BioShock 2 Removed Content

Before its final version, BioShock 2 was submitted to numerous ideas from its developers, 2K Marin. This article's purpose is to reveal all recorded content that did not make it to the game, or that was modified beforehand. However, since the following elements were removed or unused on purpose from the final version of the game, they should not be considered canon to the game's history, nor as an actual part of its universe.

Characters
The following will not only detail characters who were entirely removed from the game, but also altered versions of their part in the game's story.

Subject Delta
At the point the Hunting the Big Sister trailer was released, the player did not yet have their own model. As such, the video shows the placeholder of a Rosie model to represent the player, instead. His design went through many iterations of size, helmet, equipment, color, and even as simple as his faceplate shape. One iteration of Delta's design looked like a slight variant of the Bouncer. An idea for the player's iris aperture (the glove openings) was that "... [he] would have some weird parasite because instead of actually experimenting on a human to make the early Big Daddies, they would have this parasite to test plasmids. The little iris would open and this weird parasite would come out and you'd see a fire plasmid on the parasite or eyes coming out of this freak." Concept also reveals that the team went through many concepts when entering the Little Sister's eyes, from seeing him as an all-American father figure to a superhero to a gold knight in shining armor.

Eleanor Lamb
Eleanor Lamb was originally to be the Big Sister, back when there was one single Big Sister in Rapture who was to hunt Subject Delta. This was also to be one of the plot twists of the game (revealing the Little Sister that belonged to you is now the main antagonist), but the developers thought this twist was too predictable. Eleanor's role had changed for the game (although she does become a Big Sister in the last act for helpful purposes), and the Big Sister became multiple Big Sister boss battles.

In some scrapped audio diaries, it was to be revealed that Eleanor is the biological daughter of Subject Delta. Apparently, Sofia Lamb had obtained genetic material from Subject Delta while he was a test subject in Fontaine Futuristics and used it to produce Eleanor. For reasons unknown but much like above, this too was scrapped.

Eleanor's "doll"
The game features a hand made Big Daddy doll owned by Eleanor Lamb and was made to look like Subject Delta, but the artist was told to make a "Big Daddy doll" so they went for the signature look; The Bouncer. The Bouncer plush can even be seen in the teaser for BioShock 2. Eleanor's plush was once a white teddy bear.

Sofia Lamb
In the ultimately abandoned introduction to BioShock 2 (see "Prelude" section below), Sofia Lamb was to act as a guide over the radio. Similar to how Atlas lead Jack in BioShock, Sofia would have instructed Subject Delta as he naviagted Eleanor through the deteriorating city. Once Delta reached Sofia at her safe point, she would betray him, take Eleanor, and kill him just as she does in the opening cinematic of the final version of the game.

Augustus Sinclair
Sinclair's first model was slightly like the Cuban-American actor Desi Arnaz, but that changed as his personality was further developed.

Brigid Tenenbaum
Brigid Tenenbaum originally had a much larger presence in BioShock 2 during development. Similar to the first game, she was meant to give the player gifts for saving Little Sisters. When the story was finalized, the designers had decided this was "not important for her," and her part was minimized. The role of rewarding kindness was then given to Eleanor Lamb.

Tenenbaum did manage to get a bigger role in the Minerva's Den (DLC), by awakening and helping Subject Sigma throughout the game.

Grace Holloway
According to concept art, a poster reveals that Grace would have had a duet partner named Stanley, both of whom would have performed at a nightclub named "The Deep Blue (Sea) Revue" under the company "Rapture Tone Recordings". Storyboard concepts also suggest that Grace would have been stationed in her dressing room at The Limbo Room instead of her secret room in The Sinclair Deluxe.

Stanley Poole
Stanley had another character model with a period-appropriate Hawaiian shirt. The producers stated that it was too "out of place" for the setting, and that it felt really modern even though it wasn't.

Gilbert Alexander
Gilbert originally made the Big Sister costume and it was contact with the Big Sisters that would have mutated him. There was an idea where if Gil was in control of all the ADAM, wherever the ADAM-Infused Plant appeared indicated his prior presence in that location, showing his influence over ADAM as well as the plant life surrounding him.

Ava Tate
Ava Tate was intended to be an important character working under Sofia Lamb. Juliet Landau, who also voiced the Little Sisters in BioShock recorded her speaking roles, but the character was mostly cut from the game. Much of Tate's character was repurposed for Mlle Blanche de Glace.

