[ENG] BioShock and The Dystopian Paradise


(Following article contains spoilers. You have been warned)

BioShock franchise is quite an amazing one, whenever I return to it – I am constantly amazed by the settings and worlds of these games. Despite knowing characters, story and all of the twists – the series has a certain charm to it. And it's even more surprising when you realize that the very first installment of this franchise was released way back in 2007 and the most recent one in 2013 (If we exclude BioShock: The Collection with Remasters of all existing parts – it allowed for much better graphics as well as it allowed for the game to be experienced on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One).
Each installment was praised and acclaimed by both critics and players – and it shouldn't be a surprise as Irrational Games (excluding the second installment that was developed without them) proved from the very start that they know what they want to achieve with their games...

(Welcome to Rapture)

BioShock 1 takes place in 1960 (HUD and menu are also stylized in this way) in the middle of an Atlantic Ocean when our protagonist called Jack survives an airplane crash (It's highly plausible that Jack was the one to force a crash in the first place). It's quite obvious he is a lucky one as no one else survived. Having not that many options to choose from – he decides to swim to a nearby lighthouse and seek for any kind of help. Upon closer inspection, Jack is 'greeted' by an enormous propaganda banner calling „No Gods or Kings, Only Men” and a bathysphere right behind it. With the only alternative being left to die in a heartless, seemingly endless ocean – he walks inside of it. When we descend we see an enormous, underwater metropolia – Rapture. We are quickly assaulted by humans or at least what was left of them – and when everything seems lost, we are saved by someone who calls himself 'Atlas'. We communicate with him via radio and soon enough we are introduced to main gimmick of this game – Plasmids. Something that would be called simply 'magic' or something like that in any other game – in BioShock makes sense in both gameplay and story manner. Be it flames, electricity, ice or something else.

Because as you walk through Rapture and collect Audio Diaries – you begin to see how advanced this City is, not only because it's underwater - „It wasn't impossible to build Rapture underwater... It was impossible to build it anywhere else ~ Andrew Ryan” - but it was incredibly advanced in terms of genetic modification – so much so that even the Plasmid Resource that would be called simply 'Mana' or 'Energy' or something like that in generic game, here is called EVE (And don't worry, just like the biblical Adam and Eve, in BioShock we have ADAM as well, but more about it in a minute). Through Audio Diaries we can imagine that one day Rapture was a utopia for all (despite their a bit questionable ethical practices) but what caused the chaos and disorder to burst through the City was a quarrel between Frank Fontaine and Andrew Ryan. A quarrel that would eventually cause the entire Rapture order to blow.

(The very first time we get to see Big Daddy in action - a kind warning to not mess with this bad boy)

Since I mentioned ADAM I may as well explain the most dangerous foe in this installment – Big Daddy. Don't let the kinky name fool you, you certainly wouldn't like any of Big Daddy's arsenal inside you (unless you do then... you do you, no kink shaming). Almost always Big Daddy is protecting a Little Sister – a possessed child with purpose of extracting genetic material – called ADAM – from dead bodies. Sister gathers, Daddy protects. Well, except the first meeting with Little Sister, as the game wants to introduce question about morality – do you kill the girls for more ADAM or do you save them for a lesser amount but gratitude and survival of the girls? Depending on your choices – the ending will be slightly different, but I think it goes without saying that saving most or all of the Little Ones gives you a better ending. Big Daddy is a... human in a specially designed scuba suit, equipped with either a drill or a rivet gun – both equally deadly. Plus they aren't that easy to take down with that suit on them. BUT! They aren't immediately hostile to you, they aren't immediately hostile to anyone – they react only if you attack them or put life of his Little Sister at risk.

