Rapture, the underwater city at the heart of the original BioShock, is born from one man’s dream of absolute freedom. Andrew Ryan’s vision is a world without gods, kings, or governments — a society where ambition alone defines destiny.

Upon arrival, the player sees the words “No Gods or Kings. Only Man” glowing in bronze, a declaration of Rapture’s philosophy: pure Objectivism.

Every shop, every neon-lit corridor, and every citizen’s ambition reflect Ryan’s creed of self-interest and individual triumph.

Yet when the player descends into Rapture in 1960, the dream has collapsed into madness. Gene-spliced addicts roam ruined halls, fighting over dwindling supplies of ADAM, a genetic resource that once promised human perfection.

The grand idea of freedom has decayed into chaos.

Players see inequality in the shantytowns of Pauper’s Drop, black-market dealings in Neptune’s Bounty, and propaganda echoing from cracked loudspeakers. The city meant to celebrate self-made greatness becomes proof that unrestrained greed can destroy itself. Rapture, the utopia of free will, has become a tomb built by its own ideals.

Free will, one of the central promises of Rapture, is revealed to be an illusion. The player’s choices seem autonomous until the phrase “Would you kindly” exposes the truth - Jack, the protagonist, has been conditioned to obey.

Every “choice” the player thought was their own was a command in disguise. In the pivotal scene where Jack kills Andrew Ryan, Ryan forces the player to confront the horror of obedience masked as freedom. The game’s moral decisions, like sparing or harvesting the Little Sisters, underline this theme. Even the city’s citizens, enslaved by addiction to ADAM, illustrate the futility of Ryan’s dream.

Rapture becomes a mirror of its creator: brilliant, self-righteous, and doomed by the blindness of believing freedom can exist without restraint.

BioShock 2 – Collectivism, Identity, and Moral Responsibility

Eight years later, Rapture has a new ruler.

Dr. Sofia Lamb preaches the opposite of Ryan’s creed. Where Ryan worshipped the self, Lamb worships the collective. Her mantra, “Utopia is not a place, but a people,” transforms Rapture into a hive of enforced altruism.

Lamb’s cult, “The Family,” paints murals of self-sacrifice across the city’s walls and punishes anyone who clings to individuality. She promises unity but delivers tyranny. The player finds propaganda in Dionysus Park urging citizens to “forget the self,” even as corpses litter the floor - evidence of what happens to those who resist. Lamb’s utopia, like Ryan’s, rots from within because it demands total submission of the human spirit.

As Subject Delta, the player becomes part of Rapture’s tragedy. Once a man, now a Big Daddy bonded to a Little Sister named Eleanor, Delta’s story reframes BioShock’s philosophy through emotion and family. Unlike Jack, Delta gradually regains autonomy, his choices shaping not only his fate but Eleanor’s.

Every act of mercy or cruelty is observed by her, teaching her what kind of person to become. When Delta spares Grace Holloway, Eleanor later learns compassion; when he murders Stanley Poole, she internalizes vengeance. In the final moments, Eleanor mirrors the player’s morality, rescuing or abandoning her mother based on the lessons learned. This relationship transforms BioShock 2 into a study of moral inheritance - the belief that even in a ruined world, empathy can endure through those who come after us.

Through Sofia Lamb’s collectivism and Delta’s struggle for identity, BioShock 2 argues that both extremes - the cult of self and the cult of unity - deny the complexity of being human.

True freedom, it suggests, lies not in ideology but in the fragile choices that define compassion, loyalty, and moral accountability.

BioShock Infinite – Multiverses, American Exceptionalism, and the Cycle of Oppression

BioShock Infinite rises from the ocean to the sky, to Columbia, a floating city built on faith and nationalism. The year is 1912, and Columbia gleams with gold domes and patriotic hymns. Founder Zachary Comstock proclaims it God’s city, blessed by divine right and American greatness. Yet beneath the whitewashed facades and endless flags lies a brutal hierarchy: segregated streets, child labor, and rebellion brewing in the slums of Finkton.

The shining city in the clouds reveals America’s darker truths - its obsession with purity, destiny, and divine authority.

Booker DeWitt’s journey through Columbia exposes how easily faith and power intertwine. At one carnival, the player witnesses a public lottery where the “prize” is stoning an interracial couple. In Shantytown, propaganda promises salvation through labor while the poor starve.

As rebellion erupts, the oppressed mirror the cruelty of their oppressors. Daisy Fitzroy’s Vox Populi rises in bloodshed, proving that violence breeds violence, and no ideology escapes corruption. BioShock Infinite becomes a portrait of America’s endless loop - every revolution born from righteous intent becomes another tyranny in disguise.

Beneath its social commentary lies the story of a man split by guilt and fate. Booker DeWitt and Zachary Comstock are revealed to be the same man, divided by a single decision at a baptism. One sought forgiveness; the other found fanaticism.

Elizabeth, the young woman who can open portals between realities, embodies the multiverse’s chaos and possibility. Each tear in space reveals another version of Columbia, another iteration of tragedy. Booker’s final act - choosing death to erase Comstock’s existence - becomes an act of redemption and rebellion against destiny itself. The final image of countless lighthouses stretching into the horizon reminds players that every world has its Rapture, its Columbia, and its cycle of ambition and failure. “There’s always a lighthouse, a man, a city,” Elizabeth says - a truth and a warning both.

Conclusion

The BioShock trilogy charts a philosophical descent and ascension - from the depths of Rapture’s greed to the heights of Columbia’s zeal. Each city is a mirror of humanity’s desire to build paradise and the inevitable collapse that follows. The first game questions freedom, the second explores conscience, and the third challenges the very structure of reality. Together, they form a cycle of human ambition and moral reckoning.

Across all three, power is the poison.

Andrew Ryan’s capitalism, Sofia Lamb’s collectivism, and Comstock’s divine nationalism all crumble under their own certainty. Yet amid their ruins, the player’s choices - whether sparing a life or breaking a cycle - suggest a fragile hope: that self-awareness can break repetition.

From Rapture’s flooded corridors to Columbia’s sunlit clouds, BioShock insists that utopia is never a place, only a reflection of those who dream it, build it, and destroy it.