A Look Back At The Story of Bioshock 

Something I didn’t hear you mention when it came to the importance of the term “Atlas” in Bioshock is that the entire game is pretty much one big reference to the book “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand. In the book, rebellious capitalists disgusted with how the government controls the business world and exploits their productivity plan to create a place where the world’s top business leaders can pursue their business and creative adventures freely, thus creating the perfect “individualist” paradise. The book ends with the planning of this place and Bioshock basically picks up where it left off, critiquing how the “perfect individualist paradise” would actually play out. There’s also no coincidence that “Atlas” was a politician before attempting to take over rapture, as it’s heavily implied in “Atlas Shrugged” that the perfect capitalist utopia could not exist because old world politics will seep its way in and cause history to repeat with attempts to control and limit power and creativity.

I will NEVER get over Ryan's vocal performance, the "a time for all things" speech was AMAZING

If you love bioshock so much I can't recommend the book enough, reading about rapture and it's areas in its prime is stunning

As a guy that hasn’t experience this franchise, I appreciate the extra explanation to get a grasp of the story. Thank you.

Love these videos, I mainly put them on in the background while I’m working

I think 'Bioshock' is quite literally referring to the act of our "Biological system going into shock". The stuff people injecting into their bodies, causes shock to their Biology, a jump, or whatever you want to call it. I love when a title references something in the story that may seem mundane but is actually a big part of the overall story. The part where you initially inject that stuff into our main character? That scene where he falls off the balcony and he is in immense pain from the stuff he injected? That's a 'Bioshock". His internal DNA and bodily functions are changing, I imagine that's painful.. a shock.

This first game was truly something special man. One of the first games that truly hooked me and held my interest until the end, even if I felt it should’ve ended sooner than it did

It's actually so meta. So often in games the suspension ceases and we stop and ask why the main character has to follow the game's story. Bioshock's MC reasoning is actually written into the story! Very clever.

So the one thing is in the first Diane audiolog you can hear “long love atlas, death to Ryan”- it was always clear that Atlas was responsible for the new year attack

Seeing you destroy the robots and turrets hurt my soul lol. I always hacked them and used them as backup against the enemies. Great video

I didn't appreciate this game back then because as a kid, playing this game was just another horror game, but now I'm older and this game hits hard although the second still is my favorite one

It's crazy how well this game holds up! Truly an artistic masterpiece!

So glad people are still talking about this game nearly 15 years later. The first two Bioshock games will probably forever be in my top 10

The art direction of Bioshock is absolutely brilliant. A truly timeless game.

Omfg I forgot how this game started, "I chose, Rapture!" CHILLS. Also the soundtrack is amazing

“You ooze in like an assassin, and then you try to sneak out like a thief! You're no CIA spook. Who are you! Why have you come here! There's two ways to deal with mystery: uncover it, or eliminate it.” One of the most memorable lines in the game for me. Bioshock will always be my favorite game. Changed my perception on gaming and storytelling.

Bioshock 1 and 2 are masterpieces! I always saves the little sisters so the "nuke" i did not remember

Just played this, great game, a Jurassic Park quote from Ian Malcolm kept coming to mind “your scientists were to preoccupied with whether they could, they never stopped to think of they should” 🦖

I actually appreciate the audio logs instead of the usual NPCs explaining stuff to you because most of the time those are being used to advance the story while in case of audio logs you get to choose if you're interested or not

Bioshock 1 and 2 are two of my favorite games I have ever played.

I was around 8 year old, watching my older brother play bioshock 1 late at night. The only thing I remembered was the fantastic audio logs voice acting and the game was very disturbing. I'm 18 now and having played all bioshock games + DLC, it was a great experience.

They say the audio logs are unrealistic yet tiktok exists...

I love BioShock so much. When I see retrospective videos on it, I have to atleast check them out a little! I'm about 5 minutes in, and I'm loving this so far.

2:26 To be fair, a third option would have been to try camping out at the lighthouse proper. Admittedly I'm unsure if search and rescue would ever show up. You could also possibly fashion a boat out of something present, might even been Jack's plan with the Bathysphere at first. Though, how I interpret it from Jack's perspective is that he was simply poking around and didn't quite realize where the Bathysphere would take him. Once he pulled that lever though, he was stuck in Rapture and had to fight his way out.

First time playing Bioshock I uses up all the Electrobolt shots and softlocked myself before I could open the door

hahahahaha the term "colleagues" is doing some heavy lifting in the sander cohen part

I still use Bioshock as my example for an S tier story when I'm rating other games

You produce such quality content in such a short amount of time! You're incredible, dude!

