That is a warning, Spoilers ahead for a game you really don't want spoiled, unless you have played it or already know the spoilers because this game is 9 years old.
"I believe in no God, no invisible man in the sky. But there is something more powerful than each of us, a combination of our efforts, a Great Chain of industry that unites us. But it is only when we struggle in our own interest that the chain pulls society in the right direction. The chain is too powerful and too mysterious for any government to guide. Any man who tells you different either has his hand in your pocket, or a pistol to your neck." - Andrew Ryan.
Ayn Rand is a name you'll hear a lot about when looking into Andrew Ryan's ideology when building Rapture, as his philosophy was built heavily on Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. Her philosophy was one that believed that reality was irrefutable; there is no mystical or divine power, and, where things start moving in Rapture, that people should pursue their own success and happiness over the success and happiness of others. Ryan believes that the world on the surface is loaded with parasites; coercive and corrupt big governments that strangle individual freedoms and the markets, and people who want to steal and take what they haven't earned from people who have earned it. To get away from these 'parasites', Ryan built his underwater utopia, a place where he and people who shared his ideals could run a society characterised by unregulated laissez-faire capitalism, small government whose purpose is to protect the rights of the individual, and rational self interest. This can be seen in Ryan's audio tapes:
"On the surface, the Parasite expects the doctor to heal them for free, the farmer to feed them out of charity. How little they differ from the pervert who prowls the streets, looking for a victim he can ravish for his grotesque amusement."
"What is the difference between a Man and a Parasite? A Man builds. A Parasite asks, "where is my share?" A Man creates. A Parasite says, "What will the neighbours think?" A Man invents. A Parasite says, "Watch out, or you might tread on the toes of god..."
His utopia was one that did not allow the freeloading he had witnessed on the surface, and people were entitled to what they had earned and what they had built for themselves. On paper this is a very utopian idea, but things went wrong, obviously, and the city ended up falling into civil war. Among the contributing factors is undoubtedly Ryan's refusal to regulate Plasmids; despite the clear dangers and side effects of splicing, believing that an unregulated market provided the consumer with the best options and that regulation was the tool of the parasitic big government. Adam is habit forming; this led to a population of psychotic splicer addicts that created unrest in the city, the same splicers that walk the streets of Rapture in the game. Concepts of morality were abandoned in the quest for scientific advancement, leading to the creation of the little sisters, children implanted with the sea slug that produces Adam. And most importantly, Ryan abandoned his own principals in his quest for power, restricting trade with the outside world, leading to the rise of a dangerous smuggling ring in Rapture, headed by Frank Fontaine, as things got tough, in addition to violating the people's right to free trade, he began cracking down on political opposition, violating their liberties. In an effort to uphold his ideals, Ryan ended up succumbing to power and taking on elements of the parasite, while Fontaine built an empire through charity and Ryan's unregulated plasmid markets. This is what makes the world of Rapture so engrossing, it's why it sticks with you, because there's so much stuff in that world, and with how much of it is built on politics and philosophy, one person's interpretation of these events may differ wildly from mine, or yours. I admire Ryan's philosophy of Objectivism, but Ryan's paranoia of the dreaded parasite and refusal to entertain any ideas beyond his own ultimately led to the Great Chain pulling away from him, and in his efforts to pull it back, he became the big government he fled from on the surface.
Then there's the other baddie of this game, Frank Fontaine, now this is where I go into the twist, just one last warning, spoilers. As you progress in the game, you are 'helped' by your 'friend' Atlas, who is very polite when he says "would you kindly." The truth comes out shortly after Ryan forces you to kill him, which is still nasty, even after seeing it a few times, and those final words are firmly drilled into your brain, "A man chooses, a Slave obeys," turns out jack is a slave, turns out he's not even a person, just a lab experiment funded by the real villain the whole time, Atlas, a mere alias of Frank Fontaine. let's get right into how geniusly meta this is, it's a commentary on player agency in video games, one that's very easy to work out; in video games there is no real free will, you can sometimes choose one of several paths, but those paths are always set, created for you by a developer, just as Jack's path was ultimately set by Fontaine, with the objective, the end goal of killing his enemy, Andrew Ryan. This is something reflected both in Ryan's final monologue and in the events of the game both before and after his death. The game opens with a plane crash, and what we get of Jack's past pretty much comes in flashes of a few grainy photos, this certainly added to the surprise, since with no real personality to go on, and Bioshock's talent of being immersive, Atlas' reveal becomes a more personal betrayal. But just like Jack, the player blindly goes with whatever Atlas tells them, thinking him a friend, the player, IE you and me, are just as much a slave to Fontaine as Jack is, which is another reason this game is a masterpiece of storytelling. It's a twist that gets in your head, makes you a bit paranoid, it's a testament to the power of coercion and subliminal messaging, becoming a dog for someone else's whims at the mention of a simple phrase. It's also a testament to just how villainous people can be, Fontaine played the long game, keeping up the Atlas persona, playing Jack like a puppet the entire time. And his last words to Jack, before being stabbed to death by little sisters, "I had you built! I sent you topside! I called you back, showed you what you was, what you was capable of! Even that life you thought you had, that was something I dreamed up and had tattooed inside your head. Now, if you don't call that family, I don't know what is!" just displays his lack of regard for Jack; Jack is not a person, he's literally just a tool, a piece of property, meanwhile Jack has become aware of what he really is, he's no longer Atlas' slave, he's a man.
This is all subjective, it's what I take away from Bioshock, someone else might take away something different, but if they treasure their time with Bioshock as much as I do, I'm glad they have that same brilliant experience, regardless of what they take away from it. Bioshock is masterpiece in the ways it needs to be, what issues I have with the gameplay are overshadowed by the beautiful setting, rich history and stellar story, and like I said previously, it's undeniably a piece of Art, and I love it.
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