How Bioshock Changed Everything... A Retrospective 

The fact that we're still talking about it after all these years means it was influential.

ASTONISHED that a video of this quality and depth only has three-thousand views.

I felt like Jack just "dressed up" as a big daddy. Didn't Become one

You need waaaaaay more subs tbh. Your content is top notch. You’re definitely a hidden gem in youtube.

Finally someone who likes all 3 games in the series and doesn’t shit on one in favor of another. You seem to understand they all have individual strengths and are all worthy entries in the series. I think people hyper focus on the mechanics in games as a medium a little too much sometimes. It like hyper focusing on the cinematography in film. Of course both are incredibly valuable components to their mediums respectively but there’s so much more elements to art that can connect with us. The feelings they provide us are what gives them worth as art. There’s games that are incredibly complex and have tons of mechanical depth that I still end up feeling nothing when engaging with them and there’s games you could argue are formally shallow mechanically that make me feel everything. I think it’s important to understand this and sadly many people don’t.

Great video. One thing stood out to me that I need to comment on. So that part about objectivism inevitably failing because we are too selfish and greedy is actually completely wrong. Objectivism is unworkable because it counts on us being purely selfish and greedy, which we are not, and because it assumes a lot of things about economics that are plainly wrong, such as that there's no industry that cannot work properly according to market principles, which is false because some things are just by their nature never going to turn a profit on their own if they are to serve a public function, such as the standard examples of police, fire department, healthcare - basically anything that everyone agrees we all need. As Rapture begins its inevitable downward spiral, Andrew Ryan is faced with a myriad of problems that he eventually realises require his governmental intervention. He abandons objectivism in practice because he wants to save Rapture, but he tries to keep it intact as his personal ideology. On multiple occasions Rapture would have suffered such severe downturns that it very likely would have collapsed much earlier than it did if Ryan had not heavily interfered with markets. When he begins to infringe on people's civil liberties it is already too late. You paint these interventions as the reasons why Rapture collapses and Ryan fails. But they only become necessary because the system doesn't account for human beings actually being human beings. Have you ever wondered why the rich and powerful, if they believe so much in pure capitalism and markets, don't just try to convert all of society into a business, as Ryan did? The answer is that they know a truly capitalist society would instantly collapse. In this regard, BioShock offers a very realistic picture of what would almost certainly happen if anybody tried to create that kind of dystopia. The only thing that's doubtful is that it would even function at all for any amount of time, which Rapture does, albeit only for a few months, if you look closely.

8:00 this is what's called "enemy variety" The game is trying to get you to use different attacks against different enemies. Seriously dude?

I disagree with your comments about the Big Daddie sequence. In my mind, the notion that I was apparently no longer under mind control yet still continued to mutilate myself to become a Big Daddy because Tenenbaum said I had to kept me on edge enough to find that being a Big Daddy completely revitalised the game for the brief time it occured. Also, the idea of fighting Rapture only to physically become part of it's immoral, mutilating, manipulating culture right at the end shook me. Admittedly, I was expecting the change to Big Daddy to be a permanent "heros sacrifice" sort of moment, so I have to agree with you there. I was picturing an ending where the Little Sisters live and escape, but you're trapped in a dying Rapture, sucked into it in a similar way to Ryan or Fontaine Edit: spelling

Bioshock was my childhood Like, the one game with its classical style, the classical music. It's part of the reason I'm into that type of music now😂 It's such a nostalgic game

I can understand and agree with your gripes about Bioshock's combat system, but I personally think it does a good job being entertaining enough as you experience Rapture and the story of it's downfall, with your appearance there being that story's climax.

I retain the opinion that this is one of the best video essays I've seen

I finally got around to playing this game and I loved the story but I just found the game so frustrating. Now I’m playing bioshock infinite and it is fun as hell and the story is amazing. I think the creator learned a lot of lessons

this has to be the first review of a game where i literally agree with everything. hats off, this is better than any "professional" review i've seen so far

Still my favourite game. Thank you for the great video.

