Near the end of the game, some 15 hours later, I discovered I was right. Eleanor was there with me, just as she was 10 years before, when her mother faced a similar opportunity to kill a man. And then I realized that she was watching too. I watched him for a moment, savoring his suffering. He stood there cowering, defenseless, bent at the waist, gripping his head. I won't soon forget confronting the rat-like Stanley Poole in the train station, every bit of me itching to kill him and make it painful. This game makes me feel the weight of compassion and responsibility. How would Eleanor interpret these actions? In an excellent article on a similar theme, Michael Abbot of The Brainy Gamer had this to say: Likewise, finishing off the Big Daddy version of Mike Meltzer, a man trapped in Rapture to be with his daughter, I could not help but feel remorse. All these decisions influence who Eleanor will become.When I killed Gilbert’s mutated splicer form, I still felt a sense of guilt, even when I felt justified in my actions. Similar reminders occur when players are faced with the decision to kill Stanley Poole and Gilbert Alexander. Thus, the responsibility for future actions are his. By choosing to let her live, Delta shows agency and moral intelligence. If the player decides not to kill her when given the option, Grace tells him a monster would never show mercy. The first character to test that theory is Grace Holloway, a woman who attempts to stop Delta by sending an army of splicers at him. They seem to have less agency than Jack, who himself is controlled by Fontaine’s “would you kindly.” Sophia Lamb in Bioshock 2 paints Delta as a monstrous creation, ruining his beloved Little Sister Eleanor with his mad pursuit. The Big Daddy from the first Bioshock is a clockwork monster, mercilessly protecting Little Sisters. To create a sense of guilt, players must feel responsible for not necessarily ideal circumstances, all without feeling cheated by the game designers into selecting sub-optimal outcomes. Shepard’s decisions can be well defended, regardless of consequences. When choice does have an emotional element, say in Mass Effect 2 for example, it may also merely present two justifiable options. Choice in many games is superficial and largely meaningless. In order to feel guilt, you must in some way feel responsible for unfavorable actions. Guilt is a difficult emotion to evoke in games. Bioshock 2 offers similar binary decision points, but by creating an intimate relationship between the Big Daddy protagonist and his Little Sister all grown up, the game evokes sensations of guilt and responsibility the first title could never have achieved. While the decision to save or harvest little sisters has a narrative affect, their presence seems more environmental than personal. The denizens of Andrew Ryan’s underwater city cared only for themselves, and it caused the Libertarian paradise to eat itself alive.The protagonist of the first Bioshock is an automaton within this decaying world. My first venture into Rapture revealed the dangerous affects of unmitigated self-interest. Warning: This post contains spoilers for Bioshock 2. As always, we welcome your thoughts on all the matters we discuss, and look forward to analyzing one of gaming's most powerful, yet intangible, abilities. Please have a look at the series' introduction as well its previous entries. This post is part of " The Sensationalist," a continuing series here at Experience Points in which we examine games' abilities to evoke emotions and sensations in video game players.
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