BioShock (series)

BioShock is a video game series developed by Irrational Games —the first under the name 2K Boston/2K Australia—and designed by Ken Levine. It was originally released for the Windows operating system and Xbox 360 video game console on 21 August 2007 in North America, and three days later in Europe and Australia. A PlayStation 3 version of the game, which was developed by 2K Marin, was released internationally on 17 October 2008 and in North America on 21 October 2008 with some additional features. The game was also released for the Mac OS X operating system on October 7, 2009. A version of the game for mobile platforms is currently being developed by IG Fun. A sequel, BioShock 2, was released on February 9, 2010. On August 12, 2010, Irrational Games unveiled a trailer for a new game titled BioShock Infinite, tentatively scheduled for release sometime in 2012.

Concept and development
In response to a question from the gaming website IGN about what influenced the game's story and setting, Levine said, "I have my useless liberal arts degree, so I've read stuff from Ayn Rand and George Orwell, and all the sort of utopian and dystopian writings of the 20th century, which I've found really fascinating." Levine has also mentioned an interest in "stem cell research and the moral issues that go around [it] ." In regard to artistic influences, Levine cited the books Nineteen Eighty-Four and Logan's Run, representing societies that have "really interesting ideas screwed up by the fact that we're people."

According to the developers, BioShock is a spiritual successor to the System Shock games, and was produced by former developers of that series. Levine claims his team had been thinking about making another game in the same vein since they produced System Shock 2. In his narration of a video initially screened for the press at E3 2006, Levine pointed out many similarities between the games. There are several comparable gameplay elements: plasmids in BioShock supplied by "EVE hypos" serve the same function as "Psionic Abilities" supplied by "PSI hypos" in System Shock 2; the player needs to deal with security cameras, machine gun turrets, and hostile robotic drones, and has the ability to hack them in both games; ammunition conservation is stressed as "a key gameplay feature"; and audio tape recordings fulfil the same storytelling role that e-mail logs did in the System Shock games. The "ghosts" (phantom images that replay tragic incidents in the places they occurred) from System Shock 2 also exist in BioShock, as do modifiable weapons with multiple ammunition types and researching enemies for increased damage. Additionally, Atlas guides the player along by radio, in much the same way Janice Polito does in System Shock 2, with each having a similar twist mid-game. Both games also give the player more than one method of completing tasks, allowing for emergent gameplay.

In the reveal of the third game of the series, BioShock Infinte, Ken Levine stated that the name "BioShock" is not in reference to any specific setting or location, but instead a means of encapsulating common gameplay elements that reflects on their earlier games such as System Shock 2, and the BioShock series. "To me, there's two things that make a BioShock game BioShock. They take place in a world that is both fantastic and ridiculous. Something that you've never seen before and something that nobody else could create except Irrational, but it's also strangely grounded and believable. The other thing that makes it a BioShock game, it's about having a huge toolset of power and a huge range of challenges, and you being able to drive how you solve those challenges."

Overview
BioShock and BioShock 2 take place in the fictional underwater city of Rapture. Built in the 1940s by business tycoon Andrew Ryan, it was meant to be a laissez-faire utopia for humanity's elite to work, live, and prosper out of the increasingly-oppressive hands of the world's governments and authorities.

The scientists of Rapture soon discovered a substance called ADAM found in sea slugs on the ocean's floor. With ADAM, they could create plasmids that would overwrite a person's genetic material, granting them superhuman-like abilities, and soon became a valuable commodity. They devised a means of harvesting ADAM using little girls, named "Little Sisters", implanting the sea slugs in their stomachs. ADAM was found to lead to mental instability in its users, and along with other political and social movements within Rapture, the Little Sisters became targets of those desiring more ADAM. To protect them, the scientists created Big Daddies, mentally-conditioned humans in armored diving suits that drove off any attackers from Little Sisters.

On the eve of 1959, war broke out in Rapture between its classes, fueled by ADAM-addicted "Splicers". The war left Rapture a dystopia within a year, with the few non-ADAM users sheltering themselves from Splicers.

Gameplay
Both games in the BioShock series are first-person shooters with role-playing game elements, and considered to be a spiritual successor to System Shock 2, which many of the developers were previously involved with through Irrational Games. The player controls a character as they explore Rapture, learning of the city's past and the fate of its citizens, defending themselves from attacks from Splicers along the way as they complete missions given to them by the few unaffected survivors. The player is given several options to approach many situations through combination of a number of game elements. The player collects an arsenal of weapons; weapons can be upgraded over course of play, and each can be loaded with different types of ammunition which can have different effects on different foes. The player also gains plasmids, ADAM-infused concoctions that grant the player active superhuman-like powers such as telekinesis or pyrokinesis in addition to passive abilities such as increased speed or better damage resistance. The player can use weapons and plasmids in conjunction with the environment to set traps or to turn the security systems of Rapture against the player's enemies. For example, all enemies in a water-filed room can be shocked by electrocuting the water, sentry guns and cameras can be hacked to fire on detected Splicers, or explosive proximity traps can be set through the help of telekinesis.

