BioShock

Overview

Bioshock is inspired by themes in Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged. At the time of it's release, Bioshock was lauded by critics for its peerless storytelling and fascinating story. To enhance the story beyond what is directly experienced by the player, Bioshock uses audio diaries. These diaries follow different characters through the rise and fall of the city of Rapture. At times, ghosts will also appear in the city showing very brief fragments of the actions of certain citizens of Rapture. Bioshock is also well known for not taking player control away during scripted events, allowing the player to experience literally everything through the eyes of the protagonist.

The player does not directly see any of the coup of Rapture in BioShock, instead arriving sometime afterward in the year 1960, discovering a desolate city filled with insane, drug-addled citizens. The player hears about Rapture's golden era--and the events that led to its demise--through a series of audio logs that serve as diary entries for the past inhabitants of the city. Touted by 2K as an "FPS-RPG" and a " spiritual sequel" to Irrational's highly revered System Shock 2, it has gameplay similarities to both System Shock games as well as Deus Ex. It is possibly an indictment of the current gaming generation that BioShock has been lauded as such an original game, when in fact it copies so many structural elements from said predecessors' gameplay (such as non-linear player-character development, moral choice in plot progression, immersive setting and story).

To its credit, however, BioShock is more of an exploration-focused first-person shooter that makes streamlined, simplified use of some of its predecessors' mechanics, such as the use of audio logs as a storytelling device, a hacking minigame (reminiscent of the classic puzzler Pipe Dream), and special abilities. While being primarily built on Unreal Engine 2.5, BioShock is also one of the first games to be produced using features from Epic's Unreal Engine 3 and appeared on both the Xbox 360 and the PC. On October 17, 2008 Bioshock was released for the PlayStation 3. This version of the game features a new 'Survivor' difficulty mode as well as other in-game add-on content. Downloadable "challenge rooms" are also available; these put the player in a race against the clock while working through brief, puzzle-oriented levels. The Playstation 3 version ships with Trophy Support, just as the Xbox 360 version, of course, contains Achievements.

Plot Synopsis *spoilers*

No Gods or Kings. Only Man.

Set in 1960, BioShock begins with a plane crash, with the player character, named Jack, being the only survivor. The player takes refuge in a lone lighthouse in the middle of the ocean. A bathysphere leads down into the bowels of the underwater city of Rapture. A message from the city's creator, Andrew Ryan, talks of his vision for Rapture, a utopia without ethical or moral barriers. However, from the looks of things, Ryan has failed in realizing his vision.

Welcome to Rapture.

A man named Atlas contacts Jack in the bathysphere and helps to lead him through the city, which is filled with genetically modified Splicers, Little Sisters, and their guardians, the Big Daddies. Atlas also tells Jack about ADAM, stem cells harvested to enhance the abilities of the human body. The abuse of ADAM has driven the Splicers mad and the material is what the Little Sisters constantly search for throughout Rapture.

Atlas instructs Jack to kill the Little Sisters and take the ADAM from them in order to use special abilities called Plasmids. However, another ally in Rapture, Dr. Tenenbaum, tells Jack to save the Little Sisters and promises to reward him if he obeys.

Atlas soon tells Jack of his wife and child, who are hiding from Splicers in a submarine. When Jack reaches them, however, Andrew Ryan destroys it, supposedly killing Atlas' family. Atlas, enraged, asks Jack to kill Andrew Ryan.

Jack reaches Andrew Ryan, who reveals that Jack is actually his son and was born in Rapture two years prior. Genetic modification allowed for him to age rapidly. One of Rapture's pioneers, Frank Fontaine, "programmed" Jack to obey any order uttered with the phrase "Would you kindly", a phrase that Atlas has repeated many times. Jack was the one who crashed the plane and was brought to Rapture on purpose, with the goal of killing Andrew Ryan.

