Bioshock when was rapture built

Gamers also watch Elizabeth set part of the war into motion during Burial at Sea - Episode 2. Over the course of the war, Rapture was torn apart in a pointless corporate war while its citizens were forced to pick sides with no winning options.

Here are the main things fans should know in order to understand what happened during Rapture's Civil War. Rapture was founded on the objectivist beliefs of Andrew Ryan, who had developed an Ayn Rand-esque philosophy.

This belief held that the world was carried by great men, who were constantly pulled down by what he labeled "parasites". In theory, Rapture was to be a city belonging only to what the greatest humanity had to offer, while casting out the parasites.

Ryan based Rapture's social climate on the American dream: being able to climb the ranks through hard work. However, in practice, his ideas had flaws. His efforts to build a city for the elite failed to consider the essential functions of menial labor.

As Atlas puts it, "someone has to scrub the toilets. Ryan's insistence on a free market and his opposition to capitalist regulations also led to Rapture becoming a popular destination for con artists. He tried to cut Rapture off from the surface, but this only allowed smuggling to gain a significant foothold in the city.

Enter Frank Fontaine, a crafty con artist who found his way to Rapture and exploited its free market to gain power. Seeing Fontaine as a threat to his ownership of Rapture, Ryan began doing everything in his power to stop him. The two key figures in the war were Andrew Ryan and con artist Frank Fontaine, the latter of whom planned to seize control of the city from Ryan. However, Fontaine eventually staged his own death to let Ryan think he had won.

The war was initially fought between Ryan's security and Fontaine's growing syndicate. The latter also exploited Ryan's neglect of the working class to get them on his side.

He disguised several of his criminal businesses as charities, partially to win over impoverished citizens but also to irritate Ryan, who saw charity as a violation of his philosophy.

This changed with Fontaine's apparent death. His followers were imprisoned in a building that was separated from the city and sunk deeper into the ocean. Vehicles capable of carrying humans to the deepest ocean and there have only ever been 2: the Trieste II and the Deepsea Challenger have pressure spheres with steel walls 2.

Even vehicles like Alvin , Shinkai , and Jiaolong have pressure spheres up to 3 inches thick. There have been numerous underwater habitats built for human occupation over the years. Maintaining even a small underwater structure is hard. Deep-sea divers and submersible occupants need to layer up to keep warm.

Water is a great thermal conductor, so residents of a deep-sea metropolis would need a continuous, massive source of heat to stay warm. A Rapture in disarray would quickly become a very chilly place. You could get around the problem of pressure by increasing the air pressure with Rapture. If the pressure within Rapture were equal to that of the sea outside, then the force pressing in on the buildings would be equalized. Rapture is leaky, so an equalized environment would go a long way towards making the city stable.

This comes with its own problems, because gases and human physiology behave very differently at increased pressure. Rapture, especially when the player arrives in Bioshock, is also a city that appears to be continuously on fire. Splicers camp around burning barrels, oil slicks are everywhere, the player launches rockets and deadly incinerate plasmids into just about everything.

Fire under high pressure is more efficient and less stable. If Rapture were equalized with the sea around it, it would be continuously flooded with perpetually burning walls of flame. So Rapture is almost certainly not an equalized habitat. The citizens and splicers live at 1 ATM in a steel-walled fortress beneath the waves. Reefs tend to accumulate biologic diversity, and Rapture is no exception. Through windows and the glass tunnels that connect the city, we see glimpses marine life.

Many of these creatures have been altered by the genetic-modification effects of ADAM, the chemical cause of Rapture downfall, but most are just run-of-the-mill marine animals. In Bioshock, we are treated to the site of both a humpback whale and a colossal squid. Humpbacks prefer to cruise along the surface, though some have been documented hanging out at m. In Bioshock 2, the player may encounter another ocean giant , the Great White Shark, swimming through the halls of a recently flooded level.

Once the next stage is drained, we find herring flopping around on the floor. We get a few more biological clues that Rapture is a relatively and philosophically shallow city. In Bioshock 2, much of the city is overgrown with kelp, an organism that needs sunlight to photosynthesize. This suggests that at least part of Rapture is in the photic zone. All of this suggests that Rapture is closer to the surface than the briny depths. Art deco fits beautifully into the theme of Rapture as a utopia oozing opulence, but it also fits the time of the city's creation, which helps to make a aesthetically authentic sense of place.

And it's one that survives the test of time - the style is preserved throughout, from its gleaming best in Burial at Sea, to its inevitable state of disrepair, rust and neglect. There is an important, prevailing sense of time and nostalgia apparent in Rapture. Rapture does a fine job of crystallising a time often fondly looked back on for its coolness in style and suaveness of people, a time when every man wore a hat and suit and the language was full of quirky phrases, such as Sinclair's reliance on the word 'sport' and the use of poker terms in everyday conversation.

Add in the popular music of the time playing throughout, and the voices and sounds of Rapture go a long way to creating city's very own authentic and believable soundtrack. The other dimension to the factor of time and nostalgia comes from the player's point of view. In terms of the intertwining narratives the games have created, a last visit to Rapture 10 years later seemed apt, but also, after playing through the equally magical Columbia in Infinite, I, the player, yearned to get back to Rapture's eerie and seductive environment for one more atmospheric hit.

The effect of time we see on Rapture is extremely powerful: the city changes, its society evolves and the infrastructure and explorable spaces age. Rapture goes from an immaculately-finished city to an ephemeral, rusty collection of buildings with creaks and leaks, all the while maintaining a powerful sense of place, with a strong and clear atmosphere.

The layering of all Rapture's characteristics, from the depth of its stories to its thorough backstory and philosophical underpinning, weave together seamlessly to create an atmospheric and memorable place. The level of detail in its design and its depth of meaning means Rapture achieves a genius loci so strong it stands out as one of the most impressive video game locations ever created. Rapture has left a permanent mark on us so that, even 10 years after it made its debut, it still shines bright.

We want to make Eurogamer better, and that means better for our readers - not for algorithms. You can help! Become a supporter of Eurogamer and you can view the site completely ad-free, as well as gaining exclusive access to articles, podcasts and conversations that will bring you closer to the team, the stories, and the games we all love.

Sometimes we include links to online retail stores. If you click on one and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our policy. Jump to comments Rob is a gamer and writer qualified in landscape design as keen on the virtual landscapes of games as much as the physical ones of the real world.

Feature Battlefield's ongoing identity crisis could be what saves it this year. Naruto is coming to Fortnite. Destiny 2 to remove Forsaken campaign next year. Far Cry 6 best weapons: Where to find the best unique weapons in Far Cry 6. Battlefield 's standard edition will now let you play across both generations.

Where to find the Season of the Lost's biggest secrets - and when you can access them. Premium only Off-topic: Getting off the familiar fantasy merry-go-round, and loving it. Premium only The Eurogamer Podcast: how racing games defined one of our finest. Supporters only Letter from the Editor: Feast and famine. The 10 most popular stories of the day, delivered at 5pm UK time. Never miss a thing.

Will you support Eurogamer? Support us. BioShock: The Collection News 9. Rob Dwiar Contributor Rob is a gamer and writer qualified in landscape design as keen on the virtual landscapes of games as much as the physical ones of the real world.

Feature Battlefield's ongoing identity crisis could be what saves it this year Or how Portal looks to be the best part of 's package. Naruto is coming to Fortnite Believe it! Destiny 2 to remove Forsaken campaign next year Caydence.