Ryan Amusements (Level)



"My first line of mechanical puppets made the children here coo with wonder. But Ryan thought my vision was immature... "antiquated," he said. This place could have been something magical, but instead he turned it into a school... no, a cathedral. Dedicated to himself."

- Carlson Fiddle

Ryan Amusements is the third level in BioShock 2. It is a theme park designed by Carlson Fiddle, built to teach Andrew Ryan's propaganda to the young children of Rapture. The ride and exhibits are designed to make the viewer hate and fear the surface world, featuring displays such as giant hands labeled "The Government" blocking artists from their work and pushing down brilliant scientists. It is also in this level that the player will make eye-to-eye contact with Augustus Sinclair, founder of Sinclair Solutions, who will ask Delta to perform a service for him. This is also the first level where the player can adopt Little Sisters, and will have to gather ADAM from two corpses to buy the Incinerate! Plasmid at the Hall of the Future.

History
During the making of Rapture, Andrew Ryan quickly realized that many children would immigrate to the city with their parents or be born within it. He also knew that these children were bound to hear stories of the surface and may someday wish to leave Rapture. However, this would conflict with one of the main laws of Rapture, which was to keep Rapture itself a secret, allowing no one to leave. Thus, after construction of the city was completed, Ryan had his inner circle of Ryan Industries, including Carlson Fiddle, Augustus Sinclair, and Sofia Lamb help design and build a park to instill fear in children of the horrors on "the surface." Ryan had his ideals incorporated into the park to show the triumphs of Rapture and the injustices of the surface thus convincing the children that the surface was unfit for them. The park was then completed as Ryan Amusements. However, many people, including Lamb and Fiddle, saw this park as not for the children, but as a shrine for Ryan himself. This conflicting view resulted in Lamb's resignation from Ryan Industries.

Ryan had many attractions built in Ryan Amusements, such as the ride known as "Journey to the Surface", a restaurant for the guests known as the El Dorado Lounge, a Plasmid store for the adults and parents known as the Hall of the Future, a gift shop, and a museum dedicated to the making of Rapture known as the Rapture Memorial Museum.

The guests, usually children with their parents, would exit off the Atlantic Express train, buy a ticket into the park, receive a free promotional Gene Tonic and enter the museum. Afterwards, the guests could splice, buy a gift, eat at the lounge, tour the exhibits, and ride Journey to the Surface. Though many scoffed at this "shrine" of a park, it did leave an impact on the children. Many came to believe that the surface was evil and that nothing in Rapture could be worse than going back up topside.

The Park continued to be a favorite attraction up until the 1958 New Year's Eve Riots. On the night of December 31, 1958, Nina Carnegie volunteered to chaperon children from a third grade class on a field trip and sleepover at the Park. Everything seemed fine until the riots began. In the ensuing chaos, the power was shut down and the park was cut off from the rest of Rapture. The adults trapped inside did what they could to care for the children and supply them with the remaining resources available, but many, including Nina herself, eventually starved to death. Among the dead was Carlson Fiddle. He had locked himself in a repair room in the park and attempted to escape the level in an extra, rusted Bathysphere unit, but he died before he could put his plan into action. Nina was the last adult to die.

Years later, power was restored and the park was finally reopened, letting Splicers from the Rapture Family and others such as Subject Delta gain access.

Lobby
Before guests could enter Ryan Amusements, they had to pass through the Lobby and buy their tickets. There are a few benches and news kiosks for customers waiting for their train or for the park to open. The room has access to the Atlantic Express Train Station as well as Park Security.

Rapture Memorial Museum
The two-story Rapture Museum serves as the main hub of Ryan Amusements connecting most of the different areas. Its six audio-visual exhibits show a stylized history of Andrew Ryan founding Rapture, and the building of the underwater city. All but one of the exhibits have survived the decades since the park went out of service.

Journey to the Surface
Journey to the Surface is the main attraction in the theme park. It is presented as an imaginary ascension to the surface world, showing all the horrors awaiting anyone who would wish to leave Rapture. The journey is outlined by hellish neon flames, and to the sides of the ride the viewer can see various wax and mechanical puppet displays damning the surface world and its politics. Interspersed with these exhibits are mechanical puppets of Andrew Ryan lecturing on the evil of the parasites on the surface.

The El Dorado Restaurant
The El Dorado Restaurant was a small bar and cafe where visitors could have a meal during break in exploring the many attractions in the theme park. Here, the player will find the Drill Power Tonic in its entry hall, and the first Big Daddy and Little Sister.

Hall of the Future
Hall of the Future was an exhibit where visitors could observe the newest inventions and test the powers of Plasmids. Here the player will find two Gatherer's Gardens. One holds the Incinerate! Plasmid, which Delta must use to unfreeze the blocked door in Atlantic Express train station. Hall of the Future also features a smaller exhibit which is blocked by ice called "Kitchen of Tomorrow". The player can reach the second Gatherer's garden inside it by melting the ice with Incinerate! which leads to a room advertising the Winter blast Plasmid via a house wife having a problem in her kitchen.

