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''A city where the artist would not fear the [[MediaWatchdogs censor]], where [[ForScience the scientist]] would [[AboveGoodAndEvil not be bound by petty morality]], where [[{{UsefulNotes/Objectivism}} the great would not be constrained by the small!]] And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become'' '''''your''''' ''city as well.''\\
to:
''A city where the artist would not fear the [[MediaWatchdogs censor]], where [[ForScience the scientist]] would [[AboveGoodAndEvil not be bound by petty morality]], where [[{{UsefulNotes/Objectivism}} the great would not be constrained by the small!]] And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become'' '''''your''''' ''city as well.''\\
''
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* DeadGuyOnDisplay: The main hall outside Ryan's office is lined with corpses impaled onto pillars, all unsuccessful saboteurs or assassins.
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* DeadGuyOnDisplay: The main hall outside Ryan's office is lined with corpses impaled onto pillars, all unsuccessful saboteurs or assassins. There are also a number of strung-up corpses around Rapture, particularly in Neptune's Bounty.
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* {{Deconstruction}}: Mainly of ButThouMust and MissionControl, though the setting turns the game into a deconstruction of "Galt's Gulch" from ''AtlasShrugged''. The sequel deconstructs collectivism in the form of Sofia Lamb and her "Family."
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* {{Deconstruction}}: Mainly of ButThouMust and MissionControl, though the setting turns the game into a deconstruction of "Galt's Gulch" from ''AtlasShrugged''. The sequel deconstructs collectivism in the form of Sofia Lamb and her "Family."
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* EarlyBirdCameo: An audio diary from Suchong in the first game makes a passing reference to coworkers named "Sinclair and Alexander", who became fully fleshed-out characters in the sequel.
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* EarlyBirdCameo: An audio diary from Suchong in the first game makes a passing reference to coworkers named "Sinclair and Alexander", who became fully fleshed-out characters in the sequel. (Although ironically, said sequel would also retcon Sinclair's role.)
* EmptyRoomUntilTheTrap: You never know when picking up that item or searching that safe might spawn a splicer (or two, or four) right behind you.
* EmptyRoomUntilTheTrap: You never know when picking up that item or searching that safe might spawn a splicer (or two, or four) right behind you.
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* KickTheDog More like [[spoiler:break the adorable puppy's neck under the influence of mind control while sobbing and begging to be stopped]]
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* KickTheDog KickTheDog: More like [[spoiler:break the adorable puppy's neck under the influence of mind control while sobbing and begging to be stopped]]
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* OffscreenTeleportation: A few splicers somehow manage to do this in scripted events. One is revealed to have actual teleportation powers; the others... well, it wouldn't be a surprise if you expected them to be able to do it, would it?
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** Extra Little Sisters can be spawned in certain levels through abuse of scripted sequences and Big Daddy behavior. Specifically, in certain instances a Little Sister must be spawned for a scripted sequence. However, if there's a Big Daddy before this point, it will keep respawning when killed (if you move far enough away) and keep summoning Little Sisters until you reach the cap. The scripted Little Sister will spawn anyway, giving you a extra.
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* TakingYouWithMe: Ryan rigs Rapture to self-destruct when he realizes he can't prevent you from reaching him. Also, after dropping a bomb-throwing Nitro Splicer, wait a moment before moving in to loot the corpse.
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* TakingYouWithMe: Ryan rigs Rapture to self-destruct when he realizes he can't prevent you from reaching him. Also, after dropping a bomb-throwing Nitro Splicer, wait Splicers may also light their grenade case and blow themselves up if you damage them enough. They also drop a moment before moving in to loot the corpse.grenade on death out of spite.
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** Played straight in one particular instance. Early on, Ryan traps you in a small room with Splicers trying to break the windows to reach you. Atlas unlocks it and urges you to run, which takes you to the next level. This is pointless. Wait long enough and the game just shunts you to the next level anyway. The Splicers aren't actually a threat.
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** You can invoke this by hacking healing stations. Doing so causes them to hurt enemies if they try to heal themselves. Bosses will fall for this trick.
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** You can invoke this by hacking healing stations. Doing so causes them to hurt enemies if they try to heal themselves. Bosses Even bosses will fall for this trick.
*** As a corollary to this, Fontaine developed Lot 192 because he wanted a counter to the mental control plasmid he had developed [[spoiler:to control Jack. Jack retrieves the serum to free himself from Fontaine's control]].
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* MissionControl: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]]. [[spoiler:The guy on the other end of the radio telling you what to do? He isn't helping you, [[MissionControlIsOffItsMeds he's ''controlling your actions'' and ''your choices are illusory'']]]].
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* MissionControl: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]]. [[spoiler:The guy on the other end of the radio telling you what to do? He isn't helping you, [[MissionControlIsOffItsMeds he's ''controlling your actions'' and ''your choices are illusory'']]]].illusory'']].]]
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** FridgeBrilliance: Well, then, they ''didn't'' trick you if you head-shotted every statue, huh?
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** FridgeBrilliance: Well, then, they ''didn't'' trick you if you head-shotted every statue, huh?
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* PlayingTennisWithTheBoss: Peach Wilkins, since you're down to your plasmids and Telekinesis is quite effective. For more generic foes, both Nitro Splicers and Houdini Splicers can have their bombs/fireballs tossed back at them with Telekinesis.
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* PlayingTennisWithTheBoss: Peach Wilkins, since you're down to your plasmids and Telekinesis is quite effective.effective (unless you smuggled some guns in). For more generic foes, both Nitro Splicers and Houdini Splicers can have their bombs/fireballs tossed back at them with Telekinesis. This can be done with the FinalBoss, too, but it's fairly pointless.
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-->[[spoiler:It's time to end this little masquerade. There ain't no Atlas, kid. Never was. Fella in my line of work takes on a variety of aliases. Hell, once I was even a Chinaman for six months. But, you've been a sport, so I guess I owe you a little honesty. The name's Frank Fontaine.]]
to:
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* BigDamnHeroes: At the end of the original final boss fight, [[spoiler: the spliced-up musclehead slams you across the room, stalks over, and is about to pound you into mush, when a Little Sister jumps on Fontaine from behind and stabs him with her [=ADAM=]-collecting syringe. After he throws her off, a small horde of Little Sisters jumps him and stabs him to death.]].
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* BigDamnHeroes: At the end of the original final boss fight, [[spoiler: the spliced-up musclehead slams you across the room, stalks over, and is about to pound you into mush, when a Little Sister jumps on Fontaine from behind and stabs him with her [=ADAM=]-collecting syringe. After he throws her off, a small horde of Little Sisters jumps him and stabs him to death.]].]]
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* EscortMission: The leadup to the boss battle has one. [[spoiler:Having dressed up as a Big Daddy, you have to follow and protect a Little Sister so she can let you into the boss room.]]
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* {{Foreshadowing}}: The audio logs, aside from giving background information, hint at some of the bigger plot twists. In particular, there is one log that explains how Ryan had the Bathyspheres locked so that they'd only work for himself and whoever else he wanted, [[spoiler:but anyone in the "genetic ballpark" could use them]].
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* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: When you hack machines in the later levels, and haven't been upgrading your gene tonics like the game tells you to, sometimes the puzzles will have blocked-off squares before the point you have to connect to, making them unsolvable. Of course, you can just buy your way out of the hacking minigame, but still...
** And if you're lucky enough to not get that, sometimes, the water will start pouring in before you can react. If you don't have the hacking tonics that slow down the water/start progress, you're doomed.
** There are several Splicers pretending to be bodies. You can shoot them all you like, but they won't take damage until you trigger the getting up animation.
*** You can, however, use Insect Swarm on them to make them scream and die without getting up.
** And if you're lucky enough to not get that, sometimes, the water will start pouring in before you can react. If you don't have the hacking tonics that slow down the water/start progress, you're doomed.
** There are several Splicers pretending to be bodies. You can shoot them all you like, but they won't take damage until you trigger the getting up animation.
*** You can, however, use Insect Swarm on them to make them scream and die without getting up.
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* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: When you hack machines in the later levels, and haven't been upgrading your Hacking practically requires having high-end gene tonics like to reduce their difficulty, depending on level. In the game tells you to, sometimes the puzzles will have blocked-off squares before the point you have to connect to, making later stages, overload and alarm tiles can make them unsolvable. Of course, downright unwinnable without skill reduction/tile changing tonics, and heaven help you can just buy your way out of the hacking minigame, but still...
** Andif you're lucky enough to not get that, sometimes, the water will start pouring in before you can react. If you don't have the hacking tonics that a slow down tonic to keep the water/start progress, you're doomed.
water at bay.
