Embersong

This was a poem I don't remember the origin behind. I was somewhat fixated on the idea and I decided to work on it. 

I was hoping to finish this before I turned 25, y'know as a final achievement of this last year I've lived, and I don't know if I've succeeded or not. It's tomorrow in India, as I publish this, but it's today in the UK, where I am currently.

Either way.

A lot of us have had days where we feel a cold that seeps into us, and sometimes have found it difficult to reignite the fire and drive away the cold. Sometimes that fire can start from something as small as a single ember. Sometimes that warmth can come from another as well as from within, as we all blaze our path forward.

Hope you enjoy the poem. :)

As usual, let me know what you think. :)

Lying there with an arm outstretched,

Reaching for stars, unmoving and etched,

So far away, from this world of grey,

As eyes grow dull, and thoughts betray.

We lie in pain, though no cut or bruise,

The roaring falls quiet, but the peace, a ruse.

To days' light, we say goodbye,

As a wind grows awake and dances along,

With stars and dust to a madman's song,

On moonlit night with swirling sky. 

A small light comes alive tonight,

Almost invisible in this darkest blight. 

Pulsing stronger with every beat of my heart,

Burning brighter than any darkness inside,

Limbs uncurl, we prise them apart,

And we blaze forward, we do not hide. 

A beat in steps, on this path I take,

A song is played to swallow the ache. 

I burn as fire, no longer an ember.

The blight before, we still remember,

Not to hold, but to guide the fire,

To give hope to those who tire,

And warmth to those in the throes of cold.

A song in colours of red and gold,

In shapes and crackles, it flows along,

Calling to the warmth, the weary and anxious,

To invigorate and protect, we cast an aegis,

Singing for all, my Embersong. 

Dies, Died, Will Die

A while back I wrote a review on the game: BioShock. If you haven't seen it already, do take a look at it here: ta-da!
This is part two of that, where I talk about the second half of the BioShock series.
I am aware that I am not speaking specifically about BioShock 2, but thats because this entire review was started off as a comparison between the original, and the latest.
Since then, rumours have surfaced that a new BioShock game is expected to show up in 2020. Lets see, lets hope, and lets get on with it.

BioShock, by the time of the release of Infinite (or rather since the time of announcing Infinite) is known for a couple of things primarily: The Underwater city of Rapture, and the Big Daddies. Both have become entirely synonymous with the series.

So when we were shown a trailer for something entirely different, it blew the minds of almost everyone watching. Since then, there have been many trailers, each one seemingly different to the last, almost like a new story was being planned at each and every junction.
So what was it that set this game apart from its predecessors?

Everything.

BioShock Infinite features a whole new world for the player to explore. We begin the game on a rowboat, as we're transported to a mysterious lighthouse by two people who have a peculiarly similar way of speaking. However, unlike the one from BioShock, the stairs go up instead of down. The lighthouse resembles a normal lighthouse this time, and all we can do is follow the instructions given to us by the people who dropped us off. 

On reaching the top, and getting into a frankly dodgy looking chair, we're taken to the main location that the game is based in: The flying city of Columbia.

One of the first scenes we see on reaching the flying city. The large angel statue is called Monument Island, an important location for the duration of the game. 

The first thing that we notice here are the visuals. BioShock Infinite was one of the first games to be made using Unreal Engine 4, which, in layman terms, is a huge deal as it allows for high levels of graphical qualities. We also notice how it is a stark contrast to the setting of Rapture. Columbia boasts a wide open space lit up brilliantly, and with people around you who have their own dialogues that you can eavesdrop on as you walk by them. In rapture, everything was artificially lit, and anything or anyone you met was trying to murder you at some point or the other. This change of pace was welcoming, like the morning sun on a cold day.

But then you get to one of the first major events in the game, where the control of the character is taken away from you and the bloodbath begins, in a style true to BioShock. However, instead of attacking Splicers and other insane members of society, we end up fighting real people, in the way of police. 

As we progress through the game, we notice more and more about what makes the flying city so unique. Columbia takes on a steampunk appearance for the most part, and the story of the game is set in 1912's America. The date is significant, because the 1910's are known for many things: The KKK became known for lynching and other violent acts during this period, race riots had started spreading and were the precursor to many other race related problems that the USA would face in decades to come. Moreover, America refused to enter the Great War (as it was then known, also the war to end all wars), driven partially with having to deal with Mexico in the southern border.

The game stays true to the theme of the time period it is set in, albeit to a much greater extent than Rapture's in the 1960s. The instant mentioned above can be best described with a single screenshot taken from the game.

Honestly, the stark depictions of racism on this scale did put me off on my playthroughs of the game, and I was glad to be in areas where none of the propaganda was staring at me right in the face. I however, also recognise, that for all the discomfort I face while seeing these images and themes in today's life, the people living in that decade were treated ridiculously and it is well represented in the game.
Doing the research on what 1910's America was like certainly... well, it was illuminating.



The imagery is pretty on the nose, and I'm assuming that it would have been so in the the actual 1910s, especially in the south, with the increase in Jim Crow laws.









As mentioned earlier, the setting has a heavy dose of steampunk, and it does blend in well, adding to the world the players are exposed to much like the many elements from BioShock adding to its setting. We can see these things in the first few minutes of the game itself:

There are many other significant events from history, which are actually touched upon in game, and the players get to hear about them from the NPC's who were in those events directly. 

The overall approach to the world is vastly different from Ryan's Rapture. Where there was an abhorrence to religion, Columbia takes on an almost fanatical approach to it, merging aspects of christianity and the founding of America so that we get "biblical" figures such as the Angel Columbia, showing the main villain of the series, a self professed prophet, Zachery Hale Comstock, the way to "new Eden". 

