BioShock 2: Minerva's Den | |
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Developer(s) | 2K Marin |
Publisher(s) | 2K Games |
Designer(s) | Steve Gaynor |
Composer(s) | Garry Schyman |
Series | BioShock |
Engine | Unreal Engine 2.5 |
Platform(s) | |
Release | |
Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
BioShock 2: Minerva's Den is a single-player downloadable content (DLC) campaign for the 2010 first-person shooter game BioShock 2 , developed by 2K Marin and published by 2K Games. The player assumes the role of Subject Sigma, an armored and genetically modified human, or "Big Daddy"; Sigma must travel through Minerva's Den, the technological hub of the underwater city of Rapture, to download a schematic of the city's supercomputer. Gameplay is similar to that of BioShock 2, with new enemies and weapons.
Minerva's Den was created by a small team within 2K Marin led by Steve Gaynor, who partly based the setting on ideas he discussed in his hiring interview. The team decided upon a small, personal story about identity and free will, which explores an unseen part of the underwater city of Rapture. Minerva's Den was initially released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles in August 2010, and was later released and reissued on other platforms. It was well received by critics, who praised its story, characters, and gameplay; reviewers, including those writing for Kotaku and Paste , considered it one of the best video game expansions of all time. The experience of creating a small, story-focused project inspired Gaynor and other 2K employees to form The Fullbright Company and create Gone Home (2013).
Like BioShock 2 , Minerva's Den is a first-person shooter game. The story takes place in the underwater city of Rapture in 1968, [1] eight years after the events of BioShock and concurrent with the events of BioShock 2's story mode, in the technological district of Minerva's Den. [2] The player character, Subject Sigma, is a Big Daddy, a person fused with an armored diving suit. [1] The player must work with the scientist Charles Milton Porter to acquire the plans of his creation, a supercomputer known as the Thinker, and escape Rapture. [3] Opposing the player are enemies known as splicers—Rapture's residents who overused genetic modifications [4] —along with other Big Daddies and automated security. [3] The game can be completed in between three and five hours. [5] [6]
The gameplay of Minerva's Den is similar to that of BioShock 2. The player uses similar weapons and plasmids (genetic modifications that grant superpowers) [7] [8] but obtains them in a different order, [3] with an increased emphasis on hacking security. [3] The expansion adds new items, including the Ion Lance, a laser weapon wielded by Minerva's Den's Lancer Big Daddies, [9] and the Gravity Well plasmid, which stuns and pulls enemies towards a vortex. New enemies include security robots armed with rockets or laser weapons, flame-wielding Brute Splicers, and ice-throwing Houdini Splicers. [3] [9] [10]
Subject Sigma is guided by the voice of Charles Milton Porter as he approaches Minerva's Den, Rapture's central computer core. Porter wants to reach his supercomputer, the Thinker, to retrieve its blueprints so he can recreate it on the surface. [9] Sigma is opposed by Porter's former colleague Reed Wahl, [11] whom Porter warns has become insane from splicing and his obsession with the Thinker. [9]
After becoming disillusioned with his role in World War II and the loss of his wife Pearl in The Blitz, Porter traveled to Rapture to pursue his dreams of creating artificial intelligence. [12] While initially working together, Porter and Wahl each wanted to use the Thinker for their own ends. Porter attempted to recreate Pearl by emulating her personality with the Thinker, while Wahl believed he could program the computer to predict the future. [13] Wahl betrayed Porter to Rapture's secret police to keep the Thinker for himself. [11] Minerva's Den has been cut off from the rest of Rapture, and its scientists, who have taken to splicing, attack Sigma. [14]
As Sigma progresses, the environment becomes increasingly threatening due to the Thinker's sophisticated defense system and interference from Wahl and his forces. Sigma reaches the Thinker's core where he confronts and kills Wahl. [11] Sampling Sigma's DNA to print out its schematics, the Thinker reveals Sigma's true identity as Porter, who was turned into a Big Daddy after being handed over to Rapture's authorities. [11] Porter's "instructions" throughout the game actually came from the Thinker, imitating the voice of one of its creators. [15] The final sequence of the game contains no combat; the player walks through Porter's living quarters, where he obsessed over digitally recreating his wife. [13] Sigma and the scientist Brigid Tenenbaum return to the surface in a bathysphere; Tenenbaum is able to undo Sigma's programming and restore Porter's original human body. Porter visits his wife's grave and leaves a letter in which he apologizes for trying to bring her back using the Thinker, and says he has decided to let her go. [11]
