My emotional attachment to Bioshock
- Billy Carthew
- Aug 2, 2019
- 5 min read
Updated: Feb 16, 2022
When asked the question "what is your favourite video game?" most people will mention a game from their childhood or a popular game that most people would have played they will have a few in mind but deciding on one singular title is more difficult than you may think. However, there is one game franchise that I always mention on this subject and that game is Bioshock!
I have a unique emotional attachment to the Bioshock franchise specifically the original 2007 game. I could talk about the philosophical narrative on free will, the art Deco style or the themes of dystopia which were inspired by the work of Ayn Rand such as "atlas shrugged". However, that is common knowledge and has been explored by documented by plenty of others. No, I want to discuss why I personally have such a deep love and respect for this game and to do so I need to go back to December 2010. When 13 years of me played Bioshock for the first time and experienced the underwater city of rapture.
Christmas 2010 was the year my brother and I received a PlayStation 3 and with it, we got a bundle of ps3 games from our uncle that year, one of those games being Bioshock. Now thinking back I remember being very intrigued by the games box cover and manual the artwork and information was interesting to look at but I didn't look too deep into it at that age I knew I just wanted to go home and play it. Once I was able to get home I knew what I wanted to play so I quickly placed in the disc and sat down controller in hand and waited for it to start. Anyone who has played Bioshock knows about the famous lighthouse and opening and I didn't think much at that point I just thought it was a standard first-person shooter game that I have played before like in halo and the like. So with my guard down, I continued onward towards the door of the lighthouse and to the bathysphere downstairs and this is where it all began!
Now as a kid I was not the best with horror in contrast to now as an adult. But going down to rapture for the first time will always be an important moment in my life and gaming history as a whole because as I descended deeper into the depths of the underwater city this is where I gained an important lesson for myself.
So after the short introduction into raptures world, I arrived into the city where it all began.
I will always remember that moment sat in my bedroom around 9 o'clock at night. Looking out into a long dark hallway area where I witnessed a man begging for his life and another human walking towards him menacingly.
It was at this moment when 13 year old me saw a man getting sliced apart the gory and explicit noises building the tension. The body dropping into the water and the killer staring at the screen and in a blood-curdling voice saying "Is there someone new" terrified me to my core. Maybe I should have considered the 18 rating on the front of the game.
Irrational Games. 2007. Bioshock.
But what did I do next? Well, it was at that moment that I ran to the console and turned off the game. So shocked and scared I was that I just couldn't bring myself to continue playing Bioshock. And for the next few days I did avoid playing it I played the other games I received that year including call of duty black ops a game with just as much gore but not at all scary.
I did occasionally look at the game and manual still compelled by it but remembering that section at the beginning kept me from attempting to play it. And it annoyed me every time I thought about it. I felt like a coward for being so afraid to get past a cut-scene but I was and as much as I tried to tell myself I could do it and not to be so afraid I held back. But this was a moment for me that taught me something important and it was coming soon.
So what happened after that? Well after days of avoiding the horror of the game it was new year eve around 10 o'clock if I remember. And I was playing my PlayStation nothing notable was happening in that game and yet I still caught myself drawn to Bioshock. This was the moment after days of hiding and avoiding that I told myself to face my fears and push myself forward into getting past that section of the game. So with the fact of a new year coming close and myself not wanting to be scared forever, I used all the courage I could muster. I picked up the game placed it into the console and prepared myself for that area once again.
Now you're probably thinking this was a little overdramatic but for 13 year old me it was a big leap. As I never really faced things that scared me as a kid so this moment was very important for me.
But I did. I got to that scene with the man being killed by that splicer forcing myself to endure it and when it was over I walked out of that pod into the world of rapture. And a new sense of bravery and pride that came from facing my fears was felt. After that, it was time to take a break and watch the fireworks that year beginning anew and an accomplishment reached the start of it. As soon as they were over I continued to play Bioshock my fears were all gone and I had a new game to play. I eventually completed it and enjoyed it probably more because of the beginning experience. But it led me to wanting to replay it again and again until eventually the Bioshock collection came out and I got a chance to play it all over again!
You see, I will always remember this story and its importance of it to me. Because Bioshock is more than just a game and it's a big reason why I love video games as much as I do and why I have worked to make games myself in hopes that maybe I could evoke that same reaction and feeling that I experienced for someone. You see this game helped me to be stronger, it helped me to push myself and overcome a challenge I faced in my young life and for that reason, Bioshock is without a doubt my favourite game/franchise of all time.
And I haven't even talked about how Bioshock infinite made me feel but that's a story for another time.
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