BioShock Walkthrough

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|      BioShock       |
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|    Plot Analysis    |
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By: UnSub [evilasahobby {at} graffiti {dot} net]
Version: 0.70
Date: 16 September 2007
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1.0 Introduction
.1 Email Policy
.2 Reproduction of this Guide
.3 Difficulty Level
.4 The Author's Excuse
2.0 General Narrative Overview
.1 What Happens in BioShock?
.2 What's the Twist?
.3 The Morality of Choice
3.0 General Themes in BioShock
.1 What is Objectivism?
.2 Who is Ayn Rand?
.3 What are the Essentials of Objectivism?
.4 The Author's View on Objectivism
.5 Does BioShock Show a Distopian Objectivist Society?
.6 Religion in BioShock
.7 A Gender Reading of BioShock
.8 A Race Reading of BioShock
.9 The Masks
.10 Suggested World Timeline for Rapture
4.0 The Cast of BioShock
.1 The Narrator
.2 Andrew Ryan
.3 Frank Fontaine
.4 Atlas
.5 Diane McClintock
.6 Bridgette Tenenbaum
.7 Dr JS Steinman
.8 Sander Cohen
.9
.10 Sullivan
.11 Marista Luska
.12 Bill McDonagh
.13 Dr Yi Suchong
.14 Peach Wilkins
.15
.16
.17
5.0 Significance of Locations in BioShock
.1 The Lighthouse / Welcome to Rapture
.2 The Medical Pavillion
.3 Neptune's Bounty
.4 Smuggler's Hideout
.5 Arcadia
.6 Farmer's Market
.7 Fort Frolic
.8 Hephaestus
.9 Olympus Heights
.10 Point Prometheus
.11 The Proving Grounds
.12 The Endings
6.0 Significance of Genetic Manipulation
.1 "Smarter than Einstein and Stronger than Hercules!"
.2 ADAM and EVE
.3 Plasmids and Tonics
.4
7.0 Significance of Enemy Types
.1 Splicers
.2 Automated Security Systems
.3 Big Daddies And Little Sisters
9.0 Final Notes
.1 Thanks and Contributors
.2 Version History
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1.0 INTRODUCTION
________________
So, finally, BioShock is out. Having read a lot about this game and been
blown away by the demo videos, this is a game I've anticipated the most in a
long time.
I wasn't disappointed. BioShock does have its flaws, but it has strengths that
trump those flaws ten fold. One key strength is the in-game narrative (aka
plot, but I prefer the term 'narrative') which sees BioShock offer a much
deeper experience than many other FPSs (and, let's face it, RPGs as well).
Although there is still the issue of 'go here, get the item, return'-type
quests, the diary tapes you find while doing so give a lot more insight
into life at Rapture and the people who shaped it, often making them more
than just 'Quest Giver 412'.
So, here we go - my stab at examining the narrative of BioShock and the
significance of its various characters / locations / features.
1.1 EMAIL POLICY
----------------
If I've made a mistake in this guide or you need some help, you can email me.
HOWEVER... please include "BioShock" in the email subject line
and or you run the risk of me mistaking if for spam. I can't always promise
that I will be able to help you, since once I finish a guide for a game I
usually put it away and forget about it. Asking me the exact steps to
finishing a level I last played 5 months ago isn't going to be successful.
Also, please don't email me about something that is already stated in the
guide (I HATE THAT!) unless I've been unclear or am incorrect. Finally,
if you need help, please be clear about what you help you need in the
email - the more detail I have, the better the chance I can do something
for you.
1.2 REPRODUCTION OF THIS GUIDE
------------------------------
You have my permission to reproduce this guide so long as 1) it is unaltered
and 2) the reproduction will be free to those who want it. So no slapping
your name on this and then charging people to read it, okay?
If you want to alter this guide for reproduction, please email me.
1.3 DIFFICULTY LEVEL
--------------------
This guide was mainly written from playing on Medium AND when I rescued all
the Little Sisters I found. I may add comments in after I replay BioShock
through after harvesting the Little Sisters.