Ryan orders Jack to kill him, using the phrase "Would you kindly." Forced to obey, Jack kills Ryan with a golf club. Shortly after, Atlas reveals himself to be Frank Fontaine and leaves Jack to die in the city. Dr. Tenenbaum saves him, though, and deactivates the "Would you kindly" trigger phrase control Fontaine has over him. Jack then proceeds to Olympus Heights and finds Lot 192 which reverses a heart stopping mental control Fontaine was attempting to kill Jack with. Tenenbaum then instructs Jack to don a Big Daddy suit so the Little Sisters can lead him to Fontaine. When he reaches him, Fontaine, pumped up by massive quantities of ADAM, has acquired almost superhuman abilities.

Upon defeating Fontaine, three endings are possible. If the player rescues all the Little Sisters, the game ends with Jack and the Little Sisters leaving Rapture and the girls growing up to live their lives. If the player harvested two or more, but not all the Little Sisters, Jack kills the Little Sisters and takes their ADAM. If the player harvests all of the Little Sisters, the same ending is shown but with Tenenbaum's narration being angrier.

Weapons

Gunning it with a Big Daddy.

The game features an array of traditional weapons that can be acquired throughout the game. The player carries all of the weapons at once, so all of the weapons are available at any time. Each weapon can be upgraded twice, using special kiosks called " Power to the People" machines. Each weapon can also carry three types of ammunition. The weapons in the game are as follows:

• Wrench: A simple melee weapon acquired at the beginning of the game.
• Pistol: A standard six-shooter, it is the first firearm acquired.
• Machine Gun: An automatic weapon that holds a large number of bullets.
• Shotgun: A close-range weapon that packs quite a punch.
• Grenade Launcher: A large weapon that can be upgraded to fire different kinds of explosives such as heat seeking rpgs.
• Chemical Thrower: A device that fires various substances like napalm, liquid nitrogen, and electrical gel.
• Crossbow: A long-range weapon best used against single opponents.
• Research Camera: This "weapon" allows the player to research various enemies and gain bonuses on damage and acquire various tonics.

Weapon Upgrades

Weapons are upgraded at Power To The People machines. The machine shuts down after one upgrade has been applied. The upgrades do not cost anything and also cause cosmetic changes to the weapons in addition to the listed effects. The wrench is the only weapon that cannot be upgraded at a Power To The People machine.

Pistols

• Increased Damage
• Increased Clip Size

Machine Gun

• Increased Damage
• Decreased Recoil

Shotgun

• Increased Damage
• Increased Rate of Fire

Grenade Launcher

• Increased Damage
• Immune to Damage self-fired Grenades

Crossbow

• Bolt Breakage Chance Reduced
• Increased Damage

Chemical Thrower

• Decreased Chemical Consumption
• Increased Range

Key Characters

This is a list of the characters who either have major roles in Bioshock or encounter the player at some point in the story.

• Jack: The silent protagonist of Bioshock. He survives a plane crash and stumbles upon Rapture. Early on, Jack gains the ability to use Plasmids (his first one being the Electro Bolt).
• Andrew Ryan: The founder of Rapture. Andrew Ryan is an antagonist in Bioshock and he taunts Jack throughout the game.
• Atlas: Jack's mentor and guide in Rapture. Atlas gives Jack instructions and helps for a majority of the game.
• Tenenbaum: A German scientist who helped develop ADAM. She wishes to protect the Little Sisters and urges the player to do so.
• Doctor Steinman: A doctor who's gone insane with his obsession with perfection. He performs surgery on people to make them physically perfect, yet his insane obsession with his job drives him crazy and causes him to often perform unwanted surgeries on people to correct their "imperfections"; often these people die from being horribly mutilated.
• Peach Wilkins: A member of Frank Fontaine's smuggling business. He encounters Jack in Fontaine fisheries.
• Julie Langford: The scientist responsible for creating Arcadia, which is where she encounters Jack.
• Sander Cohen: An artist who runs Fort Frolic in Rapture. He also produces theatrical performances for the city. When he encounters Jack, he makes him take pictures of his four disciples after they've been killed and mounts them as part of a masterpiece.

Hacking

Hacking in BioShock.

Performing hacks on various machines in the game can make things a lot easier. Everything from security bots to safes can be hacked. Hacking machines can help you evade security systems, supply you with hidden items, and give you discounts on items at vending machines.

