I know this has been said before many times, but the opening to the original Bioshock was one of the most awe-inspiring moments I ever had as a gamer. Although we had all been down the proverbial rabbit hole many times before in games, we had never been down it quite so literal as when we took the bathysphere down to Rapture in the opening moments of that stellar game.
From the opening scene with the plane crashing into the ocean, you know this is going to be a ride you will never forget, and the world they weave in Bioshock is just that. For me, Rapture can best be described as one of the most fully realized Wonderlands I had ever seen. Rapture, in all its art deco brilliance, is this beautiful train wreck you just cannot look away from. It is as horrifying as it is captivating, and you find yourself marveling it at instantly, but then that moment is cut short when one of the mutated humans, knows as splicers, attacks your bathysphere in an attempt to get to you and tear you apart with hook hands. And from that moment forth, the game has its proverbial hooks in you and never lets up.
And I will say, I was torn with putting the opening from Bioshock Infinite here, because that filled me with a true sense of wonder, too (until they wanted me to stone that interracial couple). In the end though, I had to go with the original because I had never seen, or experienced, anything quite like it before.
Check it out for yourself in the video below if you haven’t played through the game, it really is quite something.
