Welcome To Rapture: A Look At Bioshock

This is another post about a video game, but even if you're not into video games I think you'll enjoy your introduction to the city of Rapture.

Rapture is the setting for the video game Bioshock, one of the most popular and widely acclaimed video games of the year when it came out. Bioshock led to an equally terrific sequel, and a third game called Bioshock Infinite, which takes place in a city that is suspended high in the air.

Rapture is a city that exists at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, a gorgeous Art Deco metropolis conceived by the capitalist Andrew Ryan, built in 1946. The buildings are connected by reinforced glass tunnels and by a network of bathyspheres that residents use to get around. A completely self sustaining metropolis, it has buildings where trees and fresh fruit and vegetables are grown, and power is provided by the volcanic activity the city sits on. 

Ryan's goal in building Rapture was to create a capitalist society free of religion and government, where any citizen could achieve for their own gain. The "world's best and brightest" were granted freedom of will and choice in Rapture, unrestrained by government, religion and similar established institutions. 

Rapture was intended to be a secret city; the world was never meant to learn of its existence. This led to smuggling by a mob boss called Fontaine, and ultimately to Ryan's downfall. In 1958 a civil war broke out between Fontaine and Ryan, and one of the weapons used were genetic enhancements that gave the user super powers.

By 1960, Rapture was on the verge of collapse, the city severely damaged by the civil war, its citizens driven insane by their use of genetic enhancements. This is where the video game Bioshock begins.

Jack, the main character, is in a plane which plunges into the North Atlantic, and is the only survivor. Rising from the North Atlantic is a small tower with a bathysphere. With no where else to go, Jack gets in and is taken to Rapture.

Watch the video below to take a tour of Rapture. This is video of the game play without commentary; your tour of Rapture begins at the 2:15 mark, with Jack trying to survive the plane crash. Your arrival at Rapture takes place at the 5:55 mark. Upon arriving, Jack realizes how dangerous Rapture has become. He will have to fight to survive in this once gorgeous city.

The most mesmerizing feature of Bioshock is the incredible design of the city and all the little details that serve to make you forget you are playing a video game. You are completely immersed in this world, and every level, even in its disrepair, is utterly gorgeous. Here are some snapshots of Rapture.

One of the most iconic and memorable inhabitants of Rapture are the Big Daddies. 

Big Daddies are genetically enhanced human beings who have had their skin and organs grafted into an enormous diving suit. Their primary purpose is to protect Little Sisters while they escort them around Rapture. 

Little Sisters are young girls who have been genetically altered and mentally conditioned to reclaim a substance called ADAM from the corpses in Rapture. 

ADAM is the raw form of the unstable stem cells that can be genetically manipulated to give the person injecting it amazing properties, but also causes cosmetic and mental damage to people. In the end, the user will have to take in more and more ADAM just to remain sane and healthy, progressively deteriorating as they do so.


Below is another tour of Rapture, when a Big Daddy and Little Sister are first encountered. Note the Art Deco details of the buildings. Rapture is crumbling, but it must have been a magnificent city in its heyday. If such a place existed I would have loved to have live there.

• Rapture City Archives - A collection of pictures, signs, and posters of Rapture for you to remember your visit by

• Bioshock Wiki - The definitive guide to all things Bioshock 

• The Brothers Rapture - An impressive fan film about a pair of brothers and their genetic-altering experiments in the city of Rapture

• Big Daddy Costume - Volpin Props founder Harrison Krix makes astoundingly accurate movie and video game props, and documents each step in the process. His most ambitious project was a full size wearable Big Daddy costume. See the whole process from start to finish!

• Big Daddy Photoshoot at Acquarium - Krix was given permission to have his Big Daddy costume photographed, along with a Little Sister, during Dragoncon at the acquarium, and teh results are phenomenal. Check them out! He also documents the building of the ADAM syringe HERE

Welcome To City 17

UPDATE! My Half-Life 2 costume for Dragoncon 2012 is complete! Video at the bottom of this post!

This is going to be a total geek post, an homage to video games, specifically the video game Half -Life 2, which has spawned an incredible fandom and several fantastic fan-made films (embedded below).

If you're not into video games you may not find this interesting. If you are, read on!

Half-Life 2 is the groundbreaking sequel to Half-Life, a game that shattered video game records and is considered one of the greatest video games of all time. 

Half-Life stars Gordon Freeman, the protagonist who worked in an enormous, top secret facility deep underground called Black Mesa. During an experiment at the beginning of the game, a hole is torn in the fabric of reality, flooding the complex with alien creatures. Freeman must fight his way through the ruins of the complex to get to the surface to summon help.

Half way there he encounters the military, which, rather than saving the scientists at Black Mesa, are intent on covering up the entire incident. Freeman eventually travels to the planet from which the aliens are coming to destroy the head alien and save the planet.

In the sequel Half-Life 2, Freeman, who never speaks, finds himself in City 17, in a world in which mankind has surrendered to the aliens introduced in the first game. A small band of resistance fighters are determined to strike back against the military forces that oppress the city's citizens, and Freeman is soon involved in guerrilla warfare. The urban combat in the game is so realistic you feel like you're actually in battle amid the city ruins. Below is the beginning of Half-Life 2, which slowly introduces you to the misery that fills City 17 (jump to 1:40 on the video):

Along with Alyx Vance (pictured), Freeman fights to evacuate citizens from the city before the citadel, the tall, needle-like building at the heart of City 17, melts down and destroys the entire city.

It is a race to evacuate citizens and battle the soldiers intent of killing anyone trying to leave.

With powerful graphics and animation programs that are available now, and using the Half Life 2 source engine to create their own graphics, fans are creating their own films to tell more City 17 stories, and some of them are remarkable. Enjoy these videos embedded below.

Half-Life 2 has spawned such devotion that some fans have made an independent tribute film called Escape From City 17, made on a budget of $500, and has been rated one of the top YouTube videos of all time. Valve, the company behind the Half-Life series, was so impressed, it flew the film's creators to their company. This is a truly remarkable bit of film making. Enjoy Part One, below. You can see Part 2 by clicking on this link:

Escape From City 17 Part 2

This is another fan film called Singularity Collapse, darker and more intense but extremely well done:

Beyond Black Mesa has some pretty impressive action sequences, and the acting is pretty good for a fan film. Unfortunately you have to sit through a thirty second commercial, but it's worth it. Enjoy!

This fan film has a slower pace and is a quieter film, obviously shot in a city in Europe somewhere. It helps a lot that the streets were so deserted when they were filming. Abandon buildings are great shooting locations for films of this genre. The character finding the crowbar is a reference to Gordon Freeman's primary weapons.

For Dragoncon I am creating a Civil Protection costume; I have already ordered the gas mask. Civil Protection are the masked police that enforce the dictatorship of the human-combine alliance in City 17.

And as promised, below is the video of my completed Half Life 2 Civil Protection costume. 

Just in time for Dragoncon 2012.