Somewhere beyond the sea
She's there watchin' for me
If I could fly like birds on high
Then straight to her arms I'd go sailin'"

It was really hard for me for some reason to start writing on this. I really don’t know why, because it’s a really good game. Perhaps I wanted to play it more instead of writing. Anyway, I’ll just go with “lazy” for now… One of the reasons would be I wrote a lot of stuff about the game in the preview (which you certainly have read, right?). Buuuut, because I am a nice lazy guy, I will remind you a bit about this world of Rapture that Bioshock revolves around.

Sick of all the wars, pain and dictators in powerful places in 1946, Andrew Ryan was so upset on the world that he decided to create his own. A perfect, utopia society at the bottom of the sea he called Rapture.

Irrational Games, now 2K Australia/Boston did an incredible job with the architecture of this "living breathing" and functional world under the sea. Influenced by the 1920 architectural style called Art Deco that combines old and futuristic design, Rapture looks impressive and unique - helped of course by "the little engine that could": the Unreal 3 engine that powers Bioshock.

All was great until... it wasn't anymore... Dr. Bridgette Tenenbaum (French or German? Vote now!) discovered a unique species of sea slug. She was able to extract pure stem cells that propelled genetic engineering research to new heights. Called "ADAM", this material made everything possible: from curing diseases to enhancing a person with powers like telekinesis, combustion or bolts of electric energy.

As Ryan became more of a dictator, he cut off any contact with the outside world. Smugglers appeared in Rapture, and consequently very powerful and rich mobsters like Fontaine.

On 1959's New Year's Eve tension raise up to the point of civil war. The rebellion was started by Atlas who led the riots against Ryan. The city was left in a state of social collapse. While many have turned into "Splicers" - ADAM addicted people who got insane, the few remaining normal people were forced to barricade themselves inside their homes.

"Would you kindly..."

These are the circumstances under which our hero, Jack, arrives in 1960 in the city of Rapture. You survive a plane crash only to find yourself in the middle of the Pacific. Luckily you see a nearby lighthouse. Inside, a bathysphere takes you into... well... the adventure of your life...

Atlas is the first to find you, and you are guided by him through this underwater world, via radio. Rapture is now a devastated world with crazy Splicers attacking everyone for a little ADAM, with automated defenses everywhere and on top of that with Little Girls and Big Daddies. Yes, in order to get as much ADAM as possible, the Little Girls were created. They harvest ADAM from the dead. And the big Big Daddies are the bodyguards of these poor girls.

You learn from Atlas that in order to survive in this God forsaken underwater city, your only chance is to use the ADAM on you (trough the form of "Plasmids" - the "magic powers" in Bioshock). The problem is that this precious substance has to be harvested from the Little Girls. Thus, you have to fight as many Big Daddies as possible...

Once you kill a Big Daddy, you have two options: rescue the Little Girl by using a plasmid Dr. Tenenbaum gave you at the beginning, or kill her. If you decide to kill her you will get double the amount of ADAM than if you save her, but if you are kind Dr. Tenenbaum promises other rewards...

Tip: Just so that you know, you get 160 ADAM for every Little Girl and only 80 if you rescue her. However, every three Little Girls you rescue, Dr. Tenenbaum will send you 200 ADAM a new plasmid and some ammo inside a teddy bear. Oh, and also, this will influence the outcome of the game (three possible endings) - choose wisely.