Development of the Minerva's Den downloadable content (DLC) began after the completion of BioShock 2. Steve Gaynor and a team of nine other full-time workers were tasked with creating a three-to-five-hour, single-player experience; [16] Gaynor served as lead designer and writer, having worked as a level designer for BioShock 2 and on story elements such as dialogue and audio diaries—scattered logs that reveal backstory while players explore. [17] [18] The names of the development team were given to slugs scattered around the game's levels as an Easter egg. [16] The development team were limited in what form the DLC could take and had to reuse as many assets as possible; Gaynor recalled the constraints of limited time and resources was a blessing in disguise. [19] Though many companies would treat DLC as a "cash grab" with less development time and lowered expectations, Gaynor felt these constraints also enabled more creative risks to be taken. [5] With such a small team, the staff collaborated without remaining in segregated roles; according to Gaynor, "It has to be organic as possible, and when someone has something that's not necessarily their primary responsibility but they have a passion for it and ideas for it ... I think you have to take advantage of that". [17]
While being interviewed for his job at 2K Marin, Gaynor had been asked to propose a potential BioShock level. Gaynor recalled suggesting a story focusing on Rapture's computer core and a character splicing to become more intelligent. During BioShock 2's development, the level designers suggested the possibility that technology from Rapture created a primitive artificial intelligence (A.I.) that would lead to the development of SHODAN, an A.I. that appears in the video game System Shock . When developing ideas for what would become Minerva's Den, Gaynor suggested merging the ideas, using a story about Rapture's computer core and a "steampunk" A.I., drawing from SHODAN's multiple identities and impersonations. [20] Gaynor wanted the content to fit both the world of BioShock and the historical era in which it takes place. When the developers decided to focus on Rapture's computer technology, they based it on the early computing age spurred by work done during World War II, including the work of Alan Turing and the cryptographers at Bletchley Park. [21] Gaynor reasoned that Rapture advanced using genetic technology, but the residents of Rapture explored other technological dead ends, including areas devoted to robotics and automation in Minerva's Den. [17]
Contrasting the long development and narrative of the main game with those of Minerva's Den, Gaynor said that he enjoyed the opportunity to tell a shorter story where players understood the characters. [22] According to Gaynor:
We could take the themes of BioShock that are native to Rapture and make them relevant to the specific fiction of Minerva's Den. When you have a super computer that can do a million calculations a second, how does that fit into the ideas of free will and predestination and fate, and choice, that BioShock is built on? [13]
Gaynor wanted to adapt the grand themes of BioShock to tell a different story about loss and changing the past that focused on a single character, Porter, who forms the "heart" of the game. [13] [23] Gaynor felt the final gameplay sequence, in which the player walks through Porter's living space, was important to give players time to reflect on the character's journey. [13] He resisted calls to make the interesting environment a place for combat. [5]
To prevent players of BioShock 2 from feeling Minerva's Den's gameplay was repetitive, 2K Marin tried to present a different experience within the narrative's constraints. Shadowy level design and more dangerous enemies were crafted to give a subtle survival horror feel; the team also adjusted the order in which players receive equipment and plasmids to encourage them to interact with the environment, rather than simply using aggression. [17]
Minerva's Den was announced as the final piece of BioShock 2 DLC in August 2010. [24] Minerva's Den is the only expansion for the game to offer new single-player experiences. [25] The DLC was released on August 31 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles, [26] with minimal promotion. [17] Initially, there were no plans to release Minerva's Den and other BioShock 2 DLC for personal computers (PCs) [27] [28] but 2K later resumed development of the PC ports, and Minerva's Den was released for Microsoft Windows in 2011 and for OS X in 2015. [29] [30]
With the closure of the Games for Windows Live Marketplace in August 2013, BioShock 2 and all of its DLC was released on Steam in October 2013. The game was updated to support Steam achievements, Big Picture mode, and controllers. Minerva's Den was free for players who owned BioShock 2 before the update. [31] [32] [33] In January 2013, Minerva's Den and the rest of BioShock 2 were rereleased in a bundle with BioShock as BioShock: Ultimate Rapture Edition. [34] Minerva's Den was also included in the remastered 2016 BioShock compilation BioShock: The Collection , which has been released for Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. [11] [35]
Aggregator | Score |
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Metacritic | PS3: 81/100 [36] X360: 82/100 [37] |
Publication | Score |
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Game Informer | 85/100 [38] |
GameSpot | 8.5/10 [39] |
GamesRadar+ | 9/10 [6] |
PC Gamer (US) | 81/100 [40] |
