The Cult of Rapture ~ BioShock Splashdown

20070820BioshockFirst-Person Shooter fans are readying themselves for the BioShock splashdown. The Cult of Rapture Forum says to “wait for the official demo download tonight at 7PM EDT” to make sure you have the latest version and drivers.

Rapture is the name of the underwater city in the game. David Kushner at IEEE Spectrum Sandbox has this to say about the game’s setting:

So much for the usual bombed-out cityscapes and narrow corridors. The game takes place in an underwater utopia-turned-dystopia that’s Citizen Kane meets Atlantis .(with a twisted dose of Alice in Wonderland thrown in). A wealthy mogul tried to build a submerged paradise that, of course, went horribly awry. Now biologically-enhanced mutants rule the domain. Yeah, you’ve got the guns and health packs, but you also can slam a hypodermic needle into your palm and launch plasma bolts from your fingertips. Cool. All-in-all, a completely original spin on the splattercore titles we’re used to. The best games don’t just work your adrenal glands, they transport you into a world you’ve never seen. BioShock transports. [emphasis added]

The medium that transports the lead character into the game goes beyond your usual airplane crashed into the sea. There is a second medium after that. GameSpy’s BioShock Preview states:

Flaming debris surrounds you and you’re quite sure that these will be your final moments. That is, until you see a lighthouse. Yes, a lighthouse. In the middle of the ocean. Go with it. You swim towards this lighthouse and go inside, and are eventually led down to an underwater city known as Rapture.

This is the first pop culture reference that I have seen that turns a lighthouse from a destination of escape to a beacon medium that transports you into a dystopia. Apparently, you descend into rapture in a “bathysphere.”
Interesting.

In the same preview they talk about the game’s connections to Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged, good for some light reading. There is a visual link in the storyline with the founder of Rapture being named Andrew Ryan, very similar to Ayn Rand.

Kushner in the Sandbox goes so far as to suggest that it’s going to be a Halo killer (another one of my favorite game titles for its obviously ironic links to angels and heaven). Will it? It might be the antithesis of Halo.

The game already has a 98 out of 100 rating on Metacritic.

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Posted on August 20, 2007
Filed Under Games, Lighthouses, Medium to Paradise, Urbanity, Utopia |

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