BioShock is a classic, but its heavy-handed politics shouldn't be celebrated

Often celebrated for its political story, Irrational Games' classic was actually over-simplistic and overplayed.

[spicelicka]

Well written and interesting topic. I can't remember much of Biochock's political statement but I will say that it perfectly complimented the theme of the game. I wouldn't say it's particularly celebrated for its politics, its mostly celebrated for its dark theme, gameplay, unique and thrilling storyline, and a stunning atmosphere.

[mastershredder]

Go pound some salt. You are totally disconnected.

Chumps like this are not happy, unless it's somehow about THEM...because you know..the world revolves arround them and what they think.

[MilkMan]

Huh? One of the reasons the games are such potent pieces of gaming is BECAUSE of their ideologies. They made for a fantastic setting and added much gravitas to the events taking place.
Nowadays narratives are so underwhelming you can play games muted.
Please, stop with this nonsense. This is the second article I've read about Bioshock politics. Play Call of Duty or whatever the hell tickles your fancy and leave what is arguably one of the last great games with stories worth remembering alone.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Um, it fit within everything else in the game world. There was clear reason why the plot was setup the way it was, and it's unfolded throughout the story. Bioshock actually had some of the better storytelling and plot in the last decade, made even more surprising coming from a FPS.

[opinionated]

Its main political statement is: "Aren't libertarians bad?" with a side order of "Did you know that building a city underwater to live totally away from contact with the rest of the world is a bad idea?".

Lmao! You mock "college level pondering" only to come up with that preschool level conclusion. You obviously have no idea what you are talking about.. I'm a libertarian and the game is genius aside from the dumb end boss. Game writing is a difficult beast and they fucking nailed it. You are the simple factor in this equation.

[sullynathan]

Bioshock did not handle its politics and ideologies well but gamers still praise it. The game isn't genius, everyone knows irrational remade System shock 2 with bioshock.

A lot of people have criticized this game for even more than just politics. It wasn't as good as people think.

[BongSmack]

"It wasn't as good as people think." What? It can't be any worse or better than anyone thinks. How people perceive something isn't up to anyone else. It can only be exactly as good as people think.

[DimensionalSound]

Any game that aspires to deliver a message greater than "Press X to Jump" should be celebrated. It can be criticized, and should be, but the more this medium grows, the better.

[quent]

It "adds" to the fictional world of Rapture and the motives of its denizens, its called good storytelling, I've never found the story pretentious, forced or invasive in anyway and I wish more games would put more of a spin on unique fictional storytelling by adding real world relate able aspects of the human condition.

"power Corrupts"

[IamTylerDurden1]

I love that Bioshock had political and social overtones. It makes me enjoy it even more.

I caught the whole "Atlas" thing.

[FreeSpeech69]

Who cares, any ideology taken to extremes could be bad and at the end of the day Bioshock is an amazing game. Anarchy is a cool idea in concept but yeap couldn't actually work just like Socialism can't actually work. It's always going to be somewhere in between and Art should constantly be criticizing politics in general tbh. People should be skeptical of thinking "My ISM is best ISM and all other ISM should be destroyed".

[Master of Unlocking]

Very good read, wish there were more videogames-related articles like this one. It's true that some messages in Bioshock are dodgy at best. The first time around you don't pay attention to them, as you're captured by the pretty unique atmosphere of that underwater city that seems to have been pulled straight from the early 20th century, but after a while the radio messages and some of their content become irksome. Bioshock would've benefited from having a more humble creative director, one who wouldn't have used his game to try and show you what a smartass he is, or to settle his accounts.
Great games otherwise, of course.