As you all know, Bioshock came out and well, to be honest if you want a review go somewhere else. If the 96% average on Gamerankings doesn't convince you then nothing I say will. What I'm here to talk about is the game itself, the dilemmas it's story presents and overall just a suggestion that games really are a viable form of art, despite what Roger Ebert has to say.
The first thing I need to tell you is I can't talk about this game without HEAVY SPOILERS so I suggest that if you have not finished the game, you are doing yourself a great disservice to read this. So from here on out, I'm puting this in "invisotext" so highlight it to read.
The first thing I want to talk about is a question I asked myself after I finished the game. Who was the real villain here? Was it Andrew Ryan? No, I wouldn't think so. Crazy yes, single minded, yes but evil? I don't think so. Andrew Ryan held to the belief that there were people and then there were great people. He was a great person and thus was entitled to create what he saw fit. He thought that by creating Rapture, he was creating a perfect world. When you have your encounter with him it's even more evident. He forced you to kill him to prove a point. That unlike you, he was not a slave. He was a man of conviction to the nth degree.
Was the villain Fontaine/Atlas? Yes, he created you. Yes he did some horrible things but he was not that dissimilar to Ryan. He also felt that he alone should be in control of his own destiny. But instead of wanting to create the perfect world, free of morality and people telling him what to do, it was greed. You could make a case that greed of a sort is what drove Ryan but Fontaine was more blatent. He wanted ADAM, he wanted power and he wanted to rule. He did some evil things, but I don't think he was any more or less evil then Ryan.
Were you the villain? Controlled and created as you were? I guess it depends on the ending you got. I myself saved the sisters and got the good ending. The one where you take the sisters to the surface and let them have a normal life and in turn become a family. I wouldn't say thats greedy or selfish at all. A noble ending. Now I watched the "bad" ending on youtube and I have to say thats much more along the lines of what Fontaine wanted. I would say that ending is just as evil as him. The ending is you take all the ADAM from the sisters and then bring the splicers up to the surface and hijack a nuclear submarine with intent of taking over the surface world as well.
Personally, I would say the only real villain was Dr. Tenenbaum. She knew what she was doing with the sisters and ADAM. She realized what she was doing was wrong and yet she still did it. She is the one character that really sets the whole thing in motion. Without her discovery and work on ADAM, Fontaine never would have come to power, they never would have created you and Rapture wouldn't have collapsed as quickly as it did (although I have a feeling it would have eventually). She wasn't as delusional as Ryan or Fontaine. She just had no morals at all and despite knowing and being very aware, she still went ahead.
I feel the most sorry for Diane McClintock. She was neglected by Ryan and duped (and killed) by Fontaine. She (and Jack the main character) were the definition of pawns and suffered for it.
That's all for spoilers. All I want to say is that games, like books and movies and music CAN make you feel things, can tell you a compelling, multi layered story and can effect you emotionally. All of that stuff up above that I just wrote was because a "video game" brought the subject to light. I think this is one of those games that should be not just ripped through because you get to shoot badguys or do all sorts of fantastical things but maybe because it tells an interesting story. I think those that dismiss it as just a game, as just a mindless shoot-em-up, does themselves a great disservice. I think it's a good example of if you take the time to really listen and really think about any form of "art" you can come away enriched and therefore smarter and more mature for experiencing it.
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