Hacking is done with the hacking mini-game, which is highly reminiscent of the classic computer game Pipe Mania (Pipe Dream in the United States). The goal is to successfully move fluid through a tube set on a grid of tiles from a starting location to and ending location, both of which are just outside the grid and, thus, not modifiable by the player. The player reveals pieces of the tube one at a time and may swaps tiles to continue the tube and keep the fluid moving. If the fluid is hindered in its progress either due to player error or by hitting certain tiles such as overload tiles and security tiles, the mini-game is failed and, depending on the gravity of the failure, security bots may be deployed to eliminate the player. An auto-hack tool can allow for a hack without using the mini-game. Hacking ability is greatly enhanced and simplified through the strategic equipment of certain engineering tonics. Also, the Winter Blast plasmid used on a machine just before hacking will slow the progress of the fluid considerably.

Vending Machines / Kiosks

Various vending machines and kiosks are found throughout the game. The different types are as follows:

• Circus of Value: A place to purchase a variety of items. Ammo, first aid kits, and EVE Hypos are all available here.
• Ammo Bandito: A vending machine that supplies ammunition.
• Gatherer's Garden: This vending machine allows you to use collected ADAM to purchase Plasmids and Tonics.
• Gene Bank: This machine allows you to customize your character, switching Plasmids and Tonics.
• Power to the People: This machine allows you customize weapons. Each individual machine can only be used once.
• U-Invent: This machine allows you to combine different items to create more helpful ones.

Vita-Chambers

Vita-Chamber

Whenever the player's HP reaches zero, they "respawn" at the nearest vita-chamber, large man-sized tubes scattered throughout Rapture. This only works with the main character Jack and the explanation to why it doesn't work for splicers is that it was in its testing phase when Rapture fell. Vita-Chambers serve as a checkpoint of sorts, even though the game can also be saved at any time through the start menu. Unlike traditional checkpoints, enemies injured or killed since reaching the Vita-Chamber will remain so when the player is respawned. However, weapon ammunition will remain at the same level as when the player was killed and the player is also given only a fraction of his maximum health. Since there is seemingly no penalty for using Vita-Chambers many players have bemoaned this design decision for making the game too easy — given enough time and patience, a player wielding only the wrench can slog his or her way through even the toughest battles.

Moral Choice

Little Sister

Near the beginning of the game, the player is given the choice of either harvesting the Little Sisters (effectively killing them) to gain a large amount of ADAM, or rescuing the Little Sisters for a significantly smaller amount of ADAM. Rescuing Little Sisters will, however, allow the player to access certain plasmids and Xbox 360 achievements unavailable through the "evil" method of play, and for each 3 that you rescue you will receive a gift from Dr. Tenenbaum. Depending on exactly how many Little Sisters you harvest or rescue, the game's ending is affected. If you save all the Little Sisters you get a one hundred point achievement.

Security

A hostile security camera. Hacked cameras have a green light instead of red

Jack has to deal with the security of Rapture throughout Bioshock. The security force includes cameras, turrets, and flying bots called Security Bots. All three of these can either be destroyed or hacked by Jack to get them on his side. Hacked turrets and bots will automatically fire on enemies, and hacked cameras will target enemies and trigger the alarm against them (which causes a wave of bots to come flying in and attack them). In addition, there is a Plasmid called "Security Bullseye" that, when thrown onto an enemy, will cause cameras and turrets to target said enemy.

All three types of security forces can be temporarily disabled by zapping them with the Electro Bolt or Winter Blast plasmid. Turrets and bots must be hit with the Electro Bolt or Winter Blast before being hacked; security cameras do not.

Development

The original story for Bioshock was drastically different. It centered around a deprogrammer, someone who forces a person to abandon religious or social group allegiances. The main character's mission was to rescue someone from a cult and adjust them mentally to a regular life. However, the plot underwent significant changes by the time development on the game was announced in 2004. At that time, the game's setting was changed to a World War II-era underground laboratory. When the laboratory was uncovered by scientists in the 21st century, they discovered in ecosystem formed formed by the experiments in the lab.