1.4 THE AUTHOR'S EXCUSE
-----------------------
I'd like to point out here I am no expert on Objectivism or anything else I'm
going to include in this guide. I've read both "Atlas Shrugged" and "The
Fountainhead", along with several articles on Ayn Rand and Objectivism, but
I'm no expert or philosophy guru. This is purely a layman's interpretation of
what I've seen in the game.
That's my excuse if I get something wrong. :-)
Also (and I'll capitalise this for emphasis): THIS GUIDE IS CHOCK FULL OF
SPOILERS FOR BIOSHOCK. THERE IS MORE SPOILED CONTENT IN THIS GUIDE THAN IN
A BUTCHER'S SHOP WITHOUT REFRIDGERATION AFTER A WEEK-LONG HEATWAVE.
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2.0 GENERAL NARRATIVE OVERVIEW
______________________________
This section covers the overall narrative of BioShock without going into too
much depth. If you want to know what happens in the game without having to
churn through stuff about Objectivism, here's your section.
2.1 WHAT HAPPENS IN BIOSHOCK?
-----------------------------
You (the Narrator) survive a plane crash that puts you in the water, with
a lighthouse being the only nearby place to swim to. Entering the lighthouse
you find a grand statue of Andrew Ryan along with the banner, "No Gods or
Kings. Only Man." and a bathysphere that takes you down to Rapture. Rapture
is an underwater city that Ryan has had built to house inventors and thinkers
free of the morality of the rest of the world.
Ryan had Rapture built in 1946, while the Narrator enters this city in 1960
and witnesses the many ways in which this society has broken down. Key to
this breakdown is the conflict between Frank Fontaine, head of an organised
crime ring, and Ryan. Fontaine, thanks to his sponsorship of Bridgette
Tenenbaum's research into ADAM, has control of a substance that greatly
enhances the human body's ability to use the Ryan Industries' created
Plasmids - controlled genetic enhancement that can, say, give someone
telekinesis, or make them faster and stronger - which is powered by a
substance called EVE.
Fontaine and Ryan have battled for control of Rapture while its inhabitants
have become addicted to ADAM and EVE. Rapture's inhabitants - now called
Splicers, since they've modified themselves up so much - are open to being
controlled by Ryan's manipulation of pheremones in the air supply;
Fontaine's people - the smugglers, the fishery workers - have been running
a pretty good guerilla campaign, assisted by people's general
dissatisfaction with Ryan (who treats Rapture as his own personal world)
and by providing cheaper black market goods. Another figure in this
'resistance' against Ryan is Atlas, who is the first person the Narrator
has any real interaction with in Rapture - Atlas contacts you via
a radio.
ADAM is generated by Little Sisters - little girls impregnated with a
sea slug and genetically modified / programmed to convert EVE into ADAM.
They are protected by Big Daddies - figures in large diving suits who
are among the toughest enemies in the game. The Narrator is given the
option of either harvesting the Little Sisters (which kills them but
delivers a larger immediate benefit) or saving them (which means it will
take longer for you to upgrade the Narrator). One big problem with ADAM is
that it requires greater and greater use to keep the physical and mental
deformaties it causes at bay - this isn't a problem for the Narrator, but
it certainly is a big factor behind the collapse of Rapture.
After experiencing the result of various 'geniuses' who have 'taken
advantage' of Rapture's relaxed views on morality (Dr Steinman, Sander
Cohen et al), you encounter Ryan, who reveals (*deep breath*) that you are
his illegitimate son (or at least his genetic material) who Atlas programmed
as an assassin before sending to the surface at the age of two and it
was you who caused the plane to crash near an entrance to Rapture and
Atlas has been using you as a meat puppet ever since and Ryan gives you his
golf club and asks "would you kindly" kill him. Which you do.
Following Ryan's death, you find out that Altas is really Fontaine and he is
able to use your programming against you. Once free of this, you end up
going after Fontaine, who injects himself with a massive amount of ADAM
and undergoes massive transformation when you face him. He comes at you in
three forms - a fire form, an ice form and an electrical form. It's up to
you to defeat him.
BioShock has two endings available - if you've saved the Little Sisters,
the Narrator returns to the surface and grows old surrounded by the
girls he's saved; if you've harvested the Little Sisters, the Narrator
takes control of Rapture and uses Splicers to potentially start a
war with the surface by taking control of a submarine armed with long-
range ballistic missiles.
