Sequels: Bioshock
The Power of Choices
June 20, 2026 | 9 minutes
I believe these were all “free game of the week” at one point on Epic Games. I quickly grabbed them, but at the time, not sure if/when I’d play them.
Despite not knowing the story, I certainly heard lots of hype about them as a kid, but also heard they could be quite dark and graphic. So I left them uninstalled, unplayed.
But after finishing a few games recently, I figured it was worth a try. And boy, did I get more than my money’s worth.
Bioshock
Overall, really liked this one. The mechanics, especially the gunplay, are a little clunky. But there is a lot to like, especially the story and ability to choose.
The intro shows this amazing world, and you quickly jump into scavenging, survival, and hard choices. I appreciate games that don’t wait long.
Bioshock 1 Story Spoilers (click to open, if you want to)
Then I faced a big decision after killing the first Big Daddy: do you kill the girl and harvest her for in-game currency, or effectively exorcise her but gain less currency? I wrestled with it for a minute. But having a daughter of my own forced my hand. I released her, and all the other little girls I encountered along the way.
Midway through the game, I woke up in the “orphanage” of sorts. Seeing all the little girls I saved, playing board games together, one of them in a wheelchair … I teared up. To be clear, I don’t think that girl needed the wheelchair, she happened to be sitting in one, but it worked on me. That pushed me to get the good ending. I initially killed the theatre guy prematurely, but I forced myself to redo it after learning waiting gives a reward.
And Atlas’s “would you kindly” and the haunting cutscene of “man chooses, a slave obeys” — I love games that exploit the player’s ability to choose like this. You have choices, but at the same time you don’t.
In short, the game has twists and turns I did not see coming. I’m glad I went in blind. Especially with how it plays with themes about idealism, control, and bias. I finished it on hard mode, quite proud of myself.
Graphics-wise, it’s not too bad. I did play the Remastered version, so certainly it’s different now. But it looked decent and ran fast without issues. It definitely suffers from the “grunge” style popular in the 2000s. But for an underground utopia-turned-dystopia, it works. Your hand, affected by plasmids, is gross to see (the insect swarm … *shivers*).
Bioshock 2
Firstly, I’m glad it’s not a sequel of the same character.
I love that you are a Big Daddy from the get-go. In the 2000’s Halo era of super-soldiers, this is an obvious next step.
The story and themes are a bit more convoluted. Sofia Lamb proclaiming a “denial of self” (hypocritically) against Ryan’s “all about self.” But I appreciate clashing themes between ideals.
Bioshock 2 Story Spoilers
While those themes do relate to the gameplay, the theme didn’t feel as pervasive as the first game’s. Rapture had already fallen, regardless of Lamb. She just wanted to use the girl to create a “Utopian.”
I appreciate getting to choose what happens to some characters. Not sure why there wasn’t an option to keep Sinclair alive. It would’ve been nice to give some choice, like knock him out. But I enjoyed the ability to choose with others. Very Dishonored of them. Anyway, I got the most wholesome ending, sparing all the girls and other characters.
Some gameplay elements they changed from the first:
- animations are much faster. Weapon swaps, reloads, regaining EVE. Much more FPS-like, keeping the action quick.
- the hacking mechanic. It’s no longer an isolated minigame, but a quicktime event. It’s faster to hack, and keeping it in-game requires some strategy of when to use auto-hack. I miss the original minigame with pumping water, but I think this is for the best.
- weapon changes. Wrench becomes a drill (much more violent, but it is on the game poster after all – now that I think about it, not being able to use a drill in Bioshock 1 is crazy). Pistol is now a rivet gun. Tommy gun is now a minigun (straight from Unreal Tournament). The weapons feel less janky, which I kind of missed from the first game — you felt like you were scrapping for parts.
- The “Circus of Values” vending machines now no longer does its laugh. Just a “no refunds, no returns!” Maybe the laugh was too nihilistic, but I thought it fit well with its moral, theme-complimenting name.
Graphics (again, the remastered version) look stellar. Lighting is more thoughtful, brilliant and specular. I used a mod to accommodate my ultrawide HDR monitor. And boy, is it stunning. I can’t help but notice the game’s “Unreal” vibe. The first game used Unreal, sure. But now there’s even more grunge and texture details.
Heck, several guns look straight out of Unreal Tournament III, released only a couple years before.
As someone who grew up in the Unreal Engine 3 era, it is fascinating to see how UE3 revolutionized games. Yes, it improved graphics quality and multiplatform support. But its “style” is so pervasive. Recent years have swung away from it, to a more clean, stylized, non-photoreal look. UE5 — and now UE6 — is trying to bring photorealism back with Nanite and its huge photoscan library, despite supporting more NPR games like Rocket League and Fortnite. We’ll see how that goes.
