I chose to save the girls, simply because I imagined that there would be some sort of positive story resolution as a result. As such, the choice to kill a “Little Sister” or not really comes down to an either/or, binary sequence of events based on your decision. While an increasing number of games are attempting to give ethical weight to player decisions, there have yet to be any that reflect the subtle shades of gray present in real life. Video games comprise an extremely young medium, and the concept of a game with moral choices and consequences is still in its infancy. It seems to me, however, that such arguments are somewhat misplaced. Upon Bioshock‘s release, a minor stir was made in the mainstream media regarding the option you have to kill the “Little Sisters” in an effort to gain more Adam (genetic currency), as opposed to freeing them. The implications of spliced human beings going insane with addictions for genetic material (not to mention the lumbering, behemoth “Big Daddys”) are enough to sit with you long after you’re done playing. These grisly encounters aren’t entirely removed from reality, and yet are somewhat preternatural. Rather, the things you see and hear, the scenes you stumble upon, and the creatures you face are unsettling. It’s not so much that Bioshock is actually scary. ![]() The last game I played with this quality of not being able to tear myself away no matter how disquieting the experience was Resident Evil 4. Unlike many I’ve spoken with, I found myself unable to play Bioshock in long stretches, instead playing in hour-long spurts, and thinking I was done for a while before inevitably returning 10 minutes later.
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