Game Clip Critique

Bioshock is an intense thriller game that fully utilizes color to reinforce the themes and the feel of the game.  This is the introduction to the game, which sets the stage for what the player is supposed to experience throughout the entire game.

The most noticeable attribute of the color in this introduction is the saturation.  All of the colors are very full.  This fullness makes the scenes all very vivid and striking to the player, especially because many of the colors are very dark.  The goal of the game is to make the player uncomfortable and wary at any given point during gameplay.  Heavy saturation is used throughout the entire game and it makes the environments seem surreal and alien.  This is especially effective in the introduction because, as the game introduces the city of Rapture, the goal of the game designers was to create a sense of awe in the player.  The obvious ways that this is done is through the scale of the city and the things used in the city.  However, the saturation is effectively used to supplement this in a subtle way.
The hues used in this scene are used to create contrast among the various elements in the setting.  The two strongest colors used are yellow and blue.  These complementary colors go well together and create a contrast between a warm (inside the buildings) and a cool (in the water) feel.  Within each of those colors, a variety of analogous colors are used to create affinity among the scenery and objects that are related.  This is done to associate all of the interior buildings and pieces of Rapture with one another, and to contrast that with the water that surrounds it.
Finally, the brightness of the colors reinforces both the contrast between the hues, and the vividness created by the saturation.  Bioshock is a mostly linear game, and so there is usually one direction in which the player should travel.  In the introduction, the contrast in brightness is used to guide the player in the right direction.  It separates the background from the foreground, and keeps the player's attention focused on a certain area.  This is done in the very beginning with the ring of fire standing on the water.  The brightness of the flames encircles the player and shows them that they need to stay in the safe dark water.  It then herds them toward the tower, the only direction that any other bright color and light is coming from (the lamps on the tower and the moon are both in this direction).  When the player enters the tower, the brightness first focuses their attention on the statue of Andrew Ryan in the foreground (a key character in the game).  As it becomes time to move on, lights come on in the background and make the hallways further back more bright than the foreground, enticing the player forward.  The brightness of colors is used consistently to guide the players eye to points of interest that reinforce the awe-inspired theme of the introduction, which then sets the stage for the feel of the rest of the game.