BioShock is a first-person shooter set in a retro-futuristic underground world called the Rapture. You wake up with amnesia in a ruined city crawling with various mutated and mechanical denizens. Your job is to escape Rapture while learning about its obscured and dark past.
One interesting BioShock mechanic is the use of plasmids, which are special serums made from a rare genetic material called ADAM. These serums can grant the player with a varietyof special powers, such as incinerate, telekinesis, and electro bolt. The interesting assortment of genuinely helpful and strong powers helps to create a fantasy aesthetic of play, as players utilize the mechanic to finally explore their potential answer to the age-old question of, “If you could have just one super power, what would it be?” With plasmids, players can experience what it would be like to be a fire mage, expert hacker, insect whisperer, and more.
Another interesting dynamic that emerges from plasmids is a moral dilemma. Plasmid costs the user ADAM – a volatile genetic substance extracted from sea slugs that are implanted in orphaned little girls who are referred to as Little Sisters. Once the player encounters a Little Sister, they can either save them to receive 80 ADAM, or harvest them for the full 160 ADAM. As your choices to save or harvest Little Sisters lead to different endings, the plasmid mechanic leads to a moral dilemma since the player balances becoming more powerful and trying to get the “good” ending. This moral dilemma reveals narrative and expressive aesthetics of play as the player tries to unpack ethical consequences and figure out what type of person they want Jack (the protagonist) to be, perhaps basedon their own morals (or not).
