This article just needs to be here. If a magazine dedicated to authentic rock and roll as a way of life has a section about video games, then a game where the fifties never ended must be here. Moreover, according to the mass of the top “best games of all time” Bioshock is in the top twenty. In this article, I will move away from the standard laudatory tirades, there were deservedly many of them back in 2007. It’s also not exactly an essay from the “how it’s played in 2023” section, although it’s close. I want to consider Bioshock from the point of view of a fan of the golden era, as well as to understand the features of memory and perception. There will be no spoilers, but before reading, please familiarize yourself with the game, for the first time or again.
To be honest, this is a long-suffering article. At first, I planned to write it for Halloween 2022. Then I planned to send you into Rapture for the New Year holidays in 2023. Back then, they were still waiting for Atomic Heart, the ideological successor of shock immersiveness. And finally, when the atomic heart beats to its own beat, and Ken Levin, the father and leader of the shocks, is finishing Judas with might and main, when all the holidays have died down, it’s time to go to eternal 1959, where the party never ends!
The roots of the cult
After all, our magazine is by no means about video games, and many readers have probably long abandoned interactive entertainment, or have not touched them at all. Therefore, in short, about what Bioshock is all about, why it has a cult status, and why it is of interest to us, the authors and readers of Rock This Town.
Bioshock tells the story of the underwater city of Rapture, a utopia based on the philosophy of objectivism – rational individualism, created by the American writer of Russian origin Ayn Rand (“Atlas Shrugged” is her handiwork). By the time the protagonist arrives in the city, the city is in the decline and chaos of a civil war caused by the policies of Andrew Ryan, the founder of Rapture, as well as the crisis related to the Adam substance. Extracted from a previously unknown species of sea slugs, this substance is able to change the genetic structure, giving superhuman abilities, this substance also caused mutations and severe drug addiction, along with insanity. This is exactly how we see Rapture: destroyed, populated by half–witted drug addicts, with a mad dictator hiding in a bunker from everything created by his short-sighted policies, which led a radical individualist dreamer to his own opposite.
The plot here is amazing and original. Not as a plot in a video game, but as a plot in principle. Ken Levine– the leading game designer of Irrational Games (Jonathan Chey, later the author of Void Bastards, worked with him in the lead roles), managed to brilliantly tell this story in his characteristic manner: we arrive at the site after the disaster and have to restore its chronicles bit by bit, through the stories of already deceased residents – their audio diaries in the form of stylish cassettes, they are generously scattered everywhere.
The fun starts here
It’s not often that video games vividly criticize complex philosophical concepts, but that’s not what will win our retro-loving hearts. Art Deco is everywhere! It was Howard Hughes’ dream city, where the night is always gentle and Gatsby is great. The style is verified down to the smallest detail. Everything was fine here in this city, until the very wrong deep-sea wonders began. The game takes place in the 60s, but at the bottom of the Atlantic, the 50s are now forever. Like the rusty radioactive wasteland of Fallout, Rapture is what you want to see in a video game if you love what we love here.
As for the genre, Bioshock is certainly FPS with RPG elements, but it, like its ideological predecessor, System Shock 2, is classified as an immersive simulator. This is more of a game design philosophy than a specific genre, based on maximum variability in solving gameplay problems and a minimum of scripting situations (to understand the differences, compare the Bioshock with the Half-Life series). It is also characterized by enclosed spaces, the absence of cutscenes and stairs (which are ladders). In addition to Bio- and Shock Systems, immersive games usually include the Thief, Dishonored, Deus Ex, Prey 2017 series, as well as the recently released Atomic Heart.
Just in case, I’ll mention again that the Bioshock is really a masterpiece. I completely agree with this and strongly recommend playing this series to anyone who has a suitable computer, eyes and hands in use. The plot, aesthetics, and underlying ideas here are worthy of everyone’s familiarization. However, this is a computer game and it is about the gameplay, or rather about my feelings from it, that we will discuss further.
Too much unrestrained fun
Imagine the party of your dreams. Imagine a party so stylish and beautiful that you want to stop time every second and capture the moment. The scenery is better than you could ever imagine! And there are so many things here! Lots of cool booze and snacks, all original and interesting. And look at the guests: the masquerade was a success! Everyone looks cool and doesn’t let you get bored! Especially those guys in diving suits who brought their daughters. Well, we’re not 18+ here anyway, although it would be better to send the children to the nursery, otherwise they’re running around with these syringes, it’s not safe. Hey, why is everyone acting so weird? We wanted to hang out intelligently, decorously and beautifully. What kind of trash are you becoming? Who do you look like?!
