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Not just a shock

Come in, come in! You've never seen anything like it! People with the most impossible acrobatic contortions and magicians with god-like abilities! Meet Big Daddy and Little Sister, stroll along the Shopping Miles, visit the countless bistros and stores! Face to face with the deep sea! Dive into a fantastic world many miles under the sea, where you can be whoever and whatever you want! Visit Rapture!

This is how the underwater world of the BioShock-series could be advertised if a few important details were omitted. Because Rapture, the main location of BioShock and BioShock 2 and a planned utopia for the rich and beautiful who want to escape government control such as taxes or regulations around 1940, is no longer an idyll for plantation owners and cocktail sippers. Instead, the inhabitants have been degenerated by the super drug ADAM into murderous plasmid junkies who wildly hurl fireballs at unwelcome guests.

After a plane crash over the sea, we are the only survivors to reach a lighthouse, complete with diving bell to the seabed colony. Our involuntary visit to the deep-sea terror is accompanied by an exciting story, wacky antagonists and challenging gunplay. In other words, a paradise for fans of cultivated horror shooters, for whom the game world and gameplay are more important than the next jump scare. Even today, the game is still worth a recommendation, especially as the story forms the basis for the sequel and even BioShock: Infinite to some extent. But is the music still worth listening to? Would you kindly follow me to the review section ...

The soundtrack was written by Garry Schyman, an American film and video game composer who had already been nominated for several awards before his work on Bioshock , including for the music to the Alien classic Destroy All Humans!. However, the thriller specialist really came into his own with his work on 2K's horror shooter. And rightly so, it should be noted, as Schyman's worldbuilding work lends the underwater world its oppressively eerie atmosphere. Main instrument: strings, especially violins - what worked for Hitchcock in the shower also works on the ocean floor.

The themes of the sunken utopia alternate wonderfully in the game, with nothing standing out as disturbing or out of place in the mix of fast-paced action in the battles and oppressively gloomy horror interludes. Particularly beautiful are the pieces that sound like regret turned into music: "The Ocean on His Shoulders", "Dancers on a String (Reprise)", "Empty Houses (Reprise)", all emotive, all calling out to you: 'See your creation, see what could have been, and what it has fallen to.' Combined with the backstory of each character and the tragedy surrounding the duo of the little sisters and big daddys, it's an absolutely coherent impression.

The action pieces, on the other hand, are powerfully driven, the strings playing like an angry swarm of bees chasing us through the corridors. This is particularly noticeable in the theme of the first boss: "Dr. Steinman", the crazed surgeon who sews up faces Frankenstein-style in his quest for optical perfection. First the violins shrill towards us in the style of a 60s horror movie, then, like in Jaws , the dam-dam-dam-dam is heared, like snapping at its prey. Panic is breathing down our necks, flight becomes fight. The piece develops into a Bioshock-typical battle track with brass and percussion, everything sounds powerful and overwhelming. The overall mix is excellent, the transitions seamless.

If we compare this with the music from other games of this type, such as the horror game Amnesia: The Dark Descent from 2010, the different levels of skill become clear. Although we can't defend ourselves against the horrors of the dark mansion there, Amnesia is also about conveying the horror acoustically. Here, too, the strings are heard, as well as piano and even organ, sometimes with operetta vocals. The whole thing works, the horror sets in. However, the soundtrack lacks identity; we could be listening to the music to any other horror game.

Bioshocks Bioshocks music, meanwhile, bursts with references to the sea without becoming stereotypical. Ambient effects resonate in many tracks: In "The Docks (Prelude)" we hear the creaking of wooden beams like on an old sailing ship, or the groaning of the glass construction under the pressure of the water masses. "The Engine City" sounds like the powerful ups and downs of an engine's pistons, and in the wonderfully brute "All Spliced Up" you can even hear the shrill ship's whistle that is used to call the crew on deck (or, in the case of the old Star Trek-series, always sounds when someone steps onto the bridge). In keeping with the Jaws-parallel, just listening to the soundtrack not only makes it clear that it's going to be scary, but also wet.

In addition to these tracks, the OST is joined by classical pieces such as Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite or swinging feel-good songs from the 30s, 40s and 50s. "Just Walking in the Rain" by Jim Reeves or "(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window" by Patti Page sound light-hearted and carefree, in the game they serve to contrast vision and reality, what was and what is. These zeitgeisty atmospherics are nice, but if you're not into record player acoustics and grandma's dance music, you'd better skip them.

