“I chose the impossible. I chose Rapture” – these words we will hear while diving into the depths of the Ocean. At the bottom lies a city hidden from God himself. It has become a dystopian, underwater metropolis. Andrew Ryan, for whom “it was not God that mattered, only man” – contradicted himself. When Rapture became a reality in the fascinating BioShock universe, castes swirled within its foundations and ideas of collective rebellion grew stronger. Atlas attacked on the fateful New Year’s Eve in 1958. Everything was planned, and the spark was the misfortune of Frank Fontaine and the enthusiasts of Atlas’ views.
BioShock became famous not only for its brilliantly presented vision of the fallen Rapture, which was an absolutely extraordinary place, available to a select few. Like R’yleh hidden in a certain latitude, although it is the resting place of the Great Old Ones, headed by “waiting, sleeping Cthulhu” – from the stories of HP Lovecraft. Of course, Rapture is a completely different vision format, but the common denominator is ocean depth. People have always believed that majestic buildings awaited somewhere out there.
More text below the video
The game’s author, Ken Levine, has had a very interesting habit since its release. Last year, Bioshock celebrated its 15th anniversary on the market. Every five years, Ken goes to the local Deco bar, orders a bottle of American whiskey (Bourbon) and reveals a portrait of Andrew Ryan, the creator of Rapture. Tell me, how many game developers practice similar habits? Perhaps he misses the best years of his career, and Bioshock Infinite, paid for with titanic work, turns out to be Levine’s last, great work. Let’s go back to Rapture, the place in Levin’s mind that he chose as a reference point in the video game.
New Year’s Eve fury
Atlas chose a great date. Exactly on December 31, 1958, when the richer castes of Rapture were preparing their senses for a grand celebration of the soon to come year 1959, an attack took place.. Led by Atlas, the poorer community of Rapture attacked the entertainment establishments of the upper classes. The Kashimir restaurant was the first to go bust. How long ago have you played Bioshock? You passed a half-hanging neon sign with the eloquent inscription Happy New Year 1959. The creators from Irrational Games, two years before the masters from From Software, make great use of environmental storytelling, a technique of transmitting information not through cut-scenes, but through elements of the environment, particles of the presented world. We learn key information about the rise and fall of Rapture thanks to well-played audio logs and advertising spots styled in the 1950s.
Levine drew strong conclusions when designing Bioshock. “We thought that System Shock 2 might have turned people off because they weren’t able to engage with the game.” – explained Levine in 2022. “So we tried to find better ways to make communication between the player and the game easier to understand,” he adds. The creators focused on their own type of storytelling. Exploring every corner of Rapture, we see that the chaos left behind, lurking Splicers, whose mental and physical deformation turns out to be the result of addiction to ADAM – is the spiral of many a dark story of Rapture’s decline. We learn about the creator of the underwater city thanks to spots, audiologues and stories from Atlas, who leads us by the hand in this truly extraordinary place. Levine knew that the key to engaging the audience in the narrative was a stable gameplay structure. He drew conclusions from System Shock 2, although many believe that at that time the gaming world was not yet ready for such productions. In 2007, the industry was completely different.
new quality
BioShock was named Game of the Year 2007 for a reason. And as we remember, the competition was strong. Halo 3, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – Irrational Games had to develop a game in which, apart from absorbing extremely interesting content, players could, above all, have fun. In the past, this was possible, among others: with the legendary Half-Life 2. In addition to great graphics, Bioshock had engaging combat. Battles with the madly attacking Splicers, and finally the highlight of the show – Big Daddy – captivated the audience. The game was a one-year exclusive for Xbox 360 and I must admit that I was planning to buy this console myself at that time.. However, after a year, the game was released on PlayStation 3, and Irrational Games have already announced a sequel. However, it was the first part that put Levine on a pedestal. Many people dislike his approach to game production. There were also many accusations against the creator inside Irrational Games. Levine demanded too much and took most of the credit to himself anyway. I see his character reflected in the characters from the universe. Andrew Ryan seems to be a genius who, under the vision of utopia, introduced the division into better and worse anyway.
„Man chooses. The slave obeys” – this is one of Ryan’s last sentences, and I am not going to tell you the circumstances of the words. Bioshock is great even today. The entire trilogy was refreshed a few years ago, but the first installment is undoubtedly considered an outstanding game. Some critics believe that Bioshock popularized the “walking-sim” genre (Dear Esther, What Remains of Edit Finch). The main example is the game Gone Home. No wonder, because its creator, Steve Gaynor, turns out to be a former employee of Irrational Games, and he once admitted that both productions belong to the same universe. Therefore, there is no question of chance. Well, so it’s another New Year’s Eve. Years later, will you immerse yourself in the strange, broken world of Rapture? Do you consider this chapter closed and Ken Levine will never write something as absorbing again?
2023-12-31 10:05:35
#December #date #history
