The game begins with a quick cutscene on an airplane, which almost immediately crashes into the ocean without any explanation. After the title screen, you wake up bobbing amongst the flaming wreckage of the airplane. Avoid the flames and swim forwards to the lighthouse-looking structure ahead of you. Climb up the stairs and go through the door. It’ll slam shut behind you, and lights will come on, revealing an incredibly creepy statue of Andrew Ryan glaring at you from above. Check out the plaques and artwork, and then head down the stairs at the back of the room.
At the bottom of the stairs is a bathysphere (a submarine-type device). Climb in and pull the lever, and then settle in for the ride. Make sure you have a nice view, because your first look at Rapture is really quite impressive.
WELCOME TO RAPTURE
After the splicer massacres Johnny and fails to break into the bathysphere, you’ll get a transmission from Atlas. Pick up the radio to the left of the door and listen to what he has to say. Go forward from the bathysphere, turn left, and head up the stairs. Turn left and watch the splicer get cut up by the security system. Jump over the debris by pressing Y, and pick up the wrench in front of you (it’ll be highlighted in gold) by pressing A. Smash the debris blocking the door with the wrench, and click LS to crouch under the door. There’s a splicer at the top of the stairs who will throw a flaming couch at you. Get out of its way and continue up the stairs. The splicer will charge you. At the top there’s a Gatherer’s Garden machine with a free Electrobolt plasmid on it – pick it up and the game will go into a cutscene.
When you wake up, you’ll have your first plasmid power, the electrobolt. Search the room for useful stuff, and then use your electrobolt plasmid on the sparking lever next to the door, which overrides the short and opens the door. Walk into the tunnel, and watch the plane’s tail section come crashing in. You’ll have to go up into the plane and through the emrergency exit to continue on through the tunnel.
Go to the end of the tunnel and through the Securis door. You should enter a large, dimly lit room. To the right, near the leaking window, is a corpse with an EVE hypo. There’s another hypo in the left wing. Explore the room until the splicer enters, and then kill him. Use Atlas’s one-two punch – zap him with electrobolt and then club him with the wrench. The airlock door should open and another splicer will come through. Kill him and continue through the airlock.
Head up the stairs and into the lobby, and kill the flaming splicer. Go through the sliding doors and take the open elevator up. Note that you now have a quest arrow which will direct you exactly where you need to go. Head right and kill the splicer blubbering over the stroller. Pick up the revolver in the stroller and walk through the doors into the Kashmir restaurant.
OPTIONAL: Head down the stairs along the wall to the right. There’ll be a splicer trying to get through a door at the bottom – kill him quickly. The other splicer he’s arguing with will open the door to see what’s going on, so take her out too. Go through the door and search the room for some money and other goodies. Walk back out and you’ll see two splicers scrounging around in the pool of water by the window. Hit the water with the electrobolt and you’ll electrocute them both – this will also earn you the “Toaster in the Tub” achievement for 10 GP (if you don’t already have it). There’s an audio-diary (New Year’s Eve Alone) on the table.
Turn right at the top of the stairs and go into the bathrooms, killing any splicers you find. There’s a ghost scene in the women’s bathroom, and an audio-diary (Hole in Bathroom Wall) on the rubble at the end of the room. Head into the men’s room and through the hole in the wall of the last stall.
Head over the lighting fixture to the balcony on the other side of the room. There’s a radio transmission from Atlas here about the little sister on the floor beneath you. Go down the stairs against the wall and watch the scripted event of a splicer getting his ass kicked by a Big Daddy. Grab the pistol off the fresh corpse and smash through the lock on the gate to your right.
Turn right at the Vita-chamber and head down the hallway, killing splicers as you go. When you get to the stairs there’ll a pair of splicers standing in a pool of water – you should know what to do by now. Head down the stairs to the lobby area.
Approach the door to Neptune’s Bounty. It’ll slam shut and a security alarm will go off. Back away from the door, as a flamethrower turret will appear and start trying to barbecue you. Splicers will start appearing as well, jumping from the stairs into the pool of water in the middle of the room. Use your electrobolt plasmid to zap them as soon as they touch the water. You’ll get a radio transmission from Atlas, who opens the door to the Medical Plaza. Head through, jump over the debris, and walk into the room with all the TV screens.
The doors slam shut behind you, and you are forced to watch a video of Andrew Ryan. Splicers will start trying to smash through the windows, but Atlas gets the door at the back of the room open for you before they can break in. Head through and press A at the airlock door to take you to the medical pavilion.