Nigel Weir
"To be added"

Other Minor Characters

 * Jean-Paul Beauregard
 * Julianne Corona
 * Tommy Hanrahan
 * James Hollcroft
 * Thoroughgood Hudson
 * Earl Manley
 * Davis Pittman

Danny Wilkins
Concept art reveals that Danny would have had a traditional Football helmet as a unique cosmetic feature, similar to the ones worn by the Pigskin Splicer model.

Louie McGraff
Concept art shows Louie's "non-Spliced" model as much older then in the final game, with suspender pants and with shorter spiky hair.

Mlle Blanche de Glace
Blanche was supposed to be a lot older and "road worn" then what we see in the game. Her idle was about how she had trouble finding jobs because much younger starlets got all the roles.

Naledi Atkins
Some concept art for Naledi shows that her outfit was ones a dark green jacket with white tights and long black boots, similar to a riders outfit. She was also known as a "Bathysphere Pilot".

Suresh Sheti
Suresh was originally going to be a female, a magician's assistant with a Rockette-style tailcoat and fishnet stockings.

Splicers
With certain exceptions, the Splicers in BioShock appear more or less like average people until one gets up close to the individual Splicer models. The makers of BioShock 2 sought to push the envelope and make the Splicers so deformed that they only have the slightest resemblance to human beings. Before the game was finalized, artist toyed with just how far to mutate Rapture's populace. Concept art shows many variations of the Splicer models; more or less hair, more or less sagging skin, a tie or a bow-tie, a tumor located on a different part of the body, etc. In the end, each model's silhouette was finalized with about four color variations available.

Brute & Ducky
Concept art reveals that there was a proposed idea to combine the Ducky Splicer model's attire with the Brute splicer. The concept images show the Brute wearing two of Ducky's outfit variants (the security and orderly uniforms) from BioShock 2. It can be assumed this would have been an area-specific choice, much like Toasty's prison uniform being encountered only in Inner Persephone or Lady Smith's nurse uniform in the Medical Pavilion.

Aqua Splicers
Several pages of concept art in the Deco Devolution artbook are dedicated to a Splicer that could breath underwater, named the Aqua Splicer. One designer notes, "...there were two forms to him. When you're inside Rapture, it would be more upright and have a more humanoid look to it. When it would go out in the water, what looked like its arms when it was on land become its legs, more or less and its fins, and that would propel it." These Splicers would have special air sacks and leeches living off it. In the final game, the only enemies that can survive out in the sea are Big Sisters and Big Daddies.

Jesters
Concept art depicting tall, thin individuals dressed up in beautiful jester costumes and masks appears in the Deco Devolution artbook. There is no information written about these slender figures, so its impossible to tell whether they would have been enemies or simply appeared as entertainers in the opening cinematic, and during flashbacks (like the Rapture Citizen models). The images in the book do appear alongside the "Survivor" model and two of the designs show no visible mutations. However, the other two Jesters depicted have unnatural or just plain mutated physique. The pose of some of the Jesters suggests they may have been Spider Splicers.

Survivor
With the exception of some of the NPCs, the concept of non-spliced people still surviving in Rapture, whom the player may have interacted with, was cut from the final game. These remaining sane citizens would have special breathing apparatuses and wrapped their clothes in duct tape to keep them more water-tight so as to better navigate the deteriorating city. At their "safe house," they would have dressed more normally. When the idea was scrapped, the model was repurposed as a mutated Splicer that only appears in the demo and the opening cinematic.

Alpha Series
Some concepts show that the Alpha Series developed horrible deformities from the Splicing experiments performed on them. Some of these deformities were so extreme that some facial features such as eyes and mouths can be seen sticking out of the Big Daddies helmet.

Big Sisters
At one time, there was one single Big Sister in Rapture who was to hunt Subject Delta. As mentioned above, it would be revealed that this Big Sister was really Eleanor Lamb. At each encounter, Delta would engage her in combat and almost defeat her before she'd run away. This was deemed repetitive and unappealing.

Little Brothers
BioShock 2 explored the concept of "Little Brothers." The idea had been brought up in BioShock with the audio diary Why Just Girls?, but no satisfactory answer had been given for why the ADAM gatherers were exclusively female. Rinaldo Tjan notes in the Deco Devolution artbook, "they were supposed to be like Little Sisters, but they were a failed experiment. Little Brothers were supposed to be aggressive, so they couldn't be used for gathering." There would have been a "Little Brother therapy room" in Inner Persephone, but that was repurposed as the Pediatric Wing for the Little Sisters.

