The Profundity of BioShock

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Written by BuckGB on June 21st, 2008

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Now a bard who was singing a part of the big story called (The Wrath of Achilles) (what we know as the Iliad) couldn't change the fact that Achilles comes back to battle, eventually to die. But he could most certainly change the way that coming back went down. At some point, one bard did, and came up with the immortal lines I quoted above about what's been known forever after as the Choice of Achilles.

But that means that the Choice of Achilles actually isn't a choice at all, because Achilles can't leave, any more than the main character of Bioshock can leave the underwater city of Rapture before the end of the game. (This is what I meant about sandboxes and rails, by the way.)

I don't want to spoil Bioshock for anyone, so if you haven't played it and are planning on playing it, stop reading now, finish the game, and come back. I'll wait.

Now that you're back: remember that moment when Andrew Ryan tells you to kill him? Isn't it strange that you absolutely have to do that, or the game won't proceed?

Here's the thing. The relationship of the bard to the (non)-Choice of Achilles is exactly the same as the relationship of the player of Bioshock to killing Andrew Ryan. Ken Levine, author of Bioshock, and the Homerid who came up with the Choice of Achilles were both saying something really, really important about free will, which could only be delivered by exposing the way things that seem like choices really aren't choices at all, most of all when it matters most.

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