Ive started playing Bioshock lately. I know this is a put off but keep reading. This game is one of the most intense game I have ever played so far. But the concept of it all is what makes it so special. The era is around the 1960s and you just survived a plane crash in the Atlantic Ocean. You then entered this underwater city called Raptured. Damn, you should have been there. The visuals are just fantastic. Imagine 1960 New York City, underwater with the neon lights and vintage designs. I just love the classics. Their idea of being futuristic is so cool. I bet if you were to take someone from the past to see how the world is like now, they would be disappointed. There is always a tint of class and style in everything you see. But the ambience of the set during the submarine journey is just amazing. Imagine a blue whale swimming in between buildings. Man...You really should have been there. I don't mind restarting the game to see it all again.


Then came the disturbing truth about this place. I have just started playing so I am not very clear about the storyline. Don't worry. There is no risk of me spoiling the storyline. Basically, this is the era of genetic engineering. Someone, a doctor I think, have managed to find a method to modify the human gene so that you can have super powers like, telekinesis, shoot out fire or mind manipulation. You can change you powers anytime by buying them from vending machines. Seriously, they are easily accessible. Its like a snack. Crazy.

What is disturbing is that this is also the era of plastic surgery and due to greed and vanity everyone became obsessed with plastic surgery. The thing is, the doctors have gone mad themselves and can't seem to achieve the beauty they want. So they end up twisting the patient's faces into monstrous beings, accidentally. They just can't do it anymore. So around corners you will face with twisted nurses and women in cat masks or psychotic surgeons, in between music cues of circus music and broadway. The 1960s for you.

What makes them volatile is because they desire for one thing: ADAM. ADAM is a mutagen which is a chemical which is crucial in genetic mutation. The more ADAM you have, the more genetic powers you can have. The "Perfect Being" you might say.

Here comes the controversial part. How do you harvest this ADAM? It can be harvested in many ways but the most prominent way is by harvesting it from the "Little Sisters" which are actually small girls. Remember Monster's Inc.? Yeah, small girls. Something was done to them and now they have this ADAM inside them. They store them. How these girls get them is by going to corpses and extracting the ADAM from them. The small girls practically yank a large needle into the corpse and suck the ADAM from them into a huge syringe. Sick huh.

But will you kill a small girl just to extract the ADAM from her? She is nothing but a small girl. A small innocent small girl. This is where the morality part comes in. You have 2 choices. To save her, or to harvest. When you harvest, you kill her and you take all the ADAM from her. When you choose to save her, you just extract a small portion of ADAM but she will live. Early in the game, you were told by someone not to kill them as you will be rewarded if you don't. What you will get as a reward, I do not know yet. So far I have only harvested one. It was tough because for you to get to a Little Sister, you have to get pass her bodyguard which is this being in a underwater suit who is like super strong and when it rams you, it will send you flying. It is one of the most frightening game i have played so far besides for FEAR but that is a different league. This one really intensifies things with the sick circus feel and the gloominess.

While playing, I remembered Sybil with the enema, I remembered the Huskies getting skinned alive. And now this.

Rapture. The perfect Dystopian city. Such irony.