Preface: These posts will contain spoilers for the game BioShock. If you have any interest in playing this game series, close this, download it immediately, and engross yourself in one of the greatest video game universes ever created.
So Begins the Rapture
You awaken, blurry-eyed, in a smoke-filled cockpit. Typical of the 1960s the decor seems dated, optimised for comfort and minimising safety. Faceless passengers occupy the surrounding seats, strangely quiet as if they can sense something bad is about to happen. In one hand: a faded photograph capturing a picturesque nuclear family beaming from a black-and-white print. In the other, an envelope addressed to a man called Jack; a gift label with the words "Would you kindly" taped hastily to the corner.
A husky monologue falters:
They told me: you're special... you were born to do great things. You know what? They were right...
A jolt ripples across the plane, and a cacophony of screams escalates the scene into pandemonium. The plane plunges into darkness. The engines falter, the fuselage separates, and a huge roar fills your headphones as your previously floating vessel transforms to a plummeting submersible. With the chaos reaching fever pitch, and the cries of desperation becoming an orchestra, the iconic logo slowly emerges from the darkness for one of the defining games of my childhood. Water slowly drips down, a sense of dread already emerging.
Agonal respirations refocus you as the camera spins through a vortex of falling debris. Abandoned luggage, lifeless bodies, and propellers cascade their way through the oil-slick water. Desperately driving towards the surface, a flaming glow approaches you as a black-tar fog obscures the sky above. With a final push you emerge gasping, greeted by an infernal hellscape.
Spinning around in despair you notice the only remaining vestige of safety, a lighthouse. An amber corridor guides you up the winding staircase, as the sound of thousands of tonnes of metal imploding and melting echoes behind. A door stands open at the top, leading to a pitch black room. Inside, the noise drops away, as the door slams shut without warning. You freeze, listening to the machinations of forgotten mechanisms resurrecting from the bowels below.
The lights suddenly blind you while a distant gramophone blares to life. Readjusting and haltingly stepping back, you gasp as a titanic sculpture of the titular character looms above. Emblazoned across a crimson banner are the words:
No Gods or Kings, Only Man.
With the dulcet tones of Bobby Darin putting you slightly at ease, and the door barred behind, exploration seems the only option.
You pad across the polished floor, shoes echoing in the hollow chamber. Gilt-framed propaganda posters leer down from the walls: smiling workers, heroic scientists, a city promised beneath the sea. Their colours are too rich, too clean, as if they belong to a world that never quite existed.
Descending the stairs behind the titanic figure, you hear again the sound of dripping water. The station is small, almost claustrophobic, more lobby than terminal. A curved glass wall reveals nothing but black water and a faint suggestion of movement beyond. A single bathysphere hangs in front of you, suspended by thick cables, its brass hull dulled by age and ocean grime. The door stands open in mute invitation, a set of stairs leading up into its dim interior.
With seemingly no other option, you step inside, the aged capsule audibly creaking. Behind you, the outer world is framed in the doorway. The empty platform, the staircase winding back up to the surface; the life you just fell from.
A single brass lever glows amongst the rusting metal. Curiosity takes hold as you activate the contraption. The door mechanism coughs once, then begins to slide shut with a grinding inevitability.
Darkness, then a projector sputters to life overhead. A mans face materialises on the screen. Slicked hair, steely gaze.
I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?
His voice fills the tiny cabin as you slide into the black depths below, beginning your adventure into the city within the waves.
To be continued in Part Two