Minerva's Den is Rapture's central computing. There is a machine called The Thinker which has been responsible for running the city, even through its downfall and decay. The Thinker was created by Charles Milton Porter, and Reid Wahl. The player controls the Big Daddy Sigma who has been sent to Minerva's Den by Dr. Tenenbaum because Porter has access to a bathysphere, which she can use to escape to the surface. Porter agrees to take her if they can use Sigma to rescue the code of The Thinker and take it away from Rapture. Reid Wahl is the antagonist of this tale, going mad through splicing, and wanting to use The Thinker's predictive capabilities for his own benefit. Minerva’s Den is the game I wished Bioshock 2 was. At 4 hours its pacing is lightning fast. It's a Bioshock game condensed, and this video explores whether the quickness of its pacing makes Minerva's Den a masterpiece or a mistake.
One reason for a quicker pace is railroaded level design. Each zone is compact. A joy of the Bioshock games is the exploration of a space, looting everything not nailed down, and scrounging up resources. Minerva's Den accommodates this in a straight-forward manner. The player is sent to each wing of a zone, and while there are optional side-rooms full of goodies and enemies, the player is never far from where they need to be. The player is always moving forward, even when they're taking time to explore. This is made more obvious due to the placement of the audiologs. It felt like every room had a new log to listen to. I might have missed one or two in my travels, but it felt like each tape was placed to make sure the player would have the full story before the finale (using the final audiolog of the game as a bittersweet coda).
Due to railroading the player, there's an increased emphasis on combat encounters. Brutes are everywhere, and the new Big Daddy varieties can be disastrous if you're not prepared for them. Spider and Houdini splicers litter each room, and the game gives the player new weapons and plasmids to use against the increased onslaught: the Laser and the Gravity Well plasmid being the most memorable. I loved using Gravity Well on the Brutes, firing Phosporous buckshot or rocket spears into them as they flailed around the mini-black hole keeping them incapacitated. The laser was great for cutting down normal splicers, coupled with a well placed plasmid shot. My new found power meant I never felt overwhelmed by the combat encounters until the final fight, when my resources were at their lowest, and I was throwing everything I had up against Wahl and the Big Daddy onslaught. It was exhilarating.
The intensity of the combat, and the speed of how I was being guided through each area got me thinking about if the pace of the original game wasn't required. I think the majority of games outstay their welcome. When it feels like everything should be moving to a climax, there's hours more of the same gameplay I'm already bored with. Since there is no climax, the game loses the narrative weight keeping me going. Before starting my channel, finishing a game was a rare occurance. Most just wore out their welcome. However, while the shortened gametime of Minerva's Den allows the story the developers are trying to tell make a greater impact, I do think the gameplay needed more room to breathe.
One benefit of stretching out any game with combat is it gives the player ample time to become comfortable with the ebb and flow of the combat encounters. It allows the player to get good at the game. Each new encounter is an opportunity to make decisions, and increase the player's efficiency. In Bioshock 2, I knew what weapons and plasmids I enjoyed the most, and felt confident using them. In Minerva's Den I became attached to the Laser and Gravity Well. They were new toys so I relied on them over a lot of the other weapons and plasmids I had spent my time in Bioshock 2 using, but maybe that's why the final fight was so exhilarating; it forced me to search through my arsenal for whatever would work. I could no longer rely on the reliable.
The pace at which Minerva's Den throws new weapons, upgrades, and plasmids at the player is too fast for the player to become comfortable with before something new is introduced. This is why it felt like there was an increase in combat encounters, to allow mastery to take place (and of course, this is downloadable content for Bioshock 2, so the player should be familiar with a lot of these weapons and plasmids from the base game). This is the only reason I could think of in favour of the length of Bioshock 2 over Minerva's Den. However, I have no problem trading confidence with the game's systems for narrative impact, because this is where Minerva's Den shines.
Minerva's Den brings back the twist Bioshock 2 was lacking. All through the game we hear about Andrew Ryan being displeased with Porter and his creation. Porter talks about Ryan's guards coming and taking him to Persephone Prison, and how there's no escape. Wahl talks about wanting to steal The Thinker from Porter, pushing Ryan in the direction of imprisoning his colleague. As this goes on, I never thought about where Porter is now, and what the ending of the game will be. I thought nothing of Porter feeding The Thinker audio diaries of his dead wife trying to recreate her personality in the machine. I just felt for his loss. This is why the twist was so effective. I didn't see it coming, but in retrospect, it made everything before it make sense. If you haven’t played Minerva’s Den and don’t want to be spoiled, this is your last chance to back out.
It turns out the player is controlling Porter. Sigma is Porter who had been turned into a Big Daddy at Persephone. Tenanbaum's research is about removing Adam from a subject without killing them, and she wants to help save Porter. She wants to help the player. The Porter we've been speaking to is The Thinker's personality re-creation matrix. It was tasked by Porter before his arrest to work out a way to survive and get to the surface. It calculated the best way to achieve this task was by emulating the man who had already been changed into a monster, in order to guide that same now-changed man to victory.
The final audiolog in the game is Porter activating his wife's personality within The Thinker. It's too much for him to bear. He tells the machine to switch it off. He knows it's not his wife, and it reminds him of how much he misses her. While Wahl wanted to use The Thinker for his own ends, Porter came to understand how what he was doing was not in his own best interest. In the end he made the right decision, but it still cost him, and as the player, we try to give him a second chance.
Minerva's Den is what I wanted Bioshock 2 to be. It's a wonderful coda for a game lacking its own identity. Minerva's Den has a stronger sense of self. Rather than getting bogged down in the themes of the collective or objectivism, it's about people. Their struggles, their shortcomings, and the mistakes they make. It's about loss, and dealing with loss. It's about healing. It's about making the player care about Porter, and it’s successful. Its success is due to its length. It tells its story, and because no part drags, the emotional impact is felt at full force. If the player wants to become more comfortable with the game's systems, that's what replays and higher difficulties are for.
But what do you think? Did you feel Minerva's Den was the right length for what it wanted to do, or did you feel it was too rushed? Did the twist and emotional impact of the story affect you in any way? Please let me know in the comments. If you enjoyed the video, why not buy me a coffee? There's a link in the description. If you'd like to help me out in other ways, please like the video, share it on your favourite social media sites, or subscribe if you haven't already. Until next time, I hope you're all having a wonderful day.
