Bioshock
I got Bioshock yesterday, and I've managed to play and watch a few hours of it today. So far, what I've seen has got me convinced that it's all that it's set out to be, and it's currently meeting my expectations.
Bioshock is a First Person Shooter where you play a survivor of a plane crash out there in the middle of the Atlantic. Mysteriously enough, a strange lighthouse sits very close to the site where you landed, and so you wander inside and find a bathysphere that takes you under the sea.
While you're moving downwards, an old black-and-white film plays and tries to explain the existance of a man-made structure in the middle of nowhere. A great visionary by the name of Andrew Ryan was fed up with the moral and ethical boundaries that he claims have 'held back human potential' and so left to construct an underwater utopia named Rapture. Populated by brilliant scientists, artists and engineers, essentially the cream of the crop of human society, he aims to forge a new path unhindered by any censorship.
It's all well and good until you realise that Rapture is in ruins, and all its citizens are crazed monsters roaming the hallways and corridors of the city.
At the root of all this is the substance called Adam. Adam is a type of genetic fluid that enables anyone to 'rewrite' their DNA, enabling them to learn new kinds of abilities, or just change their physical features for pure vanity. The catch is that Adam damages the mind, and prolonged use will drive the user mad eventually. And that's probably what happened to Rapture.
I say 'probably' because I haven't really discovered what really happened down there yet, but the event itself must have been really bad.
The main lure of this game for me is that it's basically Philosophy 101 in game-form. Do you toss out all forms of morality and ethics in pursuit of scientific and technological advances? What is beauty, exactly? Should we change our looks for the better just because we can? And should we kill something seemingly innocent, like a little girl, in order to get something that you absolutely have to aquire?
I've played maybe about two hours at most, but I've already... met a plastic surgeon who's turned into a maniac by the use of Adam. He used to do minor adjustments, like nose jobs and face lifts, but by the time I reached him he was already sculpting people into grotesque variants of the human body. Using his own words, "How wonderful it would be if I could do with my scalpel what [Picasso] has done with his brush?" Creepy shit.
And let's not forget that audio tape left behind that chronicles a particular surgery done some time ago...
Surgeon: ...And there we go.
Nurse: Beautiful work, doctor! The nose looks fantastic.
A Pause.
Surgeon: You know, I've never noticed how her face seems to... sag. Scalpel.
Nurse: Doctor?
Surgeon: Scalpel.
Nurse: But doctor, she... she's not booked for a face lift...
Surgeon: Now then, let's just start cutting it here...
The surgeon starts whistling a merry tune.
Nurse: Doctor? Doctor? Get me the Head of surgery. Get me the Head of surgery now!
Pity I can't play anymore for a fortnight. Won't be coming home until then. But this is a link to an article about Bioshock that puts what I'm trying to say in better words.
Bioshock is a First Person Shooter where you play a survivor of a plane crash out there in the middle of the Atlantic. Mysteriously enough, a strange lighthouse sits very close to the site where you landed, and so you wander inside and find a bathysphere that takes you under the sea.
While you're moving downwards, an old black-and-white film plays and tries to explain the existance of a man-made structure in the middle of nowhere. A great visionary by the name of Andrew Ryan was fed up with the moral and ethical boundaries that he claims have 'held back human potential' and so left to construct an underwater utopia named Rapture. Populated by brilliant scientists, artists and engineers, essentially the cream of the crop of human society, he aims to forge a new path unhindered by any censorship.
It's all well and good until you realise that Rapture is in ruins, and all its citizens are crazed monsters roaming the hallways and corridors of the city.
At the root of all this is the substance called Adam. Adam is a type of genetic fluid that enables anyone to 'rewrite' their DNA, enabling them to learn new kinds of abilities, or just change their physical features for pure vanity. The catch is that Adam damages the mind, and prolonged use will drive the user mad eventually. And that's probably what happened to Rapture.
I say 'probably' because I haven't really discovered what really happened down there yet, but the event itself must have been really bad.
The main lure of this game for me is that it's basically Philosophy 101 in game-form. Do you toss out all forms of morality and ethics in pursuit of scientific and technological advances? What is beauty, exactly? Should we change our looks for the better just because we can? And should we kill something seemingly innocent, like a little girl, in order to get something that you absolutely have to aquire?
I've played maybe about two hours at most, but I've already... met a plastic surgeon who's turned into a maniac by the use of Adam. He used to do minor adjustments, like nose jobs and face lifts, but by the time I reached him he was already sculpting people into grotesque variants of the human body. Using his own words, "How wonderful it would be if I could do with my scalpel what [Picasso] has done with his brush?" Creepy shit.
And let's not forget that audio tape left behind that chronicles a particular surgery done some time ago...
Surgeon: ...And there we go.
Nurse: Beautiful work, doctor! The nose looks fantastic.
A Pause.
Surgeon: You know, I've never noticed how her face seems to... sag. Scalpel.
Nurse: Doctor?
Surgeon: Scalpel.
Nurse: But doctor, she... she's not booked for a face lift...
Surgeon: Now then, let's just start cutting it here...
The surgeon starts whistling a merry tune.
Nurse: Doctor? Doctor? Get me the Head of surgery. Get me the Head of surgery now!
Pity I can't play anymore for a fortnight. Won't be coming home until then. But this is a link to an article about Bioshock that puts what I'm trying to say in better words.