**There are several The later levels have Splicers pretending to be bodies. You can shoot playing possum. Shoot them all you like, but like; they won't take damage until you trigger the getting up animation.
*** You can, however, usethey decide to get up. Thankfully, there are ways around this. Insect Swarm on will get them to make them scream up (and kill them), and die without getting up.cameras can tell the difference.
** And
**
*** You can, however, use
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* LargeHam: Dr. Steinman when you contront him. Big time.
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* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:Jack, the LaserGuidedTykebomb made in order to kill Fontaine's rival, and the Little Sisters whose creations Fontaine was primarily responsible for, destroy Fontaine in the end.]]
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* HoistByHisOwnPetard: HoistByHisOwnPetard:
** You can invoke this by hacking healing stations. Doing so causes them to hurt enemies if they try to heal themselves. Bosses will fall for this trick.
** [[spoiler:Jack, the LaserGuidedTykebomb made in order to kill Fontaine's rival, and the Little Sisters whose creations Fontaine was primarily responsible for, destroy Fontaine in the end.]]
** You can invoke this by hacking healing stations. Doing so causes them to hurt enemies if they try to heal themselves. Bosses will fall for this trick.
** [[spoiler:Jack, the LaserGuidedTykebomb made in order to kill Fontaine's rival, and the Little Sisters whose creations Fontaine was primarily responsible for, destroy Fontaine in the end.]]
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* DeadlyDoctor: The Dr. Grossman enemy types. "I don't want to hurt you, but sometimes, I have to." Reigning over them all, however, is Dr. Steinman, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL6EAGMVzKI psycho plastic surgeon]]. "I want to make them beautiful, but they always turn out wrong! That one, too fat! This one, too tall! This one, too ''symmetrical!'' What's that, goddess? An ''intruder''?! [[LargeHam He's UGLY! UGLY!!]] '''''[[ThisIsSparta UGLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!]]'''''"
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* DeadlyDoctor: The Dr. Grossman enemy types. "I don't want to hurt you, but sometimes, I have to." Reigning over them all, however, is Dr. Steinman, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL6EAGMVzKI psycho plastic surgeon]]. "I want to make them beautiful, but they always turn out wrong! That one, too fat! This one, too tall! This one, too ''symmetrical!'' What's that, goddess? An ''intruder''?! [[LargeHam He's UGLY! UGLY!!]] '''''[[ThisIsSparta '''''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis UGLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!]]'''''"
* PunctuatedForEmphasis: "She '''WON'T. STAY. STILL!!!!!!'''"
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* ThisIsSparta: "She '''WON'T. STAY. STILL!!!!!!'''"
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** Secondly, in one audiolog, Andrew Ryan refers to himself as And Ryan, the letters of which can be rearranged to form AynRand.
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** Secondly, in one audiolog, Andrew Ryan refers to himself as And Ryan, the letters of which can be rearranged to form AynRand.Creator/AynRand.
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Nightmare Fuel cleanup; see thread for reference
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* WackyWaysideTribe: The entire Fort Frolic/Sander Cohen section of the game, which has the player forced into acting as a hitman of sorts for a [[MadArtist loony artist]], is a [[TropesAreTools positive example]]. Sure, it could be neatly excised from the plot without changing anything, but it's one of the most memorable and [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel disturbing]] parts of the game.
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* WackyWaysideTribe: The entire Fort Frolic/Sander Cohen section of the game, which has the player forced into acting as a hitman of sorts for a [[MadArtist loony artist]], is a [[TropesAreTools positive example]]. Sure, it could be neatly excised from the plot without changing anything, but it's one of the most memorable and [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel disturbing]] disturbing parts of the game.
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** Steinman starts bitching about beauty while 'operating' on a dead body. It's not technically a cutscene - you can run in and attack him straight away and cut him off but he's got a lot to say before he's ready to attack you, so you listen.
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* GenreSavvy: You as a player get smart pretty quickly to how no matter how scared or happy somebody sounds, they're going to attack you even if they're cowering on the floor. But you go along with it because if you didn't, it would be like spoiling your own surprise birthday party.
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* BarbieDollAnatomy: [[spoiler:Fontaine in his [[FinalBoss final]], [[SculptedPhysique end boss form.]]]]
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* BarbieDollAnatomy: [[spoiler:Fontaine in his [[FinalBoss final]], [[SculptedPhysique end boss form.]]]]]]]] Apparently, [[spoiler:hulking yourself up with ADAM]] causes your privates to wither away.
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* LightningBruiser: Those Big Daddies might ''look'' big and slow, but so much as look at a Little Sister wrong and they'll swoop in and nail you to the freaking ''wall.''
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[[caption-width-right:300:[[LightningBruiser In Rapture, Mr Bubbles nails YOU.]]]]
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[[caption-width-right:300:[[LightningBruiser In Rapture, Mr Bubbles nails drills YOU.]]]]
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[[caption-width-right:300:[[LightningBruiser In Rapture, Mr Bubbles nails YOU to the wall.]]]]
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[[caption-width-right:300:[[LightningBruiser In Rapture, Mr Bubbles nails YOU to the wall.YOU.]]]]
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[[caption-width-right:300:[[LightningBruiser In Rapture, Mr Bubbles nails YOU to the wall.]]]]
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* HappyEnding: The good ending of the first game is a textbook example, with characters in the sequel even calling it a "happily ever after" moment. Actually, though, both endings are totally happy...for Jack.
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* HappyEnding: [[spoiler:HappyEnding: The good ending of the first game is a textbook example, with characters in the sequel even calling it a "happily ever after" moment. Actually, though, both endings are totally happy...for Jack.]]
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* NothingIsScarier: Surprisingly, there are moments like this in the game, particularly near the beginning. After surviving the plane crash and swimming up to the dark and gloomy lighthouse, new players might be a touch daunted about moving forward.
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* NothingIsScarier: Surprisingly, there are moments like this in the game, particularly near the beginning. After surviving the plane crash and swimming up to the dark and gloomy lighthouse, new players might be find it a touch daunted about moving forward.bit daunting to move forward.
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* TheAtoner: [[spoiler:Dr. Tenenbaum.]]
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* AnachronismStew: Despite Rapture's advanced biotechnology, its conventional weapons are behind the times:
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* AnachronismStew: Despite Rapture's advanced biotechnology, its architecture and ads hark back to an earlier era. As its for its conventional weapons are behind the times:weapons:
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* GenreDeconstruction: The first game is a deconstruction of Shooter/RPG hybrids like ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' and the ''SystemShock'' series; both of which prided themselves on the freedom they gave to the player.
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* GenreDeconstruction: The first game is a deconstruction of Shooter/RPG hybrids like ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' and the ''SystemShock'' series; series, both of which prided themselves on the freedom they gave to the player.
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''"No," says [[PresidentEvil the man in Washington]], "It belongs to the poor!"''\\
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''"No," says [[PresidentEvil [[StrawCharacter the man in Washington]], "It belongs to the poor!"''\\
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* AnachronismStew: Despite Rapture's advanced biotechnology, its conventional weapons are behind the times:
** The Pistol is a Webley Mk VI, introduced in 1915 during WorldWarOne.
** The Machine Gun is a Thompson M1921, designed during WorldWarOne and introduced in 1921.
** The Shotgun is a Spencer 1882, introduced in 1882.
** The Pistol is a Webley Mk VI, introduced in 1915 during WorldWarOne.
** The Machine Gun is a Thompson M1921, designed during WorldWarOne and introduced in 1921.
** The Shotgun is a Spencer 1882, introduced in 1882.
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* AnimeAnatomy: [[spoiler:Fontaine in his [[FinalBoss final]], [[SculptedPhysique end boss form.]]]]
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* BarbieDollAnatomy: [[spoiler:Fontaine in his [[FinalBoss final]], [[SculptedPhysique end boss form.]]]]
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** After TheReveal, Tenenbaum serves as this.
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[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/BioShock_Cover_4436.jpg]]
->''I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question: "[[MemeticMutation Is a man not entitled]] to the sweat of his brow?"''\\
''"No," says [[PresidentEvil the man in Washington]], "It belongs to the poor!"''\\
''"No," says [[HolierThanThou the man in the Vatican]], "It belongs to God!"''\\
''"No," says [[DirtyCommunists the man in Moscow]], "It belongs to everyone!"''\\
''[[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney I rejected those answers]]. Instead, [[TakeAThirdOption I chose something different]]... [[LookOnMyWorksYeMightyAndDespair I chose the impossible]]... I chose...''\\
[+'''[[RuleOfSymbolism RAPTURE.]]'''+]\\
''A city where the artist would not fear the [[MediaWatchdogs censor]], where [[ForScience the scientist]] would [[AboveGoodAndEvil not be bound by petty morality]], where [[{{UsefulNotes/Objectivism}} the great would not be constrained by the small!]] And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become'' '''''your''''' ''city as well.''\\
%%Stop right there. Putting "Would you kindly..." at the beginning of this article is not particularly clever, and you're not particularly witty for thinking of doing that. And it hints towards plot spoilers, even ones that have reached memetic levels. So don't do it.
