Allow me to describe the scene to you...
The town I grew up in had (and still has) a really awesome ice cream store just about 5 minutes away from where I lived. Once I hit the ripe old age of 15, I managed to land a job at said establishment. The lines of customers were as long as the shifts I worked and when the outside temperature reaches the high 80's to low 90's, well I think you get the picture. Numerous days I would stumble through my parents front door at midnight, if I was lucky, reeking of rotten dairy and my feet aching.
One night, after a particularly exhaustive shift, I pulled out the wooden chair from underneath my desk, picked up my controller and put a disk labeled "BioShock" that I got for $10, into my newly acquired XBox 360's disc tray, that my cousin gifted to me. As the alarm/digital clock combo on my dresser flashed to say 1:00 a.m., I watched the opening cinematic of Jack's narration in the airplane to England, and I never looked back.
Everything about the late 2K Boston's (later known as Irrational Games, R.I.P) BioShock is a masterpiece. From the fully realized world of Rapture to the multitude of faces you meet along the way; 8 years later, it all still holds up. Ken Levine has created a world that seems so surreal, but is simultaneously grounded in ethics and politics we all know too well. Like a good David Lynch film, BioShock offers it's players a world they can truly get lost in while still maintaining a creeping feeling as if there is always something you could be doing better. The only way for any game to achieve this nirvana like state is if the controls and mechanics are solid and the only other mechanics that parallel those found here, are those found in 2013's BioShock Infinite.
Look, if it sounds like I'm partial to this game, it's because I am. I'm confident when I say that BioShock will go down as one of the cornerstones of storytelling in games, if it hasn't done so already. I feel like there's nothing I could say about this game that hasn't already been said. Ayn Rand influenced philosophies make for a story that will stand through the test of time. The controls cut through the game like butter. The graphics aim to be realistic but are just stylized enough to the point where Irrational can get away with the hardware limitations. Fully developed settings like Rapture allow for them to become characters themselves.
BioShock is the reason why I want to get into video game development as a career.
Yes, I understand that today some shooting sequences found in the game today can feel claustrophobic when compared to the Borderlands or the Far Cry's of the world. Yet with that being said, I still feel like this is a game that everyone deserves to play at some point in their lives.
At this point, my 90's inspired digital clock has struck 4:00 a.m. My parents have long gone to bed along with the dog, and the only light on in our house is my television, reflecting in the lens of my glasses. My eyes, clearly glazed over, finally told my brain that it needed some rest. As I turned off my 360 and got into bed, I fell asleep to a re-run of Conan, happy because for the next 3 months or so, I would play this game religiously after every shift I had because it offered me an escape from the humdrum life I lead at some dead end job. By the time all was said and done, that game taught me a very important fact. I don't want to be stuck doing something I hate for the rest of my life.
I realized that I wanted to become the next Ken Levine.
I'll let you know how that works out for me...