Word of the Day
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| So....pretty. |
utopia [yoo-toh-pee-uh]
noun
1. an ideal place.
2. any visionary system that strives for political or social perfection.
dystopia [dis-toh-pee-uh]
noun
1. a failed utopia
2. a society characterized by tyranny, oppression, misery, discrimination, and squalor.
The City of Rapture was founded as a utopia, not beholden to the laws of the state, bereft of religion zeitgeist and free from the cold war between the forces of communism and capatilism; east or west. Rapture was built by a man with a singular purpose. To build a city with "No Gods or Kings. Only Man." Yet, something went horribly wrong. But isn't that always the story?
SPOILER WARNING!
This is going to be an analysis of Bioshock. Including a full breakdown of the characters, the environment, the atmosphere and how it all relates to the player.
So there is your last warning. Here I go!
Our story begins in the year 1959, on a dark and stormy night, a plane flies over the Atlantic and then doesn't it. A man's birthday present gets lost in the ocean, as he finds a lighthouse sitting in the middle of the tempestuous sea. The first time I played it took me about 15 minutes to get to the lighthouse when, really, it should've only taken me about 30 seconds (what? don't you have off-days? No? Go eat a bag of tin cans you perfect goat you).
The lighthouse should be a beacon in the darkness. A welcome sight. Instead, it is a forbidding watchtower of shadows and cold quiet. You pull yourself ashore and into the front doors of the lighthouse and are presented with a bathysphere. Once you enter the bathysphere there is no going back and you are thrust into the dystopian post-WWII Atlantis, where there is no Aquaman to save you and all is not as it seems.
Your first experience with the denizens of Rapture are not pleasant. You are assaulted, in the dark, by a splicer. You are first forced to watch, helplessly, as the guy who radioed you down is hooked to death and lied there dead. A voice from the radio calls out, "Would you kindly pick up the shortwave radio?"
You soon get your first real look at the haunted world of Rapture. There are signs of a utopian society, 40's cocktail culture and a brilliant world of progressive science (with none of that namby pamby bull**** about testing or government oversight). It is an invite only paradise that once held some of the most brilliant artists, writers and scientists the world has every known. A utopia for the elite, free from the petty morals of religion, the greed of capitalism or the yoke of communism But is has been a while since those carefree days.
A helpful voice in your ear, Atlas, tells you he can help you escape the hell that Rapture has become but first you have to get to the submarine he has provided for you. He warns you that the laissez-faire utopia's founder, Andrew Ryan, is going to try and stop you from saving his family (who he has told you are trapped in said submarine).
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| BUNNIES! |
It is during your trek through to submarine that you get your first views of what has become of the people who lived here. There are three major dangers. First and foremost, are the splicers. Splicers are the mutated denizens of the deep, who have equipped plasmids and other experimental junk to their bodies. They want to kill you because they have all become psychotic, murderous and at best, just kooky. Where it is a woman pushing a baby carriage with a gun in it or a pyromaniac who can throw fireballs, they all wear masks to hide their disfigured faces.
The other big danger is BIG DADDY!
These lumbering beasts walk the halls of Rapture and are usually harmless. They only really become aggressive when attacked or, worse, when you touch on of the Little Sisters These little glowy eyed girls contain ADAM, a power source that if you harvest (literally from the girls) can make you stronger. All the splicers crave the ADAM but where a Little Sister is found, a Big Daddy is not far behind with a drill or chaingun to end you where you stand. Once you catch a Little Sister it is up to you to either harvest them or to turn them over to Dr. Tenenbaum, another mysterious force who along with a Dr. Fontaine, created them. She offers you a reward (but not as big).
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| This game screws with your perception. |
It is this kind of moral choice that changes how the story plays out. Harvest or Rescue? You then soon make your way to the submarine, but just as you make it there, it is blown up. From this point, it becomes your goal to find and kill Ryan, thus avenging Atlas and hopefully finding a way to escape. After fighting your way through hordes of splicers and Big Daddies, you find the Hephaestus and Atlas gives you a final request, "Now would you kindly head to Ryan's office and kill the son of a bitch?"
You make your way to Ryan's office but once you arrive he doesn't fight back. You grab a golf club from his hands and beat him to death with it. As you do, he repeats the same phrase, "a man chooses, a slave obeys." Little does the player realize they have just fell hook, line and sinker into the biggest video game twist in video game history. Ryan was trying to warn you. To explain to you that you have been duped and that, in fact, Atlas is FONTAINE, and has been controlling you this whole time with the phrase, "WOULD YOU KINDLY!"
As a gamer, you have just went along with everything this guy told you to do. This is a narrative trick that can only work in the immersion of a video game. You did all these things because, well, that is how you play a video game. You have no choice. In a way, to play a game like Bioshock you have to submit to progress the story. From this moment on, you discover you were created by Fontaine, much like the Little Sisters, and are just a tool. But what happens when said tool is turned on it's creator?
The rest of the game is a mad dash to track down and kill Atlas, for revenge, (because as it turns out, he is to blame for much of the downfall of Rapture), and to liberate Rapture before he turns himself into it's new god.
But wait? What danger did I forgot to mention about half-way up this post? I said there were three? Well, if you would kindly continue, I will tell you about the biggest danger and strength of this game. Environment. Rapture has all the elements of a once beautiful place that has become broken down, dirty and is literally collapsing under the weight of it's own disrepair. The ever present element of dark blue is ever present as you travel past thick panes of glass that separate you from a watery grave. The signs of life lost all around, from abandoned apartments, to the demented denizens, to cracked statues and so on. You are trapped in a world that is corrupt. Paradise lost.
That is why, in my opinion, Bioshock is one of the greatest dystopias of all time. It is was built under the best intentions but falls short. Utopia is unobtainable but dystopia is just a misstep away.
I guess the question is how will the American Utopia of Columbia fall in Bioshock: Infinite?