2.2 WHAT'S THE TWIST?
---------------------
Two key twists are:
1) That the Narrator is Ryan's illegitimate son (or at least the genetic
material from Ryan's son) who Atlas psychologically programmed to crash a
plane near the entrance to Rapture and return to kill Ryan. You are
psychologically programmed to obey the phrase "would you kindly".
2) Atlas is really Fontaine, who is using the Narrator to get rid of Ryan.
2.3 THE MORALITY OF CHOICE
--------------------------
Despite the irony of the Narrator apparently being everyone's murderous
errand boy and having no choice over that, BioShock does have choice at
the heart of a key system: do you save the Little Sisters, which gains you
less of an important resource (ADAM) but has longer term benefits, or do
you harvest them, which kills the Little Sister but gives you a bigger
immediate benefit?
This is a choice that is purely in the hands of the player. It does impact
on the ending you see, but it also has implications for how the game
plays and how some characters react to you.
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3.0 GENERAL THEMES IN BIOSHOCK
______________________________
BioShock contains a number of overall themes that appear within the narrative.
This section goes into some of the background surrounding these themes,
including the most important one - Objectivism. However, it is hard to talk
about Objectivism without going into some background about this ideology, so
I'm going to cover it first. If you don't want to read it / already know it,
commentary about BioShock will pick up in section 3.5 (Does BioShock Show a
Distopian Objectivism Society?).
3.1 WHAT IS OBJECTIVISM?
------------------------
I'm going to take this straight from Wikipedia, since it's going to do a
better job than I could.
"Objectivism is a philosophy developed by Ayn Rand that encompasses
positions on metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, politics, and aesthetics.
Objectivism holds that there is a mind-independent reality; that individuals
are in contact with this reality through sensory perception; that humans
gain objective knowledge from perception by measurement and form valid
concepts by measurement omission; that the proper moral purpose of one's
life is the pursuit of one's own happiness or "rational self-interest;"
that the only social system consistent with this morality is full respect
for individual human rights, embodied in pure, consensual laissez-faire
capitalism; and that the role of art in human life is to transform abstract
knowledge, by selective reproduction of reality, into a physical form - a
work of art - that one can comprehend and respond to with the whole of
one's consciousness."
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectivism_%28Ayn_Rand%29, accessed
29 August 2007.
That's the long winded version. In general however, when people think
about Objectivism, they are thinking of two key things: 1) it's focus
on 'rational self-interest', and 2) it's basis in 'laissez-faire
capitalism'.
3.2 WHO IS AYN RAND?
--------------------
In short, Ayn Rand was the creator of the Objectivist philosophy and
her name is relatively closely referenced in BioShock's chief antagonist,
Andrew Ryan.
A short summary of her life and works:
"Ayn Rand, (February 2 1905 – March 6, 1982), born Alisa Zinov'yevna
Rosenbaum was a Russian-born American novelist and philosopher, best
known for creating a philosophy she named "Objectivism" and for
writing the novels "We the Living", "The Fountainhead", "Atlas
Shrugged" and the novella "Anthem". Her ideas have attracted both
enthusiastic admiration and scathing denunciation."
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand, accessed 29 August 2007.
If you want to read more, there are whole reams of information about
Ayn Rand out there. Google is your friend.
3.3 WHAT ARE THE ESSENTIALS OF OBJECTIVISM?
-------------------------------------------
Yeah, a bit more on Objectivism. However, I really think this next
bit is going to provide more than enough information to cover the
discussion of the role of this ideology in BioShock. This is the last
block of material about Objectivism for a while, I swear, but I think
this is an easier read than the Wiki stuff:
"Ayn Rand named her philosophy "Objectivism" and described it as a
philosophy for living on earth. Objectivism is an integrated system of
thought that defines the abstract principles by which a man must
think and act if he is to live the life proper to man. Ayn Rand
first portrayed her philosophy in the form of the heroes of her
best-selling novels, The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged
(1957). She later expressed her philosophy in nonfiction form.
