Okay, now I must say writing two blogs at the same time while sitting in office is not easy. Especially cas suddenly at the end of the year, I have a lot of office work to complete. But I got fed up of not updating my blog so here goes a little post about Bioshock. One more of the rare FPS games that I liked is Bioshock. This game was developed by 2K Boston (now known as Irrational Games) and thanks to its unique concept, setting and environment it became an iconic bestseller in no time. The game also boasts of fantastic graphics and is a spiritual successor of System Shock 2.
Set in an alternate 1960, you start of as a plane crash survivor named Jack, and must explore the underwater city of Rapture. The player takes the role of Jack, who aims to fight his way through Rapture, using weapons and plasmids (genetic alterations), in order to complete objectives. Now Rapture is this really cool futuristic underwater city which was flourishing till the health plasmids (which would give you superpowers) turned most of the residents into mutants. But mind you, these aren't space age alien like mutants. Thanks to the 60s settings, these beings, known as the splicers, are all dressed up, you guessed it, like people in the 60s!
The cutest part of the game is the Little Sisters. Little Sisters (originally named as Gatherers) are young girls who have been genetically altered and mentally conditioned to reclaim ADAM from the corpses around Rapture. Little Sisters are almost always accompanied by a Big Daddy. They are almost completely immune to damage and have no offensive abilities. Attacking them, however, will incur the wrath of their protectors.
Plasmids can be collected at certain specific points around the city throughout the storyline, but most often are purchased by the player at "Gatherer's Gardens" using the ADAM mutagen they have collected from Little Sisters. In order to collect the ADAM, the player must first defeat the "Big Daddy"—genetically enhanced humans grafted to an armored diving suit—that accompanies and guards each Little Sister. After this, the player has a moral choice: either to kill the Little Sister to harvest a great deal of ADAM, or to save the Little Sister and gain a smaller amount, though for every three sisters spared a gift of a large amount of ADAM is given to the player. While both choices have their advantages, this element of conflicting morals has an impact on the storyline, and, among other things, on the difficulty of the game itself.
Three endings are possible depending on how the player interacted with the Little Sisters, all narrated by Dr. Tenenbaum. If the player has rescued all the Little Sisters, the ending shows five Little Sisters returning to the surface with Jack and living full lives under his care, including their graduating from college, getting married, and having children; it ends on a heart-warming note, with an elderly Jack surrounded on his deathbed by all five of the adult Little Sisters.
In the case where at least one Little Sister was harvested, the ending shows Jack turning on the Little Sisters to harvest their ADAM. Tenenbaum sadly narrates what occurred, condemning Jack and his actions. The ending then shows a George Washington-class submarine coming across the wreckage of the plane. The submarine is suddenly surrounded by bathyspheres containing Splicers who then attack and take control of the submarine. The tone Tenenbaum's voice takes is more hostile if the player had harvested every Little Sister.
STORY :
Rapture was envisioned by the Objectivist business magnate, Andrew Ryan, as a laissez-faire utopia for society's cultural and scientific elite to avoid the oppression of government and religion. He secretly funded its construction on the mid-Atlantic, utilizing submarine volcanoes to provide geothermal power, and was completed by 1946. Despite Ryan's attempts, a seedier side of Rapture formed, led by businessman and gangster Frank Fontaine, who secretly managed to maintain a black market for goods to and from the surface. Scientific progress flourished within Rapture after the discovery of a new form of sea slug by Dr. Bridgette Tenenbaum; stem cells from the slugs could be used to create "ADAM", a plasmid that altered its user's DNA and grant them super-human powers like telekinesis and pyrokinesis. An industry for plasmids was created by Tenenbaum and Fontaine. To meet the growing demand, Tenenbaum devised a means for the sea slugs to be embedded in the stomachs of young girls from Fontaine's orphanages, named Little Sisters, producing large quantities of ADAM.
As plasmid use grew, a class division arose. Fontaine launched a war against Ryan using an army of plasmid-enhanced soldiers, but was apparently killed in the fight. Ryan seized Fontaine's assets, including the plasmid industry. Some months later, a new figurehead for the lower class arose, going by the name of Atlas. Atlas's forces attacked Ryan's industries to steal the ADAM and Little Sisters. To fight against this, Ryan ordered the creation of "Big Daddies", plasmid-enhanced humans contained in giant diving suits conditioned to protect the Little Sisters as they scavenged for ADAM.
Ultimately a complete breakdown of Rapture's society occurred on New Year's Eve of 1959 (about one year before the player in the game arrives at Rapture). Atlas launched a full-fledged attack on Ryan's forces; Ryan in turn was forced to create his own plasmid-enhanced soldiers, nicknamed Splicers, controlled by pheromones in Rapture's atmosphere.The resulting war left few survivors. Those that remained alive barricaded themselves in isolated areas of Rapture, while the remains of the Splicer armies, having become deranged over time due to heavy ADAM use, wander Rapture looking for more ADAM to consume.
