I’ve been relaxing for the last few days, and i think my body is thankful for it. Last night i considered going to sleep at about 8:30pm because i was just that devastated. But today i feel pretty normal so i guess i caught up on some necessary sleep.
But putting body aside, i’ll tell you what’s been going on in my mind lately. Specifically, Bioshock!
I’m not sure how far i am through the game. It felt like three quarters till a friend hinted it was more like a third of the way, if that. Throughout the game you find weapon upgrade stations. The list of achievements on the xbox live website suggests that it is possible to upgrade all of your weapons. Which would mean a lot more upgrade stations, and a lot more to the game that i haven’t discovered. On the other hand, the achievement might be intended for multiple runs through the game. Who knows.
Anyway.
I’m going to tell you some of my thoughts about the game so far, i’ll try to leave out any plot spoilers but i will talk about characters and basic events so skip this entry if you don’t want to know.
<SPOILERS>
The most important part of Bioshock: Atlas
The first character you “meet” in the game is Atlas. Atlas is an Irish male who communicates to you via shortwave radio. He does not explain where in the city (Rapture) he is, but you are led to believe that he’s in some kind of control area – able to view your progress through security cameras and control certain elements of the city’s technology (namely sentry bots and doors). his awareness of the plane crash suggests that his ability to observe extends to the surface itself, and it also suggests that he has some kind of training or experience in the technology of Rapture.
Atlas makes his apparent plight clear to you at the beginning of the game. Explaining that he has a family somewhere in Rapture and wants your help rescuing them. Of course the player is left with the questions:
- What happened to Rapture to leave it in this state?
- Who is this guy Atlas, and why does he seem like the only “human” left here?
- Why does he need MY help rescuing his family when he seems quite capable and knowledgeable?
- Where is he in relation to his family, am i closer to them than he is.. or does he want me to go simply because he isn’t a fighter?
My first significant worry about Atlas emerged moments after finding the first Plasmid. Atlas does not comment on it until AFTER i’ve injected myself.. Why didn’t he explain it beforehand? Why didn’t he give me the choice to inject it or not? It is very possible that Plasmids are such a common part of life to Atlas, that he doesn’t realise they would need explanation. But my assumption is a much simpler one – he wants to use me. He needs me to fill myself with Plasmids so that he himself a little warrior in his pocket. So he waits until after i used it to explain that they are part of the reason Rapture fell apart.
My warning flag went up even higher when he first had me kill a big daddy. He was adamant that i should do away with the Little Sister, and harvest the Adam for myself. Why? To make me even more powerful.. An even stronger little warrior..
I had suspected for a while that Atlas had more to do with the downfall of Rapture than he let on, and then my suspicions were confirmed in part.. Listening to one of the audio “diaries” that are scattered throughout the game i heard “Atlas’ Raiders” referred to. Atlas had a band of raiders? So he’s used to being a leader of men, and he’s a rebel. Were the Raiders as pepped up on Plasmids as he encourages me to be? Did this lead to the opposition advancing their own bodies and minds in competition? Eventually leading to the broken splicers that oppose me at every turn?
At a point later in the game, i witnessed posters with “Who is Atlas?” written on them. Atlas comments that he was interested in politics in the past, but has found that politics always ends with men being killed. Men being killed you say? Sure, if you’re the leader of a band of raiders.. The question raised to me by the posters was, why didn’t his followers know who he was? Was it because he has always been behind the scenes, speaking his mind and enthralling the populous like a young Christian Slater in Pump up the Volume? Am I his new band of raiders?
Later, Andrew Ryan refers to Atlas as a problem he has never been able to eradicate. Perhaps Atlas has never stepped out from the shadows?
I haven’t touched on my thoughts regarding Andrew Ryan, and his evident conflict with Frank Fontaine (a smuggler, who appears to have taken over various industries like oxygen production, and stood in opposition of Andrew Ryan), at the moment i’m finding Atlas to be a far more interesting character. I don’t trust him enough yet and i’m not sure i’m comfortable doing his bidding for much longer. But we’ll see how it goes, and we’ll see how much choice i’m actually left with.
Tags: bioshock, game, xbox