''[=BioShock=]'' is a 2007 first person shooter with {{survival horror}} elements produced by Irrational Games, then known as "2K Boston" and "2K Australia". It is a {{spiritual successor}} to the ''SystemShock'' games produced by the same company, and the first game in the ''{{BioShock}}'' series.
It is the year 1960. Beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, there lies an underwater city, Rapture, founded in 1946 by industrialist Andrew Ryan. Built by individuals tired of the oppressive hands of church and state, it is populated by the greatest minds of the world. It was to be a {{utopia}}, but the discovery of ADAM, a [[PsychoSerum powerful but addictive mutagen that can give the user incredible powers]], coupled with Ryan's own draconian policies and basic refusal to place any restrictions on ADAM's sale and use, turned it into a nightmare. Now Rapture is infested with homicidal mutants, fighting each other for the scraps of civilization left standing after a disastrous civil war.
''BioShock'' features a retro-futuristic hellhole for players to escape. They take the role of Jack, a [[{{AFGNCAAP}} seemingly nondescript]] man who stumbles across Rapture after the commercial flight he's on crashes near the surface entrance to the undersea city.
Jack soon finds his only way out is to fight through hordes of "splicers", the deranged and [[UncannyValley hideously mutated]] citizens of Rapture, using anything he can get his hands on to survive. His arsenal includes both traditional and not-so-traditional firearms (a revolver, a shotgun, etc.) and "[[AppliedPhlebotinum Plasmids]]", special [[LegoGenetics gene-modifying injections]] that give the user [[PsychicPowers incredible powers such as telekinesis and pyrokinesis]]. Jack can also hijack Rapture's own security cameras, robotic drones and turrets and use them against the splicers.
Aside from its complex story and jaw-dropping setting, part of the draw of the game is the ability to use the environment, weapons, and plasmids in interesting ways: one can light a splicer on fire, then electrocute the poor soul after he or she leaps into the nearest body of water. Or the player can use the grenade launcher to stick proximity mines onto an [[ExplodingBarrels explosive barrel]], then throw it at a group of enemies with Telekinesis for a huge explosive attack.
A {{Prequel}} novel for ''VideoGame/BioShock'' and ''VideoGame/BioShock2'' was released in 2011, called ''Literature/BioShockRapture''. It elaborates on events hinted at in the games.
----
!! [=BioShock=] contains examples of these tropes:
* AccentRelapse: [[spoiler:Fontaine goes from an Irish accent to a Bronx one when he reveals himself.]] ItMakesSenseInContext.
* AGodAmI: [[spoiler: Fontaine]], after [[spoiler: TheReveal]].
** Andrew Ryan could also be seen as this to some extent. He practically is Rapture's God.
* AmazingFreakingGrace: Rosebud Splicers can sometimes be heard singing this as they are idly walking around.
* ApologeticAttacker: Poor Pigskin insists that he's only attacking you because his bosses are making him, and he'd rather go to bed.
* ArcWords:
** ''"A man chooses. A slave obeys."''
** [[spoiler:"Would you kindly..."]]
* AnimeAnatomy: [[spoiler:Fontaine in his [[FinalBoss final]], [[SculptedPhysique end boss form.]]]]
* BadassBoast:
-->'''Andrew Ryan''': Here's the news: Rapture isn't some sunken ship for you to plunder. And Andrew Ryan isn't some giddy socialite who can be slapped around by government muscle.
* BadassPreacher: The Waders splicer model, who spouts religious rantings as he attacks you with an electrified pipe or a set of meat hooks, and who also doubles as a BadassSpaniard due to his accent.
* BigDamnHeroes: At the end of the original final boss fight, [[spoiler: the spliced-up musclehead slams you across the room, stalks over, and is about to pound you into mush, when a Little Sister jumps on Fontaine from behind and stabs him with her [=ADAM=]-collecting syringe. After he throws her off, a small horde of Little Sisters jumps him and stabs him to death.]].
* BossBanter:
-->'''Steinman''': Look at you! '''HIDEOUS!'''
* BossInMookClothing: Some of the machine gun-wielding Splicers in Apollo Square have even more health than the game's major bosses, but are otherwise completely indistinguishable from the regular, significantly less durable machine gun-wielding Splicers.
* BullfightBoss: The final boss of the original. You can try it against the Bouncer class Big Daddies in either game, but [[LightningBruiser it's pretty risky]].
* ButThouMust: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]]. You've actually [[spoiler: been under mind control the whole time.]]
* CatScare: Common in the first few levels (of course, sometimes the [[RuleOfThree third one]] is ''real''). Additionally, each level contains a dead cat.
** Which you can then kill people with.
* ChekhovsGun: The conspiracy theorist-style bulletin-board that has [[spoiler: "Would you kindly..."]] written on it in big red letters. Bonus points for [[spoiler: being part of the TwistEnding.]]
** [[spoiler: The present during the opening.]]
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: When you hack machines in the later levels, and haven't been upgrading your gene tonics like the game tells you to, sometimes the puzzles will have blocked-off squares before the point you have to connect to, making them unsolvable. Of course, you can just buy your way out of the hacking minigame, but still...
** And if you're lucky enough to not get that, sometimes, the water will start pouring in before you can react. If you don't have the hacking tonics that slow down the water/start progress, you're doomed.
** There are several Splicers pretending to be bodies. You can shoot them all you like, but they won't take damage until you trigger the getting up animation.
*** You can, however, use Insect Swarm on them to make them scream and die without getting up.
* CutsceneBoss: Deconstructed, like many other {{But Thou Must}}s. [[spoiler: Andrew Ryan]] is leaving this world on his own terms, not [[spoiler:Fontaine]]'s. Less reviled than most usages of this trope, for [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome some reason]].
* DeadGuyOnDisplay: The main hall outside Ryan's office is lined with corpses impaled onto pillars, all unsuccessful saboteurs or assassins.
* DeadlyDoctor: The Dr. Grossman enemy types. "I don't want to hurt you, but sometimes, I have to." Reigning over them all, however, is Dr. Steinman, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL6EAGMVzKI psycho plastic surgeon]]. "I want to make them beautiful, but they always turn out wrong! That one, too fat! This one, too tall! This one, too ''symmetrical!'' What's that, goddess? An ''intruder''?! [[LargeHam He's UGLY! UGLY!!]] '''''[[ThisIsSparta UGLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!]]'''''"
* DeathByIrony: If the player [[spoiler:kills Sander Cohen and takes a photograph of the body]], Xbox360 or Playstation3 owners will earn the "Irony" trophy/achievement.
** You can get a similar trophy in the sequel by [[spoiler: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk7bSYtJ_Pk using telekinesis to chuck a golf club at the animatronic Andrew Ryan's head in Ryan Amusements]]. This one's called [[AWorldWidePunomenon "9-Irony"]].]]
** Dr. Suchong's [[spoiler: aforementioned unexpected and spectacular success in eliciting a [[PapaWolf defensive response]] in a Big Daddy test subject when their Little Sister is threatened. Right after he expresses frustration about their lack of response.]] Doubles as a KarmicDeath.
* {{Deconstruction}}: Mainly of ButThouMust and MissionControl, though the setting turns the game into a deconstruction of "Galt's Gulch" from ''AtlasShrugged''. The sequel deconstructs collectivism in the form of Sofia Lamb and her "Family."
* {{Defictionalization}}: [=NECA=] is making an EVE Hypo Replica and a Big Daddy Doll, just in case your normal Little Sister wasn't creepy enough.
* DiscOneFinalDungeon: [[spoiler:Rapture Control/Andrew Ryan's office.]]
* EarlyBirdCameo: An audio diary from Suchong in the first game makes a passing reference to coworkers named "Sinclair and Alexander", who became fully fleshed-out characters in the sequel.
* EvilerThanThou: Ryan and Fontaine.
* EvilLaugh: [[spoiler:Atlas]] rips a good one when he [[spoiler: reveals himself as Frank Fontaine.]]
* EvilVersusEvil: It wouldn't be inaccurate to say that pretty much everyone in Rapture, bar the Little Sisters, is evil in some way or another. [[BlackAndGrayMorality This does not exclude the player.]]