Gift Shop
The gift shop of Ryan Amusements is a tacky store where tourists can buy candy, drinks, cards, toys and dolls. The entryway of the shop features a shoe shine station and a small bar. One wall of the shop is a window showing a panorama of the city. Most of the inventory of the shop is low quality since the manager, Silas Bantam, made a deal with Augustus Sinclair to increase profit by using cheap manufacturing labor in Pauper's Drop. The Gift Shop also contains the only restrooms in the amusement park and an Epstein the Swami fortune teller machine.

Map
Ryan Amusements (Level)/L1|Level One Ryan Amusements (Level)/L2|Level Two Ryan Amusements (Level)/L3|Level Three||true

Single Use Events

 * There are 2 Power to the People vending machines.
 * 2 ADAM-filled corpses

New Weaponry

 * Machine Gun

New Plasmids and Gene Tonics

 * Sports Boost - Past the Museum entrance, under the sign "Memorial Museum".
 * Drill Power - In the hallway leading to the El Dorado Restaurant.
 * Booze Hound - Behind a maintenance door near the beginning of the “Journey to the Surface” ride.

New Plasmids and Tonics (Available At A Gatherer's Garden)
Machine #1 Machine #2
 * Health Upgrade- Price: 40 ADAM
 * EVE Link - Price: 30 ADAM
 * Incinerate! - Price: 90 ADAM
 * Armored Shell - Price: 45 ADAM
 * Careful Hacker - Price: 25 ADAM
 * EVE Upgrade - Price: 40 ADAM
 * Extra Nutrition - Price: 20 ADAM
 * Tonic Slot - Price: 25 ADAM

New Enemies

 * Bouncer
 * Little Sister
 * Machine Gun Turret

Audio Diaries

 * 1) Sofia Lamb - Eleanor's Progress - On a crate with candles in the Museum Entrance area (right after leaving the train station).
 * 2) Carlson Fiddle - The Old Sheepdog - On a desk in the Security area office, just before you have to hack the door open through the broken glass.
 * 3) Nina Carnegie - Volunteer - Under a bench in the Rapture Museum, on the top floor directly opposite of where you first walk in.
 * 4) Silas Bantam - Cutting Corners - In a crate next to a safe in the Gift Shop (top northeast corner of the Museum).
 * 5) Sofia Lamb - Rapture is Deliverance - On a shrine to Lamb in the ladies restroom of the Gift Shop (the restroom you have to use an Electro Bolt to open).
 * 6) Eleanor Lamb - Eat Dog - In the hallway leading to the El Dorado Lounge (top floor of Museum, far north, right next to the Drill Power Tonic).
 * 7) Mark Meltzer - "Child" and Guardian - On a counter in the farthest north alcove of the El Dorado Lounge.
 * 8) Nina Carnegie - You, Me, and 1959 - In the maintenance room of Journey to the Surface.
 * 9) Carlson Fiddle - Escape Plan - Beside a gatherable corpse in the Ride Cart Garage.
 * 10) Andrew Ryan - Lamb the Problem, Sinclair the Solution - On crates in front of Conformity & Co. exhibit of Journey to the Surface.
 * 11) Sofia Lamb - Truth is in the Body - On desk in the workshop room above Collapse Ave. in Journey to the Surface.
 * 12) Nina Carnegie - Deterioration - Beside a corpse on a ledge, accessed by climbing up a hand in a storage rack at the back right of the family exhibit.
 * 13) Stanley Poole - Working for Sinclair - In an alcove of the flooded room with a Power to the People machine in Journey to the Surface.
 * 14) Mike Novak - Doctor Lamb - Near the Security Camera, in a small room blocked by breakable wooden boards in Journey to the Surface.
 * 15) Andrew Ryan - Efficacy - In the maintenance hallway across from the Lighthouse at the end of Journey to the Surface.
 * 16) Devin LeMaster - Dating Tip - In the locked employees only room at the beginning of Journey to the Surface.
 * 17) Gilbert Alexander - A Father's Love - Beside the Vita-Chamber in Hall of the Future.
 * 18) Grace Holloway - Disappeared - Inside the frozen iceblock at the Park Entrance.
 * 19) Augustus Sinclair - Wooden Nickels - In the previously locked room with an Atlantic Express door in the train station.

Behind the Scenes

 * Originally, Ryan Amusements would have featured statues of men in diving suits, as revealed in Deco Devolution artbook by Hogarth de la Plante, Lead Environment Artist, 2K Marin: "We had these statues designed that showed Big Daddies were originally built to be the workers that built the city. They are these sort of vague Big Daddy-looking guys holding up a wrench." However, they were used as building decorations, much like that of the Atlas statues in the first BioShock. One does appear in this level, near Grace Holloway's Audio Diary, as well as at the front, and inside, the entrance of the Atlantic Express, in the locker room in Workshop 6A, hanging Rosie suits.
 * The model used for the multiple mechanical puppets of Andrew Ryan is actually an untextured version of the current character model seen in the game's New Year's Eve video, with some added machinery and detail to appear damaged.