As the player explores Rapture, they will come across health and EVE (the substance used to power plasmid-granted powers) recovery items, recording devices that reveal more of Rapture's history, and money. The money can be used at vending machines to acquire more ammunition or health and EVE items. Plasmids are purchased by collecting ADAM from Little Sisters after defeating the heavily-armored Big Daddy that protects them. Both BioShock games give the player a choice of how to do this; the player can either safely extract the sea slug from the girl, earning a modest amount of ADAM and leaving the child alive, or they can kill the child, and extract a large amount of ADAM directly. Though the player can purchase numerous plasmids, they can only equip a limited number at any time, though devices throughout Rapture can allow the player to change this loadout at any time.

BioShock
BioShock was released on August 21, 2007 exclusively to Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360. A PlayStation 3 port was released just over a year later on October 17, 2008. The game received overwhelmingly positive reviews, which praised its "morality-based" storyline, immersive environment and Ayn Rand-inspired dystopian back-story. According to Take-Two's chairman Strauss Zelnick, the game has sold around 3 million copies as of June 2009.

BioShock 2
Bioshock 2, the much anticipated sequel to Bioshock, was released on February 9, 2010 in North America. The game was developed by a new design team, although it contained members of the team for the original Bioshock, and it received mostly positive reviews.

BioShock Infinite
BioShock Infinite was announced on August 12, 2010, for release on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Microsoft Windows systems sometime in 2012. Previously known as "Project Icarus", BioShock Infinite is not a direct sequel or prequel to the original game, but carries many of the same gameplay concepts from the BioShock title. The game takes place in 1912 (prior to the events of the other games), in the air-city of Columbia. In the game, the player controls a Pinkerton agent, Booker DeWitt, as he raids the air-city to rescue Elizabeth who has been imprisoned there since childhood. The player augments weapons and abilities gained through the game with Elizabeth's own for them to escape the falling city.

Future
In response to the game's high sales and critical acclaim, Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick revealed in a conference call to analysts that the company now considered the game as part of a franchise. He also speculated on any follow-ups mimicking the development cycle of Grand Theft Auto, with a new release expected every two to three years. 2K's president Christoph Hartmann stated that BioShock could have 5 sequels, comparing the franchise to the Star Wars movies.

Art book
BioShock: Breaking the Mold, a book containing artwork from the game, was released by 2K Games on August 13, 2007. It is available in both low and high resolution, in PDF format from 2K Games's official website. Until October 1, 2007, 2K Games was sending a printed version of the book to the owners of the collector's edition whose Big Daddy figurines had been broken, as compensation for the time it took to replace them. On October 31, 2008, the winners of "Breaking the Mold: Developers Edition Artbook Cover Contest" were announced on cultofrapture.com.

Soundtrack
2K Games released an orchestral score soundtrack on their official homepage on August 24, 2007. Available in MP3 format, the score—composed by Garry Schyman—contains 12 of the 22 tracks from the game. The Limited Edition version of the game came with the The Rapture EP remixes by Moby and Oscar The Punk. The three remixed tracks on the CD include "Beyond the Sea," "God Bless the Child" and "Wild Little Sisters"; the original recordings of these songs are in the game.

In BioShock, the player encounters phonographs that play music from the 1940s and 1950s as background music. In total, 30 licensed songs can be heard throughout the game. BioShock's soundtrack will be released on a vinyl LP with the BioShock 2 Special Edition

Film
Industry rumors after the game's release suggested a film adaptation of the game would be made, utilizing similar green screen filming techniques as in the movie 300 to recreate the environments of Rapture. On May 9, 2008, Take-Two announced a deal with Universal Studios to produce a BioShock movie, to be directed by Gore Verbinski and written by John Logan. The film was expected to be released in 2010, but was put on hold due to budget concerns. On August 24, 2009 it was revealed that Verbinski had dropped out of the project due to the studio's decision to film overseas to keep the budget under control. Verbinski reportedly feels this would have hindered his work on Rango. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo is in talks to direct with Verbinski as producer.

As of January 2010 the project is in pre-production stage, with Juan Carlos Fresnadillo attached as director, with Braden Lynch, a voice artist from BioShock 2, working on the film.