And now the party has gone too far. Everyone is high on drugs, muttering nonsense, and constantly attacking each other and you. And the owner of the establishment has locked himself in the devil knows where and, although he calls the CHOP, he is somehow sluggish. Even he has already lost control of the situation and is clearly unwilling or unable to fix it. And you need to get out of this damn carnival as soon as possible. Oh, and it all started so well.
These are the emotions that Bioshock really gives me. This is what translates the gameplay. It feels like an insanely stylish festival has turned into a two-week binge. You wanted beauty, but you got a crazy and not very pleasant fuss, twitchy and chemical. And to the question: “Is this a bad thing?” my answer is not categorical, but still quite confident.
Sander Cohen's "Living" sculptures are reminiscent of the Vincent Price Wax House
Gaming amnesia
We cannot remember everything from the works we have perceived. Video games are definitely no exception, but I remember the Bioshock in a very peculiar way. I remember the very beginning, the meeting with Andrew Ryan, the plot twist associated with it, and the very ending. I also remember the details of the ent, the surroundings, the excellent effects of water and smoke from the barrel of the revolver after the shot. And everything would be fine for the memories of fifteen years ago, if it were about a movie or a TV series. But this is a game, and in between it was me, as a player, who did something. I was doing something important enough to move this great story forward. All I could remember was a minigame with turret hacking. It was the most concrete memory of the trial itself. Everything else was abstract.
I’m sure I’m not alone in this. If you remember how you played Bioshock, then you probably won’t remember exactly how you played it. That is, the aspects that you will remember first, the stories and images, are not directly related to the game. They relate to the story of the game, which can be gleaned from anywhere. But you definitely played it yourself. These are definitely your memories. After all, no one implanted artificial memory in you for the purpose of mental control.
But that could be forgotten: you never know what anyone forgets. But we are talking about the game of the year, 10 out of 10, and even one of your most favorite games in principle.
A city of lights that will never go out.
Farce or the end of loneliness
An amazing introduction, when you first appear in Awe, evokes the feeling of a serious high-quality thriller from the point of view of narrative. An abandoned underwater utopia city, where there are only hordes of mutant drug addicts, each of whom is dangerous. There are many mysteries that can be solved just by looking around. Those are the stories told by the environment. What happened to all these people, how did the capitalist utopia come to decline?
And how interesting and enjoyable it is to solve these puzzles and enjoy the oppressive environment until the gameplay begins.Because the gameplay of Bioshock doesn’t suit Bioshock at all! Everything is too fast, abrupt, fussy, and messy. You want to calmly listen to the new audio diary and consider the scene where it was found, but a couple of muttering freaks are already rushing at you. And they don’t feel like a test, they feel like a nuisance. Because these are not the guys from the introduction who caused trouble by scratching hooks on the glass of the bathysphere. Your opponents are too weak and too fast. And they expect the same speed from you. And the same fuss. Instead of carefully sneaking through a dangerous and unexplored space, you will be madly rushing around the Delight, loot every corner. There are no dangers and fears and secrets here. There are a lot of crazies here and you will have to become the main psycho.
And there is no way to get rid of opponents. You can’t clear the location. You will never be left alone here, in such a necessary pleasant and oppressive solitude, because both you and your opponents respawn endlessly. And the expectation of a fight is not suspense, but annoyance. In an interview, Ken Levine said that he wanted to add RPG elements to the shooter. Except that he was clearly inspired by Diablo from the RPG. And it fits perfectly, for example in the Borderlands series, but not here. It’s all the fault of the enclosed spaces and the speed.
There are no bees without honey, even if their hive is your hand.
There is also no immersiveness in one of the most famous diving simulators. That is, you can really choose the gameplay style, but it’s all a shooter gameplay style. No matter how much I tried to hide, nothing came out. Except that you can extinguish opponents with a crossbow one at a time, but the crossbow will appear in the second half of the game. Sometimes locations allow you to find an interesting solution, for example, you could hide in a kind of closet to wait out the alarm, but sometimes you just can’t find such interesting loopholes because of the frantic neurotic pace.
