BioShock Did Something INCREDIBLE

the original BioShock BioShock Infinite and the other one are some of my favorite games the original BioShock came out all the way back in 2007 which was a very different era at the time George debía was still president the original iPhone had just been released and I was a nine-year-old kid doing what ever nine year olds do probably learning about multiplication and eating my own boogers and I also may have been making videos online that are still up but you're never gonna find I didn't play Bioshock until many years later when I was allowed to play M rated games and without them traumatizing me mostly not gonna lie when I was a kid the adrenaline rush I got from Lego Indiana Jones made me want to avoid anything that wasn't a sports game like the plague I just couldn't handle the thrill and terror when I was younger back then Bioshock was a revolutionary game no one had delved into the world of survival horror in such a way before or at least not as well Bioshock combines so many elements from different genres of games such as horror shooter RPG and others nowadays that combination may not seem very uncommon but 13 years ago it was rare to say the least many praised and still praised Bioshock for its immersive world of rapture its engrossing storyline it's solid shooter stealth and combat mechanics and its array of different and fun biological abilities the original Bioshock is deemed as one of the greatest games of all time for some transcending the world of video games and becoming a form of higher art for me Bioshock is a game that still stands up pretty well today ironically while writing this video I noticed that a Bioshock collection which combines all three Bioshock games in their DLCs is one of the free PS plus games of February that's not entirely relevant to what this video is about but hopefully that coincidence plays out in my favor in some way I strongly believe Bioshock does incredible things with its characters world and medium that unfortunately many players never notice to explain what everybody's missing I'm going to start by talking about College English classes and the film 1917 as I got older I became more interested in writing specifically creative writing I enjoyed analyzing movies and videogames not books as much because I don't really like reading but I started to look deeper into these things than the average person and I found enjoyment in creating my own stories as well something I learned in my university creative writing classes before I got kicked out yeah don't ask was the importance of choosing which perspective to write in you've probably all heard of first person third person and maybe even second person points of view specifically when it comes to books and poems but something that might be less looked into is how this applies to movies videogames and generally why this choice is so important when making a story and just in case you have no idea what I'm talking about a first-person story would have senses in it such as I am a pleb third person would have the same sense written as Timbo is a pleb and the awkward barely used second person story would be written as you are a plug well a plebe from their third-person perspectives can be split up into two subcategories third person limited and third person omniscient the names are pretty self-explanatory but an omniscient a narrator is seen as an eye in the sky free of bias or preference and is full knowledge of all characters and situations an example of this is the Scarlet Letter which was just a joy to read in high school a limited narrator is different from the first-person perspective in its writing but it only knows what's going on in the heart and mind of one person its perspective is limited as if it was seen from the eyes of only one character in the story an example of this one would be Harry Potter perspectives and point of view don't seem as important in things like movies and video games but they still play a role most movies have a third-person omniscient narrator as the camera acts like a god-like eye in the sky surveying everything and showing multiple characters actions and motivations however there are a few exceptions to the norm when I was being the recent film 1917 at this point you may be wondering where I'm going with this but I promise it will all come together in the end 1917 and other things like it such as God of War tell the story in a unique in immersive way unlike most forms of cinematography 1917 chooses to make the entire film appear as if it's all taken in one continuous camera shop this is obviously clipped together with a few clever edits but 1917 still manages to have a mobile camera follow every second of the action because of this the camera in 1917 became a character in itself it gets the audience closer to the action as if they were there with the soldiers interacting on screen appearing much more like a video game that constantly follows the perspective of the playable character but even many video games venture into cutscenes with more general film like angles cutting two different characters at other times in faraway places God of War in for this example 1917 doesn't do this all throughout the story it continues to stay in the perspective of one character not giving the audience any insight on what's happening outside of their point of view in many ways one can make the claim that films like 1917 in games like God of War choose to have a third person limited narrator but why now there's no right or wrong answer here necessarily but picking what point of view to tell your story in before even writing it is often overlooked despite being a crucial part of the process this was so important that before writing anything in my writing classes I would have to explain in a paragraph why I chose the perspective that I did most people just pick third-person omniscient because it's the easiest to write from because the narrator just knows absolutely everything but picking a different one in the right scenario can make a huge difference I would make the argument that if 1917 was filmed like the normal movie with tons of camera cuts it would not be nearly as interesting and impactful the way in which the movie was filmed was what makes it stand out now what does any of this have to do with Bioshock Bioshock uses point of view as well as its medium better than anything I have ever seen I'm not gonna get super detailed on this but I'm now going to spoil the entire story of course including the big twist of Bioshock maybe I'll make an ending explained in the future that's more detailed if you guys want that who knows just don't say I didn't warn you Bioshock