Pneumo Trading
The Deco Devolution artbook mentions an early idea for the game involving the player trading for supplies with isolated camps of Rapture survivors through the Pneumo tube system. "Originally, and this was very heavily affected by the story, we were going to have survivors in Rapture that had hidden out in these camps and needed a way to talk to one another and trade goods back and forth. We came up with the idea of using the Pneumo system. It was a mail system but very simplistic—old pneumatic tube air devices. So I came up with the idea that they would build these glass boxes, like fish tanks, sealed off, and inside they would take junk from Rapture, old TVs and things like that and link them together and make these cobbled together devices that they could stick into Pneumo tubes. The idea with this one specifically, the TV would show the ammo guy, his list of ammunition, and what he had in his supply cabinet. You'd click him, and he'd say "Hey, how're you doing? I've got ammo here. Do you want this stuff?" Then you would say "I want machine gun ammo." Then he would say, "Oh yeah. Here it is." He would show it to you and give you a price, then you would pay for it and then it would pop up in the Pneumo tube. In this screen, the bottom right hand corner is smashed like some Splicer hit it with a crowbar because he got mad. Each screen tells its own little story in that you come up with your own ideas about what might have happened to this particular element."

- Jim Ingram, 2K Marin UI artist

The developers had already created a model and several UI screens for the Pneumo trading machine before it was cut from the final version of the game. Dubbed "Buy N Sell", concept shows a Pneumo tube fashioned with various equipment, wiring, and parts, such as a microphone, antenna, and projector. The Pneumo Trading Machine was ultimately removed because the Survivors idea was no longer a part of the storyline.

"Splicers Fear/Hate the Drill" Mechanic
The player was originally going to be able to scare weak enemies with the drill, as seen from the Hunting the Big Sister trailer.

ADAM
In the Deco Devolution artbook, many of the concept art and other captions interchange ADAM with Eden, showing that at one point, ADAM was renamed Eden in the later years of Rapture.

Ghosts
Although BioShock 2 does not feature ghosts as portrayed in BioShock, the launch trailer for BioShock 2 does contain a scene featuring a large assortment of ghosts dancing. As revealed by BioShock 2 Creative Director Jordan Thomas in an interview with GamesRadar, the idea of ghosts and genetic memories would have originally played a larger role in BioShock 2 as more than just cutscenes: "There were a number of playable flashbacks, which had a prequel-like flavor, but were much more subjective, like memories that you were uncovering. But they were terrible. What Rapture was like in its heyday appeals on paper, but it meant you really couldn’t play the game. Players sleepwalked through each scene, which was pretty, but not particularly convincing."

Submarines/ Personal Bathyspheres
Concept shows variants of a submarine design, possibly for when Bathysphere travel was considered before the Atlantic Express became the main mode of transportation. The only trace left of this concept is a poster of Austen Streamliner, who's design mirrors a variation of the original concept art.

Muni Waste
Concept variations show a dumbwaiter device or chute opening used to dispose of trash and waste. Not much is known in terms of gameplay, but its many design variations show that it would have appeared across many different locations, perhaps dumping into the scrapped garbage dump in Pauper's Drop.

Landmark Statues
Concepts for many different statues were made early on in the process, when the size of the maps were uncertain. The idea was to give the player landmarks within the maps. Some of these statues are seen in the multiplayer versions of Fort Frolic, Dionysus Park, the Farmer's Market and the Kashmir Restaurant.

Interactive Elements
Concepts for multiplayer levels show intractable objects that would open new paths, block pathways, kill other players or just for novelty. The only examples of this is seen in:

Neptune's Bounty: Where a player can shift a net full of fish to block a turret's line of sight with a lever.

Arcadia: When the player approaches the tree in the glass dome in the middle of the Research Laboratories, a green gas is released in it.

Kashmir Restaurant: The player can shoot the New Year's Eve cake in the middle of the dining foyer, causing it to splatter.

New Year's Eve Riots
In the retail version of BioShock 2, the introduction level is Adonis Luxury Resort, though it was the last to be created during the game's developmen. Also, it is named Prelude-2 in the game's files for a simple reason: developers at 2K Marin had already created a Prelude level which was eventually scrapped. This level would have been the famous first level of BioShock (or parts of it), Welcome to Rapture, but recreated as what it looked like during the 1958 New Year's Eve and the bombing at the Kashmir Restaurant.

This introduction would have been a playable flashback in which the player controlled Subject Delta, protecting Eleanor Lamb (as a Little Sister) inside the Kashmir Restaurant when the bombs went off, and the 1958 New Year's Eve riots erupted. At the end of the flashback, Subject Delta would have woken up in the ruins of the flooded Kashmir Restaurant ten years after the events of the first BioShock game.