* FamousLastWords:
** "A man chooses, a slave obeys. ''Kill!'' A man... chooses! A slave... obeys! Obey!"''
** [[spoiler: "I had you built! I sent you topside, I called you back, showed you what you was, what you was capable of! Even that life you thought you had, that was something I dreamed up and had tattooed inside your head!]] [[CompletelyMissingThePoint Now if that's not family,]] [[EvilCannotComprehendGood I don't know what is!]]"
* {{Fauxreigner}}: Since Rapture is full of people of multiple nationalities with various accents, it's easy to get fooled by [[spoiler: Atlas, actually a persona cooked up by Frank Fontaine, a New York mobster.]] You get little hints every now and then [[spoiler: when the Irish accent slips on certain words (in particular, the description of the research camera), or when he uses distinctly American phrases like how Nitro Splicers are "sounding off like it's the 4th of July," Cohen being "Section 8" kind of crazy, and an American football allusion. After TheReveal, Fontaine himself even taunts Jack's gullibility by putting on the voice again with even more exaggeration than before.]]
* FissionMailed
* FisticuffsBoss: Peach Wilkins, sort of.
** You can legally cheat to use weapons here by [[CrazyPrepared looking for guns and ammo lying around the level, using Telekinesis to carry them to the Pneumo Tube, and picking them up after you drop off your current weapons]].
* GambitRoulette: Though Fontaine's plan was ultimately successful (at least up to the point [[spoiler: his creation killed him]]), it ''does'' seem a bit needlessly complicated and dangerously susceptible to bad luck.
* GenreDeconstruction: The first game is a deconstruction of Shooter/RPG hybrids like ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' and the ''SystemShock'' series; both of which prided themselves on the freedom they gave to the player.
* GiveMyRegardsInTheNextWorld: The gist of it. Fontaine [[spoiler: tells you to say hello to the dead Ryan for him]] as he sends security bots over you.
* GoshHornet: In the Farmer's Market you have to collect some bee enzymes from a hive, provoking an angry swarm of stinging insects whenever you search one.
* HappyEnding: The good ending of the first game is a textbook example, with characters in the sequel even calling it a "happily ever after" moment. Actually, though, both endings are totally happy...for Jack.
* HissBeforeFleeing: The first Spider Slicer you meet once hit by a security spotlight.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:Jack, the LaserGuidedTykebomb made in order to kill Fontaine's rival, and the Little Sisters whose creations Fontaine was primarily responsible for, destroy Fontaine in the end.]]
** Averted with [[spoiler: Andrew Ryan, who knew that Jack was his son and was sent to kill him. However knowing he will die, he forced Jack to kill him, dying on his own terms.]]
* ImprovisedWeapon: Your first weapon is a [[WrenchWhack monkey-wrench]], while Thuggish Splicers carry pipes and garden tools. Some later weapons are also improvised: the grenade launcher has some sort of food can as its breech and fires tin cans packed with high-explosives, and the bowspring part of the Crossbow is a metal ruler.
** Look closely at the turrets, and you'll see that they're all basically diesel motors bolted to swivel chairs.
* InSovietRussiaTropeMocksYou:
--> '''Ghost 1''': Fuck Fontaine!
--> '''Ghost 2''': You don't fuck Fontaine... Fontaine [[PrecisionFStrike ''fucks'']] you!
* IronicNurseryTune: Some splicers sing "Jesus Loves Me", a popular children's hymn, over and over. Not exactly a nursery rhyme, but it fits. The first Little Sister you see sings a song to the tune of "Frère Jacques".
* {{Irony}}: The name of an achievement/trophy that you can get in the first game by [[spoiler:taking a picture of Sander Cohen's body]].
* ItemCrafting: The U-Invent machines.
** JustAddWater: Potentially justified, in that since you're putting components into a machine, which then dispenses a finished item, it presumably adds the stuff you didn't. But when you're turning distilled water and bass tubing into heat-seeking rockets... that's some machine.
* KarmicDeath:
** [[spoiler:Dr. Suchong]], in what has to be the most satisfyingly appropriate recording ''ever''. He really ought to have known better.
** Killing [[spoiler:Fontaine in the good ending. Fontaine constantly taunts Jack about his lack of family. He gets one. Who stabs Fontaine. Many times.]]
* KickTheDog More like [[spoiler:break the adorable puppy's neck under the influence of mind control while sobbing and begging to be stopped]]
* KingMook: Other than the final boss and the Big Daddies, all of the game's bosses are simply normal Splicers with much more health and better resistance to elemental Plasmids.
* LetsYouAndHimFight: It's possible to engineer a one-on-one Big Daddy battle to the death by taking advantage of three facts: 1: Enemies are not immune to damage from other enemies. 2: A Big Daddy that has been attacked will not stop pursuing the unfortunate soul that attacked it until one of them is dead. 3: Hypnotize Big Daddy applies the same logic to anything that attacks you, no matter who started it. Done properly, it's possible to stand back and watch the two of them go at it, complete with a Little Sister shouting "Hit him, Mr. B!" and such in the background, then [[CriticalExistenceFailure finish off the survivor with a single hit from your wrench]].
* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Jack is the illegitimate, growth-accelerated son of Andrew Ryan and his stripper mistress]]. Furthermore, he was [[spoiler:raised/conditioned by Suchong and Tenenbaum to be a slave for Fontaine/Atlas]].
* MacGyvering: Thanks to the U-Invent machines, you can turn three bottles of distilled water, two cans of kerosene, and a single brass tube into a pair of heat-seeking rocket-propelled grenades.
* MadArtist: Sander Cohen, Dr. Steinman. The former was so effective that just seeing his name on a billboard in the sequel was enough to spook some players.
* MadnessMantra: Splicers tend to mutter to themselves as they wander the halls of Rapture.
** "They make me hate everything I see, they make me hate everything I see, they make me hate everything I see..."
** "We thought we could hide from the light down here... we were wrong... we thought we could hide from the light down here..."
** "We serve His commandments. W-we serve His commandments. (''sobbing'') We serve all His commandments!"
** "Jesus loves me, this I know; for the Bible tells me so; little ones to Him belong; they are weak but He is strong."
** "I'm just lonely, an-and I'm just ''lonely''..."
** "I traded you, O Lord, for Mammon, and ''what did it bring me?''"
** "Mr. Ryan's gonna notice me, and I'm gonna be a star! It's not too late, ''not too late!''"
** "Ugly... ugly... UGLY!"
** "Mom? Dad? Could you come and get me? (notices Jack) I ''AM'' GOOD ENOUGH!!!"
** "I hear 'em when I'm asleep, when I'm awake, when I'm asleep, when I'm awake, when I'm asleep, when I'm awake, when I'm asleep, when I'm awake, when I'm asleep, when I'm awake, when I'm asleep, when I'm awake! AHHH!"
** '''[[PreMortemOneLiner YOU'RE FIRED]]!!!'''
** You can sometimes hear these from Little Sisters, as well. "Chocolate is better than pain, chocolate is better than pain..."
** "Three too many, [[RunningGag three too many]], [[RuleOfThree three too many]], [[OverlyLongGag three too many]]!"
* MissionControl: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]]. [[spoiler:The guy on the other end of the radio telling you what to do? He isn't helping you, [[MissionControlIsOffItsMeds he's ''controlling your actions'' and ''your choices are illusory'']]]].
* NothingIsScarier: Surprisingly, there are moments like this in the game, particularly near the beginning. After surviving the plane crash and swimming up to the dark and gloomy lighthouse, new players might be a touch daunted about moving forward.
* NoticeThis: Flashing pick-ups kinda take the challenge out of a scavenger hunt. Of course, it becomes part of the big DeconstructedTrope after TheReveal.
* OfficeGolf: Andrew Ryan does this [[WhileRomeBurns while Rapture collapses around his ears]].
* PlayingPossum: [[OhCrap "We tricked you, monster."]] Also, upon entrance to Fort Frolic, the player discovers a number of "statues" that when hit, start bleeding. As creepy as this is, the player gets used to it rather quickly. When Sander Cohen sends you out on your sidequests you start to see more... and then you might notice that some of them are in different places each time, and wasn't that hallway empty just a minu- [[OhCrap OH SHIT!]] Cue scythe wielding splicers. Of course this too loses effectiveness once you take to [[ProperlyParanoid loading your pistol with anti-personnel rounds and headshooting every statue you come across]].
** FridgeBrilliance: Well, then, they ''didn't'' trick you if you head-shotted every statue, huh?
** Special mention goes to the statues that look like little girls and don't bleed, just like the Little Sisters (which are de facto invulnerable because the ADAM inside them and probably are still alive because of it).
