Would You Kindly? BioShock and Free Will

Gamasutra examines the way in which BioShock gave us the perception that we had control over our own destiny, when in fact we were really a slave to Atlus the whole time.

If the Little Sisters are the face of the game, it’s Jack and the ugly secret of his birth and brainwashing that is BioShock’s heart. This is the core of why the player should care about their narrator as more than just a voice that tells them what to do. It’s where the story’s narrative strength and player motivation come from, and It’s what makes the relationship with Atlas and Fontaine so interesting.

The impact of Atlas’s betrayal is made through strengthening the player’s trust of him throughout the first half of the game. Atlas feels trustworthy, and it’s due in no small part to the fact that his motivations mirror the player’s. In a collapsing underwater hellhole, escape is the natural conclusion. Not to mention that, with Andrew Ryan doing everything he can to kill Jack, trusting his enemy is a fairly logical step. Ryan’s dispassionate and patronizing attitude towards the player also gives the tension a personal touch.

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This is a game that alternatively takes and hands back the player’s free will while the whole while keeping them on an unbending linear narrative. Nothing changes from the first half of the game to the second but the player’s perception of their free will. Just because there’s only one option that feels right doesn’t mean that there isn’t choice involved.

This examination, in this way and of this nature, is something that was only possible by capitalizing on narrative strengths unique to video games. For this reason alone, it’s important as an example of what games can achieve when they get over their cinematic inferiority complex and spot trying to become a movie anytime they want to tell a story.