achieve perfection is the biggest human flaw, for this perfection always has a price, which inevitably leads to the destruction of what humanity is all about.
Power also plays an important role in the game. Remember Abraham Lincoln’s famous words “To test a man’s character give him power”. I was given all the power to attack and finish my foes yet I chose to harvest every little sister I encountered in my way. Every time I would enter a new area I would rapidly check for the number of Big Daddy’s and smile. The hunt was always on and I wanted all the power Rapture. I would spare no one… sadistic as it may sound I liked every second being in control.
My first few encounters with the Big Daddy had left me scarred. I took those monstrous creatures as barriers and their destruction not only ensured my safety but also gave me access to ADAM, the oh so vital component of the game.
There were times I would stand at a window and stare at the depth of the ocean that surrounded me. Sometimes I would catch a glimpse of a Big Daddy walking underwater, (who some how reminds me of one of the villains from Scooby Doo) and wondered to myself the essence being trapped all alone in the midst of lunatics, not knowing that I enjoyed partaking in their lunacy.
The gameplay was the fun part of the game. I love the basic plasmid powers to death, putting the splicers on fire, watching them run around looking for water, freezing them in their animated positions and catching them on camera, watching them struggle when they had been zapped by my powerful Electro-Bolt, the fun never seemed to stop.
I honestly have never seen so many weapon permutations in a FPS; a RPG element that has been effortlessly fused in the game, not to mention the Pokemon kind of battles with the variety of splicers. Each variety of splicers is vulnerable to a particular form of weapons and it’s for the players to figure out the pieces of the jigsaw, even the Big Daddy’s can be quickly and effectively taken down if the right kind of weapons have been used.
Little Sister in particular displays this psychotic child like innocence while harvesting the dead. Twinkle twinkle little stars all right, when I saw the rooms where they had been originally confined to, I smirked, for I had seen this in every game which had a psychotic edge (Manhunt 2), but all those paled in comparison for this had 5 year old girls being created to fulfill the dreams of those who lived at the edge of their sanity.
Cliffy’b once said that Gears of War portrayed a sense of Destroyed Beauty. I think he got it all wrong, a monochromatic color palette is not the only way to portray such a feeling which is quite evident from playing BioShock. There is this certain phase during the game where the player looses his ability to control and chooses his plasmids. At this point there is a significant color change in the game which turns it into a monochromatic palette. I absolutely hated it although the game got pretty gritty with the dark black grey color, but it relinquished the sense of fear which the game had injected in the process.
The vibrant colors gave a sense of uneasiness, everything seemed right. But there was obviously something sinister going on in the background, evil seemed to have infected the place. Sound played a heavy influence to create such a sense of fear, the people of rapture talk to themselves often lamenting on their condition and the dreams with which they had come to Rapture. The audio blogs play a very essential role in dissecting the minds of the plethora of characters the game speaks.
The original Metal Gear Solid is the only other game that held me in such rapt attention. I could not put my controller down for quite some time once I started playing the game. Although the story loses its track towards the end, it is certainly more enjoyable than a huge bunch of other first person shooters. Andrew Ryan was right, the only problem with Rapture was it could not be built anywhere, for only the depths of the ocean could house insanity in its vicious forms, quite a “Fountainhead” I must admit, so the question is does the game end here? Successful franchises do see sequels very often.
I would not be surprised to see myself traversing the depths once again to confront my own creation in the near future.
–Neeelesh Mukherjee