BioShock was released in August 2007 on PC, Xbox 360 and later PlayStation 3. While this was a few years into the console generation, it was one of the games that really defined it; as indeed did a number of games released that year. It was a spiritual successor to the System Shock series with the creative director Ken Levine having been heavily involved in the development of System Shock 2. It was critically and commericially sucessful and saw two direct sequels over that same generation with BioShock Infinite arriving in 2013; the year the PlayStation 4/Xbox One generation began. It was also one of the last games I remember being truly amazed by when I first saw it running. That is after spending half a day on compatabilty issues with my video card but it was worth it. What’s more, it still looks great today due largely to the incredible artistic design that is a fusion of steampunk and art deco; both also matching the game’s setting.
Something seen on release and still today, was the focus many put on the socio-political aspect of the game’s story and setting. This aspect was not subtle as in the opening minutes of the game, on entering the underwater world of Rapture, you are presented with “No Gods or Kings, Only Man” emblazoned on a wall with a giant golden idol of the game’s initial antagonist Andrew Ryan hovering above it. If that was not obvious enough, you are then given a video monologue by the same man making his Objectivist beliefs about as subtle as a rusty razor. Following this, you are shown the beautiful underwater city before being introduced to its insane and murderous inhabitants contrasting the inward ugliness of this otherwise beautiful world.
Gaming journalists of the time (and still today), thought they were very clever pointing out that “Andrew Ryan” was an anagram for “Ayn Rand” and some even went so far as to claim it was a sort of interactive refutation of Objectivist philosophy. On the surface, there is truth to this analysis but if you go deeper (and in Rapture you will), then there is a lot more going on. I’d not be surprised to learn that many of these same journalists went no deeper than the game’s first few levels or at least, paid no attention to anything beyond what was fed to them in the opening moments.
In truth, there is a lot more going on thematically and much of it is a lot more timeless than a 20th century polticial philosophy.
Before proceeding, I want to first point out that the written word is the main medium through which one can get sophisticated socio-political commentary and not video games or films. These mediums can still be good for getting ideas out there and making people think, but even then, they are dependent on the sophistication found in the thoughts and writings of others. I will also add that while I am more than a little contemptuous of the superficial analyses of the game’s presentation of Objectivism, I am no Objectivist myself and indeed, as a Catholic, I reject all materialist philosophies regardless of any merits they may have on their own. I have discussed this in a more in-depth but scattered way in my review of Rand’s The Fountainhead. There are certainly attractive aspects to Objectivism but this is also true of Marxism which, outside their shared atheistic materialism, is the polar opposite of Rand’s philosophy.
In that same review, I point out at the end that Rand’s belief that she owns the product of her labour while true enough, was forgetting that she was the product of God’s labour and therefore owed him too. God has laboured for us and we should also labour for him in thanksgiving. Fundamentally, BioShock is thematically closer to what is seen over and over in both reality and fiction. That is Man putting himself before God. Ryan and the inhabitants of Rapture whether consciously or not, believe both “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law,” and “Non serviam.” These are sentiments that go back beyond the Fall of Man to the Fallen Angels and are only echoed in people like Ayn Rand. As in fiction, as in life, these sentiments lead inevitably to social collapse which is precisely what the player is witness to on first entering Rapture.
Levine himself has said he was influenced beyond Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and borrowed ideas from a number of utopian and dystopian works from the same time period including Orwell and Huxley and this is certainly evident within the game’s world. Andrew Ryan’s Objectivism is more useful as a premise than the overarching thematic element and this is easy to demonstrate. For example, what do sea slugs that secrete a substance that can be used to manipulate human DNA have to do with Objectivism? This and what comes from this have a lot more importance in BioShock‘s story than Ryan’s political philosophy and could easily have carried the narrative without it; as happens in the direct sequel.
ADAM and gene manipulation not only form the signature mechanics and now iconic enemies of the game but also much of the background to Rapture’s downfall. Thematically, this is closer to what is found in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the dangers found in the obsessive pursuit of scientific inquiry without ethical limitations. This is something that is not limited by any political philosophy I can think of but it is once again, putting man before God in attempting to control creation. The use of gene therapy has also become eerily prescient given what much of the world’s population mostly voluntarily subjected themselves to just a few years ago.
Consider also that the demand for ADAM leads to experiments that discover little girls are able to produce more ADAM when slugs are implanted within their bodies resulting in the Little Sisters. As with infants, little girls are the very image of innocence and provoke protective instincts in all morally sane people. That this society has allowed the exploitation of the innocent in pursuit of vanity and power for the residents is again a bigger condemnation of Rapture than its founding principles.
Beyond this, there are of course elements pointing to the ultimate absurdity of Objectivism. That Ryan is shown to have been naïve about crime and thuggery inevitably becoming an issue in his city is shown in some interesting ways. Fairly early on in the game, the player discovers complaints about hacking vending machines (also a significant game mechanic), theft and smuggling. The smuggling tunnels are soon found and interestingly some of the contraband being smuggled in are crosses and Bibles which are forbidden in Ryan’s rationalistic paradise. Ryan’s hatred of religion leads to him violating his principles of human freedom.
