BioShock (series): Difference between revisions

[[Describe Topic Here|Would you kindly describe BioShock here]]?

 

 

Settings take place in alternative histories with a heavy dose of [[Zeerust]]. The backstories of the setting are elaborated upon in [[Apocalyptic Logs]] scattered about. There are usually heavy ethical or philosophical themes in the game as well.

There are three games in the series so far:

* ''[[BioShock]]'': Released in 2007. After his plane crashes over the Atlantic Ocean in 1960, Jack discovers the underwater city of Rapture, an Objectivist utopia built by Andrew Ryan that has descended into chaos after the residents got their hands on the superpower giving substance [[Psycho Serum|ADAM]]. With the help of [[Rebel Leader]] Atlas and [[The Atoner|former]] [[Mad Scientist]] Brigid Tenenbaum, Jack has to stop Ryan and his army of Splicers to escape Rapture. But it won't be easy, Jack with have to harness the power of ADAM himself, which can only be harvested from the "[[Powered by a Forsaken Child|Little Sisters]]" running around Rapture, and they are protected by huge armored bodyguards called [[Giant Mook|Big Daddies]]. A [[Prequel]] novel titled ''[[BioShock: Rapture]]'' was released in 2011.

* ''[[BioShock Infinite]]'': To be released in 2013, and set in a different continuity than the first two games. A Pinkterton agent named Booker DeWitt is sent to the lost floating city of Columbia to rescue a girl named Elizabeth. Unfortunately, the city has erupted in a massive civil war between the Ultranationalist Founders and the rebellious Vox Populi, and Elizabeth is guarded by the giant clockwork robot Songbird.

 

** {{spoiler|"Would you kindly?"}}

* [[Arrows on Fire]]: One of the alt-fires for the crossbow shoots flaming bolts

** And there are the "Protector Trials" DLC in ''BioShock 2''.

** According to several logs, Big Daddies were officially called 'Protectors' and were nicknamed by scientists only after Gilbert Alexander developed 'bond conditioning' to maximize the Protectors' efficiency.

* [[Bee-Bee Gun]]: The Insect Swarm plasmid, a particularly gruesome example. "Bees! I hate bees! I'm allergic!" In the sequel, the fully-upgraded plasmid ''turns slain enemies into proximity-activated beehive bombs''.

* [[Berserk Button]]: Don't touch a Little Sister while a Big Daddy's around, unless you want to end up on the business end of a huge drill {{spoiler|-such as what happened to [[Evilutionary Biologist|Dr. Suchong]]-}}or nailed to the wall with a rivet through your brain.

* [[Big Brother Is Watching]]: Rapture is dotted with security cameras, and if one gets a long enough glimpse of you, it dispatches combat drones to put you down. On the upside, you can hack said cameras so that enemies trigger the drone attacks. The sequel ''[[BioShock 2]]'' features this trope even more directly as it sometimes has voices warning you over the loudspeaker that "Big ''Sister'' is Watching You!", along with graffiti warning that "LAMB IS WATCHING".

* [[Big Eater]]: Disposable food items are used instantly and there are no consumption limits. This is okay for, for example, a Pep Bar, but reaches the point of "grotesque superpower" when Delta or Jack manages to bolt down an entire potted steak or drink a whole bottle of moonshine, three Arcadia Merlot bottles and a shelf of vodka roughly one second per bottle, or chew their way through an entire storeroom full of supplies just because they can ... especially Delta, who's wearing a ''sealed diving helmet''. Mitigated somewhat by any sort of alcoholic drink, if you drink two or more in quick succession, you'll experience some serious beer goggle effects.

* [[Brass Balls]]: Both games uses this as a name for an achievement in some way. The first game has 'Brass Balls' which requires you to finish the game on Hard difficulty without using any Vita-Chambers. The second game has 'Big Brass Balls' which only requires you to complete the game without using any Vita-Chambers.

