"There's always a lighthouse. There's always a man, there's always a city..."

Andrew Ryan

BioShock is a video game series developed by Irrational Games (also known as 2K Boston for a short while before reverting back to the old name). The series acts as a Spiritual Successor to the System Shock games, and as such are technically First Person Shooters with Stat Grinding and Survival Horror elements. Fighting is done primarily with guns, but also with various element-themed mutant abilities.

BioShock takes place in an alternative history Bio Punk with a heavy dose of Diesel Punk. Similarly to System Shock, the plot unfolds in a Soiled City on a Hill, now under the control of a lunatic with a God complex. Again, the general backstory of the city elaborated on in Apocalyptic Logs scattered about. There are heavy ethical or philosophical themes in the games this time around: The first two chapters meditate on the ethics of gene editing, Objectivism versus Collectivism, and innate human power-drive which overrides good sense, among other things.

The third chapter deals with issues such as American Exceptionalism, interventionism, fundamentalism, secularism, and a great many more "isms", plus the tendency of revolutions to replace one tyrant with another.

There are three games in the series so far:

An Updated Re-release of Infinite containing all DLCs came out in November 2014. Another rerelease compiling all three games (minus the multiplayer elements of BioShock 2) came out on September 13, 2016 for the X Box One and PlayStation 4, and on September 15 for PC.

"So far away from your family, from your friends, from everything you ever loved. But, for some reason you like it here. You feel something you can't quite put your finger on. Think about it for a second and maybe the word will come to you: nostalgia."

Brute Splicer: You ain't natural!

Female Splicer: Freak!

Another Female Splicer: YOU'RE INSANE!

Andrew Ryan: In the end, the only thing that matters to me, is me. And the only thing that matters to you, is you.

Mary: Capital punishment! In Rapture! This isn't what I signed up for!

Jim: Now hold on there, pretty lady! The only people who face capital punishment in Rapture are smugglers. And that's because they put everything we've worked for at risk. Imagine if the Soviets found out about our wonderful city, or even the U.S. government! Our secrecy is our shield.

Mary: A little capital punishment is a small price to pay to protect all of our freedoms.

Jim: Now you're talking, Mary!

Baby Jane: I used to be beautiful, what happened to me?

Gatherer's Garden machine: My daddy's smarter than Einstein, stronger than Hercules, and can light a fire with a snap of his fingers. Are you as good as my daddy, mister?

Andrew Ryan: I know this facility is vital to the preservation of secrecy in Rapture. But seeing myself transformed into that... lurching, waxen nightmare... Do children truly respond to this? Still, I spoke to a young man exiting the park after the grand opening, asking him what, if anything, he had learned here. He said his chores didn't seem so bad anymore - as long as mother wouldn't send him to the surface.

The game presents the Little Sisters as a moral choice, but the way it reacts to those choices makes it less moral and more practical - if you harvest one, you get more ADAM right now. If you rescue one, you get less ADAM immediately - but for every three Little Sisters you rescue, you get a gift at the nearest plasmid vendor containing only a little less ADAM than you would have gained by harvesting, plus a couple plasmids or gene tonics, including a few you can't get any other way. So the only real reason to harvest Little Sisters is just because you're a bastard. The sequel is mildly better in this regard: you get a fair bit more ADAM for harvesting than rescuing, about three entire rescued Sisters worth.

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.

"We all make choices, but in the end, our choices make us."

See the rest here:

BioShock (Video Game) - TV Tropes