The Case for BioShock 4 Taking Place in Rapture

For nearly 18 years, gamers worldwide have been enthralled by the captivating narratives and engaging gameplay of 2K’s celebrated BioShock series. Ever since players first delved into the underwater city of Rapture in 2007, the BioShock series has remained a popular and critically acclaimed franchise despite not receiving a brand-new entry since 2013’s BioShock Infinite. While 2K has been developing a BioShock 4 title since at least 2019, little official information on its characters, gameplay, or setting has been disclosed. Despite a new setting being heavily rumored, the lack of official information means it’s still possible for BioShock 4 to return to the series’ roots and take place in Rapture. If all turns out well, this approach could recapture some of the original game’s magic while reintroducing the underwater city to modern gamers.

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By Catherine Armecin Martin

A Brief History of BioShock’s Rapture

In BioShock 1, players first encounter Rapture in a state of ruin as many of its tubes and towers have become flooded and most of its inhabitants turned into monstrous ADAM addicts known as Splicers. However, Rapture wasn’t always like that. Industrialist Andrew Ryan first built Rapture in 1946 as an underwater utopia free from the confines and wars of religions, monarchies, capitalism, communism, and surface world nations. Ryan invited people who he believed to be some of the most intelligent, artistic, and wealthy individuals to live in Rapture and allowed them to live in Rapture without any governmental oversight or taxes. At first, Ryan’s vision of an underwater paradise seemed to be a reality, but Rapture’s hands-off principles would inevitably result in its own downfall.

Without a true form of governance, all business and social services were privatized, causing goods to rise in prices without consequence and individuals scheming to gain power to bolster their own agendas. The discovery of ADAM and subsequent development of EVE and Plasmids seemed at first to be a symbol of Rapture’s scientific ingenuity, granting individuals magic-like abilities. However, ADAM quickly became a drug-like substance for Rapture, driving people mad for the substance and exponentially increasing demand, leading to the kidnapping of girls to turn them into Little Sisters to generate and recover ADAM. These events culminated in Rapture succumbing to starvation, elitism, revolts, coups, and mass murders, turning the proposed utopia into an underwater hellscape.

Rapture’s Change in BioShock 1 and 2

By the time a man named Jack, the protagonist of BioShock 1, journeyed to Rapture in 1960, Rapture lost all sense of order and tranquility, with most remaining inhabitants having turned into crazed Splicers, criminal servants of Ryan or Frank Fontaine, Little Sisters, or colossal Big Daddies. Jack managed to kill both Ryan and Fontaine, but the city was still left in turmoil. By 1968, Rapture’s infrastructure was rapidly deteriorating without consistent maintenance and continued use of ADAM began transforming residents into more monstrous forms such as Brute Splicers, while a few Little Sisters were turned into volatile Big Sisters as they aged. While a handful of residents managed to escape Rapture and find safety on the surface, most of Rapture’s citizens died or were abandoned on the bottom of the northern Atlantic Ocean.

Rapture is largely absent from BioShock Infinite’s base game, save for a brief cameo at the end of the game, but events prior to BioShock 1 are explored in Infinite’s Burial at Sea DLCs.

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By Nick Rodriguez

An Argument for Rapture’s Return in BioShock 4

Little is currently known about Rapture’s ultimate fate following the events of BioShock 2. By the end of BioShock 2’s Minerva’s Den DLC, Dr. Brigid Tenenbaum and Big Daddy Subject Sigma, otherwise known as Charles Milton Porter, are able to return to the surface and create a cure for ADAM. Tenenbaum is able to revert Sigma back to his normal self with the cure, and it’s suggested she may return to Rapture to help cure the city’s remaining residents, but it’s unknown if she ever truly returned to Rapture. With this narrative set up from Minerva’s Den and Rapture’s fate left unknown, BioShock 4 could return to Rapture to finally end the city’s story.

In a sort of mirror to BioShock 1, BioShock 4 could take place several years after BioShock 2 as Tenenbaum prepares an expedition into Rapture to cure and rescue its remaining inhabitants. Instead of seeing a wondrous underwater metropolis, Tenenbaum and her crew will witness a crumbling ruin lit only by flickering lights, fires, and bioluminescent animals. As the expedition begins to venture into Rapture, a large portion of the crew could immediately go rogue in an attempt to harvest ADAM for themselves and bring it back to the surface, leaving Tenenbaum and the player at the mercy of remnant Splicers. The game could then play akin to a haunted house and possibly lead to a revelation of a Lovecraftian-like origin of ADAM and its sea slug progenitors.

Gameplay Influenced by Rapture for BioShock 4

If BioShock 4 does return to the original setting of the BioShock series with Rapture, it could reinvent the iconic city with modern hardware for modern audiences. While BioShock 4 could primarily maintain its famous first-person perspective, it could update its gameplay with new, mutated Plasmid powers and new enemies. For example, one new enemy could be squids and whales mutated from ADAM after absorbing the substance from Rapture ruins. Similarly, the new Splicers could be introduced, having been transformed into monstrous forms based on prolonged ADAM exposure and having to adapt to Rapture’s increasingly submerged environment, possibly appearing akin to horrifying mermaids.

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