Bioshock

(Note: The length of this essay is not the standard length and format of my 'Essential Games' column. This is a previous essay on the game but it still serves as endorsing the game's significance)

Every man builds his own world in his own image...He has the power to choose but no power to escape the necessity of choice.

-Atlas Shrugged

When first entering the submerged metropolis, where sunlight has been dissolved into nothingness, the world of Bioshock is an enunciation of progress, covered over by the abundance of art deco, where the height of the buildings remarks on the extraordinary effort put forth, and how deep the foundations lie. Yet, when the doors open of your bathysphere, and as you step out into the city, what creeps in, no, floods in is an inexplicable amount of horror and chaos. A darkness engulfs the interior with immediacy. This city is a hellish void, and what has happened is the inflammation of unrestrained growth; growth not of reason or morals but of individual power. Thus, we are introduced to the city of Rapture.

Before I actually go into the game of Bioshock, I would like to analyze the philosophical theme of objectivism that rests as the foundation for thought within the game's narrative and visual style. Objectivism is a very intriguing school of thought, mainly because it is filled with controversy and also because the primary sources are still being talked about with much heat. The founder of objectivism is Ayn Rand, who is most known for her novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. The latter falls under the category of literature that, no matter the age of the book and when it was released, it still remains situated in the center of an intense debate, mainly about morality and justification the philosophical themes are. The main ideas in the story as well as the main philosophical of objectivism are, in broad terms, about the individual pursuit towards self-interest or happiness. Through this the most appropriate economic system that can be fostered ith such ideas is a pure laissez faire capitalist system. So basically reality becomes this independent entity, distinct between each individual and thus constructed through the individual's own perception. Those are some of the basics; there are far more complexities and elements but for this essay, you really only need to know the facets I mentioned. So, with that in mind, Bioshock is the visualization of Rand's philosophy gone horribly wrong. It is easy to support this notion that this game is exemplifying a worst-case scenario of a philosophical trestise through several key devices. One key device is the setting, as I stated before, has this 1940s and 1950s art deco metropolitan feel to it; this is crucial since the book Atlas Shrugged was realeased in 1957. There is this a combination between the loillipop colors of 1950s culture and the jazzy elegance of early 20th century American nightclubs. Next, the names given to the main characters intentionally echo the objectivist spirit. Of course, as the most obvious example, there is Atlas, whose role in this game isn't to shrug himself but to have the world shrug with him. Then theres the other side of the coin with Andrew Ryan, which isn't as much of a direct homage as Atlas but the letters and the linguistic qualities loosely connect to Ayn Rand; her name is in Andrew Ryan. Now there may be more allusions, but those are certainly the most important in terms of major characters.

The eerieness of the first hour of the game is largely due to the fact that since the game is introducing the player to the elements of Bioshock's world then the pace of the game is slower, offering multiple chances for the player to really think about the environment and, conclusively, let doubt and fear creep in as they explore a barren and restrained locale. The first few moments of the splicers screaming across the broken halls, where the city is bleeding water and is ready to crumble in any minute, are intensifying as they show their ugly faces and unrestrainable anger. The splicers want you and as you will find out later, they want to be perfect in all aspects of physicality and mental prowess. They want to construct their reality with ignorance towards anyone else; their individual pursuit defiantly suerpcedes any notion of others as they become obstacles for their goal of reaching a god-like status. Even more so of an intense experience is the first encounter with a Big Daddy; how aggressive this enemy is and what might is made because of the sudden aggression and increase in tension with the game's pacing. I know I struggled quite a bit as I stood immobile for a moment beacuse of the surprise I got when the Big Daddy jolted towards me; the screen shakes and I had to stabilize my sense of space. The Big Daddies, who guard synthesized girls called Little Sisters as they suck up the chemicals used in enhancing human performance off dead splicers (called ADAM), represents, along with Little Sisters, the completely defunct human, where the sound and movement and even the smell renders the manufactured being as foreign to any human sympathy, care, or awareness. They lumber through the halls; their feet echo off the walls. If it wasn't for their possessed aggression, it would be suitable to describe these foes as walking dead; subdued to a vegetative state in order for the child soldiers, reduced to a manipulated state, to ravenously aquire more ADAM. This ADAM has become the product of all the citizens' desires. It is a drug, yes, but one that increases performance both in physicality and mentally. Here, in this dark city, pursuit of individual perfection is marred by the pursuit itself.