Definitely cover the sequel. It's an interesting game in it's own right, for trying to capture the same magic of BioShock. I would also recommend covering Furi, since that game is just great and seems to slip under most people's radar's.

Wow! What a video. Didn't know about Bioshock's story before but you explained everything. Great job bro 👌

'Bioshock' is a spiritual successor of the game System Shock which the devs worked on previous

It's so nicely tied together. The moment where Andrew Ryan says his final "OBEY", sounds like russian word "kill" (oobey). Given that he says "dasvidaniya" in the beginning of the game, it could be a nice word play

I think Atlas statue as well as the name of the character may be a reference to Atlas Shrugged, the book by Ain Rand, the filosopher who inspired Andrew Ryan's ideology

Played and beat it for the first time last month and it was awesome. Thanks for the video! I had trouble following some of the story.

Playing this as a kid I couldn’t leave the pod at the start of the game. I was terrified.

I really like how you switch between a here- and-now perspective and retrospective one. Makes for really good storytelling :).

Such a gem of a channel and genuinely enjoying these videos so much ! Looking forward to what you have in store this year Gingy and keep up the amazing work !

So stoked I found your channel. Amazing content brother A1💯💯💯

Criminally underrated channel! Love a new Gingy upload🤙

Timeless video great to rewatch for interesting viewpointts. Thanks Gingy.

Love these video essays. Didnt even had to think twice about subbing!!

This is the first video I've seen from you and loved it. Easy subscription and would LOVE to see videos on both Bioshock 2 and Infinite.

Such a well done video, this game was incredible in so many ways

Some of the best sound design ever. Playing this game with a nice pair of headphones and the lights low doesn’t get any better.

From the first time I played it to this very day, Bioshock remains one of my favorite games. I loved it so much that I began reading Ayn Rand...

Absolute masterpiece. Practically the best example of a golden age era (PS2) with a dash of technological advancement.

This was so good, please consider doing Bioshock 2 & infinite!

i will say the one thing i liked about fontaine's boss appearance is that he looks like a statue of atlas.

It actually makes sense that a lot of people use the audio logs as it’s an actual product in rapture, you can find several posters/pictures of ads for it throughout rapture

I played Bioshock for the first time when I was 9. It was terrifying and took a lot of courage to complete it, and lot of the darker themes went completely over my head as you could imagine. I managed to avoid the franchise for a long time, forgetting all the twists except for Atlas being the actual villain. I replayed it again now that I am 20 and can definitely say it holds up. I am glad I could experience it again for the first time and it isn't as scary now lol

How you put out so much good content so fast is honestly baffling

I’m surprised people are still making videos about bio shock honestly other than the bio shock hub channel. Great video man, I love all the bio shocks. They aren’t perfect but they are immersive and they helped me through a tough time in my life so bioshock will always be close to my heart.

Awesome video mate keep up the good work Gingy. You do real good 👍😎😊

I just find myself nodding in agreement the entire time.. I genuinely like and appreciate your videos, man.. please keep up the great work!

I think of the audio logs as a bit like the Twitter of this universe: a handheld device that became popular for memorializing even the most trivial experience.

One of the few issues that I have with bioshock is in the opening sequence and character actions. You survive a literal plane crash in the ocean, go down a mysterious lighthouse, open upto an whole underwater city which you've never seen before only to discover it's on a brink of collapse. In the middle of room you find a cyringe stack and the first thing you do is to inject yourself with it? All in the manner of 15 minutes time. I wish they'd have waited and given more weight to the elemental abilities that are given to us. It always seemed a little too abrupt to me.

Hard to find a game with a better story than Bioshock. Also hard to find an analyzer of such art with quality greater than this. Excellent work, Gingy!

Atlas hold the celestial spheres in his shoulders, not the world, is a common misunderstanding, also is a reference to Atlas Shrugged, a book written by Ayn Rand, who Andrew Ryan was base off, you spend this whole game no speaking of the elephant in the room, that this game and also Infinite is a critique of Ayn Rand "philosophy".

Bioshock 1 is one of the most underrated games of all time... classic 🐐

the bioshock series has the best story in all of fiction in my opinion, its so good bro

I just played Bioshock 1 and 2 remastered back to back for the first time. For a game that's 14 years old it's without a doubt most the fun and immersive storyline I've played yet. Huge fan!

One of my favorite video games of all time. Can't wait for the soon to be movie, and I hope it's good.

I saw a rumor of a possible remaster/remake of the original Bioshock, that would be an awesome idea! Although in my opinion the visuals still hold up today, such a beautiful game and art style.

