Bioshock

Many of you know that I like my games to be "story-heavy" or at least have a profound meaning. Okay, granted, Uncharted 2 had a fanfic-like story in which the hero is in love with the girl and she almost dies and in the end he finally tells her he loves her and all's well that end's well but there are games out there; like for instance Bioshock that carry a heavy theme, a message to a lot of people out there.

It's a story about power and how we could and would use power. And that the bad guy may not always be the bad guy because there could be someone there even worse.

So whom are you loyal to? How far would we go to let ourselves be ordered around? How far would be go to help or to survive.


And that is what Bioshock wants us to experience. In the game you're a man arriving in an underwater city. A city created by a man sick of goverments and power mongers and he just said: ya know what? Screw you all, I'll just create my own city under water and people can be who they want to be.

He quoted: "I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? 'No!' says the man in Washington, 'It belongs to the poor.' 'No!' says the man in the Vatican, 'It belongs to God.' 'No!' says the man in Moscow, 'It belongs to everyone.' I rejected those answers; instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... Rapture, a city where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, Where the great would not be constrained by the small! And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well."


But of course in the end he had to create rules, punishment and by lacking those he created a city in chaos. People partying all the time, ravishing others, murdering.

The city known as Rapture became a lost city.


From the start there is a man asking you, "would you kindly", to help rescue his wife and kid. Of course you want to because that's a good thing. Right?


Then they seemed to have escaped high up in the city and he asks you "to kindly murder someone to get the key to free them". You do this because the man with the key is just a bad guy. Or is he?


Then you start to realize that you are being used as merely a puppet to execute orders. You murdered people for this man.


And in that man's words: "A man chooses, a slave obeys.", you struggle with your conscious. Did you really choose to help him or did you just obey his orders like a slave?


I think that's a very powerful statement. 


Something that recently happened to me on my previous job; I chose to leave because I refused to be a slave.


That's Bioshock for ya, I'm really curious how Bioshock 2 will turn out to be; gameplay wise and the story of course =)


Game on!