Analyzing the Teaser Trailer for BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams

Gamers were hit with a plane crash of delight—some might even say that they were “rapturous”—when the trailer to BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams leaked onto the Internet last week, which was supposed to be a treat for those who purchase the PS3 version of BioShock, released on October 21st. Featuring what appears to be an older Little Sister clutching a Big Daddy doll and gazing at the sea, the trailer reignites the atmosphere from the first game (due in no small part to the pitch-perfect music) while adding a sense of nostalgia—or maybe regret. While that creepy BioShock feeling has definitely been nailed, the trailer does bring up other questions, such as “What the hell is this game about?”
SPOILER ALERT: Plot points from the first game will be discussed.

For those of you who might have missed it, here’s the shaky-cam leak of the trailer:

First, let’s talk about what we definitely know about BioShock 2. The game is scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of publisher Take-Two’s fiscal year in 2009, roughly in October of next year. Ken Levine, the creator of the first BioShock, will not head the game, nor will his team at 2K Boston develop it; instead, 2K Marin will head the sequel up, with Levine’s status simply stated as being “involved.” Finally, according to the July 2008 issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, the game will once again take place in the series’ sunken metropolis, Rapture. “I think Rapture is a rich world that I can keep mining,” Lead Artist Hogarthe De La Plante said. “There’s so much more we can get out of it.”

And then we have the trailer, which is almost as ambiguous as it possibly could be. But that won’t stop us from hypothesizing, will it? Truth be told, the trailer offers a bevy of hints as to what the layout of the next game will be, should we analyze each bit. So, let’s get started, shall we?

• Setting

Though BioShock 2 will take place in Rapture, there has been no official report as to when the game will occur. Based on the trailer, it’s fairly obvious that it will be set a considerable amount of time after the first BioShock. Not only is the Little Sister grown up now—at least in her mid-to-late teens, potentially older (damn you, shaky cam!)—the logo itself has become riddled with rust and barnacles, denoting that years have passed since the player last set foot in Rapture’s Adam-smeared walls.

• Plot

Probably the least stable point of this analysis, I’ve come to believe that the next chapter will somehow be about the redemption of Rapture. In the first game, Andrew Ryan’s grand ideas succumbed under the greed and instabilities present in all human beings, collapsing into a hellfire of murder and gene manipulation. In this trailer, we first see Rapture rising from the sand back into its more pristine state, a metaphor that could be taken literally as the rebuilding of Rapture. More telling to me, however, is the blue butterfly that hatches from one of the barnacles on the BioShock 2 logo, an uncharacteristically beautiful thing in the world of Rapture. Could this be a symbol that something good will come out of Rapture, literally or figuratively? Or might it symbolize that despite how dreadful or ugly something can be, there can still be a small amount of hope that things will get better? What I do know is this: it would be extremely cool to see Rapture return to glory somehow (and thus somewhat justifying the sappy “Sea of Dreams” subtitle).

• Main Characters

In the good ending of the first BioShock, we see only five of the little sisters visiting the main character as he dies in the hospital (which insinuates that he doesn’t return). What happened to the others? From this trailer, it wouldn’t be too far fetched to say that at least one of them returns to Rapture. Think about it: even after they had been liberated in the first game, their intense conditioning still led them to harvest Adam from dead bodies; surely these compulsions wouldn’t be completely eradicated upon their return to the surface. Also, look at what the Little Sister is clutching in the trailer: a Big Daddy doll. This seems to me to be a direct symbol that this Little Sister is unable to free herself from Rapture. Combining this with my plot theory, maybe the game will center around one of these Little Sisters and her quest to revive the Rapture she once knew.

There are other niggling details left over from the first BioShock that could also come into play. Like what happened to Tenenbaum, for example—did she escape along with the Little Sisters? And let us not forget the bad ending, either: what if Rapture did get its hands on nuclear weapons? Though the BioShock 2 trailer insinuates that the Little Sisters did escape, there’s still a lot of leeway in terms of how the story could be shaped.

Most important of all, it’s important that we don’t completely trust this trailer as indicative of what the game will be like, as the first game was clearly designed to dupe us gamers. All or none of these theories could come true. But all the same, I think I agree with Andrew Ryan: “Even in a book of lies, sometimes you find truth.”