50 Fun Facts About BioShock

After the plane crash that opens BioShock, what kind of building does Jack swim to and find a bathysphere inside?

A lighthouse hides the bathysphere that carries Jack down to Rapture, and BioShock Infinite later revisits the very same spot.

In BioShock, Andrew Ryan orders Jack to beat him to death in his office with which piece of sporting equipment?

A golf club is the weapon, and Ryan uses a hypnotic trigger phrase to make Jack swing it, proving his killer was never in control.

ADAM, the gene-altering substance that ruins Rapture in BioShock, is produced by which kind of marine creature?

Sea slugs secrete ADAM, and Rapture's scientists implanted them in orphaned girls to produce the addictive substance in bulk.

Andrew Ryan, founder of BioShock's Rapture, has a name that is a partial anagram of which 20th-century novelist?

Ayn Rand preached rational self-interest, a creed BioShock's writers found perfect for a villain, so Rapture is built on it.

Playtesters distrusted Atlas, the radio guide in BioShock, so developers swapped his Southern drawl for which accent?

Irish was judged more trustworthy after one tester likened the first voice to a lecherous Colonel Sanders.

Which anthology series nods to BioShock's mind-control trigger phrase in Playtest, its episode about a horror game?

Black Mirror has a game operator slip the polite request into her instructions as the hero walks towards a door.

On which holiday in 1958 did Atlas's followers launch the assault that plunged BioShock's Rapture into civil war?

New Year's Eve 1958 was the night, and by the time Jack arrives in 1960 the fighting has left the city a war-torn ruin.

BioShock Infinite's flying city was launched at the 1893 World's Fair, an exposition held in which American city?

Chicago hosted the 1893 fair, where in the game's story the American government launched the airborne city to great fanfare.

A barbershop quartet in BioShock Infinite's 1912 setting sings God Only Knows, a hit for which 1960s band?

The Beach Boys released it in 1966, and Infinite explains such covers through rifts in time that leak music from the future.

Which American museum institution featured BioShock in its exhibition The Art of Video Games after a public vote?

The Smithsonian opened the show at its American Art Museum in 2012, and BioShock was among the games the public voted in.

In BioShock, the friendly radio voice Atlas turns out to be which supposedly dead con man and crime boss?

Frank Fontaine faked his death in a police shootout, then posed as a working-class hero the poor of Rapture could rally behind.

BioShock was conceived as a spiritual successor to which 1999 sci-fi horror game from the same studio?

System Shock 2 sold too poorly for a publisher to fund a direct sequel, so its makers reworked the ideas in a new setting.

Which architectural style, modelled on the towers of New York City, defines the look of BioShock's Rapture?

Art Deco suited the artists for a practical reason too: its large, simple shapes were easy to build with few polygons.

What name does BioShock give Rapture's deranged citizens, disfigured by their addiction to gene-altering ADAM?

Splicers fought on both sides of Rapture's civil war as plasmid-enhanced soldiers before ADAM abuse left them insane.

What does Andrew Ryan reveal Jack's true relationship to him to be when the two finally meet in BioShock?

His son, sold as an embryo by Ryan's mistress and aged rapidly into an adult, was built to slip past the city's genetic locks.

Which humble tool is the first weapon Jack picks up in BioShock and his only melee attack for the whole game?

A wrench is the game's only melee weapon, and gene tonics rather than upgrade stations are what make it deadlier.

Which BioShock scientist urges Jack to rescue the Little Sisters and gives him a plasmid that cures them?

Brigid Tenenbaum later rescues Jack from security drones and undoes the mental conditioning that forced him to obey.

Which unhinged artist rules BioShock's Fort Frolic and sends Jack to kill and photograph his former disciples?

Sander Cohen has each photograph mounted in a four-panel artwork, then descends his staircase to applaud and attacks only if provoked.

Which BioShock level holds both Rapture's main power plant and Andrew Ryan's private office?

Hephaestus draws its power from volcanic vents on the ocean floor, which is why rebels fought so hard to seize it.

Which BioShock devices revive Jack at half health whenever he dies, a safety net a later patch let players disable?

Vita-Chambers leave enemies as wounded as they were, so a stubborn player can wear anything down, and fans asked for the off switch as a challenge.

Which glowing blue substance powers plasmids in BioShock, filling the role that mana plays in fantasy games?

EVE is itself a byproduct of ADAM, and Jack tops it up with hypodermic injections or the odd drink found lying around.

BioShock's hacking minigame has Jack link two points on a grid before time runs out by laying down what?

Pipes must carry a flowing liquid from one side to the other, and a failed attempt costs Jack health or sets off an alarm.

Which collectible recordings, left behind by Rapture's citizens, deliver most of the backstory in BioShock?

Audio diaries play on a recorder called the Accu-Vox, and a handful that are vital to the plot start by themselves when picked up.

What does successfully hacking a Circus of Values vending machine do for Jack in the original BioShock?

A successful hack lowers its prices and can unlock items the machine otherwise keeps off the menu, and the Vending Expert tonic cuts costs further.

Which BioShock creative director also recorded the laughing voice of the Circus of Values vending machines?

Ken Levine moved to Los Angeles to write screenplays before he ever made games, then joined Looking Glass Studios through a magazine job ad.

