BioShock – HereticDerek

Credit: BioShock Infinite. Screenshot by me. A strictly forbidden shrine in the fictional city of Columbia, where the game takes place.

I am just beginning another playthrough of the third installment in the BioShock series, 2013’s BioShock Infinite. I reviewed this game along with the two others last September, when I got the remastered collection on Nintendo Switch. Check out those reviews if you haven’t already. And stop reading now if you are concerned about spoilers. Anyway, I cannot stop thinking about this game. Rarely do I give a game another go after beating it, to be honest, but this game keeps me coming back for more.

Not only is Infinite incredible fun, with excellent gunplay and amazing powers, but equally important is the plot. Infinite follows Booker Dewitt, in the year 1912 going to a secessionist city in the sky where a woman is being held captive. The information you’re given at the beginning: “Bring us the girl, wipe away the debt.” Not the most inspiring orders or backstories, but just fine for Booker, who is a memorable roguish type. The protagonist even having a voice is something for a first-person shooter.

I was diagnosed schizophrenic at the age of 23, following a nervous breakdown from overwhelming stress and critical lack of self care. I was in and out of the hospital three different times over the next four years as we struggled to find suitable medication. I’m happy to say I have been incident free since starting my current medication about six years ago. It is a miracle medicine I take as an injection once every three months, never missing a dose this way. During the dark period, I experienced psychosis extensively. Some of these delusions were playful in nature, others were darker, even disturbing. I found myself becoming something I couldn’t identify.

In one universe, Booker goes through with his baptism and becomes the evil Zachary Comstock, in another he doesn’t go through with the baptism. Comstock discovers Booker destitute with his baby daughter after using interdimensional travel, and convinces Booker to sell Comstock his baby daughter. You eventually discover the “debt” owed by Booker was his way of repressing the memory of selling his daughter away, and focusing on rescuing her from her prison.

Credit: BioShock Infinite. Screenshot by me. The city of Columbia, where Comstock has monuments to himself.

I believe the meaning of the end is Booker is delivered to a universe where he accepts baptism, but this Booker drowns in the process. This prevents any universe with Comstock founding his fascist city in the clouds, but not any universe where Booker still exists. Comstock, I think, is meant to be a monument to sin. Something Booker is no stranger to, but the point is there are levels of sin. And you can make choices that prevent future issues. Basically everything you see in the city of Columbia is some kind of abomination. Whether a demented museum exhibit dedicated to his exploits at the Boxer Rebellion and Wounded Knee, to a segment of the game that is literally a horror game with ghosts, to scientific abominations like the quantum particles that keep the city afloat, portaling between universes or tonics that give you super powers.

Elizabeth, your daughter, spent her whole life locked up in a small tower. Constantly being watched, unbeknownst to her. No contact with the outside world besides books, and the ability to open portals to other universes that kept her under lock and key. From the beginning, her understanding is that her ability is some form of wish fulfillment. When you are low on health, she opens a portal to some medkits, when you cannot possibly complete the story objective, she takes you to a universe where you can. She eventually has the barriers holding back her power destroyed, and finds she is actually omniscient. Able to see into any reality.

These barriers coming down is how diagnosis felt to me. Even though it was a long road ahead, sitting there and hearing those words meant coming home from a war of uncertainty I had been fighting my whole life. I have always remembered having mental health issues that have manifested themselves in diverse ways. Difficult to diagnose. There are infinite universes of possibility with how your mental illness will affect you specifically. The solution, as Elizabeth knows, is staying away from universes where you become a version of yourself you hate. For me, this means regular check-ins with both my psychiatrist and therapist, as well as taking my medication regularly. On top of other general self care things.

Credit: BioShock Infinite. Screenshot by me. Regular exercise may surprise you by improving overall health, including mental.

At one point, Booker asks Elizabeth, “Do you really think a dip in the water is going to change the things I have done?” As if to say, of course it will not. The key is to foster universes that can live with those things. Booker spoke something similar to Elizabeth earlier when she asked him how he deals with everything he has been through, to which he replies he does not, he just learns to live with it.

This struggle is the story of recovery. There’s no magic river that is going to wipe away what you’ve experienced, or what you are, but you can fight for a universe that you can accept. It may not always feel like the universe accepts you, but I think of diagnosis as a medal on my uniform and treatment my shield. When Booker and Elizabeth enter a particular universe, they find that in this one, Booker died a martyr in the anti-Columbia/Comstock revolution. Your Booker is so puzzled to find the posters saying he is martyr, because he would never lay his life on the line for anybody.

Sometimes I look back on my journey see amazing progress. I have been very depressed, anxious, paranoid, and overwhelmed by feelings that are hard express. Nowadays I am pretty chill. I find enjoyment in every day, I surround myself with things that are positive, and I am always staying in treatment to keep healthy. It might have all been for my own gain ultimately, but that doesn’t defeat the sacrifice I have made. Much like the “revolutionary” Booker Dewitt. I identify with Booker Dewitt, as we both see our history as the debt I have to pay to myself for knowing how it feels to be truly lost.