My dude this was absolutely fantastic. Well thought it and perfectly delivered. I just stumbled into your channel the other day, then realized how long it's been since you last uploaded. Looking through the tabs I saw your away message. I was at least hoping to be able to find you on twitter to tell you what an excellent job you did with this, only to find your handle had been deactivated. I hope things are going well for you, that you were able to follow through with those certs and that things are more stable for you now. I look forward to checking out some more of your content in the coming days and weeks. And just in case, I subbed and rang the bell, just in case you come back at some point and begin to hammer out home runs of videos like this.

Good vid. But you have totally misunderstood the combat mechanics. There are so many ways to do battle and I have always more ammo than I need even in the end battling Ryan. Play the game again and try to discover new ways to kill the splicers... Would you kindly.

I never really bought the criticisms with the hacking mechanic. Now it's not the most ideal option, BioShock 2 does a better job no doubt, but it's not bad. In the early game you end up hacking a lot, but it's only a short, straightforward puzzle game. And by the time it becomes too much, BioShock already chucks enough money that you can buy everything out for a cheap price and auto hacks to...automatically hack. Also with research, all hacking attempts on bots and turrets succeed. By the late game there's almost no need to actually complete the puzzles. The game is rather generous in this regard and never beats you over the head with it.

after Bioshock, I went to church for 10 years

Hold on! Security Bullseye is amazing! It's undoubtedly the easiest way to kill a big daddy. Once it's lured to a camera, just hit it with the plasmid and the security bots do all the work for you. It also helps when a splicer has a hacked bot. Target Dummy is incredibly useful too as it draws out splicers that may be lurking in the shadows. It works the best in Fort Frolic when plastered splicers are stalking you from everywhere. And Telekinesis is very powerful. Lob a big daddy corpse and it's a one hit kill.

Excellent review, man. Totally agree. This was a game changer.

Third most overrated game of all time. Good game but not great

I agree with most of your points, but I think you're wrong about the ending being so terrible, as well as the choice of harvesting or rescuing the little sisters. Your choices not really having any meaning is the core theme of the game. Getting essentially the same reward regardless of whether you choose to harvest or save the little sisters follows through on that point. The endings being lackluster reinforce the point that no matter how much effort you put into what you do, you'll still receive either nothing or the same paltry reward that everybody else gets. Having a generic boss fight at the end also reinforces the point that no matter what you do, you'll still arrive at the same disappointing conclusion. If the game was focused entirely on a good story, then the "twist" would have been the end of the game. It's not though, most of what happens after that is about social and artistic commentary, intended to make the player question their established beliefs about society and video games, as well as media as a whole. I can provide more explanation on that if anybody wants to hear it, but essentially, I think that the ending was intentionally lackluster. Another part that bugged me was how you compared the player customization and rpg systems of System Shock to Bioshock. Bioshock is not and was never intended to be an rpg, it is an adventure game. I'm not saying that Bioshock would not have been better with more fully fleshed out weapon and plasmid systems, just that I don't think the comparison is fair.

Amazing and underappreciated video, keep up the good work

I'm very happy I found this channel 😅👍 I recently picked up the bioshock collection and it's such a fun series good retrospective.

i liked the combat on the last third after i ditched all my weapons equipped everything that would make my wrench stronger and pretty much clobbered everyone to death in two or three hits

i like what you say. i love this game but you addressed the problems. regardless of those still such a great game.

The game should have ended after the twist and should not have continued after it happened. Not only does it destroys it's own message by having you be ordered around by Tenenbaum after Atlas reveals his own identity and betrays, but Frank is an inferior villian when compaired to Ryan.

Here's the perspective. I am big fan of FPS games, played hundreds and enjoyed in many titles. I cannot make myself play Bioshock, tried once, played few hours first part, and it wasnt good for my taste, i dont think of it as a "good fps game" i think there are tens and tens of better ones.

what a video... seriously man, the quality of this video is top notch. Keep up the good work!

