Sander Cohen

Sander Cohen
BioShock character
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First appearance	BioShock
Created by	Ken Levine
Voiced by	T. Ryder Smith

Sander Cohen is a fictional character in the BioShock video game series, developed by Irrational Games (then under the moniker 2K Boston/2K Australia). Cohen lived among the most famous individuals in Rapture. As one of Rapture's more respected musicians, playwrights and poets, Cohen resided in a lavish apartment in Mercury Suites, along with other Rapture celebrities such as Frank Fontaine, Brigid Tenenbaum and Yi Suchong. Following Rapture's civil war and the chaotic months that followed it, Cohen slowly grew extremely paranoid. Cohen was given jurisdiction over an area of the city known as Fort Frolic by Andrew Ryan, the founder of Rapture. The splicers under his dominion are often the subject of Cohen's new-found sadistic enjoyment in the death and suffering of others. All around Fort Frolic, examples of Cohen's "art" can be found. These are in fact splicers encased in plaster.

In BioShock

Sander Cohen is a Jewish American artist who was invited personally by Andrew Ryan to reside in Rapture, due to Cohen's artistic talents (and it is implied that he and Ryan were friends or had a close relationship before Rapture was built). Before Rapture's descent into anarchy, Cohen was a prominent playwright, artist and composer in Fort Frolic. Cohen hated rival performer Anna Culpepper, who referred to him as "Ryan's Songbird." Sharing a close relation to Andrew Ryan, Cohen had Chief of Security Sullivan murder her. With the competition gone, Cohen experienced a rare era of extravagance before the Rapture Civil War forced him to close Fort Frolic.

Shortly before the Rapture Civil War, Cohen was given dominance over Fort Frolic by Andrew Ryan, who locked the area down to prevent its inhabitants from escaping. Similar to Dr. Steinman, Cohen grew insane, mainly due to overuse of plasmids and the frustration of lacking an audience to appreciate his work. An audio diary found in Fort Frolic reveals that Cohen came to regret his decision to move to Rapture. Before Jack's arrival in Rapture in 1960, Cohen apparently had four major "disciples": Silas Cobb, Martin Finnegan, Hector Rodriguez, and Kyle Fitzpatrick. All of them either betrayed or displeased Cohen at some point.

During the events of BioShock, Jack must pass through Fort Frolic in order to proceed to Hephaestus. As Jack approaches the bathysphere, Cohen blocks his radio contact with Atlas and submerges the Bathysphere, trapping the player in the level. Cohen kills one of his former disciples in front of Jack and then asks the player to photograph the corpse. Cohen demands that Jack kill the other three disciples and take photographs of their bodies as well. Once this is done, the player must place the photographs in an art installation located in the center of Fort Frolic, which Cohen calls his "Masterpiece" - a tetraptych called the Quadtych. After all four photos are placed in the installation, Cohen reveals himself and allows Jack to proceed to Hephaestus. At this point, the player may leave or kill Cohen. If the player spares Cohen, he can be seen later in the game, in his luxury apartment in Mercury Suites. He will welcome the player into his home, and invite him to look around. Cohen can be killed at this point as well, after a pair of dancing Splicers are defeated.

It is implied that Cohen is homosexual. Silas Cobb and Martin Finnegan both refer to him as an "old fruit" and Cohen himself refers to Andrew Ryan as "the man I once loved."

Concept and creation

The Sander Cohen character was based on several real-world figures. Cohen's character traits and name were influenced by real life entertainer George M. Cohan, who was a notable playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer and dancer. His physical appearance, however, was based on the surrealist artist Salvador Dalí. Cohen was described as a "horrible songwriter" by Ken Levine in an interview for CVG. Cohen's pancaked make-up was inspired by a scene with Joan Crawford in the film "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?"

Promotion and reception

Employees for 2K Boston were each given a 6-inch scale model of Cohen by the studio's creative designer Ken Levine. The sculptures were designed by Irrational Games artist Robb Waters.

IGN listed Cohen as the 89th best video game villain, stating that his needs are more concrete than the two primary antagonists of BioShock. They added that he is, as are the other antagonists, only a few shades away from sanity, making him seem more realistic and relatable as a character. WhatCulture! ranked him sixtieth on its "100 Greatest Video Game Villains Of All Time" list. GamesRadar named him the 3rd in their top 7 list of "mentally damaged characters we love" in video games, noting that while almost every other character in the game was worthy of the list, he was the "one screwy, crazy son of a bitch that stood out". 1UP.com stated that his presence made the "Fort Frolic" area of BioShock one of the most fondly remembered, and further stated that his character "expertly balanced both geniality and maliciousness in one disturbing package". In 2008, PC Zone named him PC gaming's fourth best character ever conceived in gaming, calling him their favorite "mad bastard" in the game and adding that in comparison to other major characters in the game, "Cohen’s relentless theatrics in the face of desolation bowled us over". GamesTM also listed him among the greatest ever game characters in 2010, commenting that "Sander Cohen becomes BioShock’s quintessential character", and it "is impossible to imagine the game without him."

See also

• List of BioShock characters