“No Gods or Kings, only Men.”

The game that follows is bloody, vulgar, vicious and proud of it, just as any Atheist would be.  Taking place in the underwater city of Rapture (which resembles a sort of 1950s Chicago in aesthetics) Bioshock pits you against the godless hordes of “splicers” that have taken the city over.  Succumbing as they have to the sin of Vanity, these poor virtual souls have undergone repeated plastic surgery procedures to make themselves much more beautiful, alluring, and ever more narcissistic.  The price they pay for their heathen ways is all too predictable, becoming blood-thirsty zombies bent on fighting you with meathooks.

Central to the story of Bioshock is the life of the man who built Rapture, and whose bronze statue greets us above the banner professing his Godlessness, Andrew Ryan.  Ryan, being not just Atheist but audaciously proud of this shortcoming, commands the splicers, runs the city with an iron grip and demands his people worship him as their savior, clearly in the pattern of Atheist role-model Josef Stalin.  Many factions still within Rapture are, naturally, opposed to Ryan assuming Godhood, but do not be too decieved by their intentions into believing that these characters are morally upright, as they only want Ryan out of the way so they may assume the power themselves.  Such is the naturally deceptive and murderous tendencies of Atheism that it would foster such behavior.

Another central figure to the game is that of the Big Daddy and the Little Sister.  The Sisters harvest “Adam,” a compound that facilitates genetic modification, from the bodies of corpses, and can be obtained from them to modify yourself, giving you amazing powers such as telekinesis and command over hornets.  The Sisters, though, are protected by the Big Daddies, and while they will not attack you unprovoked, can be killed with difficulty, at which point you are given the option to either “Rescue” the Sister, freeing her from Ryan’s control over her, and taking what little Adam she has on her, or “Harvesting” her, taking all the Adam she contains within herself and using it for your own ends.  This moral choice is a defining facet of Bioshock, and sas a great deal about who the player is at the end of the day.

All told the game is beautifully put together, the history and aesthetic detail of Rapture earning the game several Game of the Year awards when it was released in 2007.  Players fight their way through the game using various Firearms as well as Plasmids, sneaking by a room of enraged splicers, or having a long, drug-out battle with a Big Daddy, all capped with set-pieces that maximize the entertainment potential of the game as a First Person Shooter.  Play is versatile, allowing the player to choose how best to dispatch an enemy, but also whether or not to “Hack” turrets and camera systems to help in their fight, and whether or not to pick up stacks of money to purchase other upgrades and ammunition, just as you can choose to be electrocited, falling into a trap, or to easily disarm it.  The game is all about choices, and freeing you the player to make these choices as you play, liberating you completely in this environment, a theme which is brilliantly underscored all throughout.

I do, however, have two main criticisms of the game. The first of which is the ending.  Now, being a good Christian, I of course recognized the Little Sisters as witches immediatley, and as such, when the time came to chose, I naturally chose Harvest, destroying the foul creatures and absorbing strength from their dissipated arcane magic.  However, at the end of the game, it seemed to suggest that this biblical tendency of mine was somehow a negative, and portrays the player character, come the end, as a bloodthirsty killing machine.  Nothing could be further from the truth, of course, which is why I assume this is nothing more than a bug on the developers part, playing the wrong movie for following the path of righteousness.  As of yet, however, no patch has been announced to rectify this, but I rest assured that it is forthcoming.

The second complaint is that the theme can be a little confusing.  At one point false-god Ryan spends quite some time denouncing Altruism, and other soft, hippy, Liberal ideals.  I’m sure I hardly need say he and I are in accord on this notion, as Liberalness is, naturally, only the tip of the socialist/communist iceberg, and is why we must always look out for programs that promote the “welfare” of others. It is odd then that the game would do this, however, providing a Godless Atheist with otherwise perfectly sound political philosophy.  It’s almost as though it is trying to suggest that someone with clear conservative views could become a power-mad tyrant.Those minor quibbles aside, however, the game truly is a work of art, poorly polished though it may be, and I wholeheartedly recommend playing it.  Currently available for $19.99 for the PC, and $29.99 for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

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On the surface, Painkiller (Dreamcatcher Interactive) is not unlike many other First-Person Shooters; given the fundamental nature of the game and the overarching purpose (exploding Hell itself) one might be tempted to think this game fits perfectly in line with good, wholesome Christian values.  Tragically, nothing could be further from the truth, as the particulars of this game’s storyline demonstrate all too readily.

The story of the game opens with a traffic accident, as you, the per-regulation grim-faced trenchcoat-clad not-recently-shaven Daniel Garner have driven yourself and your wife Catherine headfirst into an oncoming Truck.  Death is instantaneous for you both; Catherine is taken into the loving embrace of God, as she has liven a true, Christian life.  Daniel, on the other hand, has presumably not surrendered his life to the Risen Lord, and so should by rights be condemned to an eternity of torment for such transgression.  Here, we come upon the heinous blasphemy the game indulges in, insidiously disguised as wholesome demon-shooting fun.