Where Rapture was based around two ideas: One of Objectivism, and one of a city not bound by Governmental and religious interference, Columbia takes the exact opposite approach and developed a militant pseudo christian utopian society, although considering that there is still deep rooted institutionalised racism and elitism, it's more a dystopia in disguise. 

There are so many elements that cement it as a member of the BioShock series, in more than just name. We still have powers, albeit in a much less varied manner. Instead of them being injection based like Plasmids, we have them in the form of Vigors. Overall, the city of rapture changed, or rather evolved it entire society around the usage of plasmids, but in Columbia, vigors were never used commonplace, and only few enemies ever used it, and the world never seemed to care about them all that much, despite what the lore would have you believe. 

And as with all games in the BioShock series, there was an incredible plot twist that gave players pause. Unlike with the two previous games, the major plot twist was set in the later half of the game, as a pivotal point for the character to get through and learn from. In BioShock, it was "Would You Kindly?", and in BioShock 2, it was the story of how Eleanor Lamb became a Little Sister, and how the main character came to become the Big Daddy, Delta. 

With BioShock Infinite, it was the twist that the hero of the story, Booker DeWitt and Zachary Comstock were never different to begin with. 

Slightly confusing I suppose. Lets start at the beginning, with the who and the what. 

You play as the main character: Booker DeWitt, an ex-Pinkerton agent, who has emotional scars and trauma from his acts in the battle of wounded knee, and someone with an immense amount of gambling debts. To settle his dues, he is told to "bring us the girl and wipe away the debts".

The girl you're looking for can be found on this massive angel statue (scroll up for the image) island, and her name is Elizabeth. The player then discovers that she has the ability to open tears. 

One of the most important aspect of the world are these tears, small rifts between worlds, that allow you to bring into the world things that would otherwise not exist. Where the couch was once striped, it now had a beige solid colour; where the floor was empty before, a tear can be used to bring in a barrel full of weaponry and ammunition for the player to use. 

But thats not all the tears can do. These tears can open windows into the future, into the past, and into full blown alternate realities. Much of the setting of BioShock infinite has been proven to be deliberately anachronistic; in the middle of the area known as Finkton, you head Cindi Lauper's "Girls just wanna have fun", coming through a tear, and near the beginning of the game, you see a quartet singing "God only knows" by the Beach Boys, released in 1983 and 1966 respectively. 

Thats where the other main characters come in: the antagonist, Father Zachery Hale Comstock, and Rosalind and Robert Lutece. Rosalind Lutece is the scientist who discovered the lutece particle, which allowed her to help build the flying city of columbia through quantum levitation. It also allowed her to communicate with a then unknown entity using the changes in energy states of the particle as dots and dashes of morse code, only to discover that the entity was none other than herself from an alternate reality, with some minor changes. Born a man, instead of a woman, this entity was known as Robert Lutece in his own world. He was brought to the world of Columbia by Rosalind Lutece, one of the first known instances of opening a tear. Since the general public wasnt to know about the alternate realities, they simply went about as "twins". 

Now, these tears, as mentioned above, also showed glimpses into the future. Comstock used these to dub himself a prophet and came to rule over all of Columbia. However, due to the overuse of these he is aged rapidly with many cancers, and rendered sterile. Fink, another character you encounter later on, uses these tears to steal music and technology. 

Comstock, in desperate want of an heir, and rendered sterile due to the tears, steals the child of an alternate version of himself, and raises her, hoping to groom her into his successor when he dies. 

Make no mistake, Comstock is no benevolent god-man. His purpose is to rule from above the clouds, and burn the cities of man below who stand against him. 

The player discovers a few key details: Comstock's alternate universe counterpart is Booker DeWitt, the main character we've been playing as, and that Elizabeth, raised as Comstock's daughter, is DeWitt's daughter. 

Deep in debt, Booker gave his daughter to Robert and Rosalind Lutece, who were at the time working with Comstock, but grew to regret it instantly. On catching up with the Luteces and Comstock, a struggle ensued resulting in Anna, Booker's daughter, being pulled into Columbia, without the tip of the little finger on her right hand. 

Simultaneously existing in two realities at the same time, had Anna, now Elizabeth gain the power to open tears, although as the years went on, her powers were curbed by a siphon made by the luteces.

The luteces eventually come around, enlist Booker, and have him save Elizabeth, and take down Comstock. 

This is the main plot of the game. 

Well I say main. 

The inherent racism and elitism over the years has caused a large divide between people in Columbia and the peaceful utopian society we see at the very beginning of the game quickly falls apart as you progress through the story. You end up embroiled in a civil war, you realise that in an alternate universe you were a martyr for the cause, and so on. 

The main reason I wanted to mention the plot twist was what it represents: the illusion of choice. 

A staple part of the BioShock series, the player is exposed to this in many ways throughout the series. Jack is shown to have been an unwitting puppet to Fontaine, while Delta had been to his conditioning as a big daddy. However, in those games, there was a far deeper element of choice: one of morality. 

If the player chose not to save the little sisters or not to attack necessary NPCs, then you get different "bad endings" depending on the severity of the deviation from the moral path laid out in front of you. 

It played an important role in deciding the conclusion of the story. 

But you dont see that in this game. There IS no moral choice that has long reaching effects into the game. There are minor ones, but these only change certain aesthetics of the game, is all. There are little to no benefits to choosing either option provided to you, and in this way, I feel that the gameplay of BioShock Infinite is lacking, especially considering how important the whole aspect of choice is to the narrative of Infinite. 

Booker DeWitt, on receiving baptism, arises "as a new man" and becomes Zachery Hale Comstock. Chen Lin, the gunsmith, marrying a different woman in different universes, results in a vast difference in the story told, between whether he is dead or alive. Booker choosing to help the Vox Populi creates a new timeline and reality altogether. 

