What We Want From BioShock 4

At its core, the first BioShock about the flaws in objectivism, particularly as it’s presented in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged novel. It’s not trying to hide that, either (see: that character named Atlas). John Galt’s utopia is Rapture, except gone wrong. After the discovery of ADAM, class warfare quickly decimated what was meant to be an ideal paradise for artists and doctors and engineers. It turns out the ultra-rich are always going to do what the ultra-rich do regardless of where they’re living, huh?

Columbia, on the other hand, is an ideology that’s often a utopia. But it quickly transforms into something real when applied to reality. A society built on the foundation of God, led by one man who thinks the rest of the world should fall in line behind America – what could go wrong? Well, if said “one man” begins to think he is God, or at least someone who thinks God looks like him and acts like him, a floating and isolated city quickly becomes a place rife with oppression, particularly for people of color.

Both BioShock and BioShock 2, which largely follows the objectivism criticism of the original, are grounded in stories that challenge these philosophical ideas through unique sci-fi approaches. It’s the commentary on real-world philosophy that’s core to the pillars of the series’ storytelling, and without that foundation, the next could risk becoming blasé, losing what makes these games interesting in the first place.