What you should definitely not miss out on is "Cohen's Masterpiece", which serves as the theme for the mystically murderous entertainer Sander Cohen. It's a beautiful piece, which soars up and down the piano in the style of old grand masters such as Chopin and Liszt and on which many a brother of mine has broken his fingers while practicing. Full of grandeur, imposing, then quiet as a mouse, it is an ode to classical music and, along with the first sad, then sinister "The Ocean on His Shoulders", the highlight of the soundtrack.

And before I finish, I have to point out that the score comes in an awful lot of different variations. Sometimes it's called "BioShock: Orchestral Score", then "Sounds of Rapture" or "I Am Rapture, Rapture Is Me" - always with differently named tracks, of course. My version, a conglomerate of all the tracks and probably best understood as a gamerip, is no exception. But that shouldn't change the rating of the tracks, because anyone who has read this review up to this point will hopefully listen to it independently of my recommendations and make their own judgment.

Nr.	Title	Interpret(en)	Ratings
01	Going Up, Going Down	Garry Schyman	2
02	First Encounter / Wandering Around	Garry Schyman	2
03	Dancers on a String	Garry Schyman	5
04	You Have to Save My Family	Garry Schyman	5
05	Steinman (Prelude)	Garry Schyman	5
06	Mr Bubbles / Little Sister	Garry Schyman	3
07	Diseased Medical	Garry Schyman	3
08	The Docks	Garry Schyman	3
09	Spliced Aphrodite	Garry Schyman	4
10	Dr. Steinman	Garry Schyman	5
11	Through the Docks	Garry Schyman	3
12	Fight for Family	Garry Schyman	4
13	Busted Sub	Garry Schyman	3
14	Empty Houses	Garry Schyman	4
15	Photographer Fights Peaches	Garry Schyman	3
16	This Is Where They Sleep	Garry Schyman	3
17	Lost Soul	Garry Schyman	4
18	Step Into My Garden	Garry Schyman	3
19	Langford's Last Message	Garry Schyman	4
20	Step Into My Garden (Reprise)	Garry Schyman	2
21	Cohen Is Lurking	Garry Schyman	2
22	Collecting Samples / Saving the Trees	Garry Schyman	3
23	Cohen's Masterpiece, Part 1	Garry Schyman	3
24	Cohen's Masterpiece, Part 2	Garry Schyman	4
25	Overheating the Core	Garry Schyman	2
26	All Spliced Up	Garry Schyman	5
27	Haunted Slums	Garry Schyman	2
28	The Engine City	Garry Schyman	4
29	Bowels of the City	Garry Schyman	4
30	Ryan's Death / True Faces	Garry Schyman	3
31	Get Out of My Head	Garry Schyman	2
32	192	Garry Schyman	3
33	The Dash	Garry Schyman	5
34	Becoming One of Them	Garry Schyman	4
35	Big Daddy Is Coming	Garry Schyman	3
36	Final Fight / Leaving Rapture	Garry Schyman	4
37	The Good One	Garry Schyman	3
38	The Ocean on His Shoulders	Garry Schyman	5
39	Welcome to Rapture	Garry Schyman	5
40	Rise, Rapture, Rise	Garry Schyman	4
41	Combat Medley	Garry Schyman	4
42	Rapture News Daily	Garry Schyman	4
43	Gameplay Cues	Garry Schyman	2
44	You're the Top	Cole Porter	3
45	Oh Danny Boy	Mario Lanza	2
46	Twentieth Century Blues	Al Bowlly	1
47	Bei mir bist du schön	The Andrews Sisters	3
48	Beyond the Sea	Bobby Darin	2
49	Brother Can You Spare a Dime	Bing Crosby	2
50	God Bless the Child	Billie Holiday	1
51	(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window	Patti Page	3
52	If I Didn't Care	The Ink Spots	1
53	It Had to Be You	Danny Thomas	1
54	It's Bad for Me	Rosemary Clooney	2
55	Jitterbug Waltz	Fats Waller	1
56	Just Walking in the Rain	Johnnie Ray	4
57	La Mer [Instrumental]	Django Reinhardt	3
58	Liza	Django Reinhardt	4
59	Night and Day	Billie Holiday	1
60	Nutcracker (Waltz of the Flowers)	Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky	3
61	Papa Loves Mambo	Perry Como	3
62	Please Be Kind	Frank Sinatra	2
63	The Best Things in Life Are Free	The Ink Spots	2
64	The Party's Over Now	Noel Coward	2
65	World Weary	Noel Coward	2
66	Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams	Bing Crosby	1
67	La Mer	Django Reinhardt	2
68	Cohens Masterpiece (Prelude)	Garry Schyman	5