Mental health analysis of video games is my number one passion. I intend to do this frequently on Twitch as soon as I can afford a decent setup. My old Mixer setup just doesn’t cut it anymore. I love sharing my story, and the little bit of knowledge I gained studying psychology on the side at university. There’s still so much more I could say about this game; it resonated deeply with me. Please leave a comment to tell me how you feel, go check out my reviews of the BioShock collection, and play it for yourself if you haven’t.

Credit: BioShock Infinite. Screenshot by me. The initial baptism at the entrance to Columbia, in which Booker goes through the motions to gain entry.

Credit: BioShock. Screenshot by me. The underwater city of Rapture makes for a breathtaking setting in this FPS/RPG hybrid.

BioShock was a game I bought when it first came out. There was a lot of hype around this game. I remember loving it enough to play through twice to get both endings and on different difficulties. It was unlike anything I had ever played, and playing the remaster on my Nintendo Switch reminded me how great this game is to this day.

Initially developed by 2K Australia and 2K Boston, BioShock was released in 2007 to critical acclaim. In 2016 a remastered BioShock trilogy was released by Blind Squirrel Games. The game blended RPG-like elements into a first-person shooter. It is about an Ayn Rand inspired dystopian city under the ocean away from society, and the player finding themselves there dealing with a crumbling gilded cage where power is everything, and economics runs completely unchecked.

There is a tremendous attention to detail in BioShock. The way the plot is laid out, introduced and enhanced by optional diaries about the world, the balancing of combat, the constant trickling in of tougher enemies. It often appears there is no aspect of the game that hasn’t been carefully thought out. The remaster comes with director’s commentary, from which you can learn many of the concepts were well established early, but they were making adjustments up to the final moments before release. Never resting on their laurels, development was a constant process of improvement, it seemed.

What the player is rewarded with is a game whose impact is undeniable. Without revealing plot details, I will say the story is one that will stick with you, as it has with me. There are phrases and scenes that are unforgettable. The blending of RPG and FPS is something which has really taken off since this game, one of my favorite games, Borderlands, included. There are other striking Borderlands parallels: the importance of vending machines, economics run amuck as a theme and being 2K games are all similarities. RPG elements such as upgradeable action skills and passive abilities, player choice having an impact on game outcome, diversity of player build and choice to name a few influences from role-playing games. According to the director’s commentary, the goal was to make an enhanced FPS, not a diluted RPG.

Credit: BioShock. Screenshot by me. Using one of my interchangeable powers, Hypnotize Big Daddy, to get this brute to come to my aid in battle.

The atmosphere of 1950’s inspired decorations, grandiose architecture, and the omnipresent reminders that you are leagues under the sea in a horrifying, decaying dystopia wherein human genetic splicing has ruined the population, which is honestly the least of some of the tragedies of the city, Rapture.

When I say Rapture is “horrifying,” I couldn’t pick a better term. It is fair to call this game horror adjacent. The themes are very mature, involve children being killed and commodified, there is body horror of modifying yourself to produce electricity or to have an insect swarm living in your hand, for example. The themes aren’t the only thing giving this game a loose horror tag. The gameplay dynamic involves careful resource management on any difficulty. Health is taken quickly. The game is often dark. There are numerous things that make me say this game is touching on survival horror, while not going the whole nine yards in the genre.

Visually, this game was top notch when it came out. The remaster does it justice, and there is a recent rumor of a remaster update coming with ray-tracing. Seeing this game in HD is spectacular. Rapture comes alive. So many times, I found myself just admiring the scenery. I took far more screenshots and videos than I will post here, just for personal memories. The voice acting is executed well, and sound design is immersive.

The game took me well over fifteen, even twenty hours to beat. I was a bit of a completionist. I left no level without fully exploring it, and doing all the side stuff I could. You may beat it in significantly less time on an easier difficulty, or just charging through the game. I played on Normal, the second of four difficulties. So, it may even take you longer if you play on Hard or Survivor.

Credit: BioShock. Game clip by me. Fighting an acrobatic enemy.

No matter what difficulty you play on, I suggest saving as often as possible. You can do it from the pause menu at any time, and you’ll save a lot of heartache this way. The only thing you lose when you die is that you must go to the nearest respawn point, and whatever you spent fighting the thing that killed you is lost, the latter of which turns out to be taxing.

One thing that is neat about BioShock is that there really is no useless weapon. Even the melee weapon has its uses, not the least of which is resource management. The only weapon I will say I hardly used was the Chemical Thrower. All guns have multiple ammo types, and even this weapon has at least one useful type. The Trap Bolts on the Crossbow are also tricky, but do a lot of damage if you can foresee an ambush.

I would recommend this game to anyone that wants to experience a true classic FPS. BioShock is a piece of gaming history, I don’t think anybody can deny that as a fact. It took so many bold steps, and the developers fought for those steps. I came to expect so much more from an FPS after this game. More story, diversity of experience, risks, atmosphere and just overall resonance.

It was both nostalgic and fun to visit Rapture again. There were certain environments I remembered vivid details of, but the world in this game is so rich you could play a dozen times and still appreciate parts. I can’t wait to explore the next two games in the collection, which I have never played before, but have heard nothing but top-shelf comments about. Rapture is such an interesting place, I’m glad the second game brings us back for more stories to be told. Then, the third game, BioShock Infinite, tells an original story in a city in the sky.