Except Big Daddies there are two main types of enemies in this game – Splicers and Machines. Remember when I said that we were assaulted by humans or rather what was left of them? Well – I meant Splicers, they look like humans – but excessive usage of Plasmids and Gene Tonics (These are passive upgrades we can wield, not an active skill like Plasmid) caused their mind to shatter. There are a few types of them – Thuggish, Leadhead, Nitro, Houdini and so on – each with a bit different arsenal of weapons. Aaaand then there are machines – cameras, automatic security bots and turrets. Each can be hacked to turn them to your side and make your adventure through this sunken hellscape a bit easier. But hacking in this game... Oh my sweet regret – it's one of the worst hacking minigames I have seen implemented in video game ever. Granted it was back in 2007, but – setting the pipes so the flow of water goes smoothly from start to finish is boring and time-consuming. Luckily you can have some Auto-Hack Tools and you can almost always buy your way out of hacking. No, not by microtransactions or anything, simply by using money you've collected throughout the game.
There are few bosses here and there but in most cases they are just basic enemies with bumped up damage and health. Not that it's wrong or anything, it's just boring to think that someone called for example 'Doctor Steinman' is just a glorified Leadhead Splicer – but the very same Doctor serves as a strong narrative tool – due to excessive splicing he started 'seeing' Aphrodite and wanted to create a perfect human... Well 'create' since he was a plastic surgeon so it's more of a modification rather than creation... But the very same desire to create perfection caused the Doctor to kill more and more people as he just couldn't make perfection no matter how hard he tried or what he did.

(A face to face with a man who created the underwater dream)

Throughout almost the entire first installment our main objective is to take down Andrew Ryan and his dystopian paradise. In a shocking twist it is revealed that Jack, our protagonist is a child created from scratch in Rapture with implemented mind control Plasmid. He has no family, no past and memories – everything was artificially injected into him. The plane was possibly forcefully taken down to bring Jack back to Rapture. The Mind Control Plasmid reacts to a very certain phrase - „Would you kindly” - and guess who uses this very phrase almost through the entire game? That's right – Atlas. Or should I say Frank Fontaine? Indeed, the myth of Rapture has known about Jack and decided to use this very knowledge to overthrow Andrew Ryan.


"It was not impossible to build Rapture at the bottom of the sea. It was impossible to build it anywhere else." - Andrew Ryan

BioShock 2 takes place around 8 years later after the initial release. In this installment we take control of a Subject Delta – quite old model of a Big Daddy, created to have bond with only one Little Sister. One could wonder if we play as Jack here as well since he had to turn into Big Daddy in the first installment but... It's quite unlikely. There is no strong evidence for this – plus in the good ending of the original BioShock we see Jack dying a peaceful death.

(Once you start messing with the Little Sister... Your time is up)

Since both Andrew Ryan and Frank Fontaine are long dead by this point, someone else had to take control of this dystopia – Sofia Lamb. Subject Delta was 'protecting' his daughter – Eleanor Lamb but Sofia forces us to commit suicide at the very beginning of the game... Everything seems lost – Eleanor is taken, Delta is dead, Rapture continues to exist in it's perpetual dystopian nightmare and yet... Delta awakens and has only one purpose – find and save Eleanor.

In the terms of antagonists – Sofia gets a lot more screen-time in comparison to Ryan and her influence over Rapture citizens is visible almost everywhere. She is also quite opposite to Ryan in terms of reigning over Rapture and ideology. After taking control she used her psychology knowledge (Rapture was in desperate need of a psychiatrist so Ryan recruited Sofia) to take over spliced and corrupted minds of Rapture and... She started calling them 'The Family' – many times throughout our journey as Delta, Lamb tries to put us to rest once and for all – almost every single time she calls for 'The Family' to take care of us or to 'Bring Rapture back to peace'. But it should be noted that Lamb didn't just jump in – even when Ryan was alive she was arguing with him and questioning him, his ideology, his city so... Even before taking leadership she was already pretty admired and respected by the community.

(Lamb tries time and time again to discourage us from continuing, from searching and fighting for Eleanor)

If you're going a 'good path' in this part, you don't only need to save Little Sisters but also... Spare every single one of NPCs that once did you wrong in the past or tried to kill you time after time. You will have opportunities to just swiftly drill through them, burn them, place a bullet in their head, just take your revenge... But you can't. By saving people you could kill, you show them (as well as Lamb) that people can change. That there is some sort of goodness in this dystopian world.
Story isn't only a sequel to the initial release, but it's also a closure to the entire BioShock timeline (well... Unless BioShock 4 will take place after the events of second installment). What? How this game can be a closure if we still have third part? Well – that's very simple. Events of the third installment (and it's DLCs) happen way before the first part! But we will talk about it, stay tuned!

Although the second part takes place in the very same Rapture as the first one, there are very few small changes that make few things much less annoying, mostly gameplay changes like hacking for example – in the first part it was that boring pipe game, here you just have a sort-of quick time event where you have to hit a green spot when needle moves back and forth. Simple, much less time-consuming and doesn't get boring so quickly. Plus you get a remote hacking – sometimes a really useful life-saver. 