* [[Bribing Your Way to Victory]]: A bizarre in universe example. Thanks to the hyper capitalist nature of Rapture, you can literally buy the security systems that are supposed to be keeping you out and use them on enemies instead.

* [[Charm Person]]: The Hypnotize Big Daddy plasmid. The Hypnotize plasmid in general, really.

* [[Children Are a Waste]]: In one loading screen, a scientist, Dr. Suchong, is quoted saying that children are a waste because they mature slowly, and consume resources while contributing nothing. He then remarks that "There must be something to be done to speed the process."

* [[Death Is a Slap on The Wrist]]: A light slap at that thanks to the Vita-Chambers scattered throughout the levels. The sequel acknowledges this when the villain admits that the best she can do is slow you down {{spoiler|and attempts to get rid of you permanently by destroying all the Vita-Chambers in the area via crush depth}}. Unless, of course, you turn them off for an achievement run.

* [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything]]: The player can create improvised Molotov cocktails by using the Incinerate! plasmid on alcoholic beverage' bottles, and then trowing them with Telekinesis.

* [[Downloadable Content]]: A small pack of additional plasmids and tonics was released shortly after release along with one of the patches, while the [[Play Station 3]] version had DLC containing three challenge rooms and a [[New Game+]] mode. The sequel has just had some additional content for the multiplayer released. Reception has been mixed, mainly as many of the additions were already on the disc and just needed to be unlocked.

** ''[[BioShock 2]]'' also features two single-player DLC packs: the Protector Trials, in which you play as a nondescript Alpha Series in different scenarios protecting a Little Sister gathering ADAM, and Minerva's Den, a self-contained story featuring new weapons, enemies, and a new protagonist.

** As regards Ryan in particular, it's hinted by the audio diary "Fontaine Must Go" and the fact that his name is plastered all over the city's signage that his motives in building Rapture were less to do with creating a haven for the world's elite, and more to do with creating a haven for ''himself'' where he could milk the inhabitants for all they're worth... one way or another.

* [[Karma Meter]]: The first one attempted it with the Rescue/Harvest choice for dealing with Little Sisters, and even the game's director admitted the black or white choice was a poor implementation. It was also incredibly harsh: harvest just two out of 21 Little Sisters, and you get the evil ending. The sequel seems to go through the motions by giving you the same choices again, just twice, ''but'' there are also three characters whom you can choose to kill or spare, which also affects the ending, giving a total of four: Mother Theresa, baby-eater, [[Judge Dredd]] and [[I Did What I Had to Do]].

* [[La Résistance]]: How Atlas' followers view themselves.

* [[Large Ham]]: Some audio diaries come to mind. For example, ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQls88y-i6w/ Pierre Gobbi is practically chewing on the scenery when expressing his unhappiness about the watered-down wine]''. Wine to a Frenchman is [[Serious Business]].

** Sofia Lamb is a rare example of a Mad Social Scientist.

* [[Magic by Any Other Name]]: There's a plasmid equivalent of just about every standard RPG magic power, as long as you have the EVE.

* [[Malevolent Masked Men]]: Splicers often wear Mardi Gras-ish masks. Possibly justified, as it's stated in Audio-Logs that everything really went to hell in Rapture on New Year's Day. And considering some of their appearances otherwise...

* [[Mama Bear]]: The Rosebud Splicer's main reason for the descent into madness and the violence that follows appears to be her search for her missing daughter.

** Lamb is a rather fitting name for someone starting a seemingly benevolent, pacifistic religious movement.

* [[Mind Over Matter]]: The Telekinesis plasmid. "Pick up big stuff with your mind. Throw them at your enemies. What else do you need to know?"

* [[Monster Clown]]: "Fill your ''Cravings'' at the Circus of ''Values!'' ''[[Evil Laugh|Hahahahahaaaa]]!!''"

* [[The Movie]]: Expected eventually (still in pre-production as of Fall 2010), directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (''[[28 Weeks Later]]''), written by John Logan (''[[Gladiator (film)|Gladiator]]'', ''[[The Aviator]]'', ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (film)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]''), and filmed using greenscreen techniques from ''[[300]]''. Whether or not it will [[Video Game Movies Suck|suck]] remains to be seen.

