How the plot and themes explored in the Bioshock series prove that gamers are getting older (and still playing games.)
WARNING! The following essay contains major spoilers for both Bioshock and Bioshock 2.
So I just finished Bioshock 2 (yes, I know, what took so long?) and I have to say it was one of the most satisfying sequels, if not one of the most satisfying games I have ever played. In many ways it was superior to the first installment. Both in game play mechanics and in thematic content. But one thing that struck me the whole time I was playing the game and especially in the final chapter, was how many of the game’s elements were geared towards adult gamers – adult gamers with kids in particular.
In the original game, you played as a complete cypher named Jack. You had no real background on the character and no motivation to play the game other than to explore the admittedly amazing underwater city of Rapture and solve the mystery of who you were and why you were there. The eventual, surprising revelation, and the concept of an Ayn Randian, utopian city built to cater to the whims and desires of scientific and capitalist geniuses was all very interesting. But you had no real emotional involvement in the character or the narrative.
Your main enemies in the game were splicers, inhabitants of Rapture who had spent so much time engaging in gene splicing to enhance themselves that they had become mutated and insane. The whole process is complicated but the short version is that the stem cells found in a liquid called ADAM, which is secreted from a parasitic sea slug, destroy human stem cells and replace them with new, unstable cells. ADAM is harvested and processed into special serums called Plasmids which introduce cells that grant specific powers such as telekinesis or the ability to generate and throw bolts of electricity from your fingertips.
Now this is where things get dicey and is part of the game’s message about the dangers of a completely free market society. The slugs themselves did not produce enough ADAM to use in the quantities needed for research and development, let alone mass-marketing as a product to the city. It was discovered, however, that if the slug was implanted into the stomach of a human host, it produced twenty to thirty times the normal amount of ADAM.
Under the guise of offering a safe home, education and bright futures to the children of the underclass citizens of Rapture, The Little Sisters Orphanage began taking young girls and transforming them into Little Sisters, hosts for the slugs and tools to harvest ADAM (now considered so precious that none should go to waste) from the corpses of splicers. To protect the Little Sisters from rabid splicers, Big Daddies were engineered and pair bonded with the Little Sisters. These lumbering, once human hulks in diving suits roam the halls of Rapture, guarding their Little Sisters at all costs.
Now all of this is very interesting and the original Bioshock was indeed a game that went far beyond the rudimentary plot devices and generic backdrops of most video games. It had real ideas to chew on. Adult ideas. I mean, most kids under the age of 18 haven’t even heard of Atlas Shrugged, much less know what concepts and ideas the book deals with. Here is a game which borrows heavily from the characters and themes within that tedious tome.
Bioshock 2 takes both the storytelling and exploration of grown up themes to a new level by placing the player in the shoes of a Big Daddy.
As Jack in the first game, players had to splice up with Plasmids in order to survive. This meant harvesting ADAM by any means necessary. Big Daddies, and by extension Little Sisters who openly directed their Big Daddies to kill you, were your enemies. You were often tasked with fighting and killing a Big Daddy to get to the Little Sister and the ADAM within her.
While the player is given a Plasmid near the beginning of the game that allows for killing the slug without harming the girl, thereby saving the Little Sister, this method returned far less ADAM than simply killing the girl and removing the slug from her. The Little Sisters were designed to be creepy, almost feral creatures who clawed and snapped at you when you picked them up and the player was given no real reason to be sympathetic towards them.
For most players the choice was clear.
As a Big Daddy, Subject Delta, your entire goal is to rescue and reunite with your pair bonded Little Sister, Eleanor Lamb. Eleanor, the daughter of Sophia Lamb, has been raised in isolation and conditioned to be the the ultimate symbol of her mother’s altruistic ideals of the greater good and Utilitarianism. Ten years after being betrayed by Sophia and separated from Eleanor, you must now fight your way through crazed Splicers, other Big Daddies and a new enemy, Big Sisters. Big Sisters were once Little Sisters who are now grown up and outfitted to be faster, more lethal versions of their former guardians.
The player encounters Little Sisters again throughout Bioshock 2 but this time, as a Big Daddy, the experience is completely different. Once you defeat a Big Daddy and approach the Little Sister, she looks up at you and says, “Are we going to be together again Daddy?” At this point you can harvest the ADAM from her or adopt her, carrying her on your shoulder and protecting her as she gathers ADAM from the corpses of Splicers throughout the level.
The art design this time around lends the Little Sisters a more human quality. Their skin is still blue and their eyes still glow that eerie yellow, but they seem much more innocent, almost sweet. When you pick one up she smiles and reaches out to touch your cheek as you gently place her on your shoulder. As you fight off hordes of splicers while she harvests ADAM from a body, she says, “My Daddy always protects me.”
Finally after collecting ADAM from two corpses, you have the option (just like in the first game) of either killing the Little Sister for more ADAM or saving her for a smaller amount of ADAM and returning her to her original human state. Any gamer with half a shred of humanity would not be capable of making the first choice. I simply could not bring myself to harm a single one of the little sisters. In fact, as a parent, I found the decision to save the Little Sisters at the cost of a small personal sacrifice extremely easy to make.
Eventually you free Eleanor from her isolation cell, she dons a Big Sister suit and gives you a Plasmid that lets you call her to fight by your side, making you the most bad ass father-daughter team in the history of video games. I couldn’t help but think how much more these events resonated with me as an older gamer and specifically as a father. By making the choice to save all the Little Sisters, I was rewarded with the best out of three possible endings. Eleanor and Subject Delta escape to the surface with all the Little Sisters I saved. Then, as Subject Delta takes his dying breath, Eleanor lovingly extracts the ADAM from him and injects it into herself, thereby preserving his memories and experiences within her own person, much like children carry the memories of their parents with them after they are gone.
The writers, designers, artists and programmers have crafted a truly remarkable experience in the Bioshock series. There are many more details to the unique world created for this story, the characters and lore behind the city of Rapture and the science fiction of the discovery and creation of Plasmids. I encourage you to read through the Bioshock Wiki if you are a fan of the game or of good science fiction in general. Bioshock and to a greater degree, Bioshock 2 are proof that video games are indeed growing up, just as the gamers who play them are.