“I am Andrew Ryan and I am here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? ‘No,’ says the man in Washington, ‘it belongs to the poor.’ ‘No,’ says the man in the Vatican, ‘it belongs to God.’ ‘No,’ says the man in Moscow, ‘it belongs to everyone.’ I rejected those answers. Instead I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose… Rapture.” As Andrew Ryan’s speech unfolds, the bathysphere peers over a cliff and gives one of the most powerful and memorable introductions in video game history. And while Jack’s initial view of Rapture is stunning and beautiful, things suddenly take a turn for the worse as the bathysphere surfaces into a war-torn dystopia.
Bioshock puts players in control of Jack as he explores the underwater city created by Andrew Ryan. Jack begins his journey of survival as a normal human being, but is quickly introduced to the genetic-altering plasmids, which allow users to shoot elemental energy from their hands. Jack is also able to manipulate turrets, security bots, and cameras by hacking tem and turning them on the plasmid-crazed splicers. As Jack delves deeper into Rapture, he discovers more and more about the city’s past and the dark events that led to its current state of decay.
A nice variety of weapons are included in the game, as should be expected with any first-person shooter. Players begin with a simple wrench, which they can use to beat up splicers and break through small obstacles. While the revolver is the first gun acquired, other firearms like the shotgun, grenade launcher, and machine gun round out the gameplay. Each gun has three different ammunition types. For example, the machine gun carries traditional bullets, anti-personnel rounds, and armor-piercing bullets. The crossbow fires basic steel bolts, fire-tipped bolts, and trap bolts that string electrical wires between two walls. These various combinations leave combat completely up to the player’s discretion.
However, the guns are not the main focus of the gameplay, as the plasmids act as both weapons and tools in-game. Incinerate can be used to light enemies on fire or melt ice blocking Jack’s path. Electro-shock can stun splicers and Big Daddies, can temporarily disable turrets and security bots, or can be used on a malfunctioning door to access a new room. Some plasmid abilities are certainly aimed more towards the combat aspect of Bioshock, especially those like Enrage, Insect Swarm, and Cyclone Trap.
Rapture’s past is primarily told through audio diaries scattered about the city, as most of the key players in the city's civil war are deceased by the time Jack arrives. While many of the audio diaries are key to the story, some are thrown in just to make things more believable. Most of Ryan’s diaries talk about his past troubles with the Russian and American governments, and his ideologies that were born out of those issues. Bridgette Tennenbaum and Yi Suchong’s diaries focus on the disturbing Big Daddy-Little Sister program, which led to the regulation of the basis of the plasmids known as ADAM. Sander Cohen and Diane McClintock both express frustration with Andrew Ryan, showing that not everyone in Rapture was completely content with the way things were.
Everything about Rapture seems alive and believable. The major characters will provide constant narration. Atlas will inform Jack when he is about to enter a splicer-heavy area, and keeps him up-to-speed on who’s who in Rapture. Tennenbaum will thank Jack every time he rescues a Little Sister, and inform him of rewards after a certain number of rescues. Even Andrew Ryan, though he is always trying to hinder your progress, will attempt to provoke information from you and remind you of his ‘man vs. parasite’ ideology. When not engaged in combat with Jack, the splicers will often be talking to each other, and even singing eerily on occasion. Though the Big Daddies only emit groans, the Little Sisters that accompany them are constantly atwitter about their search for ‘angels’ and how ‘good girls gather ADAM.’ Even the smallest of inclusions, such as propaganda ads broadcast over Rapture’s radio, and phonographs emitting songs like Perry Como’s “Papa Loves Mambo” and Bobby Darin’s “Somewhere Beyond the Sea” add to the realism of the experience. And while the liscensed music is nothing shy of fantastic, Garry Schyman composed a hauntingly beautiful original score for the game. Schyman's compositions are few and far between in the game, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it allows players to immerse themselves in everything else that is occurring around them.
The setting of the game is a large part of the experience. The world is still recovering from World War II, though Rapture has cut itself off from the world. While the city has advanced technologically since its founding, its inhabitants have moved forward very little. While the game is rated ‘M’, I feel that some of those who are of age to play the game may not fully grasp the ideas expressed within. Bioshock is an incredibly deep and multi-layered experience that is unlike any other game on the current generation of consoles. It is far from being just another first-person shooter, and yet somehow it doesn’t quite fall completely into the adventure category either. Bioshock is a breed of its own, and challenges gamers to think beyond themselves, to understand things in a much deeper sense, even if it is a darker sense. The amount of material and ideas conveyed in Bioshock could only be carried out in this game. In the words of Andrew Ryan, “It was not impossible to build Rapture at the bottom of the sea. It was impossible to build it anywhere else.”
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