A Timeless Masterpiece

BioShock was released to a world of video-game fans practically begging to crucify it. The hype surrounding the so-called “revolutionary” first-person shooter had grown to seemingly unrealistic levels during its five-year production period. Early reviews heralded it as the video game to end all video games; a cinematic, life-changing experience that would alter the very nature of the industry; and a goddamned masterful work of capital-A Art — it seemed practically destined to disappoint.

Yet, the funny thing is, it somehow didn’t.

BioShock not only lived up to these sky-high expectations, it surpassed them. Critics and players alike were blown away by the first-person shooter. Everything about it seemed to not only be better than the games that had come before, but jaw-droppingly different.

It’s been ten years since the release, and BioShock is still just as beloved as the day it came out. The impact the game has had on the genre as a whole cannot be overstated; its influence is even apparent in recent games like The Last of Us and Prey.

“We all make choices, but in the end, our choices make us.”

“What sets BioShock apart was that it was one of the first in the first-person-shooter genre where the story was as important as the visuals,” said Chris Melissinos, curator of the Smithsonian’s 2012 exhibition, “The Art of Video Games,” which explored the short history of video games as an accepted artistic medium.

Narrative alone, BioShock is a force to be reckoned with. The plot is rich and novelesque in a way that was pretty much unheard of for a first-person shooter in the late 2000s. The game takes place in a mysterious underwater utopia called Rapture, which turns out to be an Ayn Rand–esque experiment for the rich and powerful that has, by the time that you arrive, deteriorated into a hellish madhouse ruled by chaos and violence.

At its most basic level, the game is about your quest to get out of the crumbling Art Deco–inspired city, while the voice of a mysterious Irishman named Atlas guides you; but, in practice, the journey that you embark on during these roughly 15 hours of gameplay is much more complicated than that.

Take ADAM, an in-game resource necessary to participate in and complete BioShock. ADAM, which you use to obtain skill-enhancing serums called Plasmids, can only be found in one place throughout the game: within the bodies of very young, doll-like girls called Little Sisters, protected by large monsters called Big Daddies.

In any other game, the natural progression of events would be simple: You fight off the Big Daddy, harvest the ADAM from the Little Sisters — perhaps feel a little squeamish about killing them in the process, but do it anyway because you have no choice — and then continue about the game, life force replenished. But this is where BioShock begins to undeniably stand apart from its predecessors. After you have vanquished the Big Daddy, you’re faced with a seemingly strange choice as you gaze upon the quivering face of the Little Sister: HARVEST or RESCUE?

The game explains that if you harvest the Little Sister, you’ll have to gruesomely murder her (onscreen), but you get the maximum amount of ADAM possible; while if you choose to rescue her, you only get half as much ADAM in exchange for the vague promise that your kindness will somehow be worth your while.

It seems like such a simple choice: It’s a character in a video game — why wouldn’t you harvest her and reap the rewards? Cute as she may be, the Little Sister doesn’t exist; your choice doesn’t have any actual consequence in the real world. Yet, there’s something undeniably visceral that takes over when you’re sitting there, controller in hand, staring up at the face of a whimpering, scared little girl. By requiring you to make the decision — harvest or rescue — the game has made you think about her as something more than just another NPC. She all of a sudden becomes unmistakably real. And — if you’re like me — you can’t bring yourself to click harvest without triggering an existential crisis of epic proportions.

The emotional impact of moments like these within BioShock are reminiscent of the sort of feelings that arise when watching a good film, or reading a book. It stands out against the sea of other casual, rational choices that exist in the majority of other games.

Under Here you can find the collection on Steam. When it goes on sale (and its pretty often) it goes down to only 10 bucks.
It's a steal for the amount of content and quality you get.
Bioshock, Bioshock 2 and Bioshock Infinite are all masterpieces in their own right.