Which BioShock vending machines sell plasmids and gene tonics in exchange for ADAM rather than dollars?

Gatherer's Garden machines were built by Ryan Industries, and they helped make injecting new powers an everyday habit in Rapture.

In BioShock, the gifts Jack earns for rescuing Little Sisters are left for him clutched by which kind of toy?

A teddy bear holding a present appears for every three girls Jack saves, sent in thanks by the scientist who begged him to spare them.

Which plasmid is the first that Jack acquires in BioShock, during the opening level Welcome to Rapture?

Electro Bolt stuns enemies for a follow-up blow and turns any pool of water into a trap for everything standing in it.

In BioShock 2's multiplayer, what does a Circus of Values machine hacked by an enemy drop on its next user?

A small bomb falls from the machine, and a red light is the sign that a rival has rigged it.

In BioShock's bleak ending, earned by harvesting Little Sisters, what do Jack and his followers seize on the surface?

A nuclear submarine armed with warheads falls to Jack's mutated army, while the scientist narrating the ending condemns him.

Which model of Big Daddy, armed with a huge drill on its right arm, appears on the cover of BioShock?

Bouncer models are the only Big Daddy type to appear in all three games, and a rarer elite version swaps the drill for a harpoon.

What affectionate nickname do the Little Sisters of BioShock sing and coo to the Big Daddy that guards them?

Mr. Bubbles is how the girls address their armoured guardian, and they weep over the body if the player kills it.

Which forested BioShock level, created by botanist Julie Langford, produced much of the oxygen that Rapture breathed?

Arcadia loses its trees when Andrew Ryan floods it with a plant-killing toxin, and Jack must brew a cure called the Lazarus Vector.

Mental conditioning makes the Little Sisters of BioShock see the corpses they drain of ADAM as which beings?

Angels with haloes and wings are what the girls see, and the same conditioning turns pools of blood into rose petals.

Which Cold War thriller did a BioShock designer cite as the inspiration for the mind-control twist involving Jack?

The Manchurian Candidate gave the team a reason to steer the player that felt more natural than the usual locked doors.

Which studio, briefly renamed 2K Boston around the time of the game's release, developed the original BioShock?

Irrational Games was founded in 1997 by three former Looking Glass employees, and BioShock's success led it to take back its old name in 2010.

Which composer wrote the eerie orchestral score for BioShock and returned for both of its sequels?

Garry Schyman leaned on solo violins and unsettling mid-century techniques, writing music to sit beside the period songs on Rapture's phonographs.

Which Star Trek: Deep Space Nine cast member provides the voice of Rapture's founder Andrew Ryan in BioShock?

Armin Shimerman, who played the Ferengi barman Quark, also voices the villain Doctor Nefarious in the Ratchet & Clank games.

Which console received BioShock in October 2008, some fourteen months after the game's Xbox 360 and Windows debut?

PlayStation 3 owners got extras for the wait, including a tougher Survivor mode and a set of add-on Challenge Rooms.

Which Big Daddy, revived in 1968 to search for the girl he once protected, is the hero of BioShock 2?

Subject Delta shares a bodily bond with Eleanor, the girl he guarded, so he will die unless he manages to find her.

Which collectivist leader, head of a cult called the Rapture Family, is the main villain of BioShock 2?

Sofia Lamb plans to pour the minds of everyone in the city into her own daughter, hoping to create a perfectly selfless leader.

Which studio did 2K Games form after BioShock's success to create its sequel, BioShock 2?

2K Marin was based in Novato, California, and a handful of its staff went on to make the story add-on Minerva's Den.

Minerva's Den, a story add-on for BioShock 2, sends the player after the blueprints of which Rapture supercomputer?

The Thinker was built by Charles Milton Porter, who came to Rapture to pursue artificial intelligence after losing his wife in the Blitz.

Developers of BioShock 2's Minerva's Den later founded The Fullbright Company and made which 2013 exploration game?

Gone Home came about because making a compact, story-focused project had inspired lead designer Steve Gaynor and colleagues to go independent.

Which self-proclaimed prophet founded the floating city of Columbia and rules it in BioShock Infinite?

Zachary Comstock is worshipped by his citizens as a prophet, and Booker DeWitt finally drowns him in a baptismal font.

Which two-part BioShock Infinite expansion casts Booker as a private detective in Rapture before the city's fall?

Burial at Sea recasts Elizabeth as a femme fatale who hires Booker, and its second episode was the last BioShock release from the series' original studio.

Which director was attached to Universal's BioShock film, announced in 2008, before budget worries stalled the project?

Gore Verbinski wanted the film to keep a hard R rating, and he later said that left no studio willing to back it.

Before the developers settled on Rapture, a 2004 version of BioShock was set in which abandoned wartime location?

A Nazi laboratory dug up by modern scientists was the setting, and an even earlier demo had taken place aboard a space station.

Which piece of games-criticism jargon did designer Clint Hocking coin in a 2007 blog post about BioShock?

Ludonarrative dissonance describes a game whose story says one thing while its rules reward another, as Hocking felt Jack's obedience did.

Which streaming company announced in 2022 that it was turning BioShock into a film with publisher Take-Two?

Netflix lined up Francis Lawrence to direct, and a producer later said a smaller budget had pushed the film towards a more personal story.