“I wanted to put people in a world filled with big ideas and people who had a vision for how life should be lived,” explains Ken Levine, BioShock’s lead designer and head writer. “How that vision is sort of realized in really positive ways and how it falls apart.”

He adds: “In a game, you can come into a world and really move at your own pace and have this notion of exploration that’s so powerful. Our first priority in BioShock was making Rapture a fascinating place to explore. In a lot of ways, it’s a haunted house: terrible things have happened, and you come after those terrible things have happened.”

Flame On. You’ll need to rely on all the tricks in your arsenal to take down a Big Daddy.

Certitude

Rapture was the brainchild of fabulously wealthy business tycoon Andrew Ryan, who channeled the Objectivist philosophy of Ayn Rand when he conceived of a society where, in his words, “a Great Chain of industry unites us. But it is only when we struggle in our own interest that the chain pulls society in the right direction. The chain is too powerful and too mysterious for any government to guide.”

“You should be wondering what everybody’s motivations are — that’s the key thing.”

- Ken Levine, lead designer and head writer

“The character of Andrew Ryan is heavily influenced by Ayn Rand and her certitude,” Levine acknowledges. “Her certitude behind her philosophy and Andrew Ryan’s confidence that if they follow the philosophy then things will just sort of work out for the betterment of everyone.”

BFFs. If you see a Big Daddy by himself, just wait a few minutes: his companion will eventually crawl out of that hole.

He adds: “I think any time you’re writing about politics — utopia or dystopia — Orwell’s your go-to guy. ‘Animal Farm’ is a book that basically sums up the tragedy of any political movement in history in the simplest and most wonderful way.” It’s not hard to see echoes of that idea in the crazed former patrons of the Kashmir Restaurant, who wander the shattered establishment masked by the same rabbit and cat faces they wore to that ill-fated New Year’s Eve party.

Enhancements

Two of those crazed people, known as Splicers, are having that argument on the lower level. Eventually it spills over into screaming and violence. Many of Rapture’s citizens have gone insane thanks to their dependence on a genetic material called ADAM — when the city fell into chaos, ADAM became difficult to obtain. ADAM allows the user to inject plasmids into their bloodstream, granting them the ability to unleash a firestorm, zap enemies with electrical bolts, use telekinesis to pick up just about anything and throw it, and more.

Tommy Gun Time. You can upgrade your unique weapons, giving you solid backups for your plasmids.

Luckily, you can use plasmids too, giving you plenty of ways to defend yourself beyond such conventional weapons as machine guns, shotguns, and grenade launchers. You acquire new plasmids by spending ADAM, which you collect from the Little Sisters who roam Rapture under the protection of their Big Daddies. You’ll need to rely on a variety of tricks to take down the Little Sisters’ heavily-armored friends. (To learn more about Little Sisters, Big Daddies, and other inhabitants of Rapture, see “The Beatitude of Andrew Ryan.”)

“I wanted to put people in a world filled with big ideas.”

- Ken Levine, lead designer and head writer

You can upgrade your plasmids and weapons during the course of the game, as well as drink tonics that grant ongoing passive benefits, such as enabling health packs to also regenerate EVE, which you expend every time you use a plasmid. When a situation looks too dicey for an assault, you can always fall back on your hacking skills, which allow you to turn security turrets, robots, and other machines to your side. And don’t forget to research your enemies after you obtain the research camera: doing so will enable you to dispatch them more efficiently, as well as earn various tonics and other bonuses. Isn’t all of that simply part of Ryan’s Great Chain metaphor?

Happy New Year? One of the Kashmir Restaurant’s demented patrons attacks.

“There are a bunch of places in BioShock where we tried to introduce players to the challenges in a very natural fashion,” Levine explains. “There are no tutorials in the game. I hate tutorials. I think people are so used to that trope when making games that we just keep having these training missions. I don’t think anyone has a fantasy about being trained to do something cool; I think they just want to do something cool.

“So we start the game right in the action; we train the player in a very subtle way,” he continues. “We have a dynamic training system that watches them to see if they’re understanding things. If they seem confused, we put some simple text on the screen that reinforces how they should be using the various game systems to be most effective.”

Exposition

Elsewhere in the Kashmir Restaurant, Levine and I come across a table strewn with party hats. An audio diary also sits there — I click Play and hear the sad tale of Diane McClintock, who calls herself the “silliest girl in Rapture. Silly enough to fall in love with Andrew Ryan, silly enough to — ” She’s cut off by the sound of people screaming as her world literally crashes down around her on the last day of 1958.

A Shocking Development. Stun an enemy and then gun it down.

There are more audio diaries scattered around the city. Along with other bits of exposition you’ll come across, they offer insight into not only the innermost thoughts of Rapture’s citizens but also the history of the past 14 years. What happened to Ryan after his grand experiment failed? Can you trust this person named Atlas who speaks to you via radio and promises assistance? Where did the Little Sisters and their grotesque protectors originate? And who caused the plane you were on to crash at the beginning of the game?

“You should be wondering what everybody’s motivations are — that’s the key thing,” explains Levine. “Whenever the villain shows up, you have to ask, ‘What do they want? What are they trying to get?’ Otherwise, there is no conflict. That’s really important because designers have to think about how to keep propelling the action. That principle is vital to games because once your game runs out of steam dramatically, you lose all the benefits of your story.”

Luckily, there’s enough steam in BioShock to power ten other games.

If you liked this game, check out:

• Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
• Prey