Every month we celebrate the most important, innovative, or just plain great games from PlayStation’s past. This month, we take a deep dive into an art deco underwater dystopia as we explore Irrational Games’ modern classic BioShock
Sinking feeling
When it comes to gripping singleplayer narratives in videogames, it really doesn’t get any better than Irrational Games’ underwater magnum opus. Released on other platforms in 2007, PS3 players got to experience the dystopian beauty of BioShock just a year later, quickly discovering that the wait for this noticeably-more–profound–than–usual FPS had been worth it.
Was it the richness of its world, the interactions with the tortured characters you met along the way, or that iconic revelation (which still rivals some of the best plot twists ever portrayed on screen)? It was, of course, the result of all three working in harmony, something that was only possible thanks to the creative talents of game director Ken Levine and his team. BioShock sticks with you for a plethora of reasons, but arguably none more so than the city of Rapture itself.
A submerged metropolis originally intended to be a place where artists, philosophers, and scientists could escape post-WW2 political restraints and work freely, there’s a richness to Andrew Ryan’s idyllic utopia gone wrong that almost every game released since has struggled to replicate, right up to today. The genius of it is in how run-down areas such as Fort Frolic, Olympus Heights, and Neptune’s Bounty all tell their own unsettling stories using environmental design almost alone. Few shooters before or since have placed equal emphasis on action and world-building.
’SHOCK AND AWE
BioShock is an undersea treasure trove of complex ideas, but despite how outlandish the idea of a still-functioning sunken city sounds at first, a general sense of coherence helps to make it seem plausible. Being set within an alternate history version of 1960 is also no bad thing, as it means you often find yourself gawping at the art deco gorgeousness around you whenever you first step out into a new area. Add in a splash of melancholy (relating to the joys that came before), moody lighting, and plenty of blood on the walls, and you have an atmosphere so thick you could cut it with a knife – or at least smash with a spanner.
Of course, your exploration of Rapture is hampered by the hulking
Big Daddies stationed throughout; yet another instance of story expertly colliding with your actions. BioShock was one of the earliest games to offer the player a genuine choice, asking you either to take down these deep-sea-diver-like beasts to secure precious ADAM (the chemical that keeps the wheels of Rapture turning) or to leave them be for fear of ending up in a Vita chamber. Doing the latter hinders your efforts significantly, so it’s always worth trying to separate an ADAM-harvesting Little Sister from her dedicated protector.
Armed with the appropriate plasmid powers, these tussles almost always result in an intense back and forth, to the point that you wonder whether Irrational made the act of shooting deliberately unintuitive, making shocking, incinerating, or whatever-ing your way through enemy encounters equally appealing. Though dual-wielding wouldn’t be possible until the sequel, switching between plasmids and guns on the fly adds a nice tactical touch to combat that’s in keeping with the rest of BioShock’s eccentricities.
Today BioShock stands above its peers because it’s a game that dared to look above and beyond player action. Deep narrative, cool locations, creative activity… you’ll find it all within Rapture. Some follow-up DLC to BioShock Infinite may have attempted to fill in some narrative gaps, but it doesn’t dampen the mystique of the original any less.
ONE OF THE EARLIEST GAMES TO OFFER THE PLAYER A GENUINE CHOICE.