BioShock Games

Some people have classified BioShock (BS1/BS2 - the REAL BioShocks) as 'SteamPunk' ,  when it is really  'DieselPunk' . "Dieselpunk" is a fiction genre set Post-WW1 and with WW2 styling, where there is Widespread Internal Combustion use and Sci-Fi-ish expanded technological use. It is set generally before the Atomic Age ( where a separate fiction genre of 'AtomPunk' pushes things further ). 
BioShock's Rapture starts right at the end of WW2, and has an Art Deco aesthetic much like the late 1920s and the 1930s.
http://hackedgadgets.com/2009/03/10/steampunk-frankenstein-computer/  -- Example of 'Steampunk' 
* See also BioShock_Game_Elements Common elements
* See also Canon
* See also STORY
* See also Miscellaneus Game Related Items
* See also BioShock_Movie
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== List of BioShock Games ==
All made by 'Take Two Interactive' which owned 'Rockstar' and '2K Games'.
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BioShock (the original game)  
Released 2007
The first game which presented the ruined Underwater City of Rapture, and how it fell.
 
See Bioshock_Illogic to investigate various shortcomings.
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Game 'Cheat Codes' :
BioShock PC Cheat Codes
Use text editor upon "DefUser.ini" file in "release" folder in game directory. 
Set a key binding to the following codes ( example, "F10=fly" ).
Cheat Code and Result
	 
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: 'god' - God mode	
: 'givehealth' - Full health	
: 'givebioammo' - Full Eve	
: 'igbigbucks' - $500	 
: 'ghost' - Disable clipping	
: 'fly' - Flight mode	 
: 'walk' - Disable "fly" and "ghost" codes	
: 'killpawns' - Kill all enemies on level	 
: 'slomo' - Slow motion	 
: 'teleport' - Teleport to pointer	 teleport
: 'exec' plasmidname.txt - Obtain indicated Plasmid or Tonic	
: 'suicide' - Commit suicide	 
==BioShock Movie==
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A BioShock_Movie Never Happened
A Movie had been proposed for Take-Two Interactive's video game BioShock. It did not get much further than alot of talk and speculation, and creation of conceptual artwork. It was to be done by Universal Pictures, and producer Gore Verbinski, and with a John Logan script. The story was centered on an expedition to a failed underwater city ... It was originally planned to be released in 2011. 
Around 2009, the BioShock Movie project fell apart - With Levine allegedly 'axing' the project and saying he would 'Only want it done if it were done right'. Levine has since himself 'Got the AXE CHOP' from any further BioShock game involvement. The Game Company actually had the biggest say about the project.
It is possible it was all just Hype from the start ( ALOT of 'Movies' get "Proposed", and then never happen - its normal in the movie industry ). Consider that big pile of BioShock One's "Concept Art", and Infinite's similar materials ( Concept Art is cheap ).
Recently there is AGAIN TALK ... With another BioShock game in the works, and the Game Company trying to 'gin up interest' again. With a "Done Right" management track record like Infinite BS subsequently had ( a case of Robespierre selling kittens and saying he will be kinder in the future ... ), it is logical that Levine would have no part in any such project. 
Likely, it is all just more Game company Promotional Activity -- with as much chance of happening as previously.
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Mobile : There were some '2D' and simple '3D' for some alternate platforms offered ... https://bioshock.fandom.com/wiki/BioShock_2D_(Mobile_Game) and https://bioshock.fandom.com/wiki/BioShock_3D_(Mobile_Game) 
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Remastered (Whatever) :
Apparently they've started offering a 'Remastered' version of Bioshock (BS1) now, which some reviewers have already said has various Porting issues and display mode Limitations/Bugs and such. Generally this kind of thing is some Graphics Shader tweaking, reworked textures, and the allowing of a larger screen view of the same game ( and some Game Engine changes ). There's some kind of GTA-like 'Find the Golden Reels' (something or other) achievement which they then on their Company Blogsite tell you (indicate on maps) EXACTLY where they all are (Well it gets someone to Go/Play thru the game map again. I just replay the Original Version). (( Feeds the usual people who HAVE TO buy that special "Directors Cut" of *whatever* with the "extra 13 seconds of *NEW* scenes" type-of-thing, I guess. ))
Well anyway, if they did it 'On the Cheap' ( minimal packaging expenses - with digital purchase ), and simply did it to boost new sales to new Players ( and that subset of Fanbois buying it yet again ), then that's just a standard business practice these days (Ryan would be proud).