The developers used a heavily modified version of the Unreal Engine 2.5. They also hired a water programmer and water artist to create the stunning water effects seen in the game. Bioshock also uses the Havok physics engine for more lifelike ragdoll effects.

Plasmids

Open bottle for Plasmid

Plasmids change your character's genetic information and provide him with specific abilities. A substance called EVE is needed to use these abilities. EVE is found in hypodermic needles, called Hypos in the game. It is carried by the character and can be acquired from enemies and purchased from Circus of Value vending machines. Plasmids are both found throughout the game and bought from the Gatherer's Garden Kiosk. The Plasmids in the game are as follows:

Description	ADAM Cost	EVE Cost	Damage
Cyclone Trap Places a cyclone on the floor; used as a trap for enemies Upgradeable to level 2	level 1- 60 level 2- 80	level 1- 95 level 2- 120	varies
Electro Bolt Shoots electricity at enemies Can also be used to disable security cameras, turrets and bots Upgradeable to level 3	1- N/A 2- 110 3- 120	1- 95 2- 110 3- 120	1- 400 2- 1600 3- 8000
Enrage Turns a Splicer near you against other Splicers	60	30	N/A
Hipnotize Big Daddy Turns a Big Daddy into an ally	N/A	N/A	N/A
Incinerate! Shoots fire at enemies and sets them on flames Upgradeable to level 3	1- N/A 2- 100 3- 150	1- 48 2- 60 3- 72	1- 12 per sec 2- 24 per sec 3- 48 per sec
Insect Swarm Launches a swarm of bees at enemies Upgradeable to level 3	1- 60 2- 80 3- 120	1- 48 2- 60 3- 72	1- 6 per sec 2- 12 per sec 3- 24 per sec
Security Bullseye Alerts security to the presence of your enemies	N/A	30	N/A
Target Dummy Creates a decoy for your enemies to attack	60	48	N/A
Telekinesis Allows you to use moveable objects as weapons by flinging them through the air	N/A	15	N/A
Winter Blast Shoots a blast of ice that freezes enemies Can also be used on turrets, cameras and bots to slow down the water for better hacking Upgradeable to level 3	1- 60 2- 100 3- 150	1- 80 2- 90 3- 108	N/A
Sonic Boom Allows the player to shoot a large blast of wind at enemies Only available with DLC or game patch 1.1	1	1- 90 2- 120	varies

NOTE: N/A means the item is either given to you by a Little Sisters or found somewhere on Rapture.

Tonics

Combat Tonics have a Green glow

Tonics upgrade your character and his abilities. There are three types of Tonics (Combat, Engineering and Physical) and they can either be found scattered throughout the Rapture or bought at Vending Machines.

The Gene Bank machine is used to place tonics into whatever available slots you may have at the moment.

Combat Tonics

These Tonics work on the player's offensive and defensive capabilities.

Tonic	ADAM Cost
Armored Shell More 15% piercing and bludgeoning resistance	20
Armored Shell 2 More 25% piercing and bludgeoning resistance	N/A
Damage Research Adds 30% to research damage bonuses	20
Damage Research 2 Adds 60% to research damage bonuses	N/A
Electric Flesh More 75% electric resistance Adds 30% to electric damage	20
Electric Flesh 2 More 100% electric resistance Adds 60% to electric damage	60
Frozen Field More 15% cold resistance Adds 10 points of cold damage to the Wrench and gives a 10% chance of freezing an enemy upon successful hit	N/A
Frozen Field 2 More 30% cold resistance Adds 20 points of cold damage to the Wrench and gives a 20% chance of freezing an enemy upon successful hit	50
Human Inferno More 20% heat resistance Adds 30% heat damage and causes enemies to take burning damage at a 30% higher rate	20
Human Inferno 2 More 40% heat resistance Adds 50% heat damage and causes enemies to take burning damage at a 50% higher rate	50
Photographer's Eye Adds 10% to all research photo scores	20
Photographer's Eye 2 Adds 15% to all research photo scores	N/A
Static Discharge The player emits an electric burst whenever struck by a melee attack, causing 50 points of electric damage and giving a 15% chance of shocking the enemy	N/A
Static Discharge 2 The player emits an electric burst whenever struck by a melee attack, causing 30 points of electric damage and giving a 25% chance of shocking the enemy	N/A
Wrench Jockey Adds 350% to Wrench damage	20
Wrench Jockey 2 Adds 550% to Wrench damage Stacks with Wrench Jockey 1	N/A
Wrench Lurker Adds 150% to Wrench damage on unware or electrical shocked enemies Quiets the player's footsteps	20
Wrench Lurker 2 Adds 200% to Wrench damage on unware or electrical shocked enemies Quiets the player's footsteps	50
Machine Buster Slightly increases damage against security devices Only available with DLC or patch 1.1	1
Machine Buster 2 Significantly increases damage against security devices Only available with DLC or patch 1.1	1

