Rapture has seen better days. There are ads everywhere for something called "Plasmids". You'll also see discarded protest signs with slogans like "Rapture is Dead" and "Ryan Doesn't Own Us" written on them. Blood splatter is a regular sight, a smoky mist is everywhere and most of the lights in the place can only flicker off and on. As you venture deeper into the city you'll come face-to-face with a Splicer, but an automated gyrocopter armed with an automatic gun swoops in and scares it off with a burst of gunfire. It's here that you'll pick up your first weapon, a large wrench. It gets the job done for close encounters and it's not long before you find yourself in your first melee battle. It doesn't take long for you to beat down your enemy.

Next you'll find a locked door. In the same room is a plasmid dispenser. Inside is an Electro-bolt power-up syringe. Once you activate it you'll inject yourself, triggering a cutscene where you'll fall unconscious, get prodded by Splicers, and get your first glimpse of Little Sister and Big Daddy, a little girl and a monstrous man-thing in what looks like an old-fashioned deep-diving suit with a drill in place of a right hand. Both groups will leave you be and eventually you'll regain consciousness. Once you do you'll use your new Electro-Bolt to shoot out electricity from your left hand and open the locked door.


This leads to a walkway from one building to the next. Your first few steps into this walkway are suddenly interrupted as the tail section of the plane you crashed in floats down to the city and smashes right into the walkway. As water floods the area you'll make your way to the next building where the door will seal behind you, preventing further flooding. Now you'll encounter another Splicer, but this time you have your Electro-Bolt. Atlas uses the radio to tell you to use a "one-two" combo, shocking your enemy with your Plasmid power and then hitting him with the wrench for a one-hit kill. The technique works marvelously.

Next you'll enter a room, kill a flaming Splicer, and take an elevator up a few floors. During your elevator ride Atlas will tell you that his family is here in Rapture and that he needs your help to get them out of this watery hellhole. As your elevator ride ends you'll come across your first female Splicer. She'll be cooing to…something in a baby carriage. Deciding to take no chances we shocked her and killed her with our one-two combo. Inside the carriage you'll find a revolver. You may choose to tackle this differently. As you move to the next area you'll see a set of restrooms, if you go into the "Dames" room you'll see your first ghost, and find your second Plasmid power, Incinerate. This power envelopes your enemies in flames, you'll get to try it out right away as a Splicer will jump out of a stall before you leave the restroom.

Rather than head into the men's room next, we went downstairs where a male and female Splicer are having a bit of a spat. We torched them both and searched the area for medical kits, Eve Injectors (Eve powers your Plasmid abilities) and weapons. We were able to get a good bit of ammo for our revolver. This same room also had two other Splicers standing in ankle-deep water. We used our Electro-Bolt power on the water and took out both of them with one shot. The room itself is decorated for a New Year's party one year ago. Banners with "1959" printed on them are all over the place. You'll eventually find an audio recording of a journal left by Diane McClintock a woman who refers to herself as someone "silly enough to fall in love with Andrew Ryan". The end of her journal, made on New Year's Eve, sounds like all hell breaking loose.

After filling up on med kits and Eve injectors, we go back upstairs, head to the men's room and go through a hole in the way. This leads us to the upper floor of the Footlight Theater. Atlas will chime in here and tell you to lower your weapon, then he'll give you your official introduction to Little Sister. Below you is a small theater and in the middle of the room is a disheveled little girl with a very large syringe. She hums to herself pleasantly while examining a dead body. A Splicer armed with a revolver then appears and attacks her, but before he can do any real damage a Big Daddy shows up and brutally dispatches of the Splicer and then leads the Little Sister away to safety.