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Somewhere beyond the sea..... lies a city where the artist would not fear the censor, where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality, where the great would not be constrained by the small... AND where the player could freely explore an unforgettable video game location, saturated in style and (literally) dripping with atmosphere.....so would you kindly join me, in the city of RAPTURE!



In what is arguably one of the most breathtaking location reveals of all time, we first set out eyes on the shimmering lights of this soaked city while plunging down to the depths in a tour guided bathysphere.



Peering out the porthole gave us our first fisheye view of this sprawling sunk metropolis. Floating in between the Art Deco inspired sea scrapers, interconnecting walkways and their neighbouring sea creatures... felt like some sort of dream. A dream that quickly transforms to the stuff of nightmares once players finally stepped out to explore the city itself.



Designed as a submerged utopia for brilliant minds and gifted souls, Rapture was created with nothing but good intentions by its architect Andrew Ryan. An entrepreneur who rejected the social norm and believed that his version of 1950's society would benefit from some aquarium inspired isolation. However as both you and the entire population discovered- society would buckle under the constant pressures from above; and eventually Rapture broke down and tore itself apart...



From there players are left to explore this largely abandoned drenched dystopia, traversing between its self sustaining facilities such as the air purifying forests in the Arcadia zone or the fishing docks of Neptune's Bounty. Each area is littered with relics and recordings that tell the story of Raptures rise and fall, all covered in that sugar coated optimism of the 50s; complete with an eerily juxtaposed soundtrack of happy go lucky tunes...



The most unsettling feature of this city though was a constant feeling of claustrophobia brought on by the ever present ocean outside, as it pushed its way through every gap and hairline fracture in the rusting and rotting architecture of the city, drowning out the light. Whatever small amount of surface light that could find its way this far down would only trickle through glass ceilings and windows, painting everything with a dull blue glow.



Still, players took delight immersing themselves in this wild and waterlogged nightmare....



In fact they sank so many hours into the first adventure under the sea that a second trip to Rapture eventually let us soak up all the dank and daunting atmosphere we wanted in this moisture ridden mausoleum.



