Literary Validation for the Video Game

Author's Rating:

Pros: The art direction and story - nothing else in the video game world comes close.

Cons: Too easy due to the introduction of some ill-advised features.  Disappointing ending.

The Bottom Line: 
If there ever was a game that sheds the stigma of video games dulling the imagination and stagnating the mind, that game is BioShock.

Author's Review
BioShock is Adam in the world of video games.  You can take the classic, most memorable video game stories of the past - stories from Half-Life, Final Fantasy VII, Baldur's Gate, and Grim Fandango to name a few - and throw them out the window.  Those were mere games with great stories - fun, interesting, and captivating.  But BioShock is the first video game with a story that transcends the game.  I knew BioShock was going to be something special from the unforgettable beginning when you crash into the middle of the ocean next to a bizarre lighthouse, and inside you are greeted with a humongous banner: "No gods or kings.  Only man."  But as the game progressed, it became clear that I was playing more than a game and experiencing something that deserved literary analysis.  I probably haven't been so geeked out since twelfth grade English.  I wanted to take notes.

In interviews, the writer for BioShock, Ken Levine, admitted to having a "useless liberal arts degree," and the source material for the game's story is from Ayn Rand and her philosophy of objectivism.  Ayn Rand played a significant role in the writing of post-Nietzsche, metaphysical polemics that colored the intellectual battles leading up to and during the Cold War.  Rand, a Russian-American, fervently rejected collectivism and took extreme stances supporting laissez-faire capitalism and habitually wrote about the ideal man as someone who pursued his dreams to completion without regard to external influences.  Objectivism is in some ways like game theory gone off the deep end; it argues that perception is objective, and what an organism perceives is in fact reality.  With these epistemological foundations, objectivists submit that the only ethical world is one where rational individuals are allowed to pursue their rational self-interests unhindered.  Rand is so important that she has her own adjective, but the Randian school of thought has been a constant target for ridicule by philosophers.  Irrational Games, the developer for BioShock, has chosen to criticize Rand's ideas with a video game.

BioShock takes place in the late 1950s, early 1960s.  A visionary business man, Andrew Ryan, has decided that a "man is entitled to the sweat from his own brow."  He wants to escape Big Brother and create a Utopian society where consentient people can pursue big ideas unfettered by government.  To maintain distance and secrecy from the institutions of the world that he despises, Ryan creates the city of Rapture at the bottom of the ocean.  Ryan is the embodiment of the Randian man and Rapture attracts similar men, who quickly build up Rapture and then destroy it.  By the beginning of BioShock, when your largely anonymous character crashes near the secret entrance to Rapture, in the middle of the Atlantic, Rapture has already become a dystopia.  One scientific discovery unleashes the ability to manipulate the genetic code to give people superpowers, and there is a war between Ryan and a gangster, Fontaine, for the distribution rights to this discovery.  But constantly changing ones genetic code becomes an addiction for Rapture's populace and the people there have turned into hideous, murderous beings called splicers.

The dilapidated, leaking, rotting marvel that is Rapture is easily the most fascinating game world ever created.  Steampunk and art-deco are summaries that do no justice to the designer's (Paul Hellquist) artistic flair.  Every detail is choreographed and purposeful to Levine's exquisite story.  The proud banners and posters that still hang on Rapture's walls hint at the wonder the city once was, while the encroaching leaks that constantly remind you that Rapture is perilously surrounded by watery death show just how quickly society has fallen apart.  The grisly, demented inhabitants kill to the crooning voice of Bobby Darin and the sublime score by BioShock composer, Garry Schyman, capturing the irony in the only possible outcome in creating an objectivist utopia.  The beauty of BioShock will take a fairly powerful video card to appreciate; the system demands are not as severe as those for Crysis, but they come close.