* PlayingTennisWithTheBoss: Peach Wilkins, since you're down to your plasmids and Telekinesis is quite effective. For more generic foes, both Nitro Splicers and Houdini Splicers can have their bombs/fireballs tossed back at them with Telekinesis.
* PlayingThePlayer: The first game does this ruthlessly as part of the {{deconstruction}} of choice in video games.
* PlayingWithPuppets: [[spoiler:Ryan does this to you when you confront him.]]
* ProperlyParanoid: Peach Wilkins, though you don't find out that he was right until much later. Also, Ryan [[spoiler: correctly accuses you of being an assassin at the end of Smuggler's Hideout and asks who "sent you"]]. A lesser example from the first game: while the Splicer model Ducky is mostly just a paranoid, unhinged maniac, he does get one thing right: [[spoiler: "Fontaine's dead? No, he's not, he's living it up and he's laughing at me!" While Fontaine is not laughing at Ducky exactly, he is still alive.]]
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Both Andrew Ryan and [[spoiler: Frank Fontaine]] give you one, and in fact, the entire last third of ''BioShock'' is one prolonged sequence where the voice on the radio taunts you with just how much you suck.
* TheReveal: "I chose the impossible... I chose...'''RAPTURE.'''" The projector screen moves away and you see the city in all its glory.
** The moment you realise why Atlas and Ryan keep asking you [[spoiler: "Would you kindly...?"]]
* RoomFullOfCrazy: The Medical Pavilion, the walls of which are covered with patchwork plastic surgery plans, graffiti like "beauty is a moral imperative" and "above all else do no harm," or warnings such as "Steinman kills" and "stay away." Naturally, [[CouldntFindAPen all the writing is done in blood]].
** Played straight with an actual room in Hephaestus, the room that [[spoiler: [[TheReveal reveals the details of your mental restraints]]]]. There's the typical conspiracy layout pinned to the wall with clippings, scribblings, the dealings of the ones involved layed out as photos, linked to each other by colored yarn - [[spoiler: with its main feature the code phrase to your mental leash, "would you kindly," scrawled across the whole of it]].
* SequenceBreaking: If you're very fast and lucky, it is possible to hit a flaming trashcan downstairs and use it to melt the ice in the basement of the Medical Pavilion, thus letting you play through the entire game without the Incinerate! plasmid. (The ice in Fountain Fisheries can be solved by telekinesising along a corpse with exploding buck, and then looting it after your weapons are confiscated).
** The reason the Teleportation Plasmid was removed was due to this.
* ShoutOut: A number of them, in particular to AtlasShrugged:
** Firstly, and most obviously, there is a character named Atlas.
** Secondly, in one audiolog, Andrew Ryan refers to himself as And Ryan, the letters of which can be rearranged to form AynRand.
** Thirdly, there are a number of posters throughout the game saying "Who is Atlas?", referencing the DrivingQuestion of AtlasShrugged, "Who is John Galt?"
* StringTheory: Ryan has a conspiracy board in his office.
* StylisticSuck: A quick glance at the lyrics to "Rise, Rapture, Rise," Cohen's paean to Ryan, shows that the song is absolutely execrable. Adds a new wrinkle to his contemporaries' accusations that Cohen only rose so high because he was in Ryan's good graces.
* SuicideByCop: [[spoiler:Andrew Ryan, the "cop" being Jack, who was destined to kill him either way.]]
* TakenForGranite: MadArtist Sander Cohen doesn't actually petrify people, but he does the next best thing by covering their bodies in plaster and posing them. Almost everyone in his domain is either a dead statue, or a person ''pretending'' to be a statue. One of his "students" took to using his ice powers, rather than plaster, to freeze people in poses.
* TakingYouWithMe: Ryan rigs Rapture to self-destruct when he realizes he can't prevent you from reaching him. Also, after dropping a bomb-throwing Nitro Splicer, wait a moment before moving in to loot the corpse.
* ThisIsSparta: "She '''WON'T. STAY. STILL!!!!!!'''"
** "A man... CHOOSES. A slave... OBEYS. OBEY!"
** "Ain't that Just. Like. RYAN?!"
* TomatoInTheMirror: [[spoiler:Triple-whammy: not only are you a test-tube baby conditioned to be the perfect obedient assassin, but you're also Ryan's bastard child, ''and'' you've been under mind control for the entire game.]]
** Referenced in ''BioShock 2'': After Lamb realizes that Delta is free from his mental conditioning:
--->'''Lamb''': I had thought you some golem of Sinclair, brought here to hold Rapture's arms as he rifles through her pockets. But no... you are aware of your plight. Who, I wonder, would be so cruel? To force a mirror on a man with no face...
* TriggerPhrase: Factors into TheReveal, as well as a lot of the story's third act.
* TwentyBearAsses: Some of your goals in the game will ask you to get X amount of a certain item. This is especially used in Arcadia and Hephaestus.
* TwistEnding: The first one has a triple twist; the first two happen simultaneously ([[spoiler: Atlas is Fontaine, who's manipulating you with a prompting phrase]]) and the third happens soon after that ([[spoiler: you are Andrew Ryan's son]]).
* UsualSuspectsEnding: A rare case of a Usual Suspects...four-fifths of the way through...sorta thing.
* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler: You ''are'' helping the bad guy, though [[MindControl you never actually had a choice in the matter]]. "[[TheReveal Nice work, ''boyo''!]]"]]
* VendorTrash: The stuff you use for ItemCrafting is sometimes literally found in garbage cans.
* VideogameFlamethrowersSuck: The chemical thrower is a mixed case -- while it is quick on the ammo and long on the reload, it is very very damaging. With full electric gel and the reduced ammo usage upgrade, it can even kill a Big Daddy with no effort.
** It also has quite a realistic range, especially after the pressure hose upgrade.
* WackyWaysideTribe: The entire Fort Frolic/Sander Cohen section of the game, which has the player forced into acting as a hitman of sorts for a [[MadArtist loony artist]], is a [[TropesAreTools positive example]]. Sure, it could be neatly excised from the plot without changing anything, but it's one of the most memorable and [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel disturbing]] parts of the game.
* WaxMuseumMorgue: A variant. [[MadArtist Sander Cohen]] has decorated Fort Frolic with incredibly lifelike plaster sculptures, all posed and lit for maximum effect. Plaster sculptures with terrified expressions on their crumbling faces and bright arcs of blood around their wrists or throats. [[ParanoiaFuel Or plaster sculptures who aren't there when you turn around]]...
* WeDoTheImpossible: Deconstructed with Jack.
* WhamLine: [[spoiler: "A man chooses... A slave obeys... OBEY!!"]]
** And the more memetically popular: [[spoiler: "Would you kindly... powerful phrase. Familiar phrase?"]]
** Also:
-->[[spoiler:It's time to end this little masquerade. There ain't no Atlas, kid. Never was. Fella in my line of work takes on a variety of aliases. Hell, once I was even a Chinaman for six months. But, you've been a sport, so I guess I owe you a little honesty. The name's Frank Fontaine.]]
* WhyWontYouDie: Ryan's question to Jack about a third of the way into the game.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: The automated public address system throughout Rapture reminds citizens to use [=ADAM=] in moderation. "Remember, a careful splicer is a ''happy'' splicer!" Obviously, they didn't listen.
* XanatosSpeedChess: Fontaine plays a mean game of Speed Chess. When his initial plan (get the entire city spliced up to the point where he is effectively in charge) breaks down with Ryan blowing up part of his smuggling operation and seizing his legitimate assets, he fakes his death, reinvents himself as "Atlas", and triggers a city-wide civil war by pointing out that Ryan became everything he (and by extension, the hardcore Objectivists who followed him into the ocean) hated in the process of fighting Fontaine. During the fighting, everyone got spliced to the gills, resulting in crippling Adam addiction, and the conditions for peace included handing Fontaine's seized assets over to Atlas.
* YouHaveFailedMe: Judging from the surplus of corpses and ghost sequences, it seems that during the final phases of Rapture's descent into madness both feuding factions took a heavy-handed approach to discipline. Andrew Ryan even has a collection of cadavers impaled on columns in his office foyer, all of whom were suspected (rightly or not) of being traitors or assassins. Fontaine would just splice your ass to next Sunday, or [[CementShoes worse.]]