The idea of deformation, both in mind and body, is a visual theme throughout the game; in which a lack of any acknowledgement of a reality outside of their (the splicers) own perception as well as a lack of any moral code to base their actions on...well, any sense of morality that wasn't willing to break down. I mean, Andrew Ryan created this place to escape the clutches of the demmocratic ideal, the communist regime, and the religious order; the city was to be an example of a state run by nothing more than human progress and ingenuity. Well, the people of Rapture are bent on progress, yet it seems like the idea of pure individuality as the driving force of your life is stripping away both their individuality and their humanity; the deformation of a philosophy and the students of such a thought. One prime example of this is the episode in the Medical Pavillion, in which the player encounters the sadistic Dr. Steinmen, a plastic surgeon who has absorbed an ample amount of ADAM. When entering the opreating room, you hear him scream about his failed experiments as he performs, on the other side of glass, on a patient who is probably already dead. His regard for blood tampering with the surroundings is non-existent as he strives to make the most beautiful woman, even if it means to replace the face of a patient. As you walk up to the glass Dr. Steinmen notices you and explains his futility in achieving perfection, turning spotlights on his previous experiments, all bloodied and disfigured, crucified on operating beds that hang from the ceiling. As you proceed in this journey, you encounter many more scenarios and variations of this deformation, including an encounter with a conflicted and snobbish artist and curator, who exemplifies the lack of restraint as told through the medium of art. You traverse through a grand yet empty hall filled with the distant noises of symphonies and the rusting degradation of the once elaborate architecture. The artist has fancied the performative mode of killing, the art of death. Basically, offering you to be the guinea pig as he observes the intricacies of mutilating men that oppose the 'artfulness' as the curator. Though there isn't much character devlopment among these men, they provide different examples of a utopia losing its human grasp.

Like I said earlier, much of the story is told through the architecture of Rapture. In addition, much of it comes from the recordings you find all over the place or by communicating with characters still conscious like Frank Fontaine, Andrew Ryan, and Tenebaum. Yet, the game does well in enveloping the player into the story in real time. So, before I go any further I will warn you reader, a SPOILER ALERT is in effect. I can only talk about the greateness of the narrative by outlining some key twists so here I go. Being built up to destroy Andrew Ryan and sympathizing with Atlas, Bioshock does an interesting thing with the narrative that distorts the thematic elements accordingly. No, it is actually not the betrayal of Atlas/Frank Fontaine but more so the position he had you in before and after killing Andrew Ryan. See, this game is built on choice, choice of what to do with the Little Sisters, choice of how to customize yourself, et cetera. Yet, with the revelation that you have been controlled by Fontaine the whole time ingeniously plays upon the convention of choice-based gameplay. And as you kill Andrew Ryan, a claustrophobic moment, mind you, he shouts out a question that is emphasized after this moment: how free are you? It comes like a slap in the face but, more importantly, it undermines the freedom that you thought you held as well as the freedom that was rampant throughout the city. One criticism that can arise from this is that from here on out the game seems to dissolve this objectivist mayhem and bring about a more convention power-hungry opposition hunting for a man who wants to rule the world essentially, Frank Fontaine. The thing is, it does, but only to a certain extant, not to the level of limited storytelling and character development. After defeating Ryan, you essentially roam in areas that played a key role in his coup, including Apollo's Square, home to the working class of the city, who he baited into helping him gain power. The last portion of the game has you becoming a Big Daddy. This made me feel severly hesitant, since I was toyed with for the first half of the game by Frank, I didn't want Tennebuam to have me become a Big Daddy to just use me. At the same time, it was fascinating how you have to become something so dehumanized to destroy a man who has, in theory, become the ultimate human being. Thus, the last boss fight is quite fitting, visually speaking. Frank Fontaine doesn't look like a normal human. Rather, he resembles his alias, Atlas; his skin is golden, muscles chisled into the body, resembling more of a Renaissance sculpture gilded with gold. Thus, the game's arc of narrative supports the notion that Rapture is only a utopia. a place that cannot be found.

Bioshock has incredible focus when it comes to storytelling. It sets us up with a distinct visual and philosophical foundation and has you move within the spatial realm of such a foundation. The game is frightening, though I must say it's horror toned down by the end since you became more powerful, but that doesn't ruin the experience whatsoever. Just like the Half-Life series, this game is an intelligent shooter, offering more than just the task to wipe everyone out on the screen. What I took from this game was an experience that offers a glimpse into a scenario of ultimate freedom, of amoral morality, and uncontrollable lust. The decay that had infected the city of Rapture is intensifying to experience, andBioshock is game that will reverberate within the gaming industry for years to come, and I am saying that in 2011.