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Sweet, Sweet BioShock Rapture Context - A Proper MMORPG Setting :
You have to have a game story with a context, and that of MMORPG Rapture was OUR World of the 1940s/1950s transported down into the Ocean. It is NOT some remote Fantasyland, where everything was so alien that most any comparison to our World would quickly get lost. 
The City's (Rapture's) economics and society actually was NOT that far different from that past time ( Do not assume it is like Today's World ). Against that normalcy, was the 'Bio' Shock upon the populace, and how IT affected the People in that societal microcosm. The games 'conflict'-ruined setting Context does NOT exist for OUR (huge) World. Our society's environment is too Open to be anything like a contained Dystopia Shooter. You can't have some unmanageable 'World War Z' type scenario, nor some cast of characters which grows too huge to retain story detail/flavor and Player attachment ).
We can allow some limited Fantasy in the MMORPG game ( mostly retained for some glitzy game-mechanics ), and add ALOT more reality to give the player a familiar Context. Not someplace you might otherwise have just another crappy circus shooting gallery --- Where Ryan could, by radio control, just make Atlas's head explode, or have the tentacle beasts patrolled Rapture's halls enforcing his 'tyranny', while they tootled Sander Cohen Show tunes. (( We'll Leave that kind of open-ended rubbish to Infinite BS. ))
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There's Something in the Sea ( Flash web game promotion for BioShock 2 )
A story about disappearance of children and one mans quest to find out what was going on ( leading him to Rapture ). 
A large part of this Flash content is archived at 
Aspects might be recycled (fixed) for the MMORPG - as the story isn't past redemption.
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Released 2010
BioShock 2 - Continuation of the Adventure
The sequel to BioShock(1). A second story about the time after Raptures ruination, when a collectivist madwoman decides that human nature can be changed. Most of the game elements were the same from the previous game and already familiar ( and were expanded upon ). Players revisited what had been a interesting dystopic setting.
There are few surprises or mystery left ( Players Mostly watching for 'Whats going to leap out at me and try to kill me next ?' , and the original game's moments of "WTF is that ???" are mostly gone ). Even when you REPLAY BioShock 1, things begin to seem 'normal'. But now the Player has the opportunity to absorb more of the story/scenery with less cautious distraction. The Player can further replay it and try new weapons/tactics to destroy Splicers - the first two games had many possibilities for that ( like the Speargun and further its Rocket ammo ).
BS2 Observations
Again, alot of good content which can be applied to the MMORPG ( with adjustments and more explanation ).
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==MultiPlayer==
BioShock Multi-Player : A separate Multi-Player Game which was included with BS2, with additional playable level maps made available through DLC. Online Multiple 'Player on Player' fighting, in short scenarios in small maps, based on simplified locations/themes in Rapture. 
The content should be only regarded as sub-Canon, as it was created to facilitate MultiPlayer (MP) playing activity -- with its odd Skill Ramp character spew, and its strange explanatory circumstances ( The Sinclair Solutions 'Testing' Program, in which all the MP game Players are enrolled. Plausibly, Arming Fontaine's Terrorists as part of the 'Testing' - That would be something Sinclair would never be stupid enough to do. But fun content can still be recycled for the MMORPG, if many of the detail can't. )
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==Protector Trials DLC==
Protector_Trials - Short Big Daddy Scenarios sold as DLC after BioShock 2
The Scenario Locations are somewhat limited, but Details can be reused where appropriate.
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==Minervas Den==
Minervas Den DLC  
Released 2011
An add-on DLC game, with a fine story about Rapture's computer tech advancements in a new section of the city ( Minervas Den ).
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The Novel called "BioShock: Rapture", by John Shirley, 2011
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==Industrial Revolution==
Released 2013 ( Online Promotional done before BioShock Infinite )
A Web-based Flash (web) Story & Puzzle Game offered with pre-orders of BioShock:Infinite - Its Columbia introduction story setting is based on a Class-Warfare theme ( which the later Infinite game rewrite(s) muddle-together, with a half dozen other societal themes ).
