BioShock is a 2007 first-person shooter game developed by Irrational Games and published by 2K on the Xbox 360. It follows the story of Jack as he finds himself in the underwater city of Rapture where there are no gods, no kings, no rulers, just people in their rawest state. However, many of these people are essentially junkies after the discovery of ADAM, and Jack is attempting to escape with the help of a few people over the radio he finds. This is an old game but it’s still extremely popular and critically acclaimed, so let’s review it! This is NOT a spoiler-free review. 

In the 1940s, Rapture was created by Andrew Ryan, aiming to build an isolated utopia where people can exist without society determining their place. They were cut off from the surface world and lived by their own rules. However, upon the discovery of ADAM, a genetic material that basically gave everyone superpowers, the people started to fall apart as they became addicted and malformed. Frank Fontaine used these addictions to build power that rivaled Ryan’s, but was supposedly killed. Later in the 1950s, a man called Atlas began a revolution against Ryan, and Rapture quickly became a war-torn dystopia. 

Jack, the man you play as, ends up in the middle of this chaos and has to fight his way out using weapons he finds and the ADAM abilities. He’s listening to the instructions of Atlas, who claims to want to save his family and escape Raputre, while also receiving guidance from Dr. Tenenbaum, who wants Jack to save her little sisters. The way the story ends is determined by your actions, specifically if you choose to save the little sisters or not. While the good ending is the canon ending regardless, you’re challenged with the moral decision of saving these innocent girls from their mutations or stealing their power to strengthen yours. 

Upon the discovery of Ryan’s office, the plot twist is revealed which is intended to leave gamers in shock. Jack is actually the son of Ryan who was sold to Fontaine by his mistress and rapidly aged into an assassin who responds to the phrase “would you kindly” without hesitation. This entire time, ‘Atlas’ kept saying “would you kindly” as he asked you to do things, and as he explains this, he is revealed to be Fontaine. Tenenbaum helps undo some of the genetic programming, and in the end you kill both Ryan and Fontaine, but your ending is decided by the fate of the little sisters. 

This twist was meant to leave players in shock, and at the time it definitely did, but as I came upon it I found myself wondering, why did it matter? This is a first-person game, so you have no real emotional connection to Jack and there were no cutscenes to build up anything. So Jack is an emotionless pair of arms that did what they were told, and in the end you break free, that’s basically it. I didn’t get the huge shock nor care that much, it just made sense and the game kept going. If there had been cutscenes, or even just if the game wasn’t first-person, it probably would’ve had more of an impact. Also, the fact that the game kept going and there was still a lot to do felt odd because that was an end-of-the-game twist, yet the game didn’t end. 

BioShock is a critically acclaimed game that is still referenced today as one of the best video games created. It is referenced in other games, incorporated into college-course curricula, and has two sequels with similar success. The plot twist towards the end is considered one of the biggest plot twists in video game history. While I did not get the same level of enjoyment from it because of the lack of a huge shock from the twist, it is still a good game to play and takes roughly 12 to 14 hours to complete. 

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