Ayn Rand was once asked if she could present the essence of
Objectivism while standing on one foot. Her answer was:
Metaphysics: Objective Reality
Epistemology: Reason
Ethics: Self-interest
Politics: Capitalism
She then translated those terms into familiar language:
"Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed."
"You can't eat your cake and have it, too."
"Man is an end in himself."
"Give me liberty or give me death."
The basic principles of Objectivism can be summarized as follows:
Metaphysics
"Reality, the external world, exists independent of man's
consciousness, independent of any observer's knowledge, beliefs,
feelings, desires or fears. This means that A is A, that facts are
facts, that things are what they are—and that the task of man's
consciousness is to perceive reality, not to create or invent it."
Thus Objectivism rejects any belief in the supernatural—and any
claim that individuals or groups create their own reality.
Epistemology
"Man's reason is fully competent to know the facts of reality. Reason,
the conceptual faculty, is the faculty that identifies and integrates the
material provided by man's senses. Reason is man's only means of acquiring
knowledge." Thus Objectivism rejects mysticism (any acceptance of faith or
feeling as a means of knowledge), and it rejects skepticism (the claim that
certainty or knowledge is impossible).
Human Nature
Man is a rational being. Reason, as man's only means of knowledge, is his
basic means of survival. But the exercise of reason depends on each
individual's choice. "Man is a being of volitional consciousness." "That
which you call your soul or spirit is your consciousness, and that which you
call 'free will' is your mind's freedom to think or not, the only will you
have, your only freedom. This is the choice that controls all the choices
you make and determines your life and character."Thus Objectivism rejects
any form of determinism, the belief that man is a victim of forces beyond
his control (such as God, fate, upbringing, genes, or economic conditions).
Ethics
"Reason is man's only proper judge of values and his only proper guide to
action. The proper standard of ethics is: man's survival qua man—i.e., that
which is required by man's nature for his survival as a rational being (not
his momentary physical survival as a mindless brute). Rationality is man's
basic virtue, and his three fundamental values are: reason, purpose,
self-esteem. Man—every man—is an end in himself, not a means to the ends of
others; he must live for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others
nor sacrificing others to himself; he must work for his rational self-
interest, with the achievement of his own happiness as the highest moral
purpose of his life." Thus Objectivism rejects any form of altruism—the
claim that morality consists in living for others or for society.
Politics
"The basic social principle of the Objectivist ethics is that no man has
the right to seek values from others by means of physical force—i.e., no
man or group has the right to initiate the use of physical force against
others. Men have the right to use force only in self-defense and only
against those who initiate its use. Men must deal with one another as
traders, giving value for value, by free, mutual consent to mutual benefit.
The only social system that bars physical force from human relationships is
laissez-faire capitalism. Capitalism is a system based on the recognition of
individual rights, including property rights, in which the only function of
the government is to protect individual rights, i.e., to protect men from
those who initiate the use of physical force." Thus Objectivism rejects any
form of collectivism, such as fascism or socialism. It also rejects the
current "mixed economy" notion that the government should regulate the
economy and redistribute wealth.
Esthetics
"Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's
metaphysical value-judgments." The purpose of art is to concretize the
artist's fundamental view of existence. Ayn Rand described her own approach
to art as "Romantic Realism": "I am a Romantic in the sense that I present
men as they ought to be. I am Realistic in the sense that I place them here
and now and on this earth." The goal of Ayn Rand's novels is not didactic
but artistic: the projection of an ideal man: "My purpose, first cause and
prime mover is the portrayal of Howard Roark or John Galt or Hank Rearden
or Francisco d'Anconia as an end in himself—not as a means to any further
end.""
From: http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=objectivism_essentials,
accessed 27 August 2007.
3.4 THE AUTHOR'S VIEW ON OBJECTIVISM
------------------------------------
Following the above sections, there is a chance some elementss of the
readership (those not thinking "So what?" anyway) might think this is
some sort of pro-Objectivist piece, designed from the start to sucker
people into joining the Ayn Rand Institute.