Industrial_Revolution_BS
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==BioShock : Infinite==
THEN That Third Game Came : The NON-RAPTURE follow-on game calling itself " BioShock ".
Released 2013
The Columbia "Murica" thing was just a setting for badly fabricated/Strawman World Strawman : False generalized Example put forward to falsify an Argument, clumsily designed to be presented as a failure/dysfunctional American type 'utopia' (( And could have been hardly further from reality as it was a simpletons 'puppet-play understanding'/a 'public school dumbed-down representation )). 
The game was overly contrived to allow having larger numbers of NPC opponents firing guns at the Bullet-Sponge Player ( was MORE a Shoot-fest/Pop-a-Mole game ). The Player gets to kill a multitude of 'politically correct' Evil Old America target NPCs and bizarre freakish Steam-Punky opponents. Sadly, there was little logical reason for all these 'shooting-gallery targets' to exist in the Faux-History world/story-setting. 
Add Faux-Science, Faux-Religion, Faux-Economy, Faux-Society, Faux-American 'Props', which were made part of a Pretty but stilted caricature done to surround the rather weak Combat.
(( A 'historic' setting exaggerated/contrived to make 'some kind of point' ? The interviews crowed over its supposed Historic Social Relevancy. Unfortunately, distortion of reality is a typically dishonest methodology for this kind of storytelling. WHEN you are trying to create a Parable, don't go wrongly linking a flawed make-believe setting to REAL historical situations to pretend your validity. ))
Infinite BS Boiled Down : The makers just copied BioShock's format/game-mechanics, but did it badly with nonsensical technology, and created a misfit to 'America' anything. It had 'over-explained' farcical science/society/history. It WAS a poor Fantasy environment with mediocre gameplay ( and a whole lot of lost potential ). It is considered by many as a taint on the BioShock genre. There was a great deal of promotional Talk by the people who made it, but in the end it was all about just Making a Buck, 'milking the brand' ( and a FAILZ at that ). The delivered game apparently went thru at least two major story rewrites [], which apparently wasted huge amounts of Time and Effort, leading to delays, and detracted from the resulting game's coherency and any 'BioShock' quality.
* See Infinite_BS
* See Gianormous_Infinite_BS 
* See BSI_Plot_Summary
* See Infinite_BS_Unlove - Many Contrary Opinions To the Game Press Ass-Lickers
You get :
* A Super-Duper Flying Police State, with some SteamPunk monstrosities, and a weird Faux-Religious cultism. 
* A setting hardly historic (American or otherwise), nor Nostalgic ( having Songs from the future extinguishes most nostalgic representation ).
* Too much magical and inconsistent fake 'science', and ludicrous wave of the hand 'technology'. 
* A Giant Parakeet in a Gimp Suit, pretending to be a Big Daddy. Which is Relegated mostly to Cut Scenes.
* A Gobble-dee-gook story, hastily and obviously stitched-together after too many story rewrites. 
* A Cloning of the previous games' elements/game-mechanics, done BADLY ( ie- magic potions 'Vigors' cloning BioShock's Plasmids, but without any explanation/justification ). 
* Weak pretentious haphazard Social Commentary, pushed into the Player's Face ( in between gun battles ).
 
* A place that looks like A flying Coney Island A famous large old entertainment/carnival park near New York City on Long Island. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coney_Island , pretending to be a City ( Complete with a purpose built 'poor' people section, and Racist E-Ride attractions ).
* An incoherent plot, which left most Players saying : "WTF, Just get me back to shooting things"
* Waste of "A Hundred Million Dollars" ( Estimates of production costs for BioShock:Infinite with other estimates including a possible a further $100 million for advertising and promotional and distribution costs ) - "A Candyland a popular old boardgame meant for 3-5 year olds ... with hackneyed 'feelings' overlaid". 