There are many other instances that can be found in the game, that can, or will result in many different changes to the timeline, even creating new ones altogether. Yet none of that is in the gameplay elements, only in the lore and narration of the story, unlike with BioShock. 

Another aspect of the game, returning from the previous two games are some of the in game mechanics. Namely the AI of Elizabeth, our companion for most of the game, and how the lore of the world is told. Once we rescue Elizabeth, our game turns into more or less an escort mission, one of the most dreaded aspects of any game till date.
Except Infinite changed the formula altogether. Elizabeth is actually incredibly useful, constantly finding supplies to help us, and money lying around. Not only that, but the way her features were so expressive. 

 She is also one of the characters to undergo massive developments as a character for the duration of the game.

 Design of this calibre was unheard of and unseen for the most part in games those days, often seen only in rare instances and in pre rendered cutscenes than in actual gameplay.

One really has to appreciate the amount of work that has gone into this. 

Overall the game is phenomenal with incredible graphics, a riveting story and a cast of characters that make the world of Columbia truly lifelike, for better and for worse. 

But the game doesn't end there. 

At the end of the game, Booker and Elizabeth make their way to the underwater city of Rapture. We find it in the state of disrepair that we're accustomed to, and head not into the city, but towards the entrance to the lighthouse. Here, the player enters the final area of the game, and the main message of the whole world starts to present itself: Constants and Variables. 

It is best said in these words:

The world that you exist in is made up of the choices you make and the events that take place. Small minor changes can affect the whole of reality and change the course of history altogether. 

We see this best with the Lutece "twins", as in one reality they are born Robert, while in another, they are born Rosalind, the difference between them being a single chromosome.

We consider these as "Variables". Sounds simple enough. 

On the other side, you have "constants". Events and choices that will be made, regardless of everything preceding them. We're not talking about trivial things such as "If I toss a coin it WILL come back down", rather events on a grander scale. 

We get small glimpses into this with events within the game itself. The first time you meet the Lutece twins on Columbia, they ask you to flip a coin. 

Judging by their board, it seems to always come down heads. THAT is a constant (although in reality that would be a variable) 

But when you look at the overall story of the series, you are reminded of the quote said by Elizabeth at the end of the game.

"There is always a lighthouse, 

there is always a man,

and there is always a city."

We started both BioShock and Infinite's journey with the lighthouse, and we went to an impossible city. This is one of the biggest themes of BioShock Infinite, and it hits home every single time you play through it. 

We apply the constants and variables principle to the game for a moment and we see the parallels from these two realities. 

So now we return to Rapture for a moment.

A thing to remember: Infinite's story takes place in 1912, and BioShock's story takes place in 1960. In the second downloadable content, the story continues from the end of BioShock Infinite, with the main characters still being Booker and Elizabeth, however this time they're in Rapture, BEFORE the New Year's Revolt, before Rapture fell into ruin. 

The player gets to witness Rapture in its glory days, when it too shone as brightly as Columbia did, when there were no leaks in the walls, when there weren't splicers trying to kill you at every turn, and when the city was properly a utopia as designed by Andrew Ryan. We get to see pre-revolt rapture only in the introduction of BioShock 2, and that too, only briefly. 

The DLC, titled "Burial at sea" comes in two parts. Part one deals with Booker and Elizabeth trying to find a girl named Sally, who had been missing for a few days, and we have to searching for her. In the process, we revisit some old favourite characters, such as the Houdini Splicers, Sander Cohen, and Atlas. 

The DLC, both part 1 and part 2 are incredibly important to the whole storyline of the franchise, but from the perspective of deep lore. In this DLC we get into details from the three games about how the little sisters were made and how the big daddies were conditioned to be fiercely loyal to the little sisters, while in Rapture. We also make a momentary return to the wide open spaces of Columbia after dealing with the claustrophobic environment of Rapture, where we learn how Vigors were made, how Fink stole technology, and the major background for how events of BioShock Infinite play out. 

Overall, the player finds out how the events of Rapture ties in with the world of Infinite. Its a touching tale but one tinged with sadness. 

Along with this, we also see how Elizabeth has grown since the ending of BioShock Infinite, and the start of the DLC. We see how she has become more like the adults that she has known in her life: vindictive, pessimistic, and how her innocence has long since been lost. Her shift in personality, between the beginning where all she wanted was to go to Paris, to having a bleak, albeit partially true, outlook towards life can be seen with quotes such as "The world values children, not childhood" and "time rots everything, even hope" is seen clearly here than it was in the main game, and it does so in an amazing way. 

The first part of this review dealt with the events of BioShock 1, and the title reflects it. Jack ultimately wins in the game's canon lore, and if he got the good ending, he got to live a happy life for the remainder of his days, with the little sisters whom he rescued with the help of Professor Tennenbaum. 

Lives, Lived, Will Live. 

However, in the Infinite story, there is no hope for the future with our main cast. The Luteces are one of the first casualties in the story, but since they died due to the effect of a tear opening apparatus, they were displaced in time, and space. Father Comstock meets his end at the hands of his counterpart, Dewitt, and Booker himself, sacrifices himself to be drowned at the baptism so that the choice of Comstock never takes place, and the world is a safer place. 

Even Elizabeth, doesn't make it out alive, but she dies content knowing that Jack will come to Rapture, save the sisters and kill Fontaine through the remnants of her powers. 

Dies, Died, Will Die. 

The story of BioShock infinite began with a simple glorified fetch quest to bring a girl to a mysterious person, and ended up being one of the strongest stories ever to be told in gaming of that era. Even today, it is considered one of the great tales told.
However, the gameplay was far too short, and the pacing of the game was all over the place in certain instances.
Infinite is a game that tells a story more than it acts as a game, and in its own right it is quite successful, however it still comes second place to its predecessor, a game that acts more like a game than a simple story. 