Minerva's Den received generally favorable reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. [37] The Daily Telegraph praised Minerva's Den after the lackluster BioShock 2 DLC that preceded it, [9] and Eurogamer and IGN called it an excellent finale story for the setting of Rapture. [3] [34] Minerva's Den has been called one of the greatest DLC expansions of all time. [2] [41] [42] [43]
Critics said Minerva's Den plays much the same as BioShock 2 [2] [6] [44] but welcomed the new additions to gameplay. [38] Several reviewers felt the expansion offered a complete, concentrated BioShock 2 experience; [39] [45] Rock, Paper, Shotgun wrote Minerva's Den "hits the key beats of the ideas behind BioShock—manipulation, twisted technology, distorted values, ambition and folly—and it weaves all that into the improved combat system that, for some, makes BioShock 2 the superior of BioShock 1". [44] Kotaku and Engadget found aspects of the gameplay repetitive, such as the reuse of "tedious" elements from the base game, and the need to perform certain gameplay sequences repeatedly. [46] [45]
Reviewers praised the narrative of Minerva's Den. [3] [9] [38] GamesRadar 's Andrew Heyward said the story makes Minerva's Den a "must-play extension" of the game's universe, [6] and GameSpot's Kevin VanOrd wrote that while the setup for the expansion is familiar to BioShock players—voices on the radio telling the player where to go—the appeal lies with its "personal nature" and Porter's character. [39] Reviews from GameSpot and Eurogamer considered Wahl a weak villain, but Porter a compelling protagonist. [13] [39] The video game theorist Robert Gallagher praised the game as a thoughtful and complex examination of themes of technology and humanity, and evidence that video games could explore such topics well. [47]
The game's twist ending was positively received; [2] [9] [11] VanOrd called it "surprising from a plot perspective and thematically consistent with prior BioShock revelations" [39] though Engadget said that while the twist applies a retroactive motivation for the characters, it comes at the expense of the player's link to Subject Sigma. [45] Kotaku's Heather Alexandra contrasted the twist with those of BioShock and BioShock Infinite , writing, "[those] games want to impress you. Minerva's Den wants to move you." [11] Several reviewers felt the expansion's story stronger than that of BioShock 2. [6] [9]
Gaynor credited the positive experience with a small development team for changing his perception of creating games. [22] Gaynor later joined Irrational Games, and his resulting dissatisfaction with the sprawling development of BioShock Infinite led Gaynor and two other Minerva's Den developers to start their own game studio, The Fullbright Company. [22] [48] Fullbright developed the acclaimed game Gone Home , which shares Minerva's Den's nonlinear exploration and character focus. [5] [49] The final non-combat exploration sequence of Minerva's Den served as a template for Gone Home. [5]
Kenneth M. Levine is an American video game developer. He is the creative director and co-founder of Ghost Story Games. He led the creation of the BioShock series and is also known for his work System Shock 2.
BioShock is a 2007 first-person shooter game developed by 2K Boston and 2K Australia, and published by 2K. The first game in the BioShock series, it was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 platforms in August 2007; a PlayStation 3 port by Irrational, 2K Marin, 2K Australia and Digital Extremes was released in October 2008. The game follows player character Jack, who discovers the underwater city of Rapture, built by business magnate Andrew Ryan to be an isolated utopia. The discovery of ADAM, a genetic material which grants superhuman powers, initiated the city's turbulent decline. Jack attempts to escape Rapture, fighting its mutated and mechanical denizens, while engaging with the few sane survivors left and learning of the city's past. The player can defeat foes in several ways by using weapons, utilizing plasmids that give unique powers, and by turning Rapture's defenses against them.
2K is an American video game publisher based in Novato, California. The company was founded as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive in January 2005 through the 2K Games and 2K Sports sub-labels. The nascent label incorporated several development studios owned by Take-Two, including Visual Concepts and Kush Games, which had been acquired the day before. Originally based in New York City, 2K moved to Novato in 2007. A third label, 2K Play, was added in September 2007. 2K is governed by David Ismailer as president and Phil Dixon as chief operating officer. It operates a motion capture studio in Petaluma, California.
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BioShock 2 is a first-person shooter video game developed by 2K Marin and published by 2K Games. It was released worldwide for PlayStation 3, Windows, and Xbox 360 on February 9, 2010; Feral Interactive released an OS X version on March 30, 2012. The game takes place in the dystopian underwater city of Rapture, eight years after the events of BioShock. In the single-player campaign, players control the armored protagonist Subject Delta as he fights through Splicers—the psychotic human population of the city—using weapons and an array of genetic modifications. The game includes a story-driven multiplayer mode that takes place before the events of BioShock, during Rapture's civil war.