Something interesting I don’t remember connecting in the game but learned later was that the player character is actually the bastard son of Ryan and a Rapture prostitute. This makes his own flesh of blood (born of sin), the source of his downfall. Once again, the connection with Frankestein and the creator being destroyed by his own creation. Further, much of the desire for ADAM comes from lust and vanity as shown through the plastic surgeon J.S. Steinman who is also one of the many psychotic enemies encountered by the player. People want to remake themselves to be beautiful or powerful and spite their creator in pursuit of this.
I think this all goes far enough to show how much more is at play in BioShock and this is far from exhaustive. The game is full of audio logs and text from various characters discussing (when not ranting maniacally), about various problems within Rapture. But it is also worth bringing in the next two games (though more briefly) to hammer this all home.
BioShock 2 was a direct sequel that also took place in Rapture though development wasn’t headed by Levine. It was still very well-received and some even consider it a better game. I would say the game mechanics are the best in the series as I found both the original and Infinite a lot more “clunky” particularly with weapon mechanics. The plot of BioShock 2 parallels much that happened in the first but the game’s antagonist Sofia Lamb holds a collectivist ideology and one must assume this is an intentional contrast to Andrew Ryan. Her own beliefs do nothing to put the decaying Rapture right and are shown to be no better than Ryan’s in the end. Even with this knowledge, there is a lot more going on thematically than an ideological power tussle.
BioShock Infinite initially appears to be a spiritual continuation of the series but is in fact part of the same world; only this time it is a world in the sky rather than one found in the depths of the Atlantic. There are plenty of similarities with the sky city of Columbia and Rapture but something I appreciated was that you get to see the city before it falls rather than arriving once it has already fallen. The initial moments of the game quickly show there is something not-quite-right with the otherwise idyllic blue-skied paradise.
On the surface (which Columbia is not), it could be assumed that Infinite is an interactive criticism of the evils found in the historic American South. With the city being formed by Confederates after the Civil War, the tent-revival religion, the racism and the deification of America’s founding fathers. Something the actual men very likely would not have appreciated at all. Zachary Comstock, the city’s charismatic founder has created an overtly religious cult around him. The difference with him and Ryan is that the latter would deny he had done any such thing despite it being the same in all the ways that matter. They both have statues of themselves prominent throughout their city and exercise zealous control over the citizenry. A notable difference is that while Ryan just wanted to hide away in his very own Galt’s Gulch, Comstock believes he is both a prophet and instrument of justice on a fallen world which he directly threatens with destruction.
BioShock Infinite isn’t just about a megalomaniacal racist tent preacher that threatens the world though. Obviously there is the significant presence of his daughter Elizabeth locked up like Rapunzel in a tower. Of more relevance is her ability to open rifts into other worlds and the existence of parallel worlds which includes a brief late game visit to Rapture. I don’t intend to delve further here but both the main game and the additional story content released later, goes further. The Burial at Sea content actually does a commendable job of connecting the events of Infinite with the genesis of Rapture’s fall.
Something that I did find more than a little silly in Infinite was the presence of other races in what is portrayed as a deeply racist community. Were these people really so set against other races, one would find it hard to believe they would take them into the clouds, even if only to make use of them as slaves. The presence of these undesirables (which includes the Irish), does serve as the vehicle through which the city is destroyed. The black revolutionary Daisy Fitzroy is not a righteous figure, even in contrast to Comstock. She unleashes forces that do far more harm than good to everyone living in the city whether slave or free. As in the revolutions we’ve seen throughout history, the revolutionaries often cause far more destruction and bloodshed than the authorities they are overthrowing ever did.
Ken Levine, to the best of my knowledge, is not religious and of an ethnic Jewish background. Interestingly but not surprisingly, many of the significant characters in BioShock are also ethnically Jewish — at least judging by their names. I wouldn’t call even BioShock Infinite anti-Christian in any sense though the same sorts of journalists were preoccupied with this aspect at the time it released. Although it includes the Gospel singing and river baptisms as seen in so much Americana, there is very little that is authentically Christian found in the games whether good or bad. Perhaps, looking at the story as a Catholic, I share the sneering attitude towards the cheap grace and simplistic rituals found in so many Protestant churches. I can’t even recall the name of our Lord being mentioned at any point across all three games. Some of the civic art in BioShock Infinite has Comstock heretically portrayed as Christ and his late wife as the Virgin Mary. To Christian eyes, this blasphemy shows that Columbia is an evil place; so using it as a way to attack Christianity is rather missing the point.
To come back to where we began, the BioShock series doesn’t really demonstrate the failures of any one ideology but ideology in general. Beyond this, it shows the perennial attempts by man to deny or put himself in place of God and that is whether or not the writers had this intention. The only good characters within this are those that sought to help the innocent which is most prevalent in the first two games. Then there is the tragic character of Elizabeth in the third, who is herself a much more sympathetic character than those around her. And in the end, is one of many undeserving victims of all the horrors that have taken place.