----
->''I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question: "[[MemeticMutation Is a man not entitled]] to the sweat of his brow?"''\\
''"No," says [[PresidentEvil the man in Washington]], "It belongs to the poor!"''\\
''"No," says [[HolierThanThou the man in the Vatican]], "It belongs to God!"''\\
''"No," says [[DirtyCommunists the man in Moscow]], "It belongs to everyone!"''\\
''[[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney I rejected those answers]]. Instead, [[TakeAThirdOption I chose something different]]... [[LookOnMyWorksYeMightyAndDespair I chose the impossible]]... I chose...''\\
[+'''[[RuleOfSymbolism RAPTURE.]]'''+]\\
''A city where the artist would not fear the [[MediaWatchdogs censor]], where [[ForScience the scientist]] would [[AboveGoodAndEvil not be bound by petty morality]], where [[{{UsefulNotes/Objectivism}} the great would not be constrained by the small!]] And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become'' '''''your''''' ''city as well.''\\
%%Stop right there. Putting "Would you kindly..." at the beginning of this article is not particularly clever, and you're not particularly witty for thinking of doing that. And it hints towards plot spoilers, even ones that have reached memetic levels. So don't do it.
''[=BioShock=]'' is a 2007 first person shooter with {{survival horror}} elements produced by Irrational Games, then known as "2K Boston" and "2K Australia". It is a {{spiritual successor}} to the ''SystemShock'' games produced by the same company, and the first game in the ''{{BioShock}}'' series.
It is the year 1960. Beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, there lies an underwater city, Rapture, founded in 1946 by industrialist Andrew Ryan. Built by individuals tired of the oppressive hands of church and state, it is populated by the greatest minds of the world. It was to be a {{utopia}}, but the discovery of ADAM, a [[PsychoSerum powerful but addictive mutagen that can give the user incredible powers]], coupled with Ryan's own draconian policies and basic refusal to place any restrictions on ADAM's sale and use, turned it into a nightmare. Now Rapture is infested with homicidal mutants, fighting each other for the scraps of civilization left standing after a disastrous civil war.
''BioShock'' features a retro-futuristic hellhole for players to escape. They take the role of Jack, a [[{{AFGNCAAP}} seemingly nondescript]] man who stumbles across Rapture after the commercial flight he's on crashes near the surface entrance to the undersea city.
Jack soon finds his only way out is to fight through hordes of "splicers", the deranged and [[UncannyValley hideously mutated]] citizens of Rapture, using anything he can get his hands on to survive. His arsenal includes both traditional and not-so-traditional firearms (a revolver, a shotgun, etc.) and "[[AppliedPhlebotinum Plasmids]]", special [[LegoGenetics gene-modifying injections]] that give the user [[PsychicPowers incredible powers such as telekinesis and pyrokinesis]]. Jack can also hijack Rapture's own security cameras, robotic drones and turrets and use them against the splicers.
Aside from its complex story and jaw-dropping setting, part of the draw of the game is the ability to use the environment, weapons, and plasmids in interesting ways: one can light a splicer on fire, then electrocute the poor soul after he or she leaps into the nearest body of water. Or the player can use the grenade launcher to stick proximity mines onto an [[ExplodingBarrels explosive barrel]], then throw it at a group of enemies with Telekinesis for a huge explosive attack.
A {{Prequel}} novel for ''VideoGame/BioShock'' and ''VideoGame/BioShock2'' was released in 2011, called ''Literature/BioShockRapture''. It elaborates on events hinted at in the games.
----
!! [=BioShock=] contains examples of these tropes:
* AccentRelapse: [[spoiler:Fontaine goes from an Irish accent to a Bronx one when he reveals himself.]] ItMakesSenseInContext.
* AGodAmI: [[spoiler: Fontaine]], after [[spoiler: TheReveal]].
** Andrew Ryan could also be seen as this to some extent. He practically is Rapture's God.
* AmazingFreakingGrace: Rosebud Splicers can sometimes be heard singing this as they are idly walking around.
* ApologeticAttacker: Poor Pigskin insists that he's only attacking you because his bosses are making him, and he'd rather go to bed.
* ArcWords:
** ''"A man chooses. A slave obeys."''
** [[spoiler:"Would you kindly..."]]
* AnimeAnatomy: [[spoiler:Fontaine in his [[FinalBoss final]], [[SculptedPhysique end boss form.]]]]
* BadassBoast:
-->'''Andrew Ryan''': Here's the news: Rapture isn't some sunken ship for you to plunder. And Andrew Ryan isn't some giddy socialite who can be slapped around by government muscle.
* BadassPreacher: The Waders splicer model, who spouts religious rantings as he attacks you with an electrified pipe or a set of meat hooks, and who also doubles as a BadassSpaniard due to his accent.
* BigDamnHeroes: At the end of the original final boss fight, [[spoiler: the spliced-up musclehead slams you across the room, stalks over, and is about to pound you into mush, when a Little Sister jumps on Fontaine from behind and stabs him with her [=ADAM=]-collecting syringe. After he throws her off, a small horde of Little Sisters jumps him and stabs him to death.]].
* BossBanter:
-->'''Steinman''': Look at you! '''HIDEOUS!'''
* BossInMookClothing: Some of the machine gun-wielding Splicers in Apollo Square have even more health than the game's major bosses, but are otherwise completely indistinguishable from the regular, significantly less durable machine gun-wielding Splicers.
* BullfightBoss: The final boss of the original. You can try it against the Bouncer class Big Daddies in either game, but [[LightningBruiser it's pretty risky]].
* ButThouMust: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]]. You've actually [[spoiler: been under mind control the whole time.]]
* CatScare: Common in the first few levels (of course, sometimes the [[RuleOfThree third one]] is ''real''). Additionally, each level contains a dead cat.
** Which you can then kill people with.
* ChekhovsGun: The conspiracy theorist-style bulletin-board that has [[spoiler: "Would you kindly..."]] written on it in big red letters. Bonus points for [[spoiler: being part of the TwistEnding.]]
** [[spoiler: The present during the opening.]]
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: When you hack machines in the later levels, and haven't been upgrading your gene tonics like the game tells you to, sometimes the puzzles will have blocked-off squares before the point you have to connect to, making them unsolvable. Of course, you can just buy your way out of the hacking minigame, but still...
** And if you're lucky enough to not get that, sometimes, the water will start pouring in before you can react. If you don't have the hacking tonics that slow down the water/start progress, you're doomed.
** There are several Splicers pretending to be bodies. You can shoot them all you like, but they won't take damage until you trigger the getting up animation.
*** You can, however, use Insect Swarm on them to make them scream and die without getting up.
* CutsceneBoss: Deconstructed, like many other {{But Thou Must}}s. [[spoiler: Andrew Ryan]] is leaving this world on his own terms, not [[spoiler:Fontaine]]'s. Less reviled than most usages of this trope, for [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome some reason]].
* DeadGuyOnDisplay: The main hall outside Ryan's office is lined with corpses impaled onto pillars, all unsuccessful saboteurs or assassins.
* DeadlyDoctor: The Dr. Grossman enemy types. "I don't want to hurt you, but sometimes, I have to." Reigning over them all, however, is Dr. Steinman, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL6EAGMVzKI psycho plastic surgeon]]. "I want to make them beautiful, but they always turn out wrong! That one, too fat! This one, too tall! This one, too ''symmetrical!'' What's that, goddess? An ''intruder''?! [[LargeHam He's UGLY! UGLY!!]] '''''[[ThisIsSparta UGLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!]]'''''"
* DeathByIrony: If the player [[spoiler:kills Sander Cohen and takes a photograph of the body]], Xbox360 or Playstation3 owners will earn the "Irony" trophy/achievement.
** You can get a similar trophy in the sequel by [[spoiler: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk7bSYtJ_Pk using telekinesis to chuck a golf club at the animatronic Andrew Ryan's head in Ryan Amusements]]. This one's called [[AWorldWidePunomenon "9-Irony"]].]]
** Dr. Suchong's [[spoiler: aforementioned unexpected and spectacular success in eliciting a [[PapaWolf defensive response]] in a Big Daddy test subject when their Little Sister is threatened. Right after he expresses frustration about their lack of response.]] Doubles as a KarmicDeath.
* {{Deconstruction}}: Mainly of ButThouMust and MissionControl, though the setting turns the game into a deconstruction of "Galt's Gulch" from ''AtlasShrugged''. The sequel deconstructs collectivism in the form of Sofia Lamb and her "Family."
* {{Defictionalization}}: [=NECA=] is making an EVE Hypo Replica and a Big Daddy Doll, just in case your normal Little Sister wasn't creepy enough.
* DiscOneFinalDungeon: [[spoiler:Rapture Control/Andrew Ryan's office.]]
* EarlyBirdCameo: An audio diary from Suchong in the first game makes a passing reference to coworkers named "Sinclair and Alexander", who became fully fleshed-out characters in the sequel.
* EvilerThanThou: Ryan and Fontaine.