That BioShock is a first-person shooter is almost irrelevant, and to discuss BioShock's merits as a game is almost trivial.  A shooter game has to look good and have some intense action, and BioShock succeeds in both regards.  The originality in the gameplay comes from the genetic alterations your character can take advantage of.  Alongside conventional weapons and ammunition, you can collect ADAM (the "canvas" for genetic upgrades) to purchase plasmids (the "paint" for genetic upgrades).  Plasmids allow you to shoot lightning bolts, hurl objects with telekinesis, light things on fire, among other things.  To use these powers, you need to find EVE, which is like genetic ammunition.  Although the game lets you play with many abilities, most powers are fairly useless in practice.  In fact, you will quickly find the easiest way to beat the game is to upgrade your melee attack and bash your foes with a wrench.  If you die, Bioshock has a Vita-chamber feature that revives you, but not your enemies.  So you can whittle down even the toughest foes because you are essentially immortal.  The gameplay and technical level design is simplistic compared to other shooters from 2007, and the controls are inefficient when you try to switch between ammo types, and from weapon mode to plasmid mode.  But all these complaints are inconsequential because BioShock, the work of art, overwhelms BioShock, the game.

BioShock shows us the horrific aftermath of objectivist ideation, and the grotesque inhabitants of Rapture emphasize the "horrific."  Even though BioShock is a deeply intellectual game, it is nevertheless very scary.  Its disturbing imagery is further outdone by its disturbing themes.  BioShock scrutinizes the role of gender and religion, and the two themes appear uncomfortably demented under BioShock's lens.  Although males, females, and Christianity are warped and defiled, keep in mind that BioShock is an admonition and not a celebration.  The game is replete with examples of pagan ritualism, mocking of Christian symbology, and sexual dysfunction, but through their abominable consequences they serve to demonstrate the need for balance and modesty.

Bioshock's play on ADAM and EVE link the game's analysis of gender and religion.  Although objectivism does not directly affirm evolution as truth, it does seem likely that an objectivist would be an evolutionist.  And the evolutionist would believe the chicken came before the egg - the woman came before the boy.  In BioShock, EVE is found before ADAM, and you must harvest ADAM from creepy looking girls guarded by iconic behemoths in scuba gear; these characters are called little sisters and big daddies, respectively.  In order to harvest the maximum ADAM from the girls, you must kill them.  Another theme in BioShock is how masculinity is a dominant and coercive force that uses up and disposes of femininity.  The two warring factions that ruined Rapture, Atlas and Fontaine, both allude to Rapture being a woman and Fontaine evokes the idea of ravaging Rapture of all its value.  Ayn Rand romanticized the man in her writing and in BioShock all the Randian men are monsters, while the female characters are far more empathic.

Playing as a male character in BioShock, you are given the option of becoming like Ryan and Fontaine, or being more motherly.  Your moral choices will effect the game's ending and how certain characters react to you in the game.  This feature has been frequently commented on as one of the most innovative in BioShock, but it's not really that consequential.  The ending is brief and is one of BioShock's bigger letdowns, and whether you decide to be the Randian male pervasive in Rapture, or break the mold and show compassion, the actual gameplay does not change.  You just get a few snide remarks along the way if you choose to be heartless.  The other part about BioShock receiving constant mention is actually worth mentioning: there is a humongous twist in the plot that instantly makes the game one you will have to play twice.  It is like a Sixth Sense moment, only better executed and the bomb is dropped roughly in the middle of the game.  Because very little is revealed until that moment, BioShock's plot proper is difficult to discuss without spoiling things.

BioShock is really like no other video game before it, and the moment you step into Rapture, you are transported into a whole other world filled with nightmarish beings borne of the best intentions.  The place is beyond simply being atmospheric, it is given enough substance to come to life in your imagination.  Never have I imagined a video game would have so much depth and loyalty to a story.  At the same time, I am very dubious of the BioShock 2 that has been released four days ago - it seems you cannot make anything worthwhile these days without starting a franchise.  Early reports say BioShock 2 has vastly improved gameplay over BioShock, but the gamplay was never one of BioShock's strengths.  BioShock's legacy will be in taking us into the world of Rapture and shocking our senses; I do not see how BioShock 2 can replicate that awe.  The sequal may be a great game to play, but BioShock is a great game to experience.