BioShock

11 - BioShock

Year: 2007
Platform(s): PC / Xbox 360
Designer(s): Ken Levine
Developer: Irrational Games
Publisher: 2K Games

A three-word pleasantry—“Would you kindly?”—set up the most stunning plot twist in gaming history and made BioShock a lasting icon. Many games have stolen its moral-choice device—witness the recent glut of “Press A to kill, B to rescue” situations—but the copycats miss the real insight of the “Would you kindly?” moment, which showed players that the notion of choice in a game is just an illusion anyway. It’s all in how you execute the illusion, and BioShock uses every tool of the medium to tell its story of extreme libertarianism gone awry: richly characterized dialogue, the gloom of a crumbling Atlantis, the limitations of the first-person viewpoint. It was a visionary effort, one that set the bar high for games that would follow. . ." - AV Club

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