NOTE: N/A means the item is either given to you by a Little Sister, found somewhere on Rapture or gained through researching the Splicers with your Camera.

Engineering Tonics

Engineering Tonics have a Yellow glow

These Tonics improve the player's hacking ability and also his/her overall interaction with machines such as bots or turrets.

Tonic	ADAM Cost
Alarm Expert Minus 2 alarm tiles when hacking	20
Alarm Expert 2 Minus 4 alarm tiles when hacking	N/A
Clever Inventor Inventing items requires 1 less of each component	50
Focused Hacker Minus 2 overload tiles when hacking	20
Focused Hacker Minus 4 overload tiles when hacking	50
Hacking Expert Minus 1 alarm and 1 overload tile when hacking	N/A
Hacking Expert 2 Minus 2 alarm and 2 overload tiles when hacking	50
Prolific Inventor Gives 2x the items produced at a U-Invent machine	N/A
Safecracker Minus 1 acceleration, 2 alarm and 2 overload tiles when hacking safes and combination locks Plus 3 resistor tiles when hacking safes and combination locks Flow speed reduced by 1/2 second per tile	N/A
Safecracker 2 Minus 2 acceleration, 4 alarm and 4 overload tiles when hacking safes and combination locks Plus 6 resistor tiles when hacking safes and combination locks Flow speed reduced by 1 second per tile	N/A
Security Expert Minus 1 acceleration, 2 alarm and 2 overload tiles when hacking security devices Plus 1 resistor tile when hacking security devices Flow speed reduced by 1/2 second per tile	20
Security Expert 2 Minus 2 acceleration, 4 alarm and 4 overload tiles when hacking security devices Plus 3 resistor tile when hacking security devices Flow speed reduced by 1 second per tile	N/A
Shorten Alarms Minus 20 seconds on hostile security alarms' duration	20
Shorten Alarms 2 Minus 40 seconds on hostile security alarms' duration	50
Speedy Hacker Flow speed reduced by 1.5 seconds per tile when hacking	20
Speedy Hacker 2 Flow speed reduced by 3 seconds per tile when hacking	50
Vending Expert Slight reduction of prices on vending machines Only available with DLC or patch 1.1	1
Vending Expert 2 Significant reduction of prices on vending machines Only available with DLC or patch 1.1	1

NOTE: N/A means the item is either given to you by a Little Sister, found somewhere on Rapture or gained through researching the Splicers with your camera.

Physical Tonics

Physical Tonics have a Blue glow

These Tonics will interact with the player's physical and physiological properties, namely with his/her Health and EVE, making the player a tougher, harder enemy to kill.

