Few series have shaped gaming's conversation about what the medium can say quite like BioShock. Born at Irrational Games under Ken Levine and published by 2K, the franchise announced itself in 2007 with a descent into Rapture - an underwater city founded as an objectivist paradise and discovered as a leaking, splicer-haunted ruin. "Would you kindly" entered the cultural lexicon almost overnight, and the game's marriage of atmospheric horror, plasmid-powered combat and philosophical ambition set a bar the industry still measures itself against. BioShock 2 returned to Rapture in 2010 through the eyes of a prototype Big Daddy, deepening the city's tragedy, while its acclaimed Minerva's Den expansion delivered one of gaming's great short stories.
In 2013 the series traded the ocean floor for the clouds with BioShock Infinite, swapping Rapture's art-deco gloom for the sun-drenched zealotry of Columbia and pairing Booker DeWitt with Elizabeth in a reality-bending tale whose Burial at Sea episodes closed the circle between the series' twin cities. Remastered editions have since carried both original games to modern hardware, and with a new entry in development at Cloud Chamber, the lighthouse's beam is still turning. Whether you start beneath the waves or above the clouds, each BioShock is the same invitation - a city, a mystery and an argument about free will, wrapped in one of gaming's most distinctive worlds.