So, here's my view on Objectivism: it's not a practical ideology. Being
focused on rational self-interest is a nice idea, but it ignores the fact
that not everyone can only care about themselves and expect things to get
done. Yes, there is the idea of trading for mutual benefit and the like,
but this doesn't allow for services such as the police, fire brigade or
healthcare, where arguably it is infeasible for people to pay for the
rights to have access to these services. Privatised fire brigades have
been done before and no one is happy when a fire truck drives right by a
burning house that hasn't payed for its protection.
My other big complaint with Objectivism is that it has no long-term view -
it cares only for what can be created today. There is some assumption that
whatever is created today by brilliant inventors who work only for
themselves will somehow benefit everyone and that we shouldn't care about
what happens in twelve months time. This kind of thinking leads to the
development of products / materials that may have long-term negative
consequences for use on personal health or environmental resources.
In short, I can see the superficial attraction of Objectivism, but can see
the large downsides of a world full of individualists doing what they think
is best as they see fit. In short, Objectivism falls over because it does
not play nice with others - what happens when my rational self-interest
impedes on your rational self-interest? In works such as "Atlas Shrugged",
great men and women recognise the work of other great men and women as
though it is automatically obvious to see. They see these people as
kindred spirits. This doesn't translate to the real world. Many great
thinkers and inventors have banged heads and attempted to destroy each
other, both professionally and personally (Edison against Tesla springs
to mind here).
There needs to be a balance between Collective and Individual rights in
my opinion - Objectivism is too focused on the rights of the individual
to be an applicable philosophy through which to view the world.
Also, before we get into the Christian bits - I'm an athiest.
Got all that? Great - let's talk about BioShock.
3.5 DOES BIOSHOCK SHOW A DISTOPIAN OBJECTIVIST SOCIETY?
-------------------------------------------------------
Simple answer: yes. The developers say it does... or at least shows a
distopia that arises from a collapsing society built on Objectivist ideals.
Long answer: No, I don't think so. BioShock shows a collapsing society, but
it is arguably collapsing because it wasn't Objectivist enough.
Before you write your angry emails - I'm not saying that Rapture wouldn't
be in the state it's in if Objectivism had been strictly adhered to.
It very well could have collapsed (and, in my belief, probably would have).
However, there is plenty of evidence within BioShock that this society hasn't
adhered to Objectivism as it has been described, so placing all the blame at
Objectivism's feet for what goes on across the course of the game is misguided.
Andrew Ryan starts off as the Randian hero in many ways - visionary,
resourceful, inventive, indifferent to what others think of his actions and
completely inflexible in what he does. However, he is very quick to see force
used (in the forms of torture and capital punishment) for those he sees as
"criminals" and "parasites", which is in violation of Objectivism's rejection
of such force. Were he more Objectivist, he should have simply expelled these
people from Rapture and returned them to the surface. He doesn't do so because
he's paranoid about the CIA / KGB discovering his little world and is
obviously afraid that someone is going to come down and ruin his God complex.
Additionally, Ryan certainly removes the people of Rapture's ability to act
in rational, self-interested ways by controlling them through the use of
pheremones in the air supply.
As such, Ryan is arguably a control freak in Objectivist clothing - he may
believe and be able to talk about his Objectivist ideals (e.g. the power
of the market, the propganda posters located around Rapture, The Great Chain),
but when it comes to actually putting them into practice and dealing with some
competition, be clamps down via force. Rapture is his world and he doesn't
share. Perhaps the banner in the Lighthouse would better read, "No Gods. No
Kings. Only Me." as it pertains to Ryan's attitude towards Rapture.
Rapture also contains a number of non-Objectivist systems - there is a police
force, poor house and orphanage. A purely Objectivist society shouldn't need a
police force - it wouldn't be necessary if the people living in Rapture were
living up to the ideals stated in Section 3.3. Facilities such as a poor house
and orphanage are also arguably too altrustic for an Objectivist society -
surely such things at least border on being parasitic on the greater society?
It turns out that these things (run by Fontaine, a criminal) are actually
fronts for other things (i.e. the creation of Big Daddies and Little Sisters)
but arguably they should not exist at all within an Objectivist society. At
best, Rapture appears to have been a mixed system anyway (i.e. only partly
Objectivist), which is something Rand would have rejected as being workable
(or worthwhile).
