Here is the story of the BioShock universe: in 1946, many of those at the top of their fields went on strike against their leaching inferiors and retreated to their own enclave: the submarine, self-contained city of Rapture. The city functioned for a few years as a capitalistic utopia, until scientists discovered that a certain variety of sea slug produced pure stem cells, called Adam. Adam could modify people’s minds and bodies, and cure any illness; it was so valuable that it became the currency of Rapture. A civil war broke out between Andrew Ryan, the city’s founder, and a rival entrepreneur, over control of Adam; by the time Ryan won, all of the city’s inhabitants were mutated and dependent on Adam, like a drug. Also, the sea slugs were all destroyed, forcing Rapture’s denizens to recycle Adam from the dead.

The main character of BioShock discovers Rapture by accident, when his plane crash-lands into the open ocean, near Rapture’s lighthouse. He descends to the ocean floor to discover a malfunctioning, decaying city that is slowly being reclaimed by the sea. He faces the hostile or indifferent inhabitants of the city, who by now are all genetic freaks struggling to reclaim Adam from the dead; he must also confront the collapsing city’s security systems and the figure of Andrew Ryan himself.

The genetic freaks inhabiting Rapture fall into the categories of Splicers, Big Daddies, and Little Sisters. The Splicers are aggressive former humans, formerly of Ryan’s army, who have been mutated by Adam until they resemble creatures out of nightmare. They attack any non-Splicer on sight, to murder them and steal their Adam. Different Splicers have varying genetic powers and weapons; some can crawl on the ceiling, and some are able to throw fire and teleport.Big Daddies and Little Sisters work together to harvest Adam from corpses; Little Sisters are young girls in party dresses who are equipped with tools that draw blood from corpses; they drink it and extract the Adam internally. Big Daddies are creatures in heavily-armed diving suits, who roam the halls of Rapture, protecting the Little Sisters. The Big Daddies will only attack you if you threaten the Little Sisters; otherwise, they will just ignore you. You will have no choice but to fight the aggressive Splicers, but how you relate to the Little Sisters is the central choice of the game: you can exploit them for their Adam or you can help them.


The environments in the game are a melding of art-deco opulence and underwater decay. Irrational hired a special water effects programmer to perfect the appearance of spraying, cascading, and standing water throughout Rapture, which is being inexorably invaded by the sea. The luxurious locations throughout the city, such as living quarters, shops, a restaurant, and a hospital pavilion, are smeared with blood and dimly illuminated by the flickering lights. The graphics, courtesy of Unreal Engine 3, are as high-quality as you would expect from a recent XBox 360 title—especially the water effects.