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BioShock Infinite Takes Place in a Flying City Where Ultranationalism Causes a Disaster (??) :
No, a power hungry ruthless secessionist Cult Leader 'cons' a bunch of people into following him, and paying for a bunch of techno-gibberish. He then seizes it all and isolates a bunch of delusional cronies, and fooled victims, and stolen serfs. Some strangeness follows which brings an assassin to kill him. Then through some Faux-Science BS, the delusion starts all over again. ( It is one of those fundamental/universal story plots seen throughout all literature ... NOT !!! Infinite is "fundamental/universal story plots" of the sort seen in your average Fan-fiction and Third-rate pulp fiction ( and "Scoobie Doo" Cartoon Plots )
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Infinite BS Hype - For THINGS WE DIDN'T GET :
Art book, a Podcast, and some other Video - In Infinite BS's outside game promotional stuff they talked endlessly about :
* The game was going to have a Skyline as a real 'Wow' effect element ( and freer movement ), and which served a purpose to get around Columbia ( and wasn't just a circular Rollercoaster part of an arena battle ).
* They talked about how 'significant' their American History elements was to the plot.
* They showed off Special Tear Effects in the main plot line done by Elizabeth ( instead of those meager canned props in arena battles ), and not being just some 'cop out' transition into a universe/dimension to get past a bad situation.
* There seemed to be more interactions in situations where the Player could make 'a Choice'.
* The gamemakers 'Patting Themselves On The Back' for thousands and thousand of lines of their 'AI scripting' of NPCs, WHEN the Player goes through the walk-thru tour segment ( and various other places ) - They were mostly just the same tired Mannequin NPCs, who just do a little song and dance, and then became the standard dull and unresponsive prop objects. 
Point being : What Levine & Co showed/talked about outside the game is one thing, What actually was delivered in the actual game was another.
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Bad Bonus Deal - Poisonous Selling ( Same People Who Belittled Andrew Ryan and Sinclair For Capitalism ? ) :
Someone ( out there on the Interwebz ) has commented that the In-Game Promotional Bonuses they gave you for the Infinite BS "buy-early" gimmicks were basically the equivalent of using Cheat Codes - Giving a reduced game experience by making the game's Player start far easier, and RUINING any game balancing ( if there ever was much of that in the game's production ).
The "Industrial Revolution Pack" ( given for a pre-order 'pre-pay' ) :
* 500 Silver Eagles (free money)
* Fleet Feet Gear ( makes harder for the enemy to hit you )
* Handyman Nemesis Gear (you do more damage)
* Sugar Rush Gear (you run faster)
* 5 lock picks ( easier access to get hidden items behind locks )
* A puzzle game ( to while away the game release delays )
It is "All in the name of a 'Fa$t Buck'" - Well they did have to make back the eventual $100-$200 million dollars the game cost, just to break even ( and it helps to get the suckers paying BEFORE something goes wrong with the paid 'reviewer' propaganda ). 
Unfortunately the result of this is for some Players to play Easier, and the game is over/completed faster ( reportedly too with little desire to replay by most Players ) -- YES, THAT'S just what you need ... even LESS play-hours for your $60 ). (( NOTE - "Achievements" are really not so great when some people get a spoiler/'leg up' in completing them, No ? ))
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Burial at Sea  ( x episodes BaS1 and BaS2)  (DLC for Infinite BS set in Rapture)
A return to Rapture by characters from Infinite BS's Columbia, and incorporating/continuing Infinite's bad Fantasy aspects, now applied to, and contaminating, the Rapture environment of the previous two games.
See Also DLC-itus
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==Clash In The Clouds DLC==
Game DLC sold after Infinite BS as DLC 
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==BioShock Infinite: Mind_in_Revolt ( E-Book Novel )==
Background Story about the 'genius' Daisy Fitzroy ( later the murderous Anarchist Vox Leader ), and her arrest and incarceration for Lady Comstock's murder, and path to being Lobotomized, and subsequent escape ( and murder of her fascinated sympathetic Prison Doctor).
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==Web Talk About BioShock==
See Authentic_Diversity_2015
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==THE COMING GAME==
'BS3' - Not really 'BS4' ... ( Infinite_BS_Was_Not_Really_A_BioShock_Game )
* See BioShock_3
A Frequently talked about "BioShock 3" (sometimes called 4) : Starting based on reports from 2K/Rockstar (Probably AFTER the distaste of Infinite BS's mediocre game showing had time to dissipate).