The parallels: It has been mentioned above about how the minor choices make a difference in creating a new world based around that, but the implications of that are a lot more than what meets the eye. On second and even third playthroughs, it will become more obvious what I'm trying to not say clearly, but I want to give an example anyway: The columbian equivalent of the Big Daddies were never the Handymen that you see attacking you at random instances, it was Songbird. 

Moreover, the entire series, there are so many fragmented bits of information in the form of audio diaries, recordings, and movie clips, it takes some time for the player to fully appreciate what they're being shown. With Infinite, you can really tell the effort the game makers have put in to make this masterpiece, and on the second playthrough you're able to pick up on subtle nods and small foreshadowing of events. However, it has to be mentioned that there is an entire world, hell, two worlds, available to the player, but only if they look for it themselves. Thus, there is a lot that you miss, in the story that they never told.

Personally I recommend this series to all people, be they new to gaming as a whole, or even veterans. This kind of storytelling isn't something that you come across except in the rare occasions. Now, with the focus being slowly shifted to single round games or battle royale style gaming, we see a lack of new games with compelling storytelling alongside functional game mechanics. I'm not saying they're not there, I'm just saying that these are few and far in between. 

If you're going to start this series, then I offer two paths:

1) The classic route: BioShock 1, BioShock 2, BioShock 2: Minerva's Den, BioShock Infinite, BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea Part 1 and Part 2. 

2) My personal recommendation: BioShock Infinite, BioShock 1, BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea part 1 and Part 2, BioShock 2 and Minerva's Den. 

The second path is the path that took myself, not knowing about the series except that the title was recognisable. It also gave me a proper sense of what the worlds were like: a wide open space appreciable to new players, followed by the claustrophobic and dark setting of Rapture, with the contrast between the two settings only heightening the experience. 

I havent spoken much about BioShock 2, and I'm aware of this. Personally, it is an amazing game, and adds a lot to the narrative of Rapture, however, my focus during this review has always been about the way that Infinite and BioShock tie into each other, how canonical lore talks about how the two worlds benefitted from the other by way of tears, and how it was somewhat all interconnected.

The whole series is a telling of a horror story. While one part deals with telling it to us through graphic means and with jumpscares, the other part has us exploring the deeper psychological parts of it. Ironically, it is done in the opposite way to the theme of the games. BioShock, based on a philosophy, deals with the visual aspects more than the emotional ones, while Infinite, based on appearances (the over the top pseudo christianity, the blatant racism, and great amounts of violence) showcases the more philosophical aspects of the horror story being told. 

For anyone who is interested in the FULL Story of the series, including all the subtle details, and every inch of the story, I have a link for a playlist here. Do check it out, if you want. 

A great series, a great game, 

Hoping that people pick it up to play and are just amazed by it :)

Thank you for reading my somewhat longer than usual review.
Let me know what you think :) 

Lullaby

We've all had days which felt like a long drawn out battle, and who's nights felt like the end of a decade, instead of a single day.

And this is a universal experience. 

Life is a daily battle, and the lullaby can guide the minds to a place of peace where they may rest before the next day begins. 

Anyway.
Let me know what you guys think. :)
Enjoy. :D

Lullaby

Running thoughts and noise abound,
With these we spend our waking days.
To senses, a storm of inputs surround,
As we walk about in a sunlit daze.

To break from task, we travel far,
To the land of sleep, as hearts do slow.
The movies play, of dreams bizarre,
We find new worlds of a realistic faux.

Though I must go to this land of sleep,
It will not be easy or with peace.
So sing me softly to the path so deep,
My Valkyrie, so this day may cease.

Lives, Lived, Will Live.

A while back, a friend of mine and I started the DLC expansion for a game which we both liked, BioShock Infinite. Some of you would be familiar with this game, and some of you may not have. Personally, this series is one of my long-time favourites, but my favourite in this series has to be the first one, so I’ll be talking about that one first for the most part.

So, coming back to my friend. I had asked him to give me running commentary as he played, hoping to indulge in a bit of nostalgia as I remembered my first playthrough of the game as he spoke about it.

For those curious, the DLC (Downloadable content) is called “Burial At Sea, part 1 and part 2”. It acts as a continuation of the story of the first game, simply titled “BioShock”, as well as an aftermath of BioShock Infinite. It ends up acting as a gateway between the two games once you reach part 2 of the DLC. It seems confusing, but it actually ties the whole story of the series into a neat little ribbon, albeit somewhat of a blood soaked and partially mangled ribbon, I’ll admit.

Like I said, I’d be primarily talking about BioShock (the first game) in this post, but I will be covering the whole series, especially due to the impact on the story because of the DLC.

So, lets begin.

BioShock is a first person shooter game, with role playing elements, developed by Irrational Games (initially named 2K Boston), and 2K Australia. It was released in the 2007-2008 period for Windows, Xbox and the playstation, and on looking at those dates, you notice that this game is at least a decade old.

The setting for BioShock is the 1960. In the real world, around about that time, we had the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA and the invention of the first transistor computer. This lends itself to a large amount of the setting, and vast amounts of this time period is noticeable in the game, from the design of the clothes, to the subtle political nuances found in Rapture.

But what is Rapture, you ask? Almost all of the first two games (BioShock 1 and 2) takes place in the underwater city of Rapture. The brain child of the fictional character, Andrew Ryan (a character based heavily off John Galt from Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”), it is masterpiece in its design itself. Resembling a city from the 1950’s to 1960’s, it serves as the birthplace for a utopian society, however the instant you look inside, we notice that nothing is as what it seems.

Dark, damp and mouldy at best, the inside of the city is mostly broken down, with security robots running amok, it looks like the exact opposite to what a utopia is. Despite this, the city looks spectacular, and what one would imagine an underwater city falling into disrepair would seem like.