Tonic	ADAM Cost
Bloodlust Player gains small amounts of health with every successful blow to enemies with the Wrench	N/A
Booze Hound Alcohol restores a small amount of EVE, instead of draining it	N/A
EVE Link First Aid kits give small amounts of EVE	20
EVE Link 2 First Aid kits give significant amounts of EVE	50
Extra Nutrition Bandages, drinks and food give a little more health than usual	20
Extra Nutrition 2 Bandages, drinks and food give significantly more health than usual	40
Extra Nutrition 3 Bandages, drinks and food give a lot more health than usual	N/A
Hacker's Delight Each successful hack gives small amounts of health and EVE	20
Hacker's Delight 2 Each successful hack gives medium amounts of health and EVE	N/A
Hacker's Delight 3 Each successful hack gives large amounts of health and EVE	N/A
Medical Expert First Aid kits give 20% more health	20
Medical Expert 2 First Aid kits give 40% more health	40
Medical Expert 3 First Aid kits give 60% more health	60
Natural Camouflage The player becomes invisible after standing still for a period of time Moving, using weapons and/or Plasmids nullify the effect	N/A
Scrounger Allows the player to search both corpses and containers a second time, finding different loot this time around	N/A
Security Evasion Turrets and security cameras take 2 seconds longer to successfully track the player	20
Security Evasion 2 Turrets and security cameras take 4 seconds longer to successfully track the player	50
Sport Boost Speed increased by 10% Wrench swing speed increased by 25%	N/A
Sport Boost 2 Speed increased by 20% Wrench swing speed increased by 50%	N/A
EVE Saver All Plasmids consume less EVE when activated Only available with DLC or patch 1.1	20

NOTE: N/A means the item is either given to you by a Little Sister, found somewhere on Rapture or gained through researching the Splicers with your camera.

Soundtrack

The original soundtrack for Bioshock was composed by Garry Schyman, and is comprised of 23 themes.

12 of these themes can be downloaded for free at the 2K Games website.

Here are the tracklists for both "editions".

Downloadable Version

Complete Version

"The Rapture EP"

Back Cover for the Bioshock EP

Included in the Bioshock limited edition version is an EP comprising of 3 tracks with song remixes by Moby and Oscar the Punk. Although the EP's official name is Bioshock EP, it quickly became known as "The Rapture EP".

Downloadable content:

Xbox 360:

On Dec 4th, 2K games released a patch as well as Downloadable content for Xbox 360 fixing some known bugs and adding some features:

Patch/title update:

Challenge room DLC

• Added widescreen option: Horizontal FOV
• Fix for rare case where a partial cache is not cleared
• Increased Atlas’ volume in German
• Fix for GUI sounds not playing during heavy action
• Fix for not being able to take picture of Cobb in Rec
• Possible fix for pauses or hangs when opening flash Bink movies
• Fix for switching difficulty breaking achievement
• Fix for small texture streaming bug
• Fix for rare hang when a lot of things are going on at once

Downloadable content:

• Added Disable Vita Chamber option
• Plasmid Pack is included in this DLC (Machine Buster 1 & 2, Vending Expert 1 & 2, Sonic Boom 1 & 2, EVE Saver)
• 100 point achievement called "Brass Balls". A player will gain it after beating the game on Hard without using any Vita Chambers . The player can always roll back to an earlier save if a Vita Chamber was used. The Vita Chamber Disabled option can be on or off as long as the player doesn't resurrect. (Note:this is currently untrue if a vita chamber is used with vita chambers turned on then it corrupts all saves in that play through, vita chambers must be turned off to get the achievement or you must make sure never to die.)

PlayStation 3:

The PlayStation 3 contains all the updates of the Xbox 360 version.

20th November 2008 patch:

• Enables Add On Content functionality for the Challenge Rooms and New Game Plus (Add-On Content required to use this functionality)

• Fix for an issue where large blocky pixels would show up whenever viewing the Bouncer and Elite Bouncer variants of the Big Daddy. Also fixes various other texture pixelation including weapons.

A battle in the challenge room

• Fix for an issue where white/discolored bars would show up at the right and bottom sides of the screen during the plane crash / water scene at the beginning of the game.

• Fix for an issue where Big Daddy would occasionally turn black after the player dies and is then resurrected.

• Fix for an issue where some fire particles would shrink every time they were retriggered.

• Fix for an issue where Big Daddies would gush abnormal amounts of blood after being killed by a critical hit while having more than 10% health (i.e., from another Big Daddy’s gun).

• Fix for an issue where the game would crash when PS button hit during hacking when vsync turned to off

• Fix for a rare issue where the game would hang caused by a deadlock between the renderer, Havok, and the main game threads.