Yeah it’s also immersion braking and unrealistic that people irl writ in paper books about what they do on a day to day basis. Those audio logs are believable enough, just like people writing in a diary.

Thank you for a well put video essay. Bioshock is one of the best games I have ever played. 1+ sub.

Video games have changed so much in a small amount of time and they truly show all the time how far they can go. The video game medium is almost limitless. Great video.

Hey bro! Just found your channel, awesome shit 🤙🏼 can’t wait to watch more

Something story-wise I wish was touched on a bit more here are the arcs for side characters. There's Dianne, Ryan's girlfriend; Bill, the head engineer; Sullivan, a cop, etc. Even characters with two or so audio diaries have interesting mini-arcs, my favorite being the Lutz's, a family that had their daughter stolen and turned into a Little Sister. I think all of these help not only build the world, but also further isolate the player, since all of these characters are dead by the time you get there, and it heightens the overall tragedy of the citizens of Rapture and I really really love it

BIOSHOCK has a special place in my heart ♥️

Played this for the first time when on summer holiday term and ending up eating through the whole series I’m about two weeks. Didn’t love the second as much but a hell of a trilogy. A true masterpiece.

"...it was not impossible to build Rapture at the bottom of the sea. It was impossible to build it anywhere else."

Genuinely my favorite game story, the "Infinite" DLC makes it more bizarre, but it definitely adds meaning to the name "Infinite"

I still really Love this game. It's awesome. It's one of those games that you can keep replaying and fully enjoy the experience each time.

You fuel my nostalgia for games i couldn’t get enough of years ago and now my nostalgia is linked ti your channel so good job i guess for brainwashing mybass

Bioshock 1&2, Doom, LOU1, Spyro dawn of the Dragon, and Ratchet and clank will always be in my heart till the day i die ♥

your content has been awesome to watch, thank you. do you have any plans on covering Oblivion?

Excelent rundown ^^

Bioshock was one of my favorite games as a kid I remember it was one of the few games that actually told a really immersive story, Portal another game that I played around that time was kind of empty compared to this but I loved the world and the characters.

I never thought a game could beat my all time favorite game (ffx) but this one is equal to it. The story was incredible and interesting, the world was awesome and the gameplay was fun.

still a great game and sadly I doubt we will see the like again great video as always best wishes

I love how, since this game came out, I've beaten it countless times, and yet I still play it to this day. I also love how even tho I've beaten this game countless times, I still like to watch these 45 minute videos talking about stuff I've known for ages now LMAO

Rapture was a character in the story itself. I just loved that city.

Another great video Gingy

Thats so funny. I always played by harvesting the little sisters. I had no idea you actually got more for saving them! I also harvested in the sequel since I didn't wanna do the mini missions.

I think they should have halved the ADAM from rescuing but still given random tonics after 3 rescues, so a rescue playthrough is random build and harvest is able to pull off specific builds.

Bioshock probably has my favorite asthetic in a video game. They really do an amazing job with the environment and giving you the feeling of really being within the world as you play through.

Can't get enough of your vids

I have to put this out somewhere but I can’t believe it took me so long to realise that point Prometheus is a fun jab (hah) at how you kill Fontaine, when he’s chained down you stick the needle into his chest like Prometheus being tied to a rock and pecked in the chest

I only had the opportunity to play the last one in the series but always knew about this game from game informer magazine. Very good story

Bioshock is the strange case of a narrative where the main actor, Jack Ryan or Jack Fontaine depending on your interpenetration, is a avatar over a charter yet the story still works.

You saying that bioshock was 14 years old really fucked me up. It fucked me up even more when I realized it’s 16 years old now.

Thank you for an amazing video ☺️

The sounds that come from the Big Daddies are so creepy.

You should check out the Dragon Age series if you have the chance either yourself or another YT like Salt Factory or something Fun fact about the title Dragon Age actually represents the time period, in lore the world starts off with the Ancient period thousands of years(B.C) then resets with the Age (A.D) which is divided by centuries and each Age is declared by the games version of the Pope ie Steel Age, Dark Age etc which leads us to the first game taking place in 9:30 the 9th century 30th year the Dragon Age 😎

Great video man

Great video.

I would love to see your take on the 2nd game. I personally loved the story of both but I've learned that holding the second in such high regard is apparently fairly controversial.

Surely there's a mod or something for the half rescue reward because that actually sounds pretty interesting

Originally Levine wanted NO reward fpr saving the lil sisters and it being only morally rewarded

Do the sequels! So everything is fresh in the mind