In my anticipation for the game, I had made myself a little plan for Bioshock. I was going to harvest the little buggers the first time around and go buckwild with ADAM. I would then know which plasmids were worth picking up to use the second time around, when I would rescue them all. It was a good idea, in theory…
…but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Rapture is a city filled with people who have compromised their morality in order to survive. If I did the same, would I be any better than they are? I decided that being kind of guy who clings to his values under pressure better fit the narrative I was building up in my head. I’ve saved five of them so far, and exploring the alternate reward scheme is turning out to be quite interesting.
Is it silly to personalize a video game in this manner? Yeah, it is. It’s also, in my mind, the mark of a great work of fiction.
August 28th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Still, there is nothing stopping you or anyone from playing one way, then playing again a different way. Not only did I plan to harvest as much ADAM as I could on my first run, I did just that. I’m on my second run now, and I am rescuing all the Little Sisters specifically for the achievement. Yes, that method is a bit more rewarding but, as you might can infer from my WoW talk over at Leigh’s site, I am a man who likes to see content. I would be limiting myself if I never choose the harvest path, nor can my hardened heart begin to see the Little Sisters as anything more than a serious of 1s and 0s marvelous displayed on my HDTV. You are only destroying that which is artificial and it does not affect your real persona nor should it cause you to lose sleep.
August 29th, 2007 at 12:20 am
Oh I’ll definately harvest them all on my next playthrough, even if the ending is the only thing that changes. Somehow I don’t think I’ll feel bad about it either; I’ll have already have the character narrative written in my head from the first playthrough.
I guess I’m a big old softie in many ways, I still get choked up when fictional characters die (especially in a game like Bioshock that seems specifically designed to toy with your emotions).
Looking forward to your Two Worlds review, Dave, I’ve heard mixed things.
August 31st, 2007 at 10:39 pm
Oh right, my Two Worlds review that I promised and never delivered. Here it is, just for you, dude:
Horrible, horrible voice acting, gross clipping and collision bugs and wonky controls are being forgiven by clueless gamers. It so wants to be Oblivion yet falls so short of the mark that there is good reason none of the majors are giving this game the time of day. I was strangely compelled to keep at it for a while out of some misguided Diablo comparison was made to me, but ultimately I found the game to be very lacking and not worthy of any more of my time.
September 1st, 2007 at 1:43 am
What a shame, I was rather keen on the idea of Oblivion with online play.
Forsooth, doth I hateth fake Medieval talk.
September 1st, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Verily, I say, fake Ren fair gibberish doth maketh my ears bleed. Tis an abomination, I say.
November 6th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
I work at a website where people play video games for a living. I can tell you that you arent the only softy out there. It breaks my heart to harvest even if they are just 1s and 0s