G-pinions

It is impossible to talk about Bioshock without going deep into the extremely dark story and the almost perfect way it is presented. Because video games do not exist in a vacuum, the ideas Bioshock presents are not completely original. You find a dystopian society at the bottom of the sea where the residents have gone completely crazy after overdosing on genetic modification. It's just like a bedtime story my mom used to tell me. But what Bioshock seems to understand better than almost any game I have played is that this is entirely a video game. The story may come straight from a science fiction novel, but the way it is presented takes full advantage of the interactive medium it is being relayed on. This is a story about empathy versus greed, where the choice actually matters because you are making the ultimate decision. Video games have a long way to go before they are on par with the finest art cinema and literature have to offer, but if every developer takes a cue from Bioshock, we'll be living in a utopian society before long.

Now I'm going to move away from ridiculous hyperbole and explain why Bioshock is one of the best games around. Throughout the journey, you will periodically find people known as Big Daddy. Though armed with a construction grade drill that could bore through a diamond wall if given the opportunity, the Big Daddies are actually entirely peaceful beings. They exist only to protect the Little Sisters. These little girls, no older than eight years old, have been genetically modified to do the bidding of the most evil villain in all of Rapture (they actually called this society Rapture and didn't except consequences?). Their role is to collect Adam, the life force of dead citizens. Because Adam fuels this entire underground horror town, the Little Sisters are in constant danger of being attacked. Enter Big Daddy and his hulking drill. His job is to stand guard while the Little Sister extracts the precious fluid. You can walk right up to him if you wish, take a picture of his mug, and even kneel beside the little girl as she goes about her job. The Big Daddy is there to protect. If you aren't trying to harm him or his little friend, you are free to pass unscathed.

And this relationship is where the developers have manipulated human emotions like no other game I have played. You can choose to just walk right past these people if you want. But they have the precious Adam. Adam gives you more power. With Adam, you can shoot electricity from your hands and kill all who challenge you. Adam is power, and Big Daddy and the Little Sisters are the controllers of Adam. This dilemma has presented itself in countless video games. How often have you merciless mowed down an enemy and collected the loot they left behind? But Bioshock recognizes these conflicting motivations and presents this encounter as a serious moral dilemma.

When your first shot is fired, the Big Daddy roars with rage. Like a tyrannosaurs trapped in an underwater hellhole, it charges at you with the drill already raised. They are big, fast and incredibly strong. To provoke a Big Daddy is to spit in the face of death. But with Adam so close, how could I possibly just walk away? I need Adam! I need power. So I fought the Big Daddy. I would electrocute him so he couldn't move. I would litter the battlefield with proximity mines so he couldn't drill into my heart. I would lure him near security guns and into the random fire of the demented citizens. I would do whatever I needed to take him out. And all the while, his Little Sister stands by, crying for us to stop fighting. But we only stopped when he was dead.

I killed many peaceful bodyguards. It's what I had to do. What happened next was entirely my choice. After the battle, the Little Sister will run alongside her fallen companion. He is so large, even lying flat on his stomach he is as tall as the Little Sister. She kneels beside him and cries. She does not shed tears because she is in the middle of this horrible city without a bodyguard. She cries because her best friend in the world was just murdered in front of her eyes. She tries to wake him up, hoping that he is only faking. But she knows he isn't. She knows he's dead. So she sits beside him and mourns.

And then I killed her. I killed all of them. I killed every Little Sister in the game. I had already killed Big Daddy. I had already killed one innocent being. Why not one more? I needed to get more Adam. I needed to get more power. The game gives you a choice. You can Harvest the Little Sisters, extracting every ounce of Adam from their tiny bodies. Or you can let them go, taking just enough Adam to free them from their genetic prison, allowing them to live the life of a normal little girl. I choose to kill them. I wanted more Adam. They screamed every time. I would grab her with one hand, her tiny body could fit in just one of my hands, and I would extract her precious Adam with my free hand. Every time, over and over, for more than 20 hours, I killed every Little Sister in the game. And I am completely ashamed.

It feels pointless to dissect the other parts of this game. Bioshock is not about combat or graphics. It is not about how many weapons are present or how detailed the textures are. It is not even about water physics, of which there is no equal. Every element of this game is tied into the encounter between you and the Little Sisters. To make you feel the weight of your actions. The pieces of this game are not outstanding alone, but together they form a complete, emotionally exhausting experience. As a gamer, you can find better games out there. But as a human being, this is as jarring and real as you'll be able to handle.