With the “engineering” style, everything is a little better, but other problems arise. The mini-game with hacking technology breaks the already uneven, jerky pace, especially considering how often it needs to be done. For many of the above-described amnesia, the same spots come out. It is most profitable to hack security cameras. This way they will automatically trigger the alarm if the enemy gets into their range. But this has its own pitfall: the constant noise of the alarm system will join the clamor of the mutants. And the farce will play with renewed vigor. Setting traps doesn’t work very well either. Rabid bullies are more likely to run around all the mines, and it’s easier to run into tripwires yourself.
Big Daddies are the only ones that traps can work well on. In general, Big Daddies are the only correct opponent in Bioshock: they are heavy and really dangerous, they require a special approach. Their number on the level is limited and fights with them are memorable. They’re also easy to get around, and they don’t really care about you.
Still, I'm not close to the "Disney" design with huge eyes, which flourished in the third part. It's too cartoonish for such a story.
Thus, Rapture is not an underwater tomb of secrets and horrors, but the Detroit of Robocop at maximum. He’s very lively and totally sick in the head. It’s not rock and roll or blues. This is punk and psychobilly! The party is so out of control that the whole metropolis is going wild. And again the question is, “Is that a bad thing?”
Ludonartaive dissonance
The term, which raises video games to a previously inaccessible debatable height, is largely due to its sound, we owe it to Bioshock. It first appeared in this article by Clint Hawking and explains in many ways everything that I describe here. The dissonance is so strong that the story is separated from the process. The gameplay is much weaker than its magnificent story and the scenery in which it takes place. And the weak points of what we liked are erased from memory. This is how the strange amnesia that struck us works.
Welcome to Rapture. Again
Is it worth playing Bioshock then? Yes! It’s definitely worth it! And it is thanks to all of the above. Everything I wrote about above is exactly the gaming experience. It is fundamentally impossible to get it second-hand. After watching the analysis of the plot part on YouTube, you will get only half of what is in this game. And although this is the best half, you shouldn’t miss the high-speed madness of the original. It won’t come back in any of the following parts. There will be Delight in each of them, but the Delight is your own.
It’s like a dream. It’s strange and incomprehensible, and I want to go back to it, if only to understand what was going on. You may forget everything again later. But it’s not scary. The city where all Atlanteans have straightened their shoulders is always open to you. In the meantime, there is ice, flame and a swarm of predatory wasps under your skin, while the faithful Thompson has not yet lost all the armor-piercing cartridges, while the vita cameras remember your DNA, please take one ticket to the bottom of the Atlantic. The bathysphere is waiting.
An unofficial soundtrack from local jukeboxes, although it’s more about the third part of the game, but it will also work.:
The technical aspect
In preparing this article, I played the remastered version of the game, which is available on Steam. There are no big differences from the original, it’s literally the same game. With the license, the 2k launcher will be loaded, there is no official localization in Russian. The unofficial version is easy enough to install, but for some reason it refuses to work on the 11th version of Windows. You can evaluate the differences yourself in this video. In summary, play the version that best suits the system requirements.
Interesting facts (instead of pros and cons)
• Russian trace: Andrew Ryan largely repeats the biography of Ayn Rand herself and is also of Russian origin. Birth name: Andrey Rayanovsky. Brigitte Tenenbaum, despite her German background, is also of Russian-Belarusian-Jewish descent. The main character Jack is ethnically half Russian (or Belarusian), half French.
• Vita cameras – “eternal life booths” that grant the player endless resurrections, despite their unreality, fully fit into ENT. The principle of their work not only provides a thread for unraveling the plot tangle, but also develops the universe. It is from them that all the quantum madness of the city of Columbia from the last part of the trilogy grows.
• The classic Easter egg for immersives – cipher 0451, works here too.
Pitfalls:
There are an unusual number of points here. The case is underwater after all.
1) If you do not have an English level of B2 or higher, set full localization with voice acting. The pace of the game will not allow you to read subtitles normally in most cases.
2) Weapons and Plasmids can be selected through a separate menu, pausing the game, as in three-dimensional fallouts. Considering all my complaints about the pace, I find it extremely useful.
3) This masterpiece is only for three or four evenings, so it’s best to set aside three or four hours each, first ensuring complete darkness and privacy in the room.
Great article
I didn’t get over this game at the time, but maybe it’s time to fix it)