It took me two months of playing in earnest, but I finally finished BioShock. At last, I am free to read all that has been written about this marvelous game without fear of spoilers.
Speaking of which, I avoided addressing major plot points in my writing thus far (feel free to reread my first piece and the follow-up) but now that the game is over, it will be necessary to discuss what exactly happened during my stay in Rapture. If you have not yet played or finished this game, you may want to stop reading now.
Due to the overwhelming amount of online discourse surrounding BioShock, I actually had a few smaller points spoiled for me before I had a chance to play the game. In hindsight, these turned out to be relatively minor.
I should have figured out that the accident that brought me to Rapture was no accident long before Andrew Ryan pointed out how utterly improbable it was that a plane would crash in the middle of the ocean and just happen to end up next to the entrance of an underwater city.
I also can’t believe I never connected Jack’s tattoo with “the great chain” that so many residents talked about in their diary entries.
I wish I could brag about figuring out that Atlas was manipulating me all along, but the truth is it was just a passing thought that barely crossed my mind. It occurred to me that I had little reason to trust him, especially since he was just a voice on a radio, but given the situation I had precious few options.
After all, my character was alone at the bottom of the ocean surrounded by crazy people out for blood and the man in charge evidently had no qualms with murdering anyone who stood against him.
While there’s no way to know what the hell really happened with that sub (Fontaine admits he had no family inside), I did see Ryan gas Dr. Langford and he sent teams of Splicers to kill me on more than one occasion. What choice did I have but to accept the help offered to me by what seemed like the only friendly face in the entire city?
No choice, as it turns out, because Jack was bred and conditioned to follow the orders of anyone who knew the trigger-phrase “would you kindly.” This was a development I did not see coming at all, and the big reveal was handled brilliantly. I had not noticed that Atlas always used that phrase when telling me where to go next.
When he said “would you kindly,” it just sounded charming and casual like I was doing him a big favor, so its repetition seemed natural.
More importantly, Atlas’ requests were never far-fetched or particularly malevolent. Initially it was all about getting me out of danger and then it was about rescuing his family.
Only after they were “killed” did Atlas suggest that I eliminate Ryan, but by the time that happened Ryan had threatened to destroy me several times so it was in my best interest to follow Atlas’ lead.
The only person who seemed intent on having me kill without just cause was Sander Cohen and I cannot recall if he used the “magic words” or not.
Perhaps this is the secret message of BioShock: people tend to do what they are told, especially people who play video games. Whether it’s rescuing a princess, exterminating space parasites or throwing a hadouken at the fighter in front of you, video games are all about following instructions.
We are given a rule set and a plot and told to proceed. Those other guys are the villains, we are told, and rarely do we ever learn more about them than that. We don’t ask questions, we just start shooting. As Andrew Ryan put it, “A man chooses. A slave obeys.” This may be the first video game to ever ask me to examine what it is I do when I play video games.
It is a shame that despite all this philosophical talk, BioShock doesn’t actually offer players more choices once the “twist” of the story is revealed. After defeating Ryan, the next step is to undo Fontaine’s mind control programming. This makes sense, especially since Fontaine has the power to gradually reduce Jack’s health.
Once freed, however, Jack continues to obey everything that Dr. Tennenbaum says, including become a Big Daddy. As Fontaine mocked me with each step I took towards transforming myself, I became highly dubious of Dr. Tennenbaum’s intentions. I also couldn’t think of a reason as to why I was preparing myself to fight Fontaine.
Sure, the guy was an asshole who tried to kill me after I did his dirty work, but unlike Ryan he offered me no incentive to fight him. There was no self-destruct sequence that had to be stopped, no escape route that was blocked and no urgency whatsoever to confront him. Wasn’t she taking advantage of me just as he did?
Ultimately, that’s what makes the last section of BioShock a little bit disappointing. Everything you encounter from the first time you discover the entrance to Rapture right up until you step into Ryan’s office is a crescendo.
Once Ryan is dead and you know the truth, the tension level never reaches those heights again. Even though everything else about the game remains of the highest quality, the encounter in Ryan’s office remains the climax of the story.
Imagine The Usual Suspects continuing for half an hour after the identity of Keyser Soze was revealed and you have the finale of BioShock.
I will say that the actual ending of the game isn’t as bad as people said it was. I was harvesting Little Sisters so I guess I got the “evil” ending, but it seemed like a reasonable way to conclude Jack’s story.
With Ryan and Fontaine dead and an abundant supply of ADAM, why wouldn’t Jack take control of Rapture for himself? He has no ties to the surface world and he’s arguably the strongest man on Earth thanks to his plasmids. It reminded me of that quote from Milton: “Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav’n.”
Controlling an army of Splicers in an underwater city sounds a lot better to me than trying to integrate into an unfamiliar society on the surface with no friends, family or references.
Of course, I grumbled at what I perceived to be lost story opportunities in BioShock, given the ambiguity surrounding Dr. Tennenbaum. Was she simply trying to save the Little Sisters from being exploited?
Did she have any designs on Rapture or ADAM? What about the Big Daddies, what happens to them?
I was genuinely concerned about the ramifications of having Jack undergo a complete transformation, but in the end it was just an armor upgrade.
On that note, at the risk of airing one too many gripes, can someone tell me why we’re still forcing players to engage in tedious escort missions? Of all the banal video game conventions that BioShock was smart enough to omit, I was scratching my head when I came to that last level.
Protecting a Little Sister didn’t change how I felt about them, and just as before, the fact that I had harvested every single Sister in the game had no effect on how they felt about me.
Enough petty nitpicking – I have completed BioShock and it was an exceptional video game. My complaints regarding certain elements of the game should not lead anyone to believe that I am in any way dissatisfied. On the contrary, it is only because the game is so good that these trivialities are even perceivable.
As much as I loathe escort missions as a concept, I cannot deny that the Proving Grounds level was fun despite its forced urgency tactics. If the Big Daddy transformation lacked narrative punch, it certainly delivered its share of memorable events and places.
I’m guessing BioShock is the first game to ever feature a working Skinner Box, not as a puzzle but just for entertainment’s sake.
All of these reasons and that teaser for BioShock 2 tacked onto the end of the credits have me excited for another voyage to Rapture. Until the sequel arrives next year, I’ll be reading some Ayn Rand novels as her ideas were used to shape Andrew Ryan’s character and Rapture’s overall philosophy.
They won’t offer any insight into the story of BioShock, which is original, but they are celebrated classics and I’m simply delighted by the notion that a video game has inspired me to read more.
In the meantime, I have purchased the downloadable challenge rooms and I am impressed. Despite having no narrative devices at all, the mood and atmosphere of Rapture is still dominant in these new environments, turning what could be a cheap extension on the BioShock brand into something that feels just as disturbing and twisted as the main quest.
Funny, after writing three essays about this game I feel like I’ve only started to explore the ideas behind it and speculate as to what the developers might have been trying to say.
Yet the best thing about BioShock is that, like other great art, you don’t need to understand it in order to appreciate it or enjoy it. The highest compliment I can pay BioShock is similar to the praise I gave Portal (coincidentally released in the same year): this is one of the best science-fiction stories I have encountered.
I applaud BioShock and its creators on a job well done.
Daniel Feit was born in New York but now lives in Japan. Follow him on Twitter @feitclub or visit his blog, feitclub.com