Would You Kindly?

"In the end, what separates a man from a slave?" The voice asks. I've spent hours getting to this point. The point where I think I am about to beat the game and destroy the main character. Up until now, Atlas, via his short wave radio, has informed me that it was Andrew Ryan I needed to kill in order to get out of Rapture. This was how I was going to save Atlas's family and return to a Splicer-free world. Here I am, standing before the man as he plays a round of putt-putt in his office. I think to myself, something does not seem right.

"A man chooses, a slave obeys," he tells me. This is the perfect opportunity to kill him but I have no control over my weapons or plasmids. I am only allowed to move around to see the crumbling walls of Andrew Ryan's office falling like a metaphor for his impending doom. I think back on what I did to get to this point. I have saved the Little Sisters from their curse like Tenebaum has asked me to do. I have taken the pictures of dead apprentices for artistic lunatic Sander Cohen. I have invented the Lazarus Vector in order to save the vegetation of Rapture. But I still feel like something is missing. This game should not end like this.

"You think you have memories," Ryan tells me as pictures from my life flash before me. Finally, here comes the twist. Up until now I was under the impression I was on a plane that had crashed into the Atlantic and being the only survivor, I swam to a random city shooting up out of the ocean. Seems plausible, right? But now Andrew Ryan is telling me that these memories are not my own and I was sleepwalking through my life until these so-called memories were activated by there kindly master.

"A man chooses, a slave obeys," he tells me as he walks into the dark with his putter in hand. I am anxiously waiting to have to kill hordes of Splicers or a have a new creature be introduced into the game. One I will have a hard time killing. Something needs to happen. I am on edge.

"Come in," as the doors to his office open and I am no longer separated by a piece of glass. I am now face to face with the person I have been told the entire game I need to kill. I move towards him and wait. Is this a trick?

"Would you kindly?" He asks while telling me how much of a powerful phrase it is. He is pushing me back while holding the putter in his hands, ready to bludgeon me at anytime. I really wish that my weapons and plasmids were available at this moment. Can't I just get this over with now?

Suddenly the phrase is repeated over and over by a familiar, Australian voice. "Would you kindly? Would you kindly? Would you kindly head to Ryan's office and kill the son of a bitch?" Atlas? The man who has helped me get this far in the game. The man who made sure I did not die by the hand of any creature. Now I am questioning the entire game. Have I made a wrong turn and joined the evil side? I don't remember ever having a choice.

"Sit," Ryan orders me to do with "would you kindly?" I am obeying. He tells me to run, to stop, to turn and I obey. I no longer have any control over my player. Something is about to happen.

"Kill!" Ryan shouts at me as he hands me the putter. I swing at his face. He stumbles back, holding his bleeding mouth. I continue to smash the putter into his face and he gurgles out the words, "a man chooses, a slave obeys," until I finally plant the putter firmly in his skull and he falls over dead. Too easy, now what?

"You've been a good sport," Atlas tells me over the short wave radio after I place the key into the self-destruct machine to stop it from killing us all. This is where I find out the truth. Atlas is really Frank Fontaine, a gangster that up until now, was dead. And the best part of all, I just killed my father. I knew this game wasn't going to be this easy. I have a new goal and new challenges ahead of me. No time for mourning, only time to kill Fontaine and save Rapture.