Sadly, Bioshock 2 crashed. A lot. A few patches calmed it down. But it seems like the game crashes when too many sounds play? So if I shot my minigun for too long in a crowded room, it just crashes immediately. Anyways, if you decide to play: save a lot.
This game’s “Hard” difficulty proved too much for me. I died a lot, scavenging gave little, and enemies were meat packs. To save my time and sanity, I switched to Normal difficulty partway through. Much more pleasant experience. The game started to give me too much loot, but knowing the last levels, it would’ve taken me much more time to finish.
Bioshock Infinite
I was fascinated by the environment. The floating city, the religious fervor, the intrigue of the people – got pushed aside, however, after the first act. I forgot about being in the sky after a while, often because half the time I was inside buildings. I think the visual interest could have been woven more as we went, instead of just the beginning. Previous Bioshock games did this really well, with nearly every room half-flooded and ransacked, and walking “outside” in the second one. Since this city is still “lived in,” you don’t get that as much.
And the ending. I’ll keep this part spoiler-free, but I loved it. Really worth going in blind.
Bioshock Infinite Story Spoilers
I found it so fascinating that this game twisted Bioshock 1’s themes further. Dives into choices, fate, futility, multi-verses (even before Into the Spider-Verse!). I quickly noticed and validated online that the game’s “choices” have minimal impact. It felt alienating, reminding me of Dishonored: Death of the Outsider’s loss of a chaos system. But at the same time, it reinforced its own themes.
There are many hints at the beginning that of course I missed until the end. I will admit, I did vocally wonder a couple times and got close: “Oh no, am I the villain?” “Is this supposed to be my daughter?”
One of the hard things about moral-oriented games is that, after a while, you start making choices consistent to the playthrough, instead of choosing based on your morality. In Bioshock 1, that choice to save the girls was hard. I took minutes deciding that. By the second game, I just thought, “I’ll just be consistent, maybe get an achievement out of it.” I wasn’t choosing out of morality, but for gameplay. And Bioshock Infinite rejecting that depth with its story choices became a self-fulfilling prophecy (pun intended hahaha).With Unreal Engine shown in the intro screens, I prepared for Unreal 3 vibes again. But from the moment I first sprinted in-game, I realized: ahh darn it.
This isn’t Unreal Tournament III. This is Battlefield 3.
The animations, how the protagonist hefts the guns, even the bloom-heavy lighting at the beginning. Very inspired by the next-gen Battlefield games and this era of auto-exposure graphics. I’m not complaining, per se. The gunplay is more fluid in this one. Just funny seeing, yet again, other games influence this series’ style.
To be fair, this game is gorgeous. And I loved seeing environments echoing the 1800s. Lots of American influences to unpack: nationalism, Second Great Awakening, Boxer Rebellion, Battle of Wounded Knee, pioneers including Latter-Day Saints, Southeastern architecture, old-timey circuses, some hooded figures similar to not-so-friendly clans. It’s a time period rarely seen, let alone explored. Having the city echo this time period, especially a controversial one, is fascinating.
Other miscellaneous notes I had:
- Irrational Games continue the bittersweet feeling of vigors being both “fun” and graphically violent. Cool, you shock or inflame the enemies … until they burst into skeletons. Then there’s Murder of Crows. Goodness. The music, screams, and blood-soaked enemies make it hard to watch.
- No hacking? At all? Definitely more shooter-focused than anything else.
- The outfits are a nice touch, similar to Dishonored’s bone charms. Having no visual affect felt strange though. It’s an outfit, after all.
- I’m not sure how I feel about the weapon management changing to holding two weapons only. May just be the influence of military shooters. Your character holds way less ammo too. It encouraged scavenging, but I ran out of ammo during fights a few times (on Normal difficulty, for what it’s worth).
The Power of Storytelling and Atmosphere
Video games are quite unique among storytelling mediums. Namely, it brings interactivity, to the point that players can influence and even change the story. Giving users an open world and an open story, of sorts. It brings immersion in ways that are otherwise impossible in other mediums.
But I notice many games nowadays, as “open world” as they may (or may not) be, don’t feel open. Most gamers end up still following objectives and instructions. Get to the next objective. Grind to level up, get this more powerful weapon. Finish the story.
Frankly, I don’t mind it. I don’t have time to just explore truly open world games anymore. Skyrim was fun, but lots of time. I like the closure of games that are just, “Do this, do that, then you’re done. You can uninstall now.”
When video games focus on grind, replayability, and monetization, in some ways it’s better for the game studios that players don’t have as much freedom, or at least choose it. They just want them to play and replay the game as much as possible, even if that means the exact same multiplayer game mode for weeks, months, years on end. Only to be exposed to in-game purchased more.
But the Bioshock series is a great reminder of the opposite. Interactive stories can comment on, expand, and even subvert the very strengths of the medium in meaningful ways. They focused on the most important parts of game story: immersion and interactivity.
Very glad I got to (finally) play these games. What series should I do next?