The following article contains heavy spoilers. If you have not yet played Bioshock, kindly stop reading.

“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!”

Once you hear these words, delivered perfectly by Andrew Ryan, you know you’re about to play a game unlike any other you’ve played before. I remember the critical acclaim surrounding this title in 2007, when it was still an Xbox 360 exclusive. I remember not caring, because I would never play it, but still found myself somewhat intrigued. I decided to forbid myself from reading any reviews or spoilers – just in case this game will eventually make its way to the PS3. And guess what? it did. When the PlayStation 3 release of Bioshock was announced, I was very excited but wary of isolating myself from any review, forum, fan board, etc. as to not be caught off guard by stray spoilers.

When I first heard Andrew Ryan, all I knew about the game was that it took place in an underwater city gone bad. What I didn’t know was how beautifully and perfectly bad it had gone. You see, Rapture, and all of Bioshock for that matter, is the works of utter geniuses. The plot is set up perfectly, the city is immersive, the narrative is smooth and captivating and the twist… the twist is one of the best in videogame history. I’m going to try to subdivide this article as best I can so you may understand just how profoundly engaging and well crafted Bioshock really is.

The city of Rapture was built in order to escape from government and religion: “No Gods or Kings, only Man” greets you the banner of the city’s main entrance. A place where scientists could craft and invent without the restraints of morality, where artists could freely express their minds. Utopia.
If you have read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, you may recall a chapter in the book where they mention a project that was undertaken in the island of Cyprus. They decided to send Alphas, the most genetically flawless people, to the island in hopes of creating a perfect society. The island went into civil war, as all the Alphas vied for power, and ended up killing each other. The same happens in Rapture: Ryan populated the city with the rich and powerful, but as McDonaugh puts it “someone has to clean the toilets”. It was a project bound to fail.

Perhaps the turning point of Rapture’s fate was Frank Fontaine. Fontaine was, above anything else, a businessman. A shrewd, merciless businessman. He saw opportunity in the underwater Utopia and seized it. When plasmids were born, everyone wanted a piece of the action. Modifying your genetic code seemed convenient and Plasmids such as Telekinesis became mainstream – and as the demand grew, Fontaine was the person to go to. He had taken control of ADAM (the substance necessary to use Plasmids) market and became just as powerful, if not more powerful, as Ryan. What followed was a struggle for power between the two. Ryan counterattacked by finding his own means to acquire ADAM: Little Sisters and Big Daddies. This strange duo is one of the most compelling character match-ups to grace a video game. A strong, stupid behemoth protecting almost zealously these strange little girls… awesome.

Bioshock is groundbreaking because it changes the general conception of videogames. People often see them as pointless shoot-em-up’s with little to no plot. Bioshock, however, relies heavily on its narrative. It is a game about the corruptibility of man, the impossibility of utopias and the weight of morality. The subject of morality comes in the form of Little Sisters. Your first encounter with a Little Sister is extremely confusing. On one hand, you have your guide – Atlas – a man worried about his wife and son, a man who has helped you survive so far, now urging you to kill a little girl. One would think that a man looking for his son might be more empathetic towards a helpless girl. On the other hand, you have Tennenbaum – a woman you have heard about just in Audiologs and who just mercilessly shot a Splicer in the head, begging you to save the child.

When you walk towards the Little Sister, she whimpers and cowers towards a trunk of some sort, her shadow cast on the wall beside you and she looks up at you, helpless, scared, she’s at your mercy. Will you kill her for your own benefit? She is no longer human, anyways, so it’s her life (or rather its life) for yours. Will you save her? Give her a second chance, risking your own life and jeopardizing your ability to survive in the godforsaken city. Powerful stuff. So powerful, in fact, that I was pushed to save her on my first playthrough (on Hard difficulty of course). Because of that scene , I decided to give her a chance. However, once I went to the Garden of Eden machine and saw that I couldn’t purchase some of the upgrades I turned evil – harvesting the rest of the Little Sisters in the game.

Then we have Andrew Ryan, to me, one of the most thought out and perfectly executed and voice acted characters in the history of gaming. His monologues are insightful, powerful, thought provoking. I still vividly recall one of them in Arcadia, where he tells us about the forest he planted in the US. When the government passed a bill to make it a National Park, he burned it to the ground. In his words: “God did not plant those seeds, I did”. Every time he addresses the player is another experience all in itself. Despite of the brilliance of his dialogues, his best is without a doubt his last. Ryan reveals that you are not the master of your own actions.

One simple phrase pulls a genetic trigger that prompts you to follow the command, regardless of what it is. A simple mechanic integrated into the game, which works perfectly because you actually have to follow the orders to progress in the story. Ryan decides to use this against you, but instead of ordering you to kill yourself to save his own life, he decides he must humiliate you and destroy your spirit, at the cost of his own life. Following his orders, you continually club him in the head with a golf club, unable to stop. I sat there, open-mouthed, staring at the screen, absorbing what had just happened. Ryan might be dead, but I am a slave “A man chooses… a slave obeys…OBEY!!” You are powerless to stop, despite of how much you want to. He died, or rather was murdered, a free man.

The implications of these actions go well beyond pixels, framerates and graphics – this is a story that cannot be made into a movie. This is a story that can only be experienced through a controller – by placing the player behind the eyes of the character. The ambience, the music, the sounds, the dialogue, everything bundles up to create a breathtaking experience that you will not soon forget. I am anxious and excited for Bioshock 2: Sea of Dreams and can’t wait for it’s release.

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