Another big sign that Rapture isn't a house where Objectivism lives is the
fact that ghosts can be seen at certain points by the Narrator. Objectivism,
with its "A is A", things-can-be-measured rejection of the supernatural, has
no place for ghosts, so that they appear in Rapture at all tends to suggest
that Objectivism is absent. Sure, there is mention of the ghosts being
part of 'genetic memory', but even the source of that information is a bit
incredulous that such a thing could happen.
*UPDATE: Stephen Deininger indicated that the genetic memory issue stands up
due to the audio diary information, which is (from ShadowsDieAway's excellent
Audio Diary Guide):
42  McDonagh - Seeing Ghosts
Seems like some poor blighters have started seeing ghosts. Ghosts! Ryan
tells me it's a side effect of this plasmid business. One poor sod's
memories getting passed on to another through genetic sampling. Leaks.
Lunatics. Rebellion. And now bleeding ghosts. Ain't life in Rapture
grand?
I still don't see it being quite as simple as that, because the ghosts you
see are mostly directly linked to the narrative. Why doesn't the Narrator
experience the people of Rapture doing day-to-day things, like dancing or
talking or in better times? The ghosts provide information that is directly
useful to the in-game narrative. I can't accept ghosts as being purely genetic
memory because the ghosts you see are too specific. Case in point: Ryan's
murder of Jasmine Jolene. Having looked at Ryan, he doesn't look spliced up.
In fact, it appears that Ryan knows that ghosts are a potential consequence
of splicing, so why would he splice himself and allow his memories to be
potentially accessed by the populace? Especially the brutal murder of his
mistress? I recognise that the ghost serve as a narrative conceit, allowing
us to witness scenes that the Narrator wasn't there for, but I can't
accept "genetic memory" because it strikes me as too lazy an answer.
My final comment about the lack of Objectivist thinking in Rapture is the
appearance of two different religions. Christian icons and symbols appear in
some locations of Rapture, while the idle rich citizens of this city appear
to have taken up in a more debaucherous, probably blood-thirsty cult and
become Houdini Splicers as a result (see Section 3.6 for a greater
discussion of this). An Objectivist society wouldn't have God (or gods)
as part of its social fabric.
Does BioShock have Objectivist elements? Absolutely. But I think it is hard
to argue in any detail that Objectivism is what went wrong (or was the cause
of what went wrong) in Rapture. The slow collapse of Rapture is due to a
mixture of human pride, fear and greed - the same combination of emotions that
have been the downfall of many societies. That these factors have combined
in a world that lives under the facade of being Objectivist does not mean
that it is the philosophy that is directly to blame for the collapse.
3.6 RELIGION IN BIOSHOCK
------------------------
*UPDATE - I've renamed this section from "Christian Symbols in BioShock" to
its current title since I'm going to also cover a bit more of the pre-
Christian references that can be seen in BioShock here.
Sitting along side all that Objectivism is quite a bit of Christian
iconography and symbolism. Although he probably named it with a sense of
irony, the mere fact that Ryan called his underwater city "Rapture" - a
Christian event where the righteous are summoned up to Heaven, leaving the
sinners behind for judgement - shows a link back to Christianity. However,
like Objectivism, Christianity hardly gets a positive showing in BioShock.
The first time the Narrator sees a Christian influence in BioShock is at the
entrance to Neptune's Bounty - a corpse remains of someone who has been
hanged, arms tied out reminiscent of being crucified, the word "Smuggler"
painted above their head and a Bible in the briefcase at their feet. An
Objectivist society would reject religion, but they wouldn't go stringing
people up like this.
(*UPDATE: AlphaHumana commented that the bodies in Dr Steinman's operating
room are also shown as being crucified, which you see before you reach
Neptune's Bounty. I can see this point, but I found the placement of a
Bible at the feet of a figure who has been crucified to be have a much
stronger Christian symbolism than they do when the crucified bodies
around Dr Steinman.)
As the Narrator progresses, they will come across other Christian icons -
stacks of Bibles can be found, along with crucifixes, in many areas of
Neptune's Bounty. Certain splicers will sing "Jesus Loves Me" in halting
tones. Given that Neptune's Bounty is the fishery area of Rapture - arguably
one of the most working