• Fix for an issue where reflective water would sometimes be rendered with incorrect fog colors.

• Fix for an issue where audio subtitles would occasionally not go away, even after the audio finished playing.

• Fix for an issue where menu sounds were too loud.

• Fix for an issue where the autosave message wasn’t localized.

• Fix for several issues where localized strings were too long. This includes the ‘Cannot Carry:’ message, ammo name lengths, weapon name lengths, and the Location in Fisheries ‘Upper Freezer’.

• Fix for an issue where the game would hang if the player dies while using a combination lock with the Vita-Chamber option off.

The patch was released by accident on 13th of November 2008, but was quickly pulled off.

Downloadable content - Challenge Rooms:

The Challenge Rooms are three levels intended to test the knowledge and skills players have learned while playing through the main game.

• A Shocking Turn of Events – A Little Sister is trapped atop a Ferris wheel in an undisclosed location in Rapture. Using only the tools and environment around them, players must use their wits to create electricity to power the Ferris wheel and bring the Little Sister to safety.
• The I in Team – Using limited resources, and an even more limited arsenal, players must negotiate traps and find a way to defeat a Big Daddy using their wits instead of raw firepower.
• Worlds of Hurt – Step up and take on the most grueling challenge offered in the world of Rapture. Players must battle through eight rooms of Big Daddies, Splicers and the worst that Rapture has to offer. Accumulate Adam, build an arsenal of Plasmids, Tonics and Weaponry, and fight through to rescue the Little Sister.

In addition to these three Challenge Rooms, two other additions are included in the package.

• The Official Premium BioShock Theme.
• A new feature, New Game Plus. This feature will give players who have beaten the main game the ability to start a new game with the character data (weapons, inventory, research, etc.) carried over from the end of the game (if you beat the game after the patch was installed) or from a saved game of your choosing (if you beat the game before the patch was installed). When you install the Add-On Content, a "New Game Plus" option will appear on the menu screen allowing you to use this feature.

System Requirements

System Requirements As displayed on the back cover of the box.

Minimum Requirements

• CPU (Processor): Pentium 4 2.4GHz Single Core processor
• System RAM: 1GB
• GPU (Video Card): Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 128MB RAM (NVIDIA 6600 or better/ATI X1300 or better, excluding ATI X1550).
• Sound Card: 100% direct X 9.0c compatible sound card
• HDD (Hard Disc) space: 8GB free space

Recommended Requirements

• CPU (Processor): Intel Core 2 Duo processor

• System RAM: 2GB

• GPU (Video Card): DX9 - Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 512MB RAM (NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT or better) / DX10 - NVIDIA GeForce 8600 or better

• Sound Card: Sound Blaster X-Fi series (Optimized for use with Creative Labs EAX ADVANCED HD 4.0 or EAX ADVANCED HD 5.0 compatible sound cards)

Xbox 360 Game Installation

When installed on an Xbox 360 console running the current versions of the NXE, Bioshock requires only 4.7 GB of HDD space. However, if the game was installed under the preliminary (first release) version of the NXE, Bioshock takes up 6.1 GB of space. This is true even if the user has since updated their Xbox 360's dashboard to a newer version. The only way to take advantage of the smaller size is to delete the old installation and re-install the game.

Artbook

On March 16, 2009 the Cult of Rapture website announced that a limited edition artbook for Bioshock called Breaking the Mold: Developer's Edition was available for pre-order on the 2K online store. The standard version can be found on the Cult of Rapture website for download as a PDF file.

Trivia

Originally 2K Designed a Teleportation Plasmid that teleported the player out of danger, by marking a location that the player would teleport to when they used the plasmid, the plasmid was ultimately removed due to the fact that it could be used to break story events. A same sort of teleport plasmid did appear in Bioshock 2 as an Easter Egg, presumably based on the plasmid scrapped from Bioshock 1.

Xbox 360 Games on Demand

On August 6, 2009, BioShock became available on the Xbox 360's Games on Demand service. It costs $19.99 or 1600 Microsoft Points.