For all the things the first Bioshock does well - pacing, atmosphere, slow-burn narrative elements and a wealth of antagonistic characters who are a joy to learn about - the iconic Big Daddys, with their diving helmets, light-up heads and whale-noises just look a bit, well, stupid. Even after you find out the true origins of their creation and begin to feel sorry for how they've turned out, the incredibly frustrating way you end up taking swathes of them on in-game only contributes to their nature as a lumbering neanderthal menace. Over time along with Bioshock itself becoming one of the most important franchises in gaming history, so too have the Big Daddys been paraded out everywhere from magazine lists to Sony's Smash Bros. rip-off Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale. But in doing so they've also been elevated far beyond their original bullet-sponge status into something far more impactful and meaningful, which given their appearance and agency in-game, just isn't the case.
