Objectivism | Through the Shattered Lens

With today’s release of Irrational Games’ latest title, Bioshock Infinite, I look back with some fondness to the first game in the series: BioShock.

It was a game that blew most everyone away with it’s ease of gameplay, unique art direction and, most important of all, a story that made people think that gaming was close to reaching the level of art for the genre. It was a game that dared to use as one of it’s themes Ayn Rand’s own take on the philosophy of Objectivism. It was a game about choices. A game that put the player into making the moral choice of rescuing the creepy Little Sisters or harvesting them for a rare resource that meant killing them.

I’ve played the game so many times and have made choices both good and bad, but it was always difficult even knowing how things already turned out to make that first decision to either “rescue” or “harvest”. Below are the version of this very scene that fully sold the game and it’s story to me the first time I played it way back in 2007.

Harvest

Rescue

[YOUTUBE=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YTh_-C6HKI]

On February 9th we shall the see the release of the well-anticipated sequel to the critical hit and fan-favorite FPS game from Take-Two’s 2K Studios. I am speaking of BioShock. The brainchild of game developer Ken Levine, BioShock was a FPS game which combined fast-paced action with a thoroughly engaging story of Objectivism and the philosophy born out of Ayn Rand’s writings. I would say that this is the game which EA’s upcoming Dante’s Inferno owes it’s existence on.

BioShock 2 continues the the series where it left off at the end of the first game. The setting will be an even more dilapidated and run-down Rapture with Splicers having turned even more mutant-like through abuse of gene-theraphy and ADAM use. This time around the game will have the player play as a Big Daddy who will either rescue and save or harvest the Little Sisters from the first game. A Big Sister will be the one who will pose the biggest threat to this Big Daddy and the player.

One other additional change from the first game for this sequel will be the inclusion of multiplayer gameplay over Xbox Live and PSN. While some have been excited by this inclusion of an online mutiplayer to the game I feel that it doesn’t really fit the series. I see the BioShock franchise in almost the same vein as BioWare’s own Mass Effect series. A game franchise which stand on great storytelling with some very good to great gameplay mechanics built around said storytelling. In the end, I’m still going to be buying this game even if I don’t try the multiplayer option.