Set in an alternate 1960, you start of as a plane crash survivor named Jack, and must explore the underwater city of Rapture. The player takes the role of Jack, who aims to fight his way through Rapture, using weapons and plasmids (genetic alterations), in order to complete objectives. Now Rapture is this really cool futuristic underwater city which was flourishing till the health plasmids (which would give you superpowers) turned most of the residents into mutants. But mind you, these aren't space age alien like mutants. Thanks to the 60s settings, these beings, known as the splicers, are all dressed up, you guessed it, like people in the 60s!
The cutest part of the game is the Little Sisters. Little Sisters (originally named as Gatherers) are young girls who have been genetically altered and mentally conditioned to reclaim ADAM from the corpses around Rapture. Little Sisters are almost always accompanied by a Big Daddy. They are almost completely immune to damage and have no offensive abilities. Attacking them, however, will incur the wrath of their protectors.
Plasmids can be collected at certain specific points around the city throughout the storyline, but most often are purchased by the player at "Gatherer's Gardens" using the ADAM mutagen they have collected from Little Sisters. In order to collect the ADAM, the player must first defeat the "Big Daddy"—genetically enhanced humans grafted to an armored diving suit—that accompanies and guards each Little Sister. After this, the player has a moral choice: either to kill the Little Sister to harvest a great deal of ADAM, or to save the Little Sister and gain a smaller amount, though for every three sisters spared a gift of a large amount of ADAM is given to the player. While both choices have their advantages, this element of conflicting morals has an impact on the storyline, and, among other things, on the difficulty of the game itself.
Three endings are possible depending on how the player interacted with the Little Sisters, all narrated by Dr. Tenenbaum. If the player has rescued all the Little Sisters, the ending shows five Little Sisters returning to the surface with Jack and living full lives under his care, including their graduating from college, getting married, and having children; it ends on a heart-warming note, with an elderly Jack surrounded on his deathbed by all five of the adult Little Sisters.
In the case where at least one Little Sister was harvested, the ending shows Jack turning on the Little Sisters to harvest their ADAM. Tenenbaum sadly narrates what occurred, condemning Jack and his actions. The ending then shows a George Washington-class submarine coming across the wreckage of the plane. The submarine is suddenly surrounded by bathyspheres containing Splicers who then attack and take control of the submarine. The tone Tenenbaum's voice takes is more hostile if the player had harvested every Little Sister.
STORY :
Rapture was envisioned by the Objectivist business magnate, Andrew Ryan, as a laissez-faire utopia for society's cultural and scientific elite to avoid the oppression of government and religion. He secretly funded its construction on the mid-Atlantic, utilizing submarine volcanoes to provide geothermal power, and was completed by 1946. Despite Ryan's attempts, a seedier side of Rapture formed, led by businessman and gangster Frank Fontaine, who secretly managed to maintain a black market for goods to and from the surface. Scientific progress flourished within Rapture after the discovery of a new form of sea slug by Dr. Bridgette Tenenbaum; stem cells from the slugs could be used to create "ADAM", a plasmid that altered its user's DNA and grant them super-human powers like telekinesis and pyrokinesis. An industry for plasmids was created by Tenenbaum and Fontaine. To meet the growing demand, Tenenbaum devised a means for the sea slugs to be embedded in the stomachs of young girls from Fontaine's orphanages, named Little Sisters, producing large quantities of ADAM.
As plasmid use grew, a class division arose. Fontaine launched a war against Ryan using an army of plasmid-enhanced soldiers, but was apparently killed in the fight. Ryan seized Fontaine's assets, including the plasmid industry. Some months later, a new figurehead for the lower class arose, going by the name of Atlas. Atlas's forces attacked Ryan's industries to steal the ADAM and Little Sisters. To fight against this, Ryan ordered the creation of "Big Daddies", plasmid-enhanced humans contained in giant diving suits conditioned to protect the Little Sisters as they scavenged for ADAM.
Ultimately a complete breakdown of Rapture's society occurred on New Year's Eve of 1959 (about one year before the player in the game arrives at Rapture). Atlas launched a full-fledged attack on Ryan's forces; Ryan in turn was forced to create his own plasmid-enhanced soldiers, nicknamed Splicers, controlled by pheromones in Rapture's atmosphere.The resulting war left few survivors. Those that remained alive barricaded themselves in isolated areas of Rapture, while the remains of the Splicer armies, having become deranged over time due to heavy ADAM use, wander Rapture looking for more ADAM to consume.