Even Research Camera was changed a little bit, instead of just taking picture of an enemy, here it's more of a video clip. Once you 'snap' an enemy, something recording begins and you get more research points if you manage to kill an enemy in an interesting way (For example Plasmid + Melee / Traps etc.) or in case of tougher enemies (like Big Daddies) you just have to inflict as much damage as possible before the clip ends. Oh, and Research Camera is infinite, you don't have to buy/find film rolls like in the first game.

(First meeting with the Big Sister, a ferocious and ruthless protector)

But probably biggest change comes in Little Sisters. Since we play as Big Daddy, the protector of Little Sisters – process of saving them takes a bit more time (If you want to harvest them then... No big changes here). Little Sisters have to gather ADAM from corpses and you guessed it – you have to protect them when they are doing it. After certain amount of corpses (Be it 1, 2 or 3) you need to take the Little One to the vent where she can be saved. Oh, you thought that you will only need to deal with the Big Daddy before being able to interact with her? Well, let me introduce you to Big Sisters!

Big Sisters mostly appear only AFTER you've dealt with every Little Sister on the level and... They are a pain to deal with, in comparison to Big DaddiesSisters are quick, agile and deadly. They can use Plasmids against you and decimate your health bar in a matter of seconds. But there are some benefits to killing them – main one being more ADAM since their corpses have quite a bit of it on themselves. But... You want to double-check that you're ready to face off against the Big Sister BEFORE you rescue/harvest your last Little Sister because... After that happens, you won't have much time to prepare yourself.

(After all these years... Finally free...)

Second installment gives us quite good look on new parts of Rapture as well as it's dark story of twisted morals and ideologies. A dream of underwater city fulfilled and turned into dystopia... But there is a high chance that we wouldn't be able to see this city if it weren't for efforts of a certain young woman...

BioShock Infinite. As I said before, this is technically the first part if we take a look at the timeline. BioShock 1 and 2 are taking place in late 1950s' and 1960's respectively whereas Infinite takes place in 1912. Over 40 years before the first installment happens. And as you have probably guessed by now – we can't play as some Big Daddy or anything like that. We take control of Booker DeWitt – a person which we can quickly deduce is in trouble. We are transported to the lighthouse by some extraordinary pair – we don't really know anything until we take a look at the door leading into the lighthouse. A note with blood-written text „Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt” - what debt? Well... It's arguable and – before anything further I want to clarify one thing. This game plays with manipulation of time, space and worlds... I did my best to try and understand what is going on, but I don't deny that many things that I will say are either wrong because I didn't understand certain thing or don't make a lot of sense. With that out of the way, back to the debtBooker is in trouble because due to his gambling debt he had to sell his daughter (however this sounds, remember. It was America in early 1910s'. People very often just couldn't afford to support their children and in effect they often had to either give them away or sell them to survive) and he was said by the very same pair that if he will bring them the girl, his debt shall be wiped. That phrase „Bring us the girl...” will be repeated a lot of times through the game and... I wouldn't be surprised if it worked in the same way as „Would you kindly” in the first installment – that Booker would be sort-of forced to do certain things after hearing this phrase.

(Elizabeth - seemingly young and innocent girl but you'd be wise not to mess with her)

But... I am talking about the girl and the debt and I still haven't mentioned who the girl is – Elizabeth. The very reason of this game's tinkering with time, space and world... Basically she can tinker and cross between parallel universes. And where is that girl? Well... Thanks to the lighthouse we reach a literal city in the sky – Columbia... And upon our arrival things quickly go haywire. Columbia stays in the sky due to quantum particles... I already said that this game may be plain and simple in terms of gameplay, it's much complicated in the story than it's predecessors.

(Welcome to Columbia)

It's worth noting that Booker is a war veteran that sold his daughter due to gambling addiction... It shouldn't come as a surprise if I'll tell you that he is haunted by the nightmares and mistakes of his past, he believes that taking Elizabeth away from the city will heal him. In one of his nightmares we see New York being assaulted by the Columbia and city drowning in flames. He branded his arm with 'AD' burned onto it. AD standing for Anna DeWitt, Booker's daughter... Why do I mention this? After arriving at Columbia and taking baptism (Yeah... This community is quite fanatic when it comes to religion and faith), one of the very first 'posters' or 'advertisements' we see is the hand of the devil with 'AD' branded on it 'Beware of the False Shepherd'. As you can imagine being known as the false shepherd in a strongly religious community isn't really helpful in moving around Columbia and search for Elizabeth.