Ken Levine WONT be involved in producing the new game.
There has been the usual 'leaks' and constant Fan Speculation in Online Forums and Game Magazines articles about what the game might contain.
The Next BioShock ? :
If they do another BioShock game, I would think that RockStar, after the mediocre showing of Infinite, probably would want a proper return to Rapture. Making it be NOT too repetitive of the earlier games content might be a problem. Care (one hopes) will be taken to fit the existing Rapture Canon. Likewise, it would be ditching the Infinite BS Fake-Quantum Science and Fantasy Magic.
The new story might bring the game setting's timeframe forward into the 1970s/80s, with someone coming into Rapture from the outside to see what is there. From that Visitor you get the new Surface World era's point of view about the 1940s theme still surviving in Rapture ( various backstory of its surviving/rebuilding after ... the BS2 times ). Likely there would be a Cold War story element.
You again would avoid having inhuman tentacled Splicer mutations to allow some empathy for the Inhabitants. THAT originally was MOSTLY avoided because of the difficulties of Animating too many variations/actions of some tentacled weirdness, versus more normal human-anthropomorphic form ( Tentacles animations are VERY hard to do 'Right'/Convincingly ).
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As for Irrational Games, it is now Ghost Story Games, and is out of the BioShock business. There is description of their INDIE project with "Story LEGOs" mentioned by an enthusiastic Levine, but it sounds like they have ALOT of difficult development to prove their ideas. For such, you first have to have it 'Far Enough Along' to properly demonstrate it to get further funding. Developing their new ideas likely won't be anywhere as easy/cheap as they might assume. So far as described by Levine/PR-spews : It does NOT actually sound like something which will be an AAA game.
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Sad, We Shoulda Had Rapture For The Third Game :
If Levine had simply done another Rapture installment -- Instead of : that bloated Gingerbread scenery, those poorly regurgitated dumbed-down game elements, that convoluted BS Fantasy techno-story -- not done with the heaped on Societal/Historical/Religion/Scientific bull$hit ( and also ditching all the Self-Back-Patting at how 'clever' it all was ), *AND* KEEPING THE SAME COMBAT Features OF THE OLDER GAMES ... THEN the game MIGHT have been very good. (( and perhaps Doing it for HALF the Production Cost - It would have SOLD just as well as Infinite BS did, Reaping ACTUAL PROFIT BECAUSE OF ITS LOWERED DEVELOPMENT/MARKETING COST. ))
IS Like : What happens in Rapture Society with FAILZ -- In the Real World, Incompetently making a computer Game has Consequences.
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Zombies\IDEA for the NEXT Game
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==Other Later Related Projects :== 
Ghost Story Games (Levine's Latest ??) :
"Immersive, exciting, and steeped in community" ( seems to pretty much just be more "Hype" Words there ... ) Exactly what "community" is that ? It is harder these days to get a consistent small set of Players to all be on at the same time to play multi-player these days ( unless the game is dirt simple so that 'pick-up' Players don't crap out on you constantly -- OR is alot of the game 'offline' - email/web type interactions ??? ). Playing as an App with a 'Micro-Transaction' business model would be a final decline.
We will have to see if Levine does any better ( or if it gets anywhere ).
Problem is : A real Story needs careful detail to work, and stitching together a varying story is far more intricate than a 'Shooter' ( Levine's last 3 games ). Particularly if it is reactive to player 'choices' and actions.
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Levine Spiel :"Narrative Legos" Uh huh... 
"New Company" Projects being talked up ... (( Talking Is Easy, Delivering Is Hard ))
Plots that get pieced together depending on Player's Choice ... Yeah, we've heard that one before.
Unfortunately ( if you have paid attention to 'LEGOS' ), those Lego things these days ARE NOT made from universal pieces, but from so many EXACTLY unique shapes - tailored so to be able to look like what the Lego-type thing is supposed to represent ( ie - a Star Wars Tie-Fighter, etc ... ) SO good luck there Kenny, if even LEGOS themselves don't quite do 'LEGOS' anymore.
