Bioshock is complete!
I really enjoyed the game, even if I felt there was a bit much after the pivotal moment. The game got almost shockingly easy in the later levels, it makes me wish (yet again) for more developers to put in a sliding scale for difficulty through the whole game. To this day I don't know any game that does that. Let me make your game go Easy mode for the first few levels, then make it more difficult when I want, then REALLY HARD or back to easy at any point. Great atmosphere the whole time, and just creepy enough to make me nervous, but not so much that I can't play. Up next? Either all-Gold in Mario Kart Wii or Overlord, maybe System Shock 2 (but that is terrifying!).
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Objectivism in Bioshock
I have not read Ayn Rand, so my exposure to the notion of Objectivism is limited to other people's discussions of it with regard to Bioshock; the most excellent and engaging shooter from Ken (System Shock) Levine. In summary, I take Objectivism to be the notion of applying the purest following of Capitalist theory to one's life. Bioshock takes place in Rapture, an underwater city created by Andrew Ryan to be an objectivist utopia. [WARNING] I have not finished Bioshock yet, but I have had some story elements spoiled for me, and will be discussing those spoiled parts, and the parts of the game I have gotten to - parts that really impacted me when playing - in this post.[/WARNING]
The game opens on a plane crash in the ocean, from which you are apparently the only survivor. By a crazy coincidence, the flaming wreckage is near a small island that has a submarine that will transport you to Rapture. When you get there, things are in a state of utter disaster: people addicted to ADAM are running around, insane with their addiction, willing to kill for no provocation; and thumping around the city are huge, well armed and armored in scuba suits are "Big Daddies" protecting freaking "Little Sisters" who are harvesting the ADAM from corpses. As you explore, a radio voice named Atlas talks you around the place, and you draw the ire of Ryan, listening to tapes people have left behind to expose the story of the fall of Rapture. Ryan's dream is that people can accomplish whatever they are capable of, and no one has the right to slow them down or get in anyone's way. This is where the city started to get in trouble; as science made the breakthrough of genetic modification, but the first cost was to create these creepy girls, and the later costs were insanity. Being big believers in a free market, the citizens of Rapture made the market of ADAM very rich, with nothing to slow it down. Ryan seems to see the decline, but idealistically is unwilling to act against it. Yet at the same time, he has created a level of authoritarianism to keep his city intact, going as far as to execute criminals, and putting lethal security drones in place to kill trespassers and thieves.
I'm not clear on Atlas's reasons for hating Ryan initially, nor Ryan's reasons for wanting to capture and kill Atlas, but by helping Atlas, your character is put into Ryan's crosshairs. Sadly, the story element of your playing as Ryan's son was spoiled for me very early: before the Christmas break when I had planned on playing the game. The other major story element that was spoiled for me was the existence of the battle against Atlas at the end of the game. Considering your lineage, the Atlas battle makes sense, especially given the (unspoiled for me, anyway) murder of Atlas' family by Ryan, apparently in an effort to spite Atlas. At the point of the game that I'm at (hunting purified water and honey), I hate Andrew Ryan. The man sat back and watched as his creation, Rapture, fell apart around him, letting people suffer and die because the market willed it. I think of myself as a Libertarian who votes with the Democratic party because the civic freedoms of the party combined with the humanitarian leaning (or socialist leanings!) of the party are closer to what I want to see from humanity than the economic freedom at the cost of compassion and civic freedom that I see espoused by the Republican party. So far, Bioshock has soured me on the blind following of a free market that I would have liked to see when I was younger, and made me look at how important some level of control is. It's not often that a game makes me think about the shape of the world, let alone change my mind about a good way to run things.
The game opens on a plane crash in the ocean, from which you are apparently the only survivor. By a crazy coincidence, the flaming wreckage is near a small island that has a submarine that will transport you to Rapture. When you get there, things are in a state of utter disaster: people addicted to ADAM are running around, insane with their addiction, willing to kill for no provocation; and thumping around the city are huge, well armed and armored in scuba suits are "Big Daddies" protecting freaking "Little Sisters" who are harvesting the ADAM from corpses. As you explore, a radio voice named Atlas talks you around the place, and you draw the ire of Ryan, listening to tapes people have left behind to expose the story of the fall of Rapture. Ryan's dream is that people can accomplish whatever they are capable of, and no one has the right to slow them down or get in anyone's way. This is where the city started to get in trouble; as science made the breakthrough of genetic modification, but the first cost was to create these creepy girls, and the later costs were insanity. Being big believers in a free market, the citizens of Rapture made the market of ADAM very rich, with nothing to slow it down. Ryan seems to see the decline, but idealistically is unwilling to act against it. Yet at the same time, he has created a level of authoritarianism to keep his city intact, going as far as to execute criminals, and putting lethal security drones in place to kill trespassers and thieves.
I'm not clear on Atlas's reasons for hating Ryan initially, nor Ryan's reasons for wanting to capture and kill Atlas, but by helping Atlas, your character is put into Ryan's crosshairs. Sadly, the story element of your playing as Ryan's son was spoiled for me very early: before the Christmas break when I had planned on playing the game. The other major story element that was spoiled for me was the existence of the battle against Atlas at the end of the game. Considering your lineage, the Atlas battle makes sense, especially given the (unspoiled for me, anyway) murder of Atlas' family by Ryan, apparently in an effort to spite Atlas. At the point of the game that I'm at (hunting purified water and honey), I hate Andrew Ryan. The man sat back and watched as his creation, Rapture, fell apart around him, letting people suffer and die because the market willed it. I think of myself as a Libertarian who votes with the Democratic party because the civic freedoms of the party combined with the humanitarian leaning (or socialist leanings!) of the party are closer to what I want to see from humanity than the economic freedom at the cost of compassion and civic freedom that I see espoused by the Republican party. So far, Bioshock has soured me on the blind following of a free market that I would have liked to see when I was younger, and made me look at how important some level of control is. It's not often that a game makes me think about the shape of the world, let alone change my mind about a good way to run things.
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