Question: If Atlas/Fontaine wanted Jack to harvest all the Little Sisters so as to get the most Adam, could he not have just phrased it in such a way as to include the "Would you kindly" trigger, thus subliminally commanding Jack to harvest them all? Had he done that in a way that the dialogue sounded natural and didn't give away the nature of the phrase to Jack (or the player), the whole issue of arguing with Tenenbaum over trying to convince Jack to harvest them would've been unnecessary. If the purpose of Jack being a sleeper agent was to kill Andrew Ryan, and getting as much Adam as possible gave him the best chance of surviving long enough to fulfill that goal, then it benefits Fontaine to leave as little to chance as possible. The version of Jack who harvests every Little Sister is indisputably more powerful in terms of Adam gained, correct? Thus, it would make perfect sense to force Jack into harvesting them all via "Would you kindly" rather than allow the moral choice. By giving Jack the freedom to choose less Adam, Fontaine increases the risk of Jack getting killed by Ryan's forces since he'd be less powerful. Thus, he's potentially putting his own assassin and by extension the mission to kill Ryan at greater risk of failure. Try as I might, I can't think of a reason why Fontaine wouldn't take advantage of Jack's brainwashing in this important instance? The most obvious answer is, "Because it would ruin the game", but is there an in-universe explanation? Feedback is welcome!

Regarding that late-game plot hole you brought up, there was one Suchong audio log in which he mentions that Big Daddy organs and skin are grafted into their protector suits, and as far as I can tell, Jack never went that far (although the voice mod was pretty extreme if you look at the contraption that does it). But then I guess he only "became" a Big Daddy in the sense that he did what was necessary to fool Little Sisters. In that part of the game, I was pretty sure Fontaine was being truthful and Tennenbaum really was screwing you over with this alleged one-way transformation, that you'd remain a Big Daddy for life, committed to protecting her girls. That's the route I would've gone if I were the writers, but my theory was likely tainted by the fact that the only thing I knew about BioShock 2 was that you play as a Big Daddy. Andrew Ryan and Ayn Rand don't share exactly the same ideology, as Ryan rejected moral considerations and Ayn Rand was hypermoralistic. Honestly his system seems to be a fusion of Rand's rationalist rhetoric and fondness for industrial capitalists and Nieztsche's critique of Judeo-Christian "slave morality" and posited Übermensch beyond good and evil. Disagree with your economic take, as I think freed markets are no friend to corporate monopolies, whereas government for the most part serves the interests of big business and harms the working poor, but I liked the retrospective.

You and I had a similar relationship with video games at 13. I really only played games when I wasn’t playing Basketball during the winter and Skateboarding the rest of the year along with school. And skateboarding took up A LOT of that time.

Isn't it funny how SYSTEM Shock, shocked us with it's systems.... but BIOshock, shocked our brains with it's plot and atmosphere.

I've been watching videos of this channel, it's a pitty it's a dead channel, because its content it's top notch. Regarding Bioshock, I played it later in time and I didn't hate it, and the waltz you dance in Fort Frolic was a truly maginificent moment I don't forget after all these years, but the game didn't captivated me. But a game doesn't need to be perfect to be an unique masterpiece. Neither New Vegas or Dark Souls are perfect, far from it both, and both are perfectly flawed masterpieces. Anyway, in the very unlikely chance you read this comment and doesn't vanish like tears in the rain, I hope you have a good life.

I'm a little older than you. My formative games were final fantasy 8 and metal gear solid 2. That being said. Bioshock absolutely blew me away when I finally played it 3 years after release. It's become part of my "games I replay every year" along with silent hill 2 and zelda twilight princess

Great video, great game. But I have to do some nitpicking on some of your comments; I simply cannot comprehend how people can still compliment a story narrative which is primarily driven through the audio diaries, I agree game has a great environment and sometimes It uses environmental storytelling to great effect still most of its stories are told via the diaries which I find unbearable. Even though some of the stories told are great and audio diaries at first place are optional. I still cannot help feeling suffocated from sheer amounts of 'em and cant help seeing the storytelling a far cry from great ones; I would say audio diaries should have been much less and t environment should have been used more (or and they could have used the ghosts more ,caused from the usage of adam, although I agree that would also have become repetitive, It does not change the fact that there is more than one way to tell a story). I am even more keen to see some cut-scenes. Lastly, Bioshock has a philosophical background but it is merely a background, game uses it more like a Nolan film, as an interesting concept but not as a thought or process as a theme; even the gameplay loop of Bioshock is contrary to its background (you could say that is the point to create that contrast, I find that option absurd and cannot agree). Anyway Bioshock is so iconic, and does many things spot on. Thanks for the video ...

