BioShockwas released back in 2007, but is still considered one of the best video games of all time. Its story is renowned for its impact, originality, and unexpected twists, and the game masterfully employs a number of approaches to communicate the gripping plot to the player, including audio logs scattered throughout its underwater setting - an innovation at the time.
However,BioShockalso makes excellent use of environmental storytelling to convey its narrative. This technique is an area in which video games excel, allowing players to explore game worlds and draw conclusions from the structures, items, and other objects they discover, without having to resort to dialogue or chunks of written exposition. Many games have learned from the likes ofBioShock, and expanded or delivered their stories using their environments.
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How BioShock Used Environmental Storytelling to Great Effect
BioShock’s opening is regarded as one of thebest video game intro sequences ever created. The protagonist, Jack, survives a plane crash in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean before swimming to a mysterious lighthouse to avoid certain death from hypothermia. Inside, he finds a mysterious submersible called a “bathysphere” (a real-life deep sea exploration device invented in the early twentieth century), which transports him to an astonishing, submerged metropolis. A pre-recorded voiceover by the city’s founder, Andrew Ryan, explains his disturbing vision for the Randian “paradise”.
However, even before this memorable monologue is delivered,BioShockhas already given the player many clues about what to expect from itsunderwater setting, Rapture. A huge statue looms above them as soon as they enter the lighthouse, depicting a distinctly 1950s-styled gentleman peering menacingly over a banner that proclaims “No gods or kings. Only Man.”
In this single image, the player is immediately informed that they are destined to meet an individual powerful and arrogant enough to construct a huge bronze statue of himself, and also sufficiently uncaring about what people think of him to even bother to smile for the sculptor. The player is also immediately crystal clear about the as-yet-unidentified despot’s politics.BioShock’s disturbing storywill take them to a place where there are no worshipped deities, no religious figures, and no revered monarchs. Even the capitalization in the message is very deliberate.
The game is littered with this sort of highly intelligent, economical use of environmental storytelling to efficiently convey more information about its setting. The player is already aware that the game is set in 1960, but early on they encounter the chaotic aftermath of a party with a big sign saying “happy new year 1959” in a wrecked restaurant. Instantly, they know that something has gone horribly wrong here, and that the disaster happened over a year ago. They can also discern from the flamboyance and ostentatiousness of the décor thatRapture was once a wealthy and decadent society– or at least, part of it was.
Players also encounter another of the game’s antagonists here,gangster Frank Fontaine, the proprietor of Fontaine Fisheries. Even without listening to the scattered audio logs, the mutilated bodies that litter the area clearly signpost that this is a hive of criminal activity whose ringleader is ruthless, sadistic, and to be greatly feared.
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Other Games With Great Environmental Storytelling
InDead Space, the technique was also used to provide crucial gameplay advice. Rather than a jarring, non-diegetic instruction to sever the extremities of the game’s enemies to more effectively defeat them, instead a bloodstained message next to a butchered corpse insists that players should “CUT OFF THEIR LIMBS”. Not only does this instruct the player how best to approach the game’s combat, but it also ratchets up their fear – at this point they have barely encounteredDead Space’s horrifying monsters, and now they have a gruesome showcase of the fate that awaits them if they fail to follow the grisly command.
More celebrated uses of environmental storytelling can be seen inPlayDead’sLimboandInside, both of which convey their stories with absolutely zero dialogue or text. This also allows the narratives to be kept deliberately vague and mysterious, leading to much discussion and debate among fans. As an example, the ending ofInsidesees the protagonist subsumed into a blob of flesh and limbs, becoming part of the hive mind of the disturbing creature. The player must then pilot this entity to escape from the scientific complex in which it is held captive, eventually bulldozing their way out through an exterior wall before tumbling down a hill to come to rest in a beam of sunlight.
Inside’s endingsuggests they have successfully escaped, although the moment is bittersweet, as the blob’s motionlessness during the end credits implies that it might have died during the fall. However, observant players noticed earlier in the game that this exact scene was mocked up in a diorama in the background, complete with the beam of sunlight. This single, wordless piece of storytelling completely recasts the game’s ending. Perhaps the blob has not escaped at all, but is still “inside”, condemned to a life of captivity. Or maybe escape has indeed been achieved… but was always part of some sinister plan.
There are many more illustrations of excellent environmental storytelling in games, with lauded examples including classics likeDark SoulsandThe Last Of Us. The technique is also critical tosuccessful walking simulatorslikeWhat Remains Of Edith FinchandGone Home, the latter of which was developed by a team involving veterans ofBioShock 2(specifically its acclaimed DLC,Minerva’s Den). Whether developers seek to horrify, move, or amuse their players, gamers are certain to see many more instances of great environmental storytelling in the future.
BioShockis available now for iOS, Mac OS X, PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