* EvilLaugh: [[spoiler:Atlas]] rips a good one when he [[spoiler: reveals himself as Frank Fontaine.]]
* EvilVersusEvil: It wouldn't be inaccurate to say that pretty much everyone in Rapture, bar the Little Sisters, is evil in some way or another. [[BlackAndGrayMorality This does not exclude the player.]]
* FamousLastWords:
** "A man chooses, a slave obeys. ''Kill!'' A man... chooses! A slave... obeys! Obey!"''
** [[spoiler: "I had you built! I sent you topside, I called you back, showed you what you was, what you was capable of! Even that life you thought you had, that was something I dreamed up and had tattooed inside your head!]] [[CompletelyMissingThePoint Now if that's not family,]] [[EvilCannotComprehendGood I don't know what is!]]"
* {{Fauxreigner}}: Since Rapture is full of people of multiple nationalities with various accents, it's easy to get fooled by [[spoiler: Atlas, actually a persona cooked up by Frank Fontaine, a New York mobster.]] You get little hints every now and then [[spoiler: when the Irish accent slips on certain words (in particular, the description of the research camera), or when he uses distinctly American phrases like how Nitro Splicers are "sounding off like it's the 4th of July," Cohen being "Section 8" kind of crazy, and an American football allusion. After TheReveal, Fontaine himself even taunts Jack's gullibility by putting on the voice again with even more exaggeration than before.]]
* FissionMailed
* FisticuffsBoss: Peach Wilkins, sort of.
** You can legally cheat to use weapons here by [[CrazyPrepared looking for guns and ammo lying around the level, using Telekinesis to carry them to the Pneumo Tube, and picking them up after you drop off your current weapons]].
* GambitRoulette: Though Fontaine's plan was ultimately successful (at least up to the point [[spoiler: his creation killed him]]), it ''does'' seem a bit needlessly complicated and dangerously susceptible to bad luck.
* GenreDeconstruction: The first game is a deconstruction of Shooter/RPG hybrids like ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' and the ''SystemShock'' series; both of which prided themselves on the freedom they gave to the player.
* GiveMyRegardsInTheNextWorld: The gist of it. Fontaine [[spoiler: tells you to say hello to the dead Ryan for him]] as he sends security bots over you.
* GoshHornet: In the Farmer's Market you have to collect some bee enzymes from a hive, provoking an angry swarm of stinging insects whenever you search one.
* HappyEnding: The good ending of the first game is a textbook example, with characters in the sequel even calling it a "happily ever after" moment. Actually, though, both endings are totally happy...for Jack.
* HissBeforeFleeing: The first Spider Slicer you meet once hit by a security spotlight.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:Jack, the LaserGuidedTykebomb made in order to kill Fontaine's rival, and the Little Sisters whose creations Fontaine was primarily responsible for, destroy Fontaine in the end.]]
** Averted with [[spoiler: Andrew Ryan, who knew that Jack was his son and was sent to kill him. However knowing he will die, he forced Jack to kill him, dying on his own terms.]]
* ImprovisedWeapon: Your first weapon is a [[WrenchWhack monkey-wrench]], while Thuggish Splicers carry pipes and garden tools. Some later weapons are also improvised: the grenade launcher has some sort of food can as its breech and fires tin cans packed with high-explosives, and the bowspring part of the Crossbow is a metal ruler.
** Look closely at the turrets, and you'll see that they're all basically diesel motors bolted to swivel chairs.
* InSovietRussiaTropeMocksYou:
--> '''Ghost 1''': Fuck Fontaine!
--> '''Ghost 2''': You don't fuck Fontaine... Fontaine [[PrecisionFStrike ''fucks'']] you!
* IronicNurseryTune: Some splicers sing "Jesus Loves Me", a popular children's hymn, over and over. Not exactly a nursery rhyme, but it fits. The first Little Sister you see sings a song to the tune of "Frère Jacques".
* {{Irony}}: The name of an achievement/trophy that you can get in the first game by [[spoiler:taking a picture of Sander Cohen's body]].
* ItemCrafting: The U-Invent machines.
** JustAddWater: Potentially justified, in that since you're putting components into a machine, which then dispenses a finished item, it presumably adds the stuff you didn't. But when you're turning distilled water and bass tubing into heat-seeking rockets... that's some machine.
* KarmicDeath:
** [[spoiler:Dr. Suchong]], in what has to be the most satisfyingly appropriate recording ''ever''. He really ought to have known better.
** Killing [[spoiler:Fontaine in the good ending. Fontaine constantly taunts Jack about his lack of family. He gets one. Who stabs Fontaine. Many times.]]
* KickTheDog More like [[spoiler:break the adorable puppy's neck under the influence of mind control while sobbing and begging to be stopped]]
* KingMook: Other than the final boss and the Big Daddies, all of the game's bosses are simply normal Splicers with much more health and better resistance to elemental Plasmids.
* LetsYouAndHimFight: It's possible to engineer a one-on-one Big Daddy battle to the death by taking advantage of three facts: 1: Enemies are not immune to damage from other enemies. 2: A Big Daddy that has been attacked will not stop pursuing the unfortunate soul that attacked it until one of them is dead. 3: Hypnotize Big Daddy applies the same logic to anything that attacks you, no matter who started it. Done properly, it's possible to stand back and watch the two of them go at it, complete with a Little Sister shouting "Hit him, Mr. B!" and such in the background, then [[CriticalExistenceFailure finish off the survivor with a single hit from your wrench]].
* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Jack is the illegitimate, growth-accelerated son of Andrew Ryan and his stripper mistress]]. Furthermore, he was [[spoiler:raised/conditioned by Suchong and Tenenbaum to be a slave for Fontaine/Atlas]].
* MacGyvering: Thanks to the U-Invent machines, you can turn three bottles of distilled water, two cans of kerosene, and a single brass tube into a pair of heat-seeking rocket-propelled grenades.
* MadArtist: Sander Cohen, Dr. Steinman. The former was so effective that just seeing his name on a billboard in the sequel was enough to spook some players.
* MadnessMantra: Splicers tend to mutter to themselves as they wander the halls of Rapture.
** "They make me hate everything I see, they make me hate everything I see, they make me hate everything I see..."
** "We thought we could hide from the light down here... we were wrong... we thought we could hide from the light down here..."
** "We serve His commandments. W-we serve His commandments. (''sobbing'') We serve all His commandments!"
** "Jesus loves me, this I know; for the Bible tells me so; little ones to Him belong; they are weak but He is strong."
** "I'm just lonely, an-and I'm just ''lonely''..."
** "I traded you, O Lord, for Mammon, and ''what did it bring me?''"
** "Mr. Ryan's gonna notice me, and I'm gonna be a star! It's not too late, ''not too late!''"
** "Ugly... ugly... UGLY!"
** "Mom? Dad? Could you come and get me? (notices Jack) I ''AM'' GOOD ENOUGH!!!"
** "I hear 'em when I'm asleep, when I'm awake, when I'm asleep, when I'm awake, when I'm asleep, when I'm awake, when I'm asleep, when I'm awake, when I'm asleep, when I'm awake, when I'm asleep, when I'm awake! AHHH!"
** '''[[PreMortemOneLiner YOU'RE FIRED]]!!!'''
** You can sometimes hear these from Little Sisters, as well. "Chocolate is better than pain, chocolate is better than pain..."
** "Three too many, [[RunningGag three too many]], [[RuleOfThree three too many]], [[OverlyLongGag three too many]]!"
* MissionControl: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]]. [[spoiler:The guy on the other end of the radio telling you what to do? He isn't helping you, [[MissionControlIsOffItsMeds he's ''controlling your actions'' and ''your choices are illusory'']]]].
* NothingIsScarier: Surprisingly, there are moments like this in the game, particularly near the beginning. After surviving the plane crash and swimming up to the dark and gloomy lighthouse, new players might be a touch daunted about moving forward.
* NoticeThis: Flashing pick-ups kinda take the challenge out of a scavenger hunt. Of course, it becomes part of the big DeconstructedTrope after TheReveal.
* OfficeGolf: Andrew Ryan does this [[WhileRomeBurns while Rapture collapses around his ears]].
* PlayingPossum: [[OhCrap "We tricked you, monster."]] Also, upon entrance to Fort Frolic, the player discovers a number of "statues" that when hit, start bleeding. As creepy as this is, the player gets used to it rather quickly. When Sander Cohen sends you out on your sidequests you start to see more... and then you might notice that some of them are in different places each time, and wasn't that hallway empty just a minu- [[OhCrap OH SHIT!]] Cue scythe wielding splicers. Of course this too loses effectiveness once you take to [[ProperlyParanoid loading your pistol with anti-personnel rounds and headshooting every statue you come across]].