Don't really care to be proficient in any one specific thing, bioshock is a spiritual successor, they aren't the same games obviously and shouldn't be, if it had system shock's entire system it would degrade the experience, I always hear reviewers bitch about this but it's really just an inability to adapt and not compare the 2. Not to mention canonically jack is basically a mentally conditioned rambo, so it would make sense his arsenal reflects that, being mostly entirely balanced.

Ive never beaten a bioshock game, or played system shock, I don't understand why system shock is so influential or really why bioshock is as influential too. I genuinely don't understand why, that's why its interesting to watch videos like these.

Great video, wish you luck, views, subscribeers and more videos like this. Great voice btw. I can only suggest put more stuff on screen related to what you talking about at the moment.

The original bioshock was amazing but in my opinion was specifically the world itself and the presentation. At the time it was possibly the best looking game and immersive game ever made

I was replaying Bioshock 2 and felt the same way about the wallet and ammo count. They give you a small amount to hold but can eat food when your health is at max?

For anyone else who keeps interrupting this masterful video to unsuccessfully search up the songs... credits are at the end of the video: Extracts from the Bioshock, System Shock and System Shock 2 OSTS (all fantastic btw) Bobby Darin - Beyond the Sea Noel Coward - 20th Century Blues The Andrews Sisters (I know it!!) - Bei Mir Bist Du Schön Django Reinhardt - La Mer The Ink Spots - If I Didn't Care Billie Holliday - Night and Day & God Bless the Child Al Bowlly - Midnight, the Stars, and You Now, where was I...

Dude. Awesome channel. Pretty much commented the same thing before but your videos are fucking awesome man. Great thorough video game entertainment

Tbf, in the Game they DO say you just have to look like a Big D, not become one. You just put on the armor

Riveting video chap. Thank you for making it.

Dude I love your videos. Thank you for your work, you made me buy mafia 3 and now I'm enjoying it a lot.

I hope you read the book about the backstory of Rapture. It explains a hell of a lot more than the game does

I would love a bioshock remake. Theirs a few changes I’d love to see made

I just played it for the first time and beat it yesterday and yeah its one of the best video games ever made.

Anybody who takes Ayn Rand seriously is not to be taken seriously lmfao

Man, you havnt uploaded in 2 years. Im bummed out.

Videos a tad bit pretentious, but still pretty good.

Great video! Deserves more views/subs

Would you kindly make more awesome content like this?

Got to say, I highly disagree with most of your criticisms about the combat and systems. Barring the valid complaints about the section where you're a Big Daddy, most of it is just highlighting differences between BioShock and System Shock 2. while expressing a desire for it to be more like SS2 rather than judging how those differences work within the context of BioShock. The inability to specialize in a specific weapon or plasmid for example is very purposeful, as BioShock isn't trying to be that kind of "build you character" experience. Variety is the main goal, hence why you're able to max almost everything if you take the time to explore and deal with all the Little Sisters or find every upgrade station. Also why you're able to painlessly change your tonics. Even the enemies are designed in such a way that there's preferred strategies for dealing with each variety, promoting you to use multiple parts of your arsenal rather than specializing in one. The individuality of each enemy variety is also why the majority of the research bonuses are about becoming stronger against a specific enemy rather than becoming stronger as a whole. The enemies becoming harder to kill as you progress entices players to invest in it.

