11 Fascinating Gaming Moments That Almost Happened
11. Bioshock Almost Didn't Feature Rapture
11 years after it launched, developers are still trying to top the imagination of the original Bioshock. While its shooter gameplay wasn't anything to rival the likes of Call of Duty at the time, it more than made up for it with its world and lore, which were tied together brilliantly in Rapture's underwater dystopia.
But, during the earlier stages of production anyway, the decaying, Splicer-infested metropolis was nowhere to be seen. Originally the game was more of a direct sequel to Irrational Games' System Shock titles rather than a mere spiritual successor, and just like those earlier releases, was set to take place on space station without any of the retro aesthetics that defined Rapture.
Even once this idea was scrapped and the devs opted for a clean break, their next move was similarly a far cry away from the eventual game's underwater setting. For a time, the project was set on an island, in a series of labs and facilities abandoned since the German army built them in the Second World War.
Interestingly, the core of Bioshock's most memorable elements were birthed here, including proto Splicers, Little Sisters and Big Daddies, all of which were experiments gone wrong. The throwback aesthetic was also present in this version, which was retained when the devs decided to once again drop the setting in favour of the Rapture we know today.
Josh Brown