Hey finnerty, having discovered Ayn Rand and atlas shrugged, I’d recommend playing the original bioshock if you haven’t. It’s heavily influence by and heavily references the author and their work. The founder of the submerged city, Rapture, is also called Andrew Ryan which is a nod to Ayn Rand with a few extra letters thrown in.
If you’ve played other bioshock games don’t let them be representations of the original. It had so much thought put into its themes and plot and also has some meta commentary on gaming tropes and mechanics that is so beautifully executed it causes you to reflect on your entire life experience with games.
Sadly not as much thought was put into the sequels because they had to be pushed out and bank on the hype and the name while it was still prevelant. I even tried to give Bioschock infinite the benefit of the doubt. It was very linear compared to the original, and it had this rail riding mechanic, so I thought, how meta, commentary on “on-rail shooter” games and tropes. But no, apparently that was me just trying to find some sort of depth within like the original game. Funny the one set underwater would have more depth XD
Definitely worth taking a stroll through rapture and experiencing the original bioshock, hopefully hasn’t been spoiled too much on you over the years by way of online videos and listicles etc.