Even though the game is marketed as a first person shooter game, thanks to its setting, it ends up becoming more like a survival horror game, which works out in its favour. You have rooms which are randomly flooded, debris strewn everywhere, and the overall ambience sets the player on edge from the instant they step foot into the city.

So lets start at the beginning.

NOTE: Andrew Ryan's outlook towards life, is called "Objectivism", an ideology developed by Author, Ayn Rand, describing it in her own words as, "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute"

Whats to like about this game?

PROS:

1.       The visuals. The first thing that most people notice when they start playing the game is the appearance of the City of Rapture. The sheer enormity of it, fleshed out in the style of a 1950’s American city, is something that would have been astounding a decade ago.
When you go inside the city, and see the blend of what the city would have looked like at its peak, and how its fallen to ruin now, you really get immersed into the story.
TEN years later, the visuals still don’t fail to amaze players, both old and new, as they make their way through rapture.

BioShock has been described as “the sign of the coming of age of video games as an artistic medium”. Vox, in 2016, said that BioShock was the first game that showcased that video games could be a work of art in itself. High praise, and one that BioShock has managed to live up to.

In BioShock 2, we revisit the city of Rapture, but we visit all new areas, with focuses being the residential areas, and where the common and the non-wealthy lived their lives. An especially notable segment is where you get to see things through rose coloured glasses, when you play as a Little Sister (read on) briefly. We even get to see the ocean floor on which Rapture is built. 

Splicers to the side, a Little Sister in the front,
and a Big Daddy at the top of the stairs.

2.       The characters. While BioShock IS known for its visuals, there are two fields which are notably more iconic. The character you encounter being the first one. The instant you set foot in Rapture, you’re greeted by someone you cant see, only to see them murdered by someone dropping from the ceiling. The subtitles say just say “splicers”, your main enemies in this game.

Further in, you meet the Little Sisters and the Big Daddies, two character models that have become so entirely synonymous with this series that the mention of “BioShock” has people thinking of this: (insert image)
The development of these characters, both in-game, and in real life is something that is equal parts horrifying and gripping, as well as incredibly well planned and developed.

Beyond that, you have the main antagonists: Andrew Ryan (the creator of Rapture), and Frank Fontaine. Ryan is easily one of the more complex characters you see in this game, and if you pay attention to your surroundings, you learn more about him, as well as the creation and development of Rapture.
He is such a powerful character, with a compelling back story, with a great deal of emphasis on how he became what he was. He is the reason for the infamous “A man chooses, A slave obeys” quote.
And on the other side of the antagonist coin, you have Frank Fontaine. While he isn’t as impressive as Ryan, he is still a force to be reckoned with in his own right. Fontaine got his status from getting others to do his work for him, much like Ryan did, however, instead of doing it through more legitimate ways, he chose the underground path, stopping at almost nothing to get his end goal: control over Rapture.

And that’s where we come in: The Main Character. Known only as Jack, the person we play as is a silent protagonist, who’s face is never seen in ANY material, in ANY of the games. His origin story, is easily one of the biggest themes of the later part of the game.
 The protagonist of the second game, A Big Daddy, known simply as Subject Delta, is equally interesting, especially his origin story. While in the second game, you look for the little sister you’ve bonded to, the background elements of the story is essentially the back story of the main character.

3.       The Story, and Choices.
In today’s day, we have games such as Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, where every single choice we make as a character affects the overarching game. But games like this was released either last year, with few games from previous years having this level of freedom in making our choices count.
There have been games which preceded BioShock that had multiple endings depending on some choice made, but those were usually restricted to the choices made at the very end of the game. With BioShock, we were allowed to be the “bad guy” from the very beginning. In BioShock 2, the choices made more of a difference than before, as each choice made changed parts of the narrative altogether, including when we let a character from earlier live instead of killing them. The choice mattered for the overall experience of the game as we progressed through it.
Now, BioShock is known for its story, more than anything else, and its plot twist element revolving around the phrase, “Would You Kindly?” has been called one of the strongest narrative elements of recent games. This phrase is important for more than the sake of a plot twist however, in that it subverts the expectation that the player had ANY control over the events of the game.
It seems somewhat contradictory, especially since I mentioned that choices mattered, but you should also keep in mind, that only some instances in the narration have choices while the others are essentially set in stone. It’ll make a lot more sense when you play the game and progress to the point that you meet Andrew Ryan in-game.
Again, drawing attention to the fact that this was TEN years ago, BioShock played a much more important role in games, and influenced media and culture with its amazing and strong narration.

4.       This last one, is my personal favourite.  The Music.

For me, the experience of playing BioShock was somewhat troubling, since I went from the wide open spaces of Infinite and Columbia, to the closed off spaces in Rapture, and not the other way around, and the effect was claustrophobic.
However, it wasn’t the visuals alone that helped me get to that level of immersed in the game. It was the music.
In the game, we have a character called Sander Cohen, a poet, composer, sculptor and playwright of Rapture. He became a leading figure of art in Rapture, but unfortunately, during the descent of Rapture into chaos, so too did Cohen descend into insanity, brutality and apathy. You can see his “work” around parts of Rapture, in the form of Splicers who have been covered with plaster, “immortalised” in a sense, for the spirit of his art.
The music video provided above is Cohen's Theme (Sorry, alignment issue for some reason)
There are many other instances like this, where the musical theme helps in the immersion of the player, most notably the quick moving and high pitched violin noises heard during combat, which heightens the tension as combat begins or continues, as seen here:

You learn more about the world that the player is in, through Audio diaries, some of them utterly heart breaking, such as one by a mother, who's looking for her child, whom she sees has been turned into a Little Sister. This adds a massive level of immersion to the world around you, and you can listen to these recordings by the residents of Rapture as you progress through the city, without it disrupting the flow of the game.