2K Marin, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Novato, California. Founded in December 2007 as a spin-off from their parent, 2K, the company developed BioShock 2 (2010) and The Bureau: XCOM Declassified (2013) before laying off or relocating all staff in October 2013 and silently being closed.
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Andrew Ryan is a fictional character in the BioShock video game series developed by Irrational Games. He serves as the secondary antagonist in BioShock, and also appears in its follow-ups BioShock 2 and BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea. Ryan is portrayed as an idealistic business magnate in the 1940s and 1950s, aiming to create an underwater city called Rapture to avoid government oversight and scrutiny. As civil war erupts in Rapture, Ryan's utopian vision collapses into a dystopia, leading him to become reclusive and paranoid. After winning the war, he becomes increasingly ruthless in his control over the city's remaining inhabitants.
BioShock is a retrofuturistic video game series created by Ken Levine, published by 2K and developed by several studios, including Irrational Games and 2K Marin. The BioShock games combine first-person shooter and role-playing elements, giving the player freedom for how to approach combat and other situations, and are considered part of the immersive sim genre. Additionally, the series is notable for exploring philosophical and moral concepts with a strong in-game narrative influenced by concepts such as Objectivism, total utilitarianism, and American exceptionalism.
Rapture is a fictional city-state in the BioShock series published by 2K Games. It is an underwater city that is the main setting for the games BioShock and BioShock 2. The city also briefly appears in BioShock Infinite, and is featured in its downloadable content, Burial at Sea. The game's back-story describes the city as envisioned by business tycoon Andrew Ryan in the mid-late 1940s as a means to create a utopia for mankind's greatest artists and thinkers to prosper in a laissez-faire environment outside of increasing oppression by the world's governments and religion. However, the lack of government led to severe wealth disparity, a powerful black market, and unrestricted genetic modification, which turned the city into a dystopia exacerbated by Ryan's tyrannical methods to maintain control. The masses turned towards political activists like Atlas who advocated an uprising of the poor against Ryan and the elite of Rapture; and on the eve of 1959, a civil war broke out, leaving much of Rapture's population dead. The remaining citizens either became psychotic "Splicers" due to the effects of ADAM, a substance that can alter genetic material, or have barricaded themselves from the Splicers to protect themselves, leaving the city to fail and fall apart around them.
Brigid Tenenbaum is a fictional character in the BioShock video game series developed by Irrational Games. She is a German Jew who survived the Holocaust due to assisting in Nazi human experimentation, and was eventually invited to the underwater city of Rapture, where she continued human experimentation. She discovered a substance that altered DNA that was highly addictive, using little girls as hosts, before developing empathy for them and attempting to save them from their parasites.
The BioShock series is a collection of story-driven first-person shooters in which the player explores dystopian settings created by Ken Levine and his team at Irrational Games. The first two games, BioShock and its direct sequel, BioShock 2, take place in the underwater city of Rapture in 1960 and 1968, which was influenced heavily by Ayn Rand's Objectivism. The third installment, BioShock Infinite, is set aboard the floating air-city of Columbia in 1912, designed around the concept of American Exceptionalism. Though Infinite is not a direct sequel to the previous games, the game is thematically linked; a short scene within the core Infinite game returns to Rapture, while the downloadable content BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea tie in many of the plot elements between BioShock and BioShock Infinite.
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Fullbright is an American indie video game developer based in Portland, Oregon, best known for its 2013 title Gone Home. Before forming Fullbright, Steve Gaynor, Johnnemann Nordhagen, and Karla Zimonja had worked together on Minerva's Den, the single-player expansion to BioShock 2. During the development of Gone Home, the team worked and lived together in the same house. After its release, Nordhagen left to found a new studio, Dim Bulb Games. Fullbright's next game, Tacoma, was released in August 2017. As of 2023, Gaynor is the sole employee of Fullbright.
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Porter: Minerva's Den has been cut off from the rest of Rapture for some time... but not cut off from splicing. Don't let your guard down.
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)Tenenbaum: You see now why I let the machine speak for you, Mr. Porter. We needed a voice that would be familiar... comforting. Your own. With that copy of the Thinker's programming, we may return to the surface... und use it to restore you to the man you once were.
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)