“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.
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