As mentioned a sentence earlier – Columbia community is quite religious and devoted. They believe that Comstock is the Prophet of God himself and in effect they believe in everything he orders. Remember when I mentioned New York covered in flames?... Well „The Seed of the Prophet shall sit the throne, and drown in flame, the mountains of men” - this is another quote you will see and hear quite often in the game.

("The Seed of the Prophet shall sit the throne, and drown in flame, the mountains of men")

The game can be divided into few parts – Find Elizabeth (if we exclude that this is our target for like 70% of the game) ; Escape from Columbia ; Reach Comstock ; Finish Comstock. Who is this mysterious Comstock? Our main antagonist, leader and 'prophet' of Columbia. Just like Andrew Ryan and Sofia Lamb were reigning over Rapture, Zachary Comstock does with Columbia. And Comstock is probably one of the finest examples where this whole world manipulation come into spotlight. Comstock and Booker are one and the same. So... when you kill Comstock as Booker, you technically just kill yourself from another world... It's quite messed up – well, I guess messing with parallel universes is complicated on it's own. Look – since Booker is Comstock, that in effect means that Elizabeth is Anna and by going into Columbia to get Elizabeth he is just trying to get his own daughter back. Though getting Liz back isn't as easy because every single time Booker and the girl think that they made it – Songbird attacks. Who or rather what is Songbird? To put it shortly – Elizabeth's protector/warden/guardian – name it as you like.

(Elizabeth unleashed)

The extraordinary pair mentioned at the beginning of this part are the Luteces. Rosalind – a quantum physicist and her brother Robert. They almost always show themselves when Booker is in trouble, they appear to help and guide him. The pair also gives us few choices during the game and... None of them really matter, most of them are symbolic and just represent you, you personally as a player. They also seem to be the main 'creators' of this whole „Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt” thing.

("It always starts with a lighthouse...")

Burial at Sea is a DLC for BioShock Infinite, it is split into two parts but overall it just loops the story whole, wraps up Elizabeth's story and gives us a look at 'pre-war' Rapture.
We see Rapture in late 1950s', right before the events of the first game start (DLC also shows events that lead to the main game thus as I said – it loops the entire BioShock story). In the first part (or episode one) we once again take control of Booker DeWitt/Zachary Comstock (remember – parallel universes, constants and variables) as a private investigator in the city of Rapture. Initial story revolves around looking for a missing girl called Sally; a girl that was presumably kidnapped to be turned into a Little Sister. Elizabeth, now much older comes to Booker with aforementioned request.
First episode revolves around this search for Sally. It's worth noting that Booker from this universe has never met nor heard about Elizabeth or her extraordinary powers. For our investigator – the woman is just another client with another request. As we walk through the Rapture, we have an opportunity to admire it in it's 'glory' before the war breaks out and Rapture gets turned into a living hell – we get to see a true underwater utopia. Plus we get to learn that you can't just come to Rapture like that because... Let's just say that if Ryan finds you in his home uninvited, things won't end well for you.

(A new look at Rapture... New, yet very familiar...)

During our investigation we stumble upon Sander Cohen – a delusional, maniacal artist (name should ring a bell if you played the original game) that is unfortunately the sole source of knowledge. If there is one person that would know where a certain young girl would suddenly disappear – it's Cohen. And... We get our information but we also almost die due to his twisted perception of artism.
At this point we're going down into a part of Rapture that was blasted off into the trench and turned into a prison. Part where Atlas/Frank Fontaine resides. A place filled with splicers and... Much more resembling Rapture as we know it from the BioShock 1 and 2... And thanks to this we can see duality within Rapture – on one hand a literal utopia, a bright and colorful city full of people and on other – dark, twisted part of people who dared to stand against either Ryan or his ideology.