Most games tend to have expositional dumps in some of the cutscenes, and others tend to over flood info by having it given to the player as snippets of texts available that one can collect.
With this, it adds more realism to the world at hand, and allows the player to sympathise with a lot of the characters we come across in the game, including those in the origins of the main characters.

Of Course, there are things that I’m not entirely happy about either.

CONS: 

1)      The remasters.
In September 2016, the original two games were remastered with better textures, lighting and a general face lift, and released to the world, along with their DLCs, and BioShock Infinite (not receiving any remastering, since it was still quite recent in terms of visuals), and IT’S DLCs. Not complaining about this part.
The part that I AM complaining about is this: The games, for the most part, are available for PC players only on Steam. The game gets through the opening cutscenes of the two remastered games, and takes its sweet time giving control to the players.
Problem? In BioShock 1, it means that the player has already drowned in the plane crash since he stayed underwater for too long, and in BioShock 2, the game basically just quits without any notification in random instances.
These are supposed to be the remastered games, not the originals.
Even high end PCs are having issues regarding this, and two years later, the issue still has not been fixed.

2)      The Gameplay mechanics.As mentioned above, I've played this game after I played BioShock Infinite, and the mechanics of that game were an evolution of this one. Unlike with Infinite, and even BioShock 2, in this game, you are never wielding a weapon, as well as a plasmid at the same time, so things like combinations are a bit more difficult to pull off. There also isnt a lot of maneuverability in Rapture, and you have to move only in the paths prescribed to you. It isnt a massive issue, but due to the order in which I played the games, it is remarkably noticeable. 

A few things to mention as I close this. 

This first game has a lot of its influence from Ayn Rand's books, specifically, "Atlas Shrugged". Andrew Ryan is based off John Galt, and a lot of the events mirror the events from the book at their most basic level. The whole philosophy of Ryan, as mentioned in the image here, is based off Rand's own personal belief. 

Ryan's origins mirror that of Rand's as well: they were both born in Russia and emigrated to America after their home country adopted a communist regime, and both believed in the philosophy of objectivism. 

There are a lot of other topics which are covered in the game, heavy topics, which dont make it to the foreground of the narrative, but are ever present in the very framework of Rapture, a lot of it based on the works of Ayn Rand (Andrew Ryan is an anagram of "We R Ayn Rand")

There are a lot of easter eggs which would be fun to go through, but maybe not right now. 

There are other characters not mentioned, because their role in the game is that of developing parts of Rapture, such as Dr. Yi Suchong, who made the plasmids, the big daddies and little sisters, and those I have not mentioned as they play their roles more in the background than the ones mentioned above.

It is recommended that the player try and find all the audio diaries, as this will uncover a much greater narration, than what you play through, the story of Rapture as a whole. You get to events in the story that happen before the entry of the player, the New Year's Party of 1959, which marked the beginning of the downfall of Rapture, being the most important and notable one. 

All in all, I’ve loved this series since I started playing it with BioShock Infinite, after my surgery, and getting into the rest of the series has been an utter delight.
Hopefully new players also find the series as fun as I have, and have their own takes on lore, events and characters.

This game has survived will into the future, having lasted 10 years, not as an eyesore or someone's nostalgia trip, but as a classic, one which still influences the gaming world and the culture of game design as a whole. 

In my next post (hopefully... these things tend to take a lot of time, and things usually come up in between), I'll be talking about BioShock Infinite, as well as the DLC my friend was playing. 

Let me know what you think please. :) 

On the write up, and on the game series. 

Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite

On February 15th, 2019, the world was introduced to a TV show on Netflix, called "The Umbrella Academy".
Based on the comics of the same name, created by Gerard Way (Yes, THAT Gerard Way) and Gabriel Ba (the name has a ' on top of the "a", but I cant seem to put it in. Apologies), the show is about a family of 7 children with a very dysfunctional family.

The story starts off with the birth of 43 children, who were all born on the same day, to women who were never pregnant before that single day. A wealthy entrepreneur and well known scientist, known as Sir Reginald Hargreeves, came and purchased 7 of the 43, and began the Umbrella Academy, raising the children and hone their powers, to Save the World.

The children were given numbers, and as such, to the outside world, this is what they were known as. Number 7, Vanya Hargreeves never really showed any signs of powers when she was little, so she wasn't ever seen by the public. The rest of them showcase various powers, some of which grow as the series progresses.

The first part of the story starts off when their father, Sir Reginald Hargreeves dies, and the siblings (having been estranged for the past few years) have come back for his funeral.

The show follows the general plan of a super-hero story, but with elements in it that make it seem far more realistic than its comic book counterpart.
The characters are properly fleshed out, and we get to see how these characters have developed. As the viewer, we get to see the present time events, as they happen, but then we also get glimpses into the pasts of the Hargreeves children.

When the team of the Umbrella Academy reminisce, we see how things were when they were children, and still going out and saving the world as a team. When we get to see Number 5 (only known as "The Boy") and his memories of HIS past, we get to see the future.

The story starts off a little slowly, introducing the characters, one by one, but doing so in a way that isnt expositional. The main elements of the tale, begins with the resurgence of the missing Number 5, a time traveller, who had disappeared for about 17 years, due to a miscalculated time-jump into the future. There he discovers that the world has ended and that he was the only person still alive.
Staying in the post apocalyptic world till he turns 58, he keeps trying to get back till he succeeds eventually. However, due to some potential miscalculation, his body reverts back to that of a 15 year old boy, the state when he first made the time jump.

On coming back, we, as the viewers are told that the world is about to end in exactly seven days, and that number 5 is on the case. And this is where the MAIN part of the story begins.

Anything further than this is best enjoyed by watching the episodes themselves.