follows the journey of Jack a pretty normal looking dude in a sweater probably a turtleneck around the underwater city of Rapture its 1960 the year of actually I don't know it wasn't alive the game begins with Jack getting into a plane crash landing in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and stumbling upon a lighthouse that takes him down to rapture rapture was created by a Walt Disney Johnny Depp with a mustache Logan dude named Andrew Ryan Ryan wanted to create a utopia for society's elite to flourish outside of government control and petty morality yes I got that sense from Wikipedia enraptured science expanded with the discovery of the material called Adam which allowed users to alter their DNA granting them superhuman abilities obviously Andrew Ryan's attempt at a utopia didn't last as long as he would have hoped a man named Frank Fontaine led class distinctions that were forming and rapture leading to an all-out attack on Ryan on New Year's Eve in 1958 the battle left many dead turning rapture into hell on earth which is of course where our main character comes in stuck in rapture Jack is quickly contacted by a guy named Atlas atlas offers a helping hand to Jack and asks if Jack will aid him in taking over Ryan and rescuing his family fast-forwarding much later in the story Jack finally encounters Andrew Ryan in his office it's revealed that Atlas is actually Frank Fontaine and that he has been controlling Jack through the trigger phrase would you kindly throughout the entire game Jack also discovers that he's Ryan's illegitimate child who was taken by Fontaine at birth genetically modified to age rapidly sent to the surface and set back down to rapture in order to access doors and other things that were locked long ago and be used as a trump card to win the war against Ryan now this twist was mind-blowing and it still is to this day it was smart unexpected and played into the overall themes of the game but this twist goes a lot deeper than you might think if you haven't figured it out yet this is how perspective and point of view play into this entire thing Bioshock is a first-person game with elements of survival horror and RPG it's not entirely uncommon but I mentioned before that it was an uncommon thing back in 2007 the playable character jack is also mute he's faceless and silent throughout the entire story which isn't necessarily rare but not all games make this choice BioShock Infinite for example gave Booker DeWitt a face and plenty of dialogue I understand that this point might be completely accidental but for the sake of this video we're going to assume that making Jack mute was done intentionally all of these elements not only immerse you deeper into the dystopian city of Rapture but it's also done to make Jack the player can see themselves through other games create characters that you control but they are their own person with their own thoughts and motivations but when playing Bioshock you sitting there with the controller become Jack because without a face and without a voice he can be essentially anyone why is this important though it's important because if Jack can be you then the events and revelations Jack is experiencing can be applied directly to you the player the twist that happens to Jack can now also happen to you this is how Bioshock uses point of view to its advantage Jack realizes that this entire time he's been a pawn in a bigger plot serving as a slave who blindly listens to every command he's given because of this Jack's humanity is put into question is he a man with free will or is he a slave obeying everything the puppet masters are telling him to do this is a powerful question that makes the audience think about Society humanity power government and individualism but things get a lot closer to home when you really start the thing about what the game is doing to illustrate this point this is an added layer that I haven't really mentioned prior to this the fact that Bioshock is a video game plays a big factor as well because what do you the player do in video games all the time you listen to various objectives to progress through this story blindly following and relying on arrows and markers that tell you where to go and what to do with this being true you can now ask that same question jack is asking himself to you are you a human with free will or are you blindly following directions living a life designed for you or someone else are you working towards what you want or are you a pawn in someone else's plan it's truly a moment that makes you put down the controller and just think about life now I'm not gonna get into all that deep stuff but I hope you can now see how point of view perspective and the medium itself can elevate the impact of the theme and a story if Bioshock was a film or book it would not have been as powerful if Bioshock was a third person game where Jack talked and acted as his own vessel it would not have been as impactful not only does this add a layer to some of the brilliance behind this game but it gives a clear example of how important some of these overlooked and seemingly insignificant story elements can be if you're writing your own story you can now ask yourself if it works best in the first or third person or second if you want to be and you can think about whether the story would work best as a movie book short story videogame etc most people don't think about it all that much and there are many examples of stories in a medium that simply don't fit look at like all video game movies for example there's a reason that they aren't supposed to movies but hopefully now you can see that when these elements are considered and placed in the correct setting it can elevate a story to an entirely new level I hope you guys enjoyed this video if you did leaving me a positive rating is greatly appreciated we've got tons of different video ideas lined up and I'm planning an uploading for sure every Friday at 2:30 central time and if I have a lot of free time or I'm feeling really motivated I'll throw in another one on Tuesday most likely for more content like this make sure to subscribe thank you all so much for watching god bless and as always I'll see you in the next [Music]

Channel: Timbo

Views: 539,019

Keywords: bioshock, bioshock gameplay, bioshock infinite, bioshock 2, bioshock the collection, ps plus, free february, review, analysis, trailer, plot twist, bioshock remastered, free games, new bioshock game, did something incredible, bioshock ending, bioshock explained, before you buy, bioshock story, rapture, timbo

Id: dr1KRmmDjy0

Length: 12min 10sec (730 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 14 2020