Bioshock is a first person shooter game developed by Irrational Games, which was operating as 2K Boston at the time of release, and 2K Australia. It was published by 2K Games. The game was released for Windows and Xbox 360 on August 21, 2007. On October 17, 2008, the game was released on PS3. Mac OSX got the game on October 7, 2009. A port for iOS was released on August 27, 2014.
You start the game in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in 1960 with nothing but the wreckage of a plane crash around you and a lighthouse rising out of the water ahead. There is no explanation, no setup, no one telling you what to do. You go inside because there is nowhere else to go, and what you find at the bottom of the submarine is Rapture.
I'm helping with my pistol!
What is Rapture?
Rapture is an underwater city built by Andrew Ryan, an industrialist and philosopher who believed the great minds of the world were being strangled by government, religion, and the demands of the mediocre. He built his city in secret at the bottom of the ocean as a place where artists, scientists, and entrepreneurs could work without restriction or interference. No gods, no kings, only man. The idea was utopian. The reality was something else entirely.
By the time you arrive, Rapture has collapsed. The streets are flooded, the art deco architecture is crumbling, and the population has been driven insane by ADAM, a genetic material harvested from sea slugs that allows users to rewrite their own DNA and gain superhuman abilities called Plasmids. The problem is that overuse of ADAM destroys the mind. Frank Fontaine, a smuggler who saw an opportunity, flooded Rapture with ADAM and the Plasmids it enabled, destabilized Ryan’s control, and started a civil war that tore the city apart. By 1960 almost everyone left alive is a Splicer, a person so warped by ADAM addiction that they have lost most of their humanity.
Twerking at big daddy.
Atlas and Andrew Ryan
Almost immediately after arriving in Rapture you make radio contact with a man named Atlas, who speaks with an Irish accent and presents himself as an ordinary man trying to survive and get his family to safety. He guides you through the city, helping you understand what happened and what you need to do to escape. The relationship feels genuinely collaborative. Atlas seems like the closest thing to an ally you have in a city full of people trying to kill you.
Andrew Ryan communicates with you as well, from a distance, warning you that you are being used and that Atlas is not what he seems. Ryan is brilliant and articulate, even sympathetic in the way he describes what Rapture was meant to be, but he is also clearly unhinged by what has happened to his life’s work. The tension between these two voices, one guiding you forward and one warning you to stop, drives the first half of the game.
The beauty is breathtaking.
Would You Kindly
The midpoint of BioShock contains one of the most discussed twists in gaming history. You find Andrew Ryan in his office at Olympus Heights and he explains what you actually are. Your character Jack is not a random plane crash survivor. He is Ryan’s illegitimate son, grown to adulthood through genetic conditioning and smuggled into Rapture specifically to kill Ryan. The phrase “would you kindly,” which Atlas has been using throughout the game to frame his requests, is a post-hypnotic trigger that compels absolute obedience. Every action you have taken has been directed by Atlas, who is revealed to be Frank Fontaine using a false identity to manipulate you from the moment you arrived.
Ryan forces you to kill him yourself, refusing to die at anyone else’s hand because choosing your own fate is the one thing he cannot surrender. It is one of the most effective moments in video game storytelling, partly because it works on a meta level. The player has been pressing buttons and following instructions the entire game, and the twist makes that compliance the point.
Fontaine and the Ending
With Ryan dead, Fontaine drops the Atlas persona and reveals himself. He has used you to consolidate power over Rapture and now cuts off your ADAM supply to leave you incapacitated. You survive with the help of Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum, the scientist responsible for discovering how sea slugs produced ADAM and for developing the Little Sisters, the young girls who harvest ADAM from corpses throughout the game. Tenenbaum and the Little Sisters you rescued help restore your abilities and you confront Fontaine in a final battle where he has overloaded himself with ADAM to the point of transformation.
The ending depends on how you played the game. The Little Sisters can be harvested for maximum ADAM or rescued for less. If you harvested them, the ending is bleak. If you rescued them, Tenenbaum and the girls survive and escape Rapture together. When I played the game, I had the good ending, I only harvested the first one and felt bad about it.
Bioshock Achievements
- Completed Welcome: Successfully complete the Welcome To Rapture Level.
- Defeated Dr. Steinman: Defeat the crazed Dr. Steinman.
- Defeated Peach Wilkins: Defeat Peach Wilkins.
- Restored the Forest: Restore the Forests of Arcadia.
- Completed Cohen's Masterpiece: Complete Sander Cohen's great masterpiece.
- Defeated Andrew Ryan: Defeat Andrew Ryan.
- Broke Fontaine's Mind Control: Break Fontaine's mind control over you.
- Defeated Atlas: Defeat Atlas.
- Maxed One Track: Purchased every slot in one of the Plasmid or Tonic tracks.
- Maxed All Tracks: Purchased every slot in all four Plasmid and Tonic tracks.
- Bought One Slot: Purchase one slot in any Plasmid or Tonic track.
- Upgraded a Weapon: Acquire at least one weapon upgrade.
- One Fully Upgraded Weapon: Fully upgrade one weapon.
- Two Fully Upgraded Weapons: Fully upgrade two weapons.
- Three Fully Upgraded Weapons: Fully upgrade three weapons.
- Four Fully Upgraded Weapons: Fully upgrade four weapons.
- Five Fully Upgraded Weapons: Fully upgrade five weapons.
- Weapon Specialist: Acquire all upgrades for all weapons.
- Fully Researched Thug Splicer: Fully research the Thuggish Splicer.
- Fully Researched Gun Splicer: Fully research the Leadhead Splicer.
- Fully Researched Spider Splicer: Fully research the Spider Splicer.
- Fully Researched Houdini Splicer: Fully research the Houdini Splicer.
- Fully Researched Nitro Splicer: Fully research the Nitro Splicer.
- Fully Researched Rosie: Fully research the Rosie.
- Fully Researched Bouncer: Fully research the Bouncer.
- Fully Researched Little Sister: Fully research the Little Sister.
- Prolific Photographer: Take at least one photo in every research group.
- Research PhD: Max out all possible research.
- Quality Research Photo: Take a Research Photo of the highest grade.
- Researched a Splicer: Take at least one Research Photo of a Splicer.
- One Successful Hack: Perform at least one successful hack.
- Hacked a Security Bot: Successfully hack a security bot.
- Hacked a Security Camera: Successfully hack a security camera.
- Hacked a Turret: Successfully hack a turret.
- Hacked a Vending Machine: Successfully hack a vending machine.
- Hacked a Safe: Successfully hack a safe.
- Skilled Hacker: Successfully complete 50 hacks.
- Basic Inventor: Successfully invent at least one item.
- Avid Inventor: Successfully invent at least 100 items.
- Ammo Inventor: Successfully invent all possible ammo types.
- Little Sister Savior: Complete the game without harvesting any Little Sisters.
- Tonic Collector: Collect or Invent 53 Tonics in the Physical, Engineering and Combat tracks.
- Historian: Find every audio diary.
- Seriously Good At This: Complete the game on the hardest difficulty setting.
- Dealt with every Little Sister: Either Harvest or Rescue every Little Sister in the game.
- Became a Big Daddy: Become a Big Daddy.
- Lucky Winner: Hit the jackpot at a slot machine.
- Irony: Take a picture of Sander Cohen's corpse.
- Found Cohen's Room: Enter Sander Cohen's personal quarters.
- Toaster in the Tub: Shock an enemy in the water.
- Brass Balls (DLC): Complete the game on hard difficulty without using a Vita-Chamber.