You using the machine gun at that distance is painful and the game clearly tells you it's for close-quarters combat like literally any other game with a machine gun. The weapons are all great and satisfying just doesn't use modern Graphics but the enemy feedback and punchiness of the bullets are still there. Sending enemies flying across the room with a close-range fiery shotgun blast while invisible and then punting the fiery corpse at a distant foe with Telekinesis is a unique pleasure to BioShock. I fundamentally disagree with your critique on the mechanics. It's literally comes down to just "it's not System Shock 2" which is a good thing. Now you can use any weapon just as well as they are all unique and are useful in different situations. The crossbow and the grenade launcher are good for setting up traps while the machine gun and the shotgun are great for close quarters. the wrench can be the very best weapon in the game or the worst depending on your Gene tonics There is specialization because you cannot max out all weapons by the end of the game with the power to the people stations there will be some left out upgrades. Same thing with plasmids you cannot buy all plasmids and tonics with all total Eve unless you harvest little sisters. The weapons do NOT blend together late game lol wtf. Anti personnel ammo still kills splicers in four shots on hard mode same with armor piercing for robots. Headshots will one hit kill most splicers with antipersonnel what's more for the entire game And rage and security bullseye and cyclone trap are all extremely useful for stealthy playstyle. They all take about a fifth of the starting Eve bar with no upgrades for great effect. Security Bullseye and enrage will literally clear entire rooms without you lifting a finger if you apply to the right enemies depending on which enemies they are facing even Big daddies. There are guides out there to prove you wrong about any sort of lack of strategy or variation in combat. gamefaqs.gamespot.com/xbox360/931329-bioshock/faqs/51592 Although I'm surprised you never treated this game like Half-Life 2 or any other sort of systemic game where the game literally gives you the power to throw stuff around with your mind or turn enemies against each other. You seem to be making concessions for modern CoDuty generic all guns play the same shooters or hell damage sponge looter shooters today lol. It's baffling

All valid points and good job on the video but System Shock did much of what Bioshock did prior to it and better, like you even mention, making the video's title a bit hyperbolic. But if you added "...To Me" at the end that would be accurate. Also I'd argue Bioshock lacks much of what makes an immersive sim, outside of its first person view and spiritual/developer connections to the true immersive sims made by Looking Glass, etc. Anyway, just my two cents! Great job.

Absolutely floored by how great this video is. I didn't agree with every single point (I enjoyed using the shotgun, machine gun and grenade launcher for example, but then again I'm not a huge FPS guy so I have limited frame of reference) but you explain your perspective so well, with great editing to boot. Really good stuff and I hope more people see this video! It's one of the first results when you search "Bioshock retrospective"!

Nice review made 40 minutes feel like much less

Sounds like you don't really like the game but dig the idea of the game.

Thanks for this perspective on the franchise. This really highlighted a lot of the weirdness from my playthrough that contradicted my friends' incessant belief that this game is perfect.

Just one comment: the class-based arguments of Fontaine are the flaw if Objectivism, not because class stratification is actually inevitable, as Levine believes, but because a system designed to allow ANYONE to succeed, will enable the "parasites" to excel as well. Which I think the game shows well, but by accident. The scrubbing toilets line falls apart when you realize how much money tradesmen make in our own world.

Security bullseye is useful because it opens up another option for dealing with bots that isn't hacking, same with decoy. Because of the rarity of resources for most of the game you're supposed to pick which one of the tools you have access to do a job. You could use trap bolts and mines as defensive tools, or you could buy extra offensive ammo instead. Yes a lot of things are sidegrades, because most people arn't going to be good enough to have access to everything. Oh also the crossbow is only good if you have excellent aim/are fighting a single opponent and have distance due to its slow reload. Yes you can compensate for these things with certain plasmids and running to more open environments but, that's just one playstyle. I agree bioshock would have been improved by a skill system that allowed you to specialise between being really good with certain weapons, bring really good with certain plasmids, bringing along extra plasmids and also hacking would be something you sacrifice potential skill elseware in order to be good at instead of being a mini game thst you'll only ever not do when you can't be bothered to play it. BUT, the sidegrade heavy toolset wasent made to supplant a skill tree. Its there to encourage solving problems with 'What you have' and feel like your scavenging. It was the tonics that are supposed to replace a skill tree. Edit: I forgot to mention, electro bolt switches uses from 'stun melee splicer' too 'stun ranged splicer so I can headshot them' headshots (or grenades) being the only reliable way to kill the dangerous bullet sponges that are late game gun toting splicers. Honestly? I think you've played this game too much. The combats not great to be sure, but it's pretty consistently meh. You seem to be complaining about a certain 'efficient' playstyle that most people won't experience. Combats supposed to be a bit of a struggle (tho they overshot the mark) certain weapons become obsolete/increase in usefulness throughout the game and the plasmids vary wildly in usefulness and their uses change as the game progresses. That's good, it's basic shooter design, keeps you using all the tools at your disposal.

