Gaming Journal #1: Bioshock

The game I chose for my gaming journal is Bioshock. It is an impressive first person shooter that really draws you in from the first frame and takes you on a shocking and horrific ride through the underwater city of Rapture. The two Key components I will be focusing on are: 1. "A good game is a series of interesting choices" a quote from game designer Sid Meyer and 2. In philosophical games you have to think about what the game represents and simulates.

The presentation in Bioshock is amazing and the way the story unfolds seemlisly through the action is really well done. The game starts off with your plane crashing into the an ocean and you find yourself swimming through the water trying to make it to saftey. You finally come to a stone tower where the door is covenetly open and upon walking inside you find an elevator that takes you to the city of Rapture. The underwater sequence to Raputure shows the true scope a detail of the game (above image).

Key Component 1

At the beginning of the game your choices for the most part are limited but as you progress more and more options open up to you. The big moral descision in Bioshock is whether to harvest the "little sisters" for adam, a material that increases your power. This decision even changes the end of the game dramatically, so much so that it changes what kind of character you are and what your overall purpose in Rapture ultimatley is. Another set of choices that the developers gave you is how you can kill the enemies. There are tons of different guns with three types of ammunition each and many different plasmid abilities that you can upgrade and modify and This works really well and makes what would be just another shooter that much more engaging.

Key Component 2

I would definitley consider Bioshock to be a philosophical game, not only in the choices that you make but in what the game represents. The game is loosely based off of Ayn Rand's book Atlas Shrugged. The author went on to later develop the philosophy of Objectivism and these themes are brought up throughout the game. Playing the game with this in mind really adds to the over all experience and it gives you a purpose for being in Rapture. A purpose that you are still considering long after the game is turned off.