Go Canada!!!! So, I haven’t been keeping track of gaming news as much as I normally would recently – the release of Bioshock 2 and the 2010 Winter Olympics might have something to do with that. I’m going to get the necessary mention of the Wii price rumour out of the way – analysts are saying that the Wii must drop to $150 US in order to combat the continuing drop in sales. Maybe my guess was right and everyone on the planet has already bought one – or they just don’t want to, no matter what the price.
In this issue I’m going to talk about the story element of gaming, by focusing on Bioshock and Bioshock 2. Now, I know I said I don’t talk about specific games because some people may not appreciate that genre. I’m making an exception because story is integral to every game, it can make it a huge success or a bargain bin resident for years.
To start the story of the story of Bioshock, everyone needs to know about the website www.somethinginthesea.com. The site chronicles the research of Mark Meltzer, who is searching for the cause of numerous disappearances and creatures around the world. Mark began researching strange cases of young girls, around the age of 7, who were kidnapped from their homes by a creature from the sea. When Mark decided to find this creature he fails miserably, and then his daughter is kidnapped. After failing to find his daughter through the police Mark continues his own investigation, looking into a period known as “The Vanishing” – a time in the 40’s and 50’s when many of the most brilliant people in the world mysteriously disappeared. All of the cases were linked to a man called Andrew Ryan. In his subsequent investigation Mark meets few people who swear that there is an entire city underwater, and that they escaped the carnage.
Anyone who has played the first game will know that the city is Rapture, built on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean by Andrew Ryan, and populated by people with a dream to be entirely free from laws and censorship. The city descends into corruption, with almost everyone becoming mindless murdering addicts in search of ‘Adam’. Mark’s investigation leads him to discover the location of the lost city, and even chartering a ship out to the location, all in search of his daughter.
Now, all of this wasn’t just a story told in the beginning cut scene of Bioshock 2, or as a story on the website. The entire thing unfolded in real time, with the website as our means of following Mark’s progress. Viewing his home office, it was possible to look at every photo and newspaper clipping; listen to every phone message and audio recording. When Mark started to receive mysterious packages, including puzzle boxes, codes, and hidden messages, we were able to unlock and decode them as well. One such box opened to reveal a series of panels, lit in different colours. When the engraved numbers were plotted they led to locations on the shorelines of several countries, as well as a date – two weeks in the future.
Of course people showed up at the appointed location and the correct time, and what did they find? Replica wine bottles from a restaurant in Rapture, with posters inviting the brilliant and brave to join the new Rapture family. All of these items were surrounded by the wreckage of small boats.
By the time Bioshock 2 was released I, like many other people, was wondering if Mark Meltzer had actually gotten to Rapture. Then, a little while into the game I found an audio diary from Mark, talking about how he had managed to escape the ship before it was destroyed and make his way down into the city. Since then I have found three more diaries from Mark, chronicling his search for his lost daughter.
This is the kind of story that video games need more of, not just a flimsy excuse to blow stuff up – “The evil sorcerer is going to destroy the world, now go and fight monsters to save it, see you at the credits”. If that is the kind of intro you get, are you really going to care about saving the world? Will you care about rescuing that princess who appeared suddenly at the beginning of a level and is gone from the story immediately after you finish the quest? No. After the hundredth alien, you just stop caring.
In Bioshock I found myself actually caring about individual characters, wanting to find out what happened to them. That is where the audio diaries I mentioned earlier come in; they are dotted throughout the world, some in plain sight when they hold the key to progressing, others hidden under staircases. The audio diaries provided you with a window into the world of Rapture before, during, and after its descent into madness. While you may be relying on a character to lead you through the city, giving advice and directions, you may find an audio diary they made many months ago. If you found out the person you are listening to had helped turn these young girls into monsters, would you still trust them? That is when you realise a game has really succeeded, when you have a feeling of trust in a fictional character.
In the first Bioshock game I found an audio diary in a destroyed building. It was from a mother talking about her sick daughter. She was offered the chance to cure her daughter, on the condition that she would give her daughter up. Later on you find a second diary from the mother; following the difficult decision to give up her daughter to save her life. The mother saw her daughter, though she had been transformed into a monster. The mother mentioned the security code to their house, saying that if there was anything left of their daughter in that creature to come and find them. Later, I found their apartment, entered the code, and found a final diary, talking about how the mother and father couldn’t stand seeing what their daughter had become. In the bed were their bodies, where they had chosen to kill themselves.
It was a very sad thing to see, and made you hate the people who had done this even more.
The depth of story in Bioshock astounded me, the entire story arc about the sick girl was totally separate from the main story. In order to find their apartment you actually had to go in the opposite direction of your goal. Exploration leads you to find so many insights into the dream these people had, and how they destroyed it.
I’ve been talking about Bioshock for this article because I think it is a benchmark against which all games, across all genres should try and shoot for. When games reach a point where they are so emersive, real and have the ability to really make you care about the consequences of your actions, then games will have reached a new level. Maybe people outside the gaming world will finally acknowledge games as an art form. After all, if movies are art, then games should definitely be.
So, go out and find that game that makes you care about the characters, the people, and the world. Take the time to cheer on the athletes at the Olympics, and try to fit some work and studying in there as well. Keep on Gaming.
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