There are 3 endings buddy

this video is a hidden gem that has much to say about a hit classic. I'm happy that to have a video that covers so much of Bioshock. Great work and thank you

Really enjoyed your thought and insights into the game. This one has stuck with me ever since I took a chance and bought it used at a game crazy a year or so after it’s released. It’s been the high watermark of game making and outside of fallout is the most influential game for me that I’ve ever played. It’s intellectual without being pretentious or up its own a$$. I even enjoyed the sequels to varying degrees.

I have never played Bioshock or any of the sequels, but this summed up beautifully why I should have. Thank you.

it is funny, one game I can think of is Saints Row 3/4 where I got similar confusion, pleasure stepping into world so well crafted. In saints row it is only level by level, Bioshock is entire game.

there's technically three endings, two of which are bad, but the only difference between them is the tone of Tenenbaum's voice: either she's sad or angry.

You deserve more attention. I've watched game analysis for years now and this is one of the few that i truly enjoy rewatching. It's not perfect: it's your view. You did a great job. Now i am watching the Bioshock 2 analysis and looking forward to watch the others. And from that hint on your channel homepage, i hope a Fallout one is coming :)

4:30 why yes, it’s called hit scan

4:34 *well you see hitscan is a thing*

I dont dislike the combat as much as you do but you made some good points. I remember back in 07 the plasmids made you feel god like.

Top 10 game of all time

Good analysis, you contradict yourself tho. You constantly give a lot of praise and recognition to bioshock, even go as far as to say that there's no other game like it, with many artistic qualities, yet you refuse to admit it is a masterpiece only because you don't like the gunplay and some other gameplay mechanics

this is same as Deus Ex, groundbreaking in its era, but different way, and yes deeply flawed also, but still so different that it will be remembered.

I will say, your FOV is making me dizzy.

I absolutely love your videos. I think I said it already in your Hitman retrospective, but I have to repeat it. I love such lengthy, detailed videos and you do them the best to be honest.

I just finished playing it for the first time, and I HATED the limit on items/ammo. I had to walk past so much ammo, then by the time you need it, going back for it isn't worth the time, so I just kept having to waste money buying it. But even then, the amount of money you can carry is so small that even with the perk that lowers the price of things, and hacking the machine, there are times you run out of money before you can get all the ammo you need. Health packs and Eve are useless by the end of the game, but they still have so many laying around.

Love this channel! Keep up the AMAZING work man! Will definitely be sharing around !

Replayed bioshock 1. This video is pretty damn good

Nice Analysis.

still the goat.

this low-key is the best bioshock retrospective I've ever seen

Hurry Mr B!

you need to make moreeeee videosss Im obsessed

Awesome channel and awesome content ! In this video and the dishonored one, you show a high level of understanding of the old Looking Glass games. I would be very interested in viewing a full analysis of System Shock 2 or Thief 1 / 2 done by you !

Great video and critique.

Such a great video. Well done.

Honestly the one thing that I REALLY disliked was the spike in splicer health, I love the combat in the game so much and it just got completely ruined by the tanky enemies, as well as my immersion. But man, the first majority of the game was so fun.

I have played through this game countless times and never found that room at 14:30 with the weapon upgrade machine

41:04 wich game he talks about here?

The video keeps stopping at 9:12 for me.

I think Bioshock could kinda have worked better as a Walking simulator maybe with only the Big Daddys to worry about, instead of killing them you have to avoid them or trick them and the little sisters are just like collectibles, kinda like what SOMA did (minus little sisters).

18:41

Somwheeeeeeere beyond the seeeeea Somwheeeeeeere waiting for meeeeee

Wow dude... what a video! I am a huge fan of bioshock.. and now I do know why :-P Thx for the breakdown. Keep going 👍