Little Sisters: To Kill or Not to Kill? That is the Question...
By now, everyone's gotten their hands on BioShock, or at least has read about and seen the game on every possible form of gaming media. Lead game designer Ken Levine (who Fruit Brute had the pleasure of meeting recently) has advised gamers to save often because "you're going to want to replay rooms to try things a different way," according to an interview with GameSpot. One of the decisions you have to make in the game is whether or not to kill these little girls called Little Sisters (a gameplay element which has caused quite the controversy). Instead of playing with Barbies like most little girls, they harvest genetic material, called ADAM, from dead bodies. And you can kill them to steal their ADAM or save them to earn some ADAM. But which is better?
Opinions be damned. Twinky, a forum user at Opposable Thumbs actually decided to find out:
He graphed the difference between killing and saving the sisters in terms of the ADAM you receive, and he found that while at the beginning the bonus for killing is great, towards the middle and end of the game the bonus packages you receive for saving the little girls levels out most of the short-term gain.
While your decisions affect the ending, either way you'll clearly still get all the ADAM you need to get through the game. Which approach has been more effective for you?
Bioshock's little sisters: rescue or harvest? [Opposable Thumbs]
Lazy Panda
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 1 September 2007
· Comments (8)
Other stuff like this: adam, big daddy, bioshock, ken levine, little sisters, to kill or not to kill
I'm determined to rescue every Little Sister in the game, personally. It's an Acheivement, and it's also just plain nice.
I'm disappointed that saving them gets you eventually the same gains as killing them. It takes away from the choice aspect of the gameplay in terms of sacrificing something to gain something else. Now the choice is much more superficial, becoming simply "do I want one ending or the other?".
I agree MuddBstrd.
disappointing, a little, yes. But it doesn't really take away from the emotional investment of the experience. When you're confronted for the first time to harvest or save a little sister, it is a choice of choosing how you want to feel.
You can throw these charts in my direction, but if you weren't aware that the amount of ADAM collected evens out, the underlying emotions stay the same.
I saved them all for the achievement. I figured you would still come out on the losing end as far as raw amount of Adam. I must say after I finished the game, I went back to an earlier save point and harvested one instead. I felt bad enough when they squirmed when I saved them but harvesting them was worse and seems so dark. I decided to skip a second play through where I harvest them to see the other ending. I am curious how it would have played out.
Ranger, both endings are on YouTube. ;)
Press 'H' for evil, press 'L' for good. That's really all it boils down to, unfortunately. Either way, the process is the same. It's my only real disappointment about the game, really.
I only harvested the second little sister I encountered, just to test the difference in Adam. I felt so shitty about it I vowed not to even contemplate it again. I think the moral ambiguity makes for a nice decision process for the gamer, but I admit I'm curious about what becomes of Rapture without Tenembaum's assistance...
G