BIOSHOCK Analysis : Part 1

The first sequence surrounds the player with flames but provides a clear “visual pathing” towards an exit.
It wouldn’t have been a good idea to blur the exit with additional particles effects simply because we want to avoid player confusion and frustration so early in the game. The exterior sequence is in no way deeply crucial to the main gameplay experience.

The player reaches the bottleneck of the path and triggers an event that activates a set of particle effects that turns toward the right of the player.

This set of particle effects is there to guide the player’s eye towards the lighthouse, which instantly becomes the focus point of the entire picture. We can notice here an interesting play on movement.  The path doesn’t lead directly to the lighthouse but leads a couple of degrees off so that when the effect is triggered the player simply wants to follow its path. I think I should also mention that this focus point is aided by the skybox itself. Where the plane crashes the sky is completely dark and where the lighthouse starts there’s more details (the moon, presence of clouds and lighting).

A blinking light at the bottom of the stairs attracts the player’s attention, but can serve as way to foreshadow the state of the city of Rapture. The thought that should pass by the player’s head is “that’s broken” and Rapture definitely is.