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Sales Figures for BioShock Games :
An interesting statistic to know would be how many copies of BS1/BS2 ( out of the millions they claim ) were those $5 priced 'discounted' (NOTE - the 'Steam' Forum talk for BioShock 1/2 are largely complaints about the 'remastered' version having major problems/bugs -- like not working at all).
Statements have been made saying the franchise sold 16 million - But does that include DLC sales units too ? ( Was that figure for all 3 games ???) Was it including the copies that Retailers bought (with mass discounts), but may had been later returned as unsaleable ? ). For Infinite BS's huge production Costs AND Overruns/late-penalties ( adding the equally huge Marketing/Sales Expenses -- which aren't usually mentioned ), that Overhead all having eaten much of its Gross sales Income -- thus a poor overall sales showing ? (( That might be one reason Irrational Games 'went bye bye', and Levine was given 'the boot'. ))
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Some reviewer stated about Infinite BS : After 5 years development and all the money spent, and a so much better game experience being shown in the Trailers, THEN with the Players only later getting that dumbed-down 8-hour game ... It must have been the result of a huge company fustercluck. This failure has potentially destroyed the franchise.
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 Remember : THAT "Ideal Fourth of July Picnic." !!! :
"The exhilarating Sky-Line transit system sets you soaring above and throughout Columbia"
The truth is : Ideas are a dime a dozen, delivering product is THE HARD PART (the Infinite BS game's transport system was reduced to a mere combat facilitating detail, and it lost most of what the game Trailers implied it would be, outside of mostly canned cutscenes.)
Such a system WOULD have 'Wowed Em' at the 1893 Exposition event *IF* it had been used for Passenger transport ( no Skyhook weirdness thought - That's just utter stupidity ). A Systematic Sky-Line system would have CONTINUED to be useful as Columbia expanded -- Short hops on the many Disconnected transport systems, AND having to Walk-between-them WOULD have been VERY annoying to any realistic inhabitants, who routinely had to get across Columbia.
BTW, How Early did Levine&Co know THAT E3 ( Electronic Entertainment Expo ) shown vision ( the impressive citywide Skyline experience ) WAS NOT to actually be in the game ? Why didn't they give back their 'awards' for them just showing mock ups representing a potentially far better non-existent/never-was/never-would-be game, which was NEVER going to ever happen for the Players ? Many Players called it 'Bait and Switch' dishonesty.
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"BioShock Infinite - A stunning original world of Retro-Sci-Fi technology and gorgeous scenery." - IGN ( Imagine Games Network )
Of course, you DON'T get lots of advertisement money from game companies when you tell the unfortunate truths about their game products ...
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Future - You Don't Even Have To Buy These Games Any More :
You just watch someone else play it on YouTube (or other), knowing that because they are so bad these days that you wouldn't get anything much different if YOU had played (and paid) yourself. Its actually more amusing getting the feedback/commentary of some of these Players about the terrible predictable gameplay and feeble game mechanics. You can get that added interest from hearing their point of view and funny snide comments ( and foreign terminology and slang ). ALL FOR FREE. As this happens more and more with these games, produced by a Game Industry stuck in its 'More of the Same' rut, and unwilling to take risks. These lame companies will be selling so few copies that they will go out of business ( "Sell a Better Product" - I've told them for years ... ), and the Truth is : They will deserve it.
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Next 2K Game ????? - BioShock Ancient : Alexandria, and its Lighthouse, and a Man (Mark Antony)   --  So who needs Elizabeth ? ( After all she doesn't exist any more - Right ? )  - Comstock 3.0  time travels back to when he really CAN 'Play God' ( "Look you apes at my BoomStick !!!"Line from Movie "Army of Darkness" ).    Or Not.    New pretty Egyptian-themed scenery ( Pyramids !! ) and Mummies for slaughterable (Undead) opponents.     Whatever ...
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Games Like BioShock :
Another game that looks alot like BioShock, similar themes, but is more a 'Walking Sim' than an Action game.
Recent game similar look and theme to BioShock ( more a 'Walking Sim' - created in less than half the time and with 1/5th the gamestaff in Italy )
Has HUGIFICATION like Infinite BS had -- It is set on a Gianourmous Ocean Liner on an alternate reality.
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