Major spoilers will be avoided here, as if you've not played this, go and seek out Irrational's phenomenal art piece that quite literally changed everything. To summarise; it was so perfectly delivered, so game-changingly poignant back in 2007, that every developer under the sun suddenly reevaluated everything about how they presented drive and purpose in their games. After all, why are you pushing forward through any given digital world? Why attack, defend and scavenge through unknown lands? Bioshock flipped everything on its head by challenging these notions head-on, all whilst making the real you the key linchpin in the whole thing. Suddenly, player agency was a defining talking point for all and sundry to pick apart, and it rocked the boat everywhere from here to GTA IV and beyond - however when it all comes down to it, the way this is all delivered (and the character death that adds an exclamation mark to everything as it happens) remains one of the high points for the entire medium.