Daniel is sent to Purgatory instead of his rightly deserved Hell, and once there, he is tasked with murdering four of Lucifer’s generals to prevent a war between Heaven and Hell, and once completing this task, he is promised entrance into heaven.  Where, oh where to begin with such a wicked premise . . .

• First, Purgatory does not exist! It’s an invention of the heretical Catholic Church, never once referenced in the Holy Bible.
• Second, the idea of spiritual redemption through actions, or “works-based” salvation, has no basis in the Bible either. Jesus clearly says the only path into Heaven is to place faith in Christ Jesus as your Savior. We are saved through Grace, not Works! (Matthew 16:26-27, et al)
• Third, and perhaps most damning of all, is the very idea that God would want to prevent the ultimare conflict between Himself and the armies of Hell, as lead by Lucifer and the Antichrist. The very idea that God would oppose the Rapture and subsequent Armaggedon is utterly at odds with what the Bible teaches, and yet this video game teaches it as though it were holy writ!

Now, while this blasphemy is easy enough to spot for any true Christian and would otherwise be a simple matter to innoculate young minds against, the difficulty in doing so for any honest, professing Christian is the lengths the game goes to in order to entice players by being simply too entertaining!  While it has long been known that eviscerating the demons of hell has a powerfully cathartic quality (indeed, it will be most pleasant to do battle against when the Tribulation comes), the temptation of that otherwise righteous joy is compounded with the novel weaponry the game provides.  The chief weapon is the eponymous Painkiller, a sort of knife-gun hybrid that spins, shoots and retrieves its own blades.  The physics engine in the game combined with this sadistic skew on a Slap-Chop has given birth to a practice known as “corpse-juggling” wherein a defeated enemy is kept in midair by repeatedly firing the weapon at them.  Such a practice is amusing on its own, if only for the spectacle of a bouncing, tortured enemy of God, and yet the enticement is amplified further as the juggled-enemies drop golden trinkets, rewarding the behavior further.  The enticement potential grows even more with other weapons in the game, such as the Electrodriver, which fires shurikens and lightning bolts, and the Stakegun, which can pin enemies to walls with sharpened wooden posts before firing grenades at them.

How then is the right-thinking Christian to protect his family from the temptation to play such a game, available for only $9.99 over Steampowered.com, or worse, in a three-game package (Painkiller Triple Dose (Painkiller, Painkiller: Battle out of Hell, Painkiller: Overdose)) for $19.99 at Amazon? 

There is no simple answer, but the fight starts by spreading awareness of the game.  If you suspect someone you care about is considering playing this game or giving it to their children under the impression that it carries a good, decent Christian message about demon-killing, do everything you can to let them be made aware of the facts! Entertaining though this game may be, exposure to the perversions of Christianity which it contains may ultimately lead them along the road to ruin, depriving them of the unconditional Love of Jesus Christ in the hereafter. 

And really, what game could possibly be worth that?

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Created by Will Wright (of The Sims
fame), Spore is a single-player game which allows you to create your very own creatures. You can start at one of five levels: Cell, Creature, Tribe, Civilization, or Space. In other words, you can piece together a bacterium and see how it can “evolve” (through your divine intervention, that is) to something bigger, or start by assembling parts into a creature, then refining it. You try out different things, and see what works.

Sure, natural selection comes into play. If you design a creature that isn’t well-suited to its environment, it dies. Oops.

Some think that this means that the game is promoting the idea that God sat about trying different things, to see what would work. I can see where that idea comes from . . . however, I disagree. God has perfect knowledge, and thus did not have to try things to see if they work. People have imperfect knowledge, and can only guess.

That’s why creatures on earth haven’t changed much in the past 6,000 years! No need.

In Spore, do creatures “evolve”? No. They live or die based on how you have designed them. They only can “advance” when you take them into the design phase and change them; the program does not evolve new characteristics or change them into different kinds of creature for you.

One reviewer suggests how the game might be used as a witnessing tool:

After playing the game for a couple of hours, I sat down with the young man who’d let me use his copy and we spoke at length about the complexity of life and the difficulty involved in building even a simple simulated creature. We wondered at the incredible intellect God must posses to have designed even a simple, single celled organism, let alone humanity.

I agree, and recommend buying several copies to distribute at your next church function. Not only does it provide a wonderful witnessing opportunity, but the designer, Will Wright, is well known for his substantial contributions to good, Christian and Republican causes and political campaigns. In 2008 alone, he contributed $28,500 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee and another $28,500 to the Republican National Committee.

Do you think it was earmarked for Governor Palin’s wardrobe?

Check Spore out here!

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