So, the big highlight for me about my very first go at the BioShock demo last night was just how jaw-droppingly lovely-creepy and lifelike the whole world was (let's forget about my wild-careening, horrible lightning aim as i whirled around in place trying to hit the security drones. I suck at shooters, OK?). From the dust clouds that rose when I whacked the old furniture to the physics of the corpses, every detail was brilliant. For me, half the fun was wandering around seeing what I could wrench-smack and how it'd react. I spent a good five minutes up on that balcony by the vending machine, playing kick-the-can with the garbage barrel (or was it an ashtray?) from one end of the hall to the other.I loved every vivid detail in the waterlogged Art Deco paradise; the way it looked as if a party'd been suddenly interrupted by a disastrous apocalypse. The environment put me firmly in mind of some of the architecture in midtown New York City. Now,I know I've a habit of superimposing videogame worlds on the places I live, but look at these pictures of Midtown New York and decide for yourself!
I've put a big gallery up at Destructoid. These images are mostly taken from Rockefeller Center, the adjacent GE Building, and the Empire State building further downtown, of whose interiors Rapture put me most firmly in mind.
Granted, these are all mainly examples of 1930's Art Deco architecture and interior design; it's this period that BioShock is emulating, not New York itself. I also uploaded the cover image of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, done in the same style, also. The hero of that story is an architect who resents the super-popular linear design style of his time. We've heard before about how heavily Rand's objectivist ideals influenced the BioShock world, so this is likely another extention.
Still, go look at those pics and tell me they don't look like a real-world Rapture! Kinda creepy, right?