** FridgeBrilliance: Well, then, they ''didn't'' trick you if you head-shotted every statue, huh?
** Special mention goes to the statues that look like little girls and don't bleed, just like the Little Sisters (which are de facto invulnerable because the ADAM inside them and probably are still alive because of it).
* PlayingTennisWithTheBoss: Peach Wilkins, since you're down to your plasmids and Telekinesis is quite effective. For more generic foes, both Nitro Splicers and Houdini Splicers can have their bombs/fireballs tossed back at them with Telekinesis.
* PlayingThePlayer: The first game does this ruthlessly as part of the {{deconstruction}} of choice in video games.
* PlayingWithPuppets: [[spoiler:Ryan does this to you when you confront him.]]
* ProperlyParanoid: Peach Wilkins, though you don't find out that he was right until much later. Also, Ryan [[spoiler: correctly accuses you of being an assassin at the end of Smuggler's Hideout and asks who "sent you"]]. A lesser example from the first game: while the Splicer model Ducky is mostly just a paranoid, unhinged maniac, he does get one thing right: [[spoiler: "Fontaine's dead? No, he's not, he's living it up and he's laughing at me!" While Fontaine is not laughing at Ducky exactly, he is still alive.]]
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Both Andrew Ryan and [[spoiler: Frank Fontaine]] give you one, and in fact, the entire last third of ''BioShock'' is one prolonged sequence where the voice on the radio taunts you with just how much you suck.
* TheReveal: "I chose the impossible... I chose...'''RAPTURE.'''" The projector screen moves away and you see the city in all its glory.
** The moment you realise why Atlas and Ryan keep asking you [[spoiler: "Would you kindly...?"]]
* RoomFullOfCrazy: The Medical Pavilion, the walls of which are covered with patchwork plastic surgery plans, graffiti like "beauty is a moral imperative" and "above all else do no harm," or warnings such as "Steinman kills" and "stay away." Naturally, [[CouldntFindAPen all the writing is done in blood]].
** Played straight with an actual room in Hephaestus, the room that [[spoiler: [[TheReveal reveals the details of your mental restraints]]]]. There's the typical conspiracy layout pinned to the wall with clippings, scribblings, the dealings of the ones involved layed out as photos, linked to each other by colored yarn - [[spoiler: with its main feature the code phrase to your mental leash, "would you kindly," scrawled across the whole of it]].
* SequenceBreaking: If you're very fast and lucky, it is possible to hit a flaming trashcan downstairs and use it to melt the ice in the basement of the Medical Pavilion, thus letting you play through the entire game without the Incinerate! plasmid. (The ice in Fountain Fisheries can be solved by telekinesising along a corpse with exploding buck, and then looting it after your weapons are confiscated).
** The reason the Teleportation Plasmid was removed was due to this.
* ShoutOut: A number of them, in particular to AtlasShrugged:
** Firstly, and most obviously, there is a character named Atlas.
** Secondly, in one audiolog, Andrew Ryan refers to himself as And Ryan, the letters of which can be rearranged to form AynRand.
** Thirdly, there are a number of posters throughout the game saying "Who is Atlas?", referencing the DrivingQuestion of AtlasShrugged, "Who is John Galt?"
* StringTheory: Ryan has a conspiracy board in his office.
* StylisticSuck: A quick glance at the lyrics to "Rise, Rapture, Rise," Cohen's paean to Ryan, shows that the song is absolutely execrable. Adds a new wrinkle to his contemporaries' accusations that Cohen only rose so high because he was in Ryan's good graces.
* SuicideByCop: [[spoiler:Andrew Ryan, the "cop" being Jack, who was destined to kill him either way.]]
* TakenForGranite: MadArtist Sander Cohen doesn't actually petrify people, but he does the next best thing by covering their bodies in plaster and posing them. Almost everyone in his domain is either a dead statue, or a person ''pretending'' to be a statue. One of his "students" took to using his ice powers, rather than plaster, to freeze people in poses.
* TakingYouWithMe: Ryan rigs Rapture to self-destruct when he realizes he can't prevent you from reaching him. Also, after dropping a bomb-throwing Nitro Splicer, wait a moment before moving in to loot the corpse.
* ThisIsSparta: "She '''WON'T. STAY. STILL!!!!!!'''"
** "A man... CHOOSES. A slave... OBEYS. OBEY!"
** "Ain't that Just. Like. RYAN?!"
* TomatoInTheMirror: [[spoiler:Triple-whammy: not only are you a test-tube baby conditioned to be the perfect obedient assassin, but you're also Ryan's bastard child, ''and'' you've been under mind control for the entire game.]]
** Referenced in ''BioShock 2'': After Lamb realizes that Delta is free from his mental conditioning:
--->'''Lamb''': I had thought you some golem of Sinclair, brought here to hold Rapture's arms as he rifles through her pockets. But no... you are aware of your plight. Who, I wonder, would be so cruel? To force a mirror on a man with no face...
* TriggerPhrase: Factors into TheReveal, as well as a lot of the story's third act.
* TwentyBearAsses: Some of your goals in the game will ask you to get X amount of a certain item. This is especially used in Arcadia and Hephaestus.
* TwistEnding: The first one has a triple twist; the first two happen simultaneously ([[spoiler: Atlas is Fontaine, who's manipulating you with a prompting phrase]]) and the third happens soon after that ([[spoiler: you are Andrew Ryan's son]]).
* UsualSuspectsEnding: A rare case of a Usual Suspects...four-fifths of the way through...sorta thing.
* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler: You ''are'' helping the bad guy, though [[MindControl you never actually had a choice in the matter]]. "[[TheReveal Nice work, ''boyo''!]]"]]
* VendorTrash: The stuff you use for ItemCrafting is sometimes literally found in garbage cans.
* VideogameFlamethrowersSuck: The chemical thrower is a mixed case -- while it is quick on the ammo and long on the reload, it is very very damaging. With full electric gel and the reduced ammo usage upgrade, it can even kill a Big Daddy with no effort.
** It also has quite a realistic range, especially after the pressure hose upgrade.
* WackyWaysideTribe: The entire Fort Frolic/Sander Cohen section of the game, which has the player forced into acting as a hitman of sorts for a [[MadArtist loony artist]], is a [[TropesAreTools positive example]]. Sure, it could be neatly excised from the plot without changing anything, but it's one of the most memorable and [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel disturbing]] parts of the game.
* WaxMuseumMorgue: A variant. [[MadArtist Sander Cohen]] has decorated Fort Frolic with incredibly lifelike plaster sculptures, all posed and lit for maximum effect. Plaster sculptures with terrified expressions on their crumbling faces and bright arcs of blood around their wrists or throats. [[ParanoiaFuel Or plaster sculptures who aren't there when you turn around]]...
* WeDoTheImpossible: Deconstructed with Jack.
* WhamLine: [[spoiler: "A man chooses... A slave obeys... OBEY!!"]]
** And the more memetically popular: [[spoiler: "Would you kindly... powerful phrase. Familiar phrase?"]]
** Also:
-->[[spoiler:It's time to end this little masquerade. There ain't no Atlas, kid. Never was. Fella in my line of work takes on a variety of aliases. Hell, once I was even a Chinaman for six months. But, you've been a sport, so I guess I owe you a little honesty. The name's Frank Fontaine.]]
* WhyWontYouDie: Ryan's question to Jack about a third of the way into the game.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: The automated public address system throughout Rapture reminds citizens to use [=ADAM=] in moderation. "Remember, a careful splicer is a ''happy'' splicer!" Obviously, they didn't listen.
* XanatosSpeedChess: Fontaine plays a mean game of Speed Chess. When his initial plan (get the entire city spliced up to the point where he is effectively in charge) breaks down with Ryan blowing up part of his smuggling operation and seizing his legitimate assets, he fakes his death, reinvents himself as "Atlas", and triggers a city-wide civil war by pointing out that Ryan became everything he (and by extension, the hardcore Objectivists who followed him into the ocean) hated in the process of fighting Fontaine. During the fighting, everyone got spliced to the gills, resulting in crippling Adam addiction, and the conditions for peace included handing Fontaine's seized assets over to Atlas.
* YouHaveFailedMe: Judging from the surplus of corpses and ghost sequences, it seems that during the final phases of Rapture's descent into madness both feuding factions took a heavy-handed approach to discipline. Andrew Ryan even has a collection of cadavers impaled on columns in his office foyer, all of whom were suspected (rightly or not) of being traitors or assassins. Fontaine would just splice your ass to next Sunday, or [[CementShoes worse.]]
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