After fighting through dozens of splicers we finally are able to find, 'trap', and lure Sally out... Turns out it was a bit too late – her transformation has already been done. Booker tries to pull Sally out by force (oh, and yes – we had to put Big Daddy down beforehand, the rule of Guardian and Gatherer hasn't changed). Elizabeth orders him to stop, but Comstock just keeps going and suddenly realizes what he is doing. He started apologizing to Elizabeth... Seconds before being pierced through with a drill. Another Booker/Comstock is dead and with this – first part of Burial at Sea comes to a close.

(Booker/Comstock's final view before succumbing to his death)

Due to the 'accident' Booker had, we get the first opportunity to play as Elizabeth. And we play as her through the entirety of Episode Two. This part starts unexpectedly. We sit in sunny Paris as Elizabeth, we walk through the beautiful buildings and pavements with glorious Eiffel Tower standing proudly in the background. Everybody seems... Weirdly happy, satisfied and positive about everything. This image is quickly shattered when we see Sally running away, chasing the balloon through the streets of Paris and... Well, the illusion is withered away and we slowly open our eyes...
Right after 'the awakening' we meet Atlas who kidnaps Sally and spares Elizabeth in exchange for... Pulling him, pulling the entire prison out of the trench and back to Rapture. Sounds like it shouldn't be that hard for Elizabeth considering her powers, right? WRONG! Elizabeth has no powers. Not anymore. We find Elizabeth's body resting against a wall with bleeding hole in her chest and – here I got a bit confused and couldn't tell when we crossed the parallel universe to see another Elizabeth but shhh.

(Peace and harmony... Beautiful illusion)

Since Elizabeth has no powers and she is fragile, the gameplay is changed a bit as well – of course Liz isn't anywhere as strong as Booker and in effect you... You just have to resort to stealth to viably overcome many areas. Oh, and Liz is speaking to herself – well technically not to herself since she constantly hears voice of Booker. I always thought that this is her voice of reason or voice from the future since it often replies to questions that... Liz shouldn't know how to answer.
Despite taking place in Rapture, we get to go back to Columbia in Episode Two thanks to Lutece's 'tear' device. And back in Columbia we learn few interesting things – for example that Plasmids in Rapture were created or rather given by Lutece. We stumble upon the laboratory containing various twisted experiments and prototype of Songbird. Plus we learn that Big Daddies' 'protective' mechanism was based on that of a Songbird, just like Songbird was connected to ElizabethBig Daddies are connected to Little Sisters. On our trip to Columbia we get to see Booker and young Liz few times from different angles.

(Columbia's dark and well-kept secrets...)

Elizabeth successfully manages to lift the prison from the trench and back to Rapture using Lutece's device and then war emerges, a war between Atlas and Ryan, a war that leaves Rapture in ruins and blood. 
We have to retrieve a mysterious 'Ace in the Hole' for Atlas. When we find it, it's just a random coded message, Atlas gets furious and orders Elizabeth to translate it... The message reads – Would you kindly? - a key to bringing back Jack to this accursed dystopia. Right after this, Elizabeth is finally granted death from the hands of Atlas, Episode Two ends and everything loops back to BioShock 1...

(Cruelty of Atlas knows no limits)

Burial at Sea was a beautiful conclusion of both Booker and Elizabeth as well as the entire BioShock series (once again, that is unless another part gets announced), a story that has shown how Atlas got to Rapture, how the war emerged that left this utopia torn apart and most importantly – shown the duality of man.

BioShock franchise is incredible. I am certain that I will play through it once more when opportunity comes, 3 games filled with vast amount of lore about two very different yet at the same time very similar dystopias, characters with questionable morals, stories that despite ending mostly happily still feel like a bittersweet victory, gameplay that is still good even after 13 years (in the case of original BioShock) and most importantly – questions about ethics and morals of human race.
If you still haven't played this game for some reason – do yourself a favor and grab the trilogy as soon as you can, trust me

(I'm leaving some of my favorite quotes that I didn't use in the article)

"There's always a lighthouse, there's always a man, there's always a city..." - Elizabeth
"The mind of the subject will desperately struggle to create memories where none exist..." - Barriers to Trans-Dimensional Travel - R. Lutece, 1889
"Me, Comstock, You, Sally. It's like a wheel of blood, spinning round and round." - Elizabeth
"For all the endless worlds, all the infinite possibilities, did I ever even have a choice? Did you?" - Elizabeth
"All these infinite universes... and yet we end up just going down the same paths" - Elizabeth

"It always starts with a lighthouse..."

Kind Regards,
Wing.

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