One thing I noticed in this series, is how the team interacts with each other. Its so obvious that they're siblings, that makes you wonder why more shows dont show familial interactions more accurately like this. Just those moments of "Attaboy" when people use their powers in more fun ways, as a way to encourage their siblings, and the number of small and petty fights between them in the middle of a high tension situation.
Klaus, Number 4, the one who can talk to dead people, is easily one of the best things to come out of this show, for who he is as a person, and what development he goes through. Some of the best lines in this shows come from this man alone.

The direction is amazing, as we are able to move seamlessly from one scene to another without wondering how we got there. We have smooth transitions between the past/present/future timelines, all the while, seeing it how the team sees it in their heads. The CGI is perfectly on point, and at no point during the whole season do you question the existence of the Butler, Pogo.

The show does end on a cliffhanger, but it's par for the course considering:
1) It's a super hero show, and nothing will ever end peacefully on a super hero show without foreshadowing things for future seasons. (Looking at you, Flash)
2) In today's day and age, we have things like unnecessary cancellations of good tv shows that the public doesnt want to stop watching, such as Brooklyn 99, and Lucifer, and things that are utterly pointless and boring keep going on and on, well past their "best by" date. Stuff like this is what is needed to keep networks from unjustly cancelling shows which shouldn't be cancelled (such as Deception)

It has been renewed for a second season, and most people who have seen the show are looking forward to it.



Unfortunately, while doing some amount of research into this show, I also managed to read the comics that this show is based on, and my feelings on the source material is that of dismay.
Not because the source is bad or something, but that it does tend to have bleaker outcomes than what the the TV adaptation shows. The characters are a bit more untethered, and are designed to fit more of a stereotype, than actual characters.
The first volume of the comics is called "Apocalypse Suite", and the second is called "Dallas". You notice that when you read the two volumes, that there are changes in the stories, such as appearances of certain characters from the second volume, since the show is mostly based on the first alone.

This is to say that the show's creators do take some liberties in not strictly following the comic book's storyline.
For one thing, we dont really ever see the previous villains that the Umbrella Academy faced when they were children (which I feel is for the better). We also see more about the relationships between the children as they grew up with the flashbacks, which aren't seen as in detail in the comics.
There are characters missing of course, such as their butler, and most of the plot of the first volume of the comics has been changed, again for the better.
I feel that retconning the story, or rather, making it as an adaption, rather than a strict following of the comic storyline was a wise move, as it now has potential for a less bleak outcome of the whole event.

Overall, it's a brilliant show, and a must watch.
Personally, I found that the events of the first episode move a little too slowly regarding introducing the characters, but others found it alright. Others also had a problem wherein the latter half of the season moved a little too slowly regarding the plot, to their liking. There were a couple of red herrings thrown in for good measure, but I feel that its more indicative of changes in the timeline, thanks to the efforts of Number 5, than negligence or bad writing.

I'll write a more in-depth review of this series once more people have seen it, since the show only came out on Netflix on the 15th of Feb this year, and its not even half a month in.

Till then,
I recommend that you pick up this series as quickly as possible.

From left to right: Vanya (Number 7), Number 5, Michael (Number 4), Allison (Number 3), Diego (Number 2) and Luther (Number 1). Ben (Number 6), is not here, and you'll need to see the tv story, or read the comics to find out why.

(Yes, that's how they look like in the comics)

Cheers,
Ryan.

Assassin's Creed- Forsaken: A review.

During the month of October, I found this lovely little book in a bookstore, along with a few others of its series.

Assassin's Creed: Forsaken. 

The name "Assassin's Creed" is quite well known these days, whether you've played it, or just heard someone muttering about the numerous glitches in some of their games.
This is my review of this book, based on the game, Assassin's Creed 3. 

Let me know what you think, where I can improve my writing, and whether you would consider buying the book yourself. :)

A bit of back story: 

Ubisoft is well known for its Assassin’s Creed franchise which it began in November of 2007, with its self-titled game. Since then, it has gone on to produce 11 titles in its main series, and 21 games overall, spread across a myriad of consoles and hand held devices, in the span of just over a decade.

                The series’ premise revolves around the rivalry and conflict between two ancient secret societies, of whose modern day incarnations are known as “The Knights Templar”, and the “Order of Assassins”. The first game began with a protagonist, named Desmond Miles, being captured by the Templars, as they try and wrest from him his genetic memories, of the assassins in his bloodline.

                The first game started with the original Assassin’s order from which the assassins got their names from in real history, through the Italian renaissance and up till the American Revolution and the French Revolution. The next stop in the series was a trip to Victorian England, following which, they started moving back further back into history.

                But the focus for this review is Assassin’s Creed 3, the one which focused on the American Revolution, specifically between the years 1754 to 1783. But before delving into that, a bit, and getting to the actual review of the book, there are a few key things which must be mentioned.

                The Assassins vs. Templars conflict. In the first game, the conflict is portrayed in a pretty cut and dry format, where you have the protagonist on the “good” side and the other side being “bad”, without a clear antagonist being present, or rather, one that varies from game to game. Instead of keeping it straight laced and one dimensional, they add more to the story, and we learn about the motivations behind both groups:  The Templars are fighting for absolute control, and controlling the minds and wills of all the people under them, to usher in a rule without argument, conflict, or violence, but also without independence. On the other side, you have the brotherhood of Assassins, who wish that freedom be given to every man, woman and child, regardless of the consequences, so that people may make their own choices, and learn from them.

                Now, why is this important? Throughout the first few games, we see pieces, here and there wherein the black and white of this world of Assassins and Templars becomes grey in parts. In real life, we know what Assassins are, and it seems strange that they are the ones who go about securing freedom for the oppressed.

                But this seems to stem from a necessity to be different from the antagonists, the Templars, who were a real world catholic military order, who, in game, were more inclined towards the subjugation of humans, even if it was borne out of a hope to quench conflict and violence before it grew in the first place.

