[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)
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 Daddies – Sisters 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...
Kind Regards,
Wing.
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 debt – Booker 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 Elizabeth – Big 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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