Sorry about the BioShock clog...this game is just too good...it's kinda inevitable that the game is gonna get too many writeups on every aspect of it. And even tho it has already been stressed...I'm just to much of an architecture nut to not say anything.

As maybe some people know...I am a budding architect and avid enthusiast of all things design. As such I am one of the worst people to go on trips with because I will drag whoever I am with to the most obscure location to see things normal people won't care about; such as a Toshiko Mori house, a Marcel Breuer chair or light fixture designed by Alvar Aalto. Places like New York make me cream my pants because of all of the hidden architectural gems (if you've never been to the Prada store in SoHo designed by Rem Koolhaas you haven't seen New York...fuck the Statue of Liberty...I still haven't seen that in person).



Anyway...back to the topic at hand. From the first moment I saw the attention to detail that the design team gave to Rapture I was in awe. When that whale soars through the "streets" I couldn't believe how beautiful a fantasy this game was going to be. Everything was so infused with Art Deco/Nouveau and Modernist techniques and aesthetics I found that I was only stopping enemies from their attacks so that they would stop interrupting me. I wanted to fucking admire the buildings and their interiors. These designers I am CONVINCED are some sort of architecture school graduates/dropouts. Maybe it's just mimicry of things they have seen in similar buildings and such...but it's damn good if that's all it is. There is so much history and personality inherantly built into the environments when a design team takes the amount of care they did with this game. Rapture is the first place EVER in a completely fictional video game that I felt could really exist...which is nonsensical because of the premise, manpower, money and technology needed to create a city like that in a location like that.

The environments in this were SO refreshing...especially in the "always-rocky-and-fairly-desolate" or "post-apocolyptic-city-in-partial-ruins" locations that ravage the FPS genre (I'm looking at you Gears). Even though the underwater city was essentially in ruins...the 'charm' of it was still very present. The last time that I can remember seeing any real architecture in a FPS was when someone recreated Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water house in CS Source...but I still attribute that to FLW and not a game designer so I don't think it counts.

To see this game continue to get the amount of praise it does gives me hope for the future of design. As a designer...and as I'm sure many know...good design is one of the first things thrown out if it can be done cheaper. If you go to any wealthy area in any city you will see this. A perfect example is false Med-Rev (Mediterranian Revival) architecture that has flooded the housing markets. Stucco, foam, terra cotta and frivalous decorations give the sense that everyone appreciates complete disregard for architecture as a valuable art...ironically the only art you get to live, experience, effect and interact with on a daily basis. But as I said...I have hope that people WILL appreciate good design when they are fortunate enough to be given access to it.

Hopefully other game developers will see the positive reception that Bioshock has received for its design direction and take more care in building a world gamers and players can enjoy as if it was a real place. Maybe game designers will push contemporary and futuristic ideas and design philosophies in their games' architecture. Could you imagine having a survival horror game set in a large scale building based off of Zumthors Therme Vals? Of course with the same attention given to the architecture's effects on all five senses.


Or how bout some sort of Parkour-inspired platformer that is set in an entire city with a similar aesthetic to Morphosis' and Richard Meier's?


Starting to catch my drift? Any other archenthusiasts? Apologies if you find the links highly uninteresting.