BioShock and Portal

Poetics, as outlined by Aristotle (350 BCE), serves as a framework for analyzing dramatic and literary works of art. In his treatise, Aristotle defines the basic elements of drama to be plot, character, theme, diction, music, and spectacle. More recently, Janet Murray (1997) posited The New Poetics, in her book Hamlet on the Holodeck, which updated this framework to include immersion, agency, and transformation. The combined use of these frameworks creates a powerful structure capable of elucidating the parallels and distinctions between literary works. This essay compares 2K’s BioShock and Valve’s Portal along the
aforementioned dimensions to explore if such a structure is well suited to examine why both of these games achieved critical success.