The reviews are in for Bioshock 2, and the majority response is that while the sequel improves on a lot of aspects of the original (namely hacking, dual wielding, plasmid upgrades), it ultimately just doesn’t have that sense of awe-inspiring mystery that the first one really capitalized on. But one question remains unanswered: Which of Rapture’s overlords is best, Lamb or Ryan? For those who are unaware of this debate, allow me to enlighten. (Warning: Spoilers Ahead!)
Andrew Ryan was the original brain behind Rapture, the city under the sea designed to free the worlds best and brightest from the constraints of the surface, such as government and religion. His life on the surface taught him to despise any enterprise that enabled the weak, or what he calls the "parasites", to hinder the achievements of "the great". So through some complicated series of actions and an engineering miracle, given it was done during the early 20th century, he was able to organize the construction of Rapture at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Therein, he maintained order simply by ensuring that Rapture stayed a secret to the world above, only inviting those down to live with him who he deemed to be exceptional in some regard. Then there’s Ryan’s long, complicated struggle with Frank Fontaine, and his ultimate demise at the hands of his own genetically modified son, Jack Ryan, Bioshock‘s protagonist . The main thing to know about Andrew Ryan is that he values his beliefs and the achievements of man’s intellect above all else, even to the point of his own death.
Sofia Lamb is a psychologist brought into Rapture by Andrew Ryan in order to sooth the fears that any of its citizens may have about living and staying under the sea. However, it turns out that her very strongly held socialist ideals were in direct conflict with the individualist ideals of Ryan, so he had Lamb imprisoned, giving her an alibi for being AWOL during the first Bioshock. However, by the time Subject Delta awakes in Bioshock 2, Lamb takes complete control of Rapture, effectively becoming its third tyrant (first Ryan, then Fontaine for a brief time, then Lamb), controlling the remaining splicers in the city under the banner of "The Rapture Family", a sort of pseudo-religion with an all-for-one, one-for-all mentality. She’s also directly responsible for the initial murder of the sequel’s protagonist Subject Delta, and attempts to use her daughter to revive Rapture by utilizing her body as a sort of collection of the memories of the entire city in the form of ADAM. Long story short, Sofia Lamb considers herself the mother and voice of the people of Rapture well after the city’s downfall, and is willing to fight to keep it that way in Bioshock 2.
So the contestants are in the ring. Who do you think will come out victorious?