* [[No OSHA Compliance]]: Justified, in that Andrew Ryan built Rapture specifically to get away from pesky things like workplace safety laws. In his city, something like OSHA would be thought of as a statist effort to destroy capitalism. You can even find [[X Days Since...|"X days since last accident" signs]] in various places, but the number is ''never'' very high. Also, there's little point since the whole city is literally falling apart anyways.

* [[Not So Different]]:

** In the sequel, {{spoiler|Lamb's version of "the greater good" is ultimately as monstrous and terrible as Ryan's philosophy, and she's just as willing to cast those ideals aside (and screw the rest) when it comes to saving herself}}.

* [[Not Wearing Tights]]: A lot of [[Stock Super Powers]] are thrown about, but the closest anyone gets to a superhero costume are armoured diving suits or masks, and they're not of the "cool" variety.

* [[Plot Coupon That Does Something]]: ADAM, and the Little Sisters who produce it.

* [[Posthumous Character]]: You learn a lot about some characters from all the plentiful audio diaries you recover, hearing about their life in pre-crapsack Rapture, their hopes and dreams, their role during the civil war... and then you find their corpse. In the sequel, certain characters from the first game manage to cast their shadow over everything despite being dead for 10 years or more.

* [[Power Perversion Potential]]:

** Medpacks heal anything from skinned knees to STD's.

* [[Psycho Serum]]: Once again, ADAM. The only ones not affected are the Little Sisters, who are instead hallucinating a luxurious dream world instead of the corpse-strewn, decaying madhouse they're wandering through.

* [[Punk Punk]]: Has shades of [[Dieselpunk]] (In Era), [[Biopunk]] (In Technology), [[Steampunk]] (In Asthetics), and [[Ocean Punk]] (In Location and city function).

* [[Punch Clock Villain]]s:

** And in ''BioShock 2'', they are only after you because they think you're trying to kill or corrupt their messiah.

* [[Ragdoll Physics]]: Telekinesis lets you use debris, furniture, even dead bodies as weapons. You can even use the plasmid to yank a Splicer's mask off and beat them to death with it. In ''[[BioShock 2]]'', the speargun's reusable ammo can be TK'ed out of an attacker and thrown right back in.

* [[Red Light District]]:

** [[Meaningful Name|Eve's Garden]] in Fort Frolic. "Come bite the apple!"

* [[Respawning Enemies]]:

** Each level is slowly repopulated with Splicers over time, but the respawn rate is low enough that it's not too annoying. On the other hand, the Big Daddies respawn almost immediately, which would be more annoying if they weren't totally harmless when left alone, not to mention useful with the right plasmids.

** Daddy's giving you [[Circling Birdies|stars and birdies!]]

* [[Unusable Enemy Equipment]]:

** In the sequel, Alpha Series' use upgraded weapons. You can only loot them for ammo, not trade your vanilla grenade launcher for one with the shield or a two-shot shotgun for a six-shot one.

* [[Utopia Justifies the Means]]: Ironically, Ryan turns Rapture into a police state in order to protect his Objectivist Libertarian dream city. Meanwhile, Sofia Lamb of the sequel is an even greater believer in this trope, being an collectivist taken [[Up to Eleven]], desiring to do "good" for a people she views mainly as tools.

** The bad ending of the original has Tenenbaum chew you out for being such an amoral monster, which shouldn't bother you if you made the decisions to earn it.

** Sofia Lamb attempts to invoke this tirelessly throughout the course of the sequel, but for the most part her accusations are ineffectual. Although, if Delta's been a particularly abusive father, it can hit pretty hard.

{{quote|'''Atlas:''' Why do they wear those masks? Maybe there's a part of them that remembers how they used to be, how they used to look. And they're ashamed.}}

* [[Why Isn't It Attacking?]]: You, potentially.