The lights come on and you’re greeted by a stern looking chap and the words “No Gods Or Kings. Only Man.” With the lights and stairs as your guide you are led not up, as you’d normally expect, but down, into the murky depths. You step into a bathysphere submersible and plunge deep underwater, the fathoms counted off.
BioShock generally does a great job of ‘show not tell’ storytelling, imparting a sense of events through its visual scenarios and the ubiquitous audio diaries scattered about (a legal requirement for games of this era). These diaries help build a tapestry of individual lives to reveal the backstory. However as you descend into the deep the game indulges in making you watch a brief Fallout-style public information film to quickly introduce you to the world of Rapture; a society free of authority and built on individuals’ rights over any shared obligation to a community.
In the context this exposition dump works effectively by focusing your attention it means you can’t miss it like you can potentially with the other environmental storytelling that’s there. The idea of Rapture is so crucial to understanding the game that it’s important that you stop and listen for a few seconds. The film is presented by Andrew Ryan, the city’s founder, and so even now the developers are packing in more world-building. The tone of Ryan’s voice tells you everything you need to know about his character.
As Ryan reaches his climax, the music swells and with a directorial flourish worthy of Spielberg, the world of Rapture is revealed; an underwater city of art deco skyscrapers towering from the depths. Giant squid and shoals of fish swim between towers connected by walkways and lit by neon signs. As Andrew Ryan himself describes it; an impossible city.