I miss you Bioshock.
Why did I leave you?
Don’t leave me.
My relationship with Bioshock started slowly. I booted it up on my new Lenovo laptop in January. I’d heard about stories of a Big Daddy. Amazingness. When I took a peek, I was in a plane crash, crashing into the ocean, memories of parents telling me I was supposed to be something.
Ahead of me in the middle of the ocean was some kind of light tower. I went inside, going deep underwater to a Atlantean-styled city called Rapture. And then I stopped.
2 months later in March I came back to it, ready for the fight.
2 days later, including a Sunday playing from 10 AM to 3AM Monday, it was over.
I went out for a cigarette and deleted the game. I wanted to move on, I thought it was just a night of passion.
But in the time since, I’ve been thinking about you Bioshock. I should have never left you.
—-
On my laptop, Bioshock didn’t run too smoothly (30 fps), but even at 800×600, Bioshock has an undeniable aesthetic that makes you think how come life in the 1920’s didn’t go on forever. Even though the game takes place in the 1960’s, It has that classic sense of design and style that you see in those old talkies and movies like Timecop (weird comparison, I know).
I like westerns, and they look interesting in their own way, but I never think, “I wish I had lived back then”. Yet with that old-school Bioshock/1920’s aesthetic, somehow that world must have been much better than today. Rapture is an underwater city, one Andrew Ryan founded to gain freedom from the restrictions of a “civilized” society. With unlimited freedoms, however, there is risk, and when you arrive to Rapture, you find a city torn up because of a lack of ethical restraint. Genetic modifications.
A world of unlimited power (think of Neo in The Matrix), unlimited possibilities, but also a world of scary values. Change yourself until you’re not human anymore, change others so they’re not human anymore.
Nonetheless, I still wanted to live there.
As you explore the undersea world, it’s amazing to look out beyond the glass and see a real ocean city. Think of how Blade Runner’s skyline looked the first time you saw the movie, that’s how I felt looking out deep into the ocean.
As I mentioned before, when you start the game, you find yourself in the middle of the ocean after a plane crash, and slowly discover Rapture, an underwater city. You’re looking at things from a first person view, and because of the way the world is, genetic modification is not only an option but necessary. You can choose who you are however, hacker, mental assailant, fighter. This reminds me of Deus Ex, in the sense of the openness of gameplay, but it’s truly nowhere near that level of openness. You may have similar skills as JC Denton in Deus Ex, but ultimately, you will have to fight your way through Rapture more often than not. This is a shooter.
You slowly discover who you are, and why you’re in Rapture, and what’s been going on. You’ll have a friend or two guide you, and while it seems that most people have been turned into genetic monsters, you’ll slowly flesh out the details of not only the world you are in, but its major players, even though you’ll rarely encounter any of those other major characters.
What makes Bioshock really work though, is that all of the game’s components, graphics, sound, gameplay, are made to work with the story. What I mean is that when you play it, you know whatever you are doing, what you see, hear, or experience, that’s because of the story. It has to be that way because of the world you live in when you play. No one did anything because that would be cool, they did it because that is the world. It’s a truly immersive experience.
As Mike put it, he felt like he was reading a book. I agree in a sense, but I thought that was a good thing. The level and depth of detail of a book, but you’re not reading. It’s visual, much more so than any movie can be with its limited length. There’s a magic to it that can’t be explained easily.
The story itself, from a plot overview, is not that special. Not dumb, but not startlingly impressive. How you become a character in that story, however, is how Bioshock sets itself apart from almost everything else you’ve ever played.
When I finished Bioshock, I thought that would be it. A ton of fun while it lasted, but no real care for replay. Yet, in the 5 weeks since I’ve beaten it, I find myself thinking I want to return to Rapture, not that there’s something I missed, but I just want to be there again. Just to be in that wonderful, sickly world again.
If games can be art, Bioshock is it.