                So where do we see them being redeemed in the eyes of the player? We return to Assassin’s Creed 3, where we start seeing the grey far more than had been shown in the past, and it isn’t till 2014 with Assassin’s Creed Rogue that we see things from the Templar perspective that we briefly saw in Assassin’s Creed 3.

                Assassin’s Creed 3 and Assassin’s Creed Rogue had an overlap in their in game years, from 1754 to 1776, during the colonial era of North America, where the players were able to delve into the going on of the time, when America was attempting its revolution.

                From the first game, we take a look into history through the eyes of the protagonist’s ancestors. During Assassin’s Creed 3, we look at the world of colonial America through the eyes of two ancestors, Haytham Kenway, and his son, Ratonhnhaké:ton (also called Connor Kenway).

                This game had a lot of unusual developments, which were not seen in prior games, or in games since. This game marked the end of the story of a protagonist, namely Desmond Miles, as well as the first look at the world through the eyes of the Templars, by playing as Haytham Kenway.

                The game also has a more “modern” storyline, set in the year 2018, which dealt with a lot of lore created inside the franchise, where you play as Desmond Miles. The game is able to do a pretty good job of following the two stories, of Connor, and Desmond, quite well, shifting between them as needed.

                The book, however, doesn’t include the “modern” storyline, and instead deals with the events of the life of Haytham Kenway. Haytham, in the game, was introduced and used only up till the end of the prologue of the game (albeit, a very lengthy one), and was only seen in rare instances.

                Which is fine, were it not for the fact that Haytham is presented as a very unique character in the family tree of Desmond Miles. He is the only known Templar of the bloodline, comprising mostly of only assassins. His father, an Assassin, but also a Pirate from the golden age of piracy (whom you get to play as in Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag), played a key role in the development of Haytham kenway, but we aren’t to know that as the game featuring his father isn’t released till the next year. The players instead get to see the world mostly through the eyes of his son, who, it seems, is unaware of his entire heritage and bloodline till much later in his life.

                The book, Assassin’s Creed: Forsaken, is seen through Haytham’s eyes, and in doing so, we are able to glimpse the life of someone who was born to an Assassin, and then grows up a Templar. With Haytham, we can see a conflict of ideologies between what the Templars and Assassins teach.

                The most important aspect of this book is that it is able to take someone who is considered as an antagonist, or someone from the antagonist’s side, and make them someone who can be understood, in a way superior to the original source. It becomes a case of “movie vs. book” but in this case, the book came second.

                Talking about the overall story of the colonial period, one would assume that since the two opposing forces of the revolution were the British and Colonial Americans, that the Templars would pick one side, while the Assassins would pick the other. However, with Haytham and Connor, you don’t see that as much, and on few enough occasions, they end up working together for the same goal (albeit, for different reasons).

                Point is, Assassin’s Creed: Forsaken provides a good story, which is told in the form of Journal entries from Haytham Kenway, with an epilogue/afterword written by his son. It provides a fresh look at the conflicts between these two groups, and adds to make the lines between their methods grey, while maintaining true to the characters. To someone who has played the game, it provides a lot of important details, such as seeing the world from the other side.

                There are a few points which need to be mentioned, however. The original game released in 2012, to coincide with the December 21^st “end of days” to play tie in with the “modern day” storyline, and the next instalment in the series, Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, released the next year, with characters from before the in-game story.  The following year, Assassin’s Creed: Rogue was released, which added so much more to the conflict between Templars and Assassins, with the character you play as being an assassin turned Templar. The problem? It also added a lot to the story of Haytham. The problem with that? The book was released in 2012, the year the game launched. The period of time in which you see Rogue’s events take place are missing from the book. This adds some inconsistencies such as the lack of a mention of the conflict between the Templars and the Assassins, prior to the entry of Connor as a colonial Assassin, or even how Haytham knows the name of the leader of the Assassins, Achilles, which was never explained in the book.

As someone who has played the game first, you do miss a lot of the story that is Connor, including the path to becoming an assassin. For this reason, its probably a better idea to both read and play the game, for a better experience overall, however it is not necessary to do so. 

Considering the added story of the life of Haytham Kenway before he came to America, and before the events of playing as an adult Connor, players feel disappointed, at the missed opportunity to play the events described in the book. One cannot fault Ubisoft for not adding this, as they were pushing to make one main title game per year, but one cannot also help but feel cheated either.

Haytham, as well as the protagonist of Assassin’s Creed: Rogue, Shay Cormac, while both Templars, had their roots in Assassin’s ideology, did not want to outright control the people for personal gain and power, but in an attempt to benefit the whole of humanity. Questioning his faith in the teachings of the Templar order, especially considering the life of betrayal he had to deal with as he grew up, the readers are able to see the “grey” side to things once more.

                Unlike previous depictions of Templars, Haytham stands out as one who is more focused on the betterment of people, without exploitation, and without harm. Shay Cormac, on the other hand, stayed with the Templars out of a necessity to prevent Assassins from unleashing dangers which they could not control. This contrast between the previous generations of Templars (and most future versions as well) has not been seen since in all media, except maybe in Sofia Rikkin from the Assassin’s Creed Movie.

                The book was incredibly well made, and told an amazing story, despite suffering from inconsistencies caused by retconning and anachronisms. The background for the character is properly fleshed out, and pulls no punches when telling his story. Though he may have Assassin roots, and an Assassin son, it doesn’t deter Haytham’s way of running the Templar Order.

                There are instances which differ from the game, but these are minor changes, which add more to the story than not. The perspective that the readers are provided, is great at adding a new dimension to the overall story, however, it also doesn’t draw sufficient attention to the overall “modern” storyline which would have been present had we seen parts of the story also through the eyes of Connor.

                It is something that I would recommend to people, even if they haven’t played the Assassin’s creed games, and especially to people who enjoy adventure and historic genres of books.