The only parts of this unused level left in the BioShock 2's files are the introduction cinematic of the game (which shows a slightly different version of the level), the loading screen images that would have been displayed during its loading (featured in the gallery below), and radio messages. The two Partygoer models also have a bloodied and beaten up variant which would have likely been seen during the attack on the Kashmir.

Ryan Industries Protector Labs
According to BioShock 2's concept artist Devin St.Clair, the Prelude level was to include a Ryan Industries Protector laboratory, as seen in the pictures below.

Deep Sea Explorer
Another cut idea was for a deep sea diver to be sunken down from a boat (USS. Jani) in a bathysphere connected to the boat in 1957. While being sunk the to the bottom, the sphere gets some technical issues thanks to the pressure. While at the bottom, the diver exits the sphere and starts to walk on the seabed, connected with a air tube to the sphere. When walking, he witnesses a light and is shocked to see the underwater city of Rapture. While watching the city, several torpedos are launched at the USS. Jani and he is dragged towards the sphere when the captain of the boat starts to rail it back up. The diver loses control of himself and ends up pulling off the tube and falling down, with the bathysphere falling after him. The scene ends with a reflection of the diver's eye being seen on a broken piece of glass. This idea might have been how Subject Delta found Rapture.

Ryan Amusements
In the Hall of the Future wing of Ryan Amusements, it was meant to be more than just a showcase of plasmids. Concepts show the wing also showcased ADAM's origin, showing displays, harvesting methods, and dissections of the Sea Slug as well as the substance known as ADAM along with a portrait of the person who discovered the slug connection (Shown to be a man, not Tenenbaum, in the concept art).

Concept shows one final diorama in the Rapture Memorial Museum of a man in a diving suit (similar to that of the Big Daddies) in a heroic pose, with the words "Welcome to Rapture" behind a miniature cityscape. The statue was designed to showcase that Big Daddies were originally created to be the workers that built the city. This final diorama was ultimately replaced by the destroyed exhibit in the final game.

Pauper's Drop
Pauper's Drop was going to feature a garbage dump. There was an idea for a guy who was vending batteries and fresh drinking water at the Drop. There were also scripted rooms, dubbed "Dream Room", where the player would experience ghostly memories or flashbacks before the idea was cut.

The Sinclair Deluxe
The Sinclair Deluxe was originally going to feature Big Daddies strung up from the upper floor balconies in the atrium. This was replaced late in the development process with Blue Morpho butterflies fluttering around butterfly feeders. The hanging Big Daddies can still be seen in one of the loading screen images at the start of the Pauper's Drop level. There would also be a round bench in the center of the atrium instead of the sand bags that are there now.

Siren Alley
Siren Alley and Pauper's Drop were originally meant to be combined in one level. They would have been one large slum, containing elements like a diner, a church, a brothel, etc. One of the main ideas for this level was that it would have a Film Noir style and atmosphere. Eventually the designers decided there were too many important elements for one level, so it was split into two: the slum (Pauper's Drop), and the red light district (Siren Alley).

Dionysus Park
Dionysus Park was first designed as a totally preserved, uncorrupted, section of Rapture untouched by the civil war. Development was far along before they decided it was previously flooded. There were also to be large marionette puppets which would have made some appearance in the level. An early idea was for a doorway out of the art gallery space which led to an indoor forest. This was an experiment with spatial surrealism that ultimately failed. Dionysus Park was also in one point to be flooded in-game and the entrance was to be through the atrium of Fort Frolic, which also had become completely flooded since the events of the original BioShock.

Concept art also exists for a preserved Triton Cinema, which would have been showing MGM's The Wizard of OZ at the time of Delta's arrival. There were also ideas about film studios in Dionysus that never made it into the final stage.

Fontaine Futuristics
The Fontaine Futuristics level was to have been 90%-100% out in the ocean, rather than inside a building. The player would have to try find a way to safely float down the ocean trench behind Fontaine Futuristics to reach Persephone. There was a balloon ride device idea where the player would ride the balloon to float to the bottom.

Persephone
Persephone, dubbed "Eden" in the caption, was meant to look beautiful and maintained. The idea was that once Sofia Lamb took over the facility, she wanted to make her own utopia, wanted everything to be communal. Originally, the structure was meant to have more Art Deco elements on it. The drapery envisioned in this previous concept of the level was later reformatted for the Little Sister's vision.

Inner Persephone
Little Brother Therapy Rooms were going to be here, but the idea of Little Brothers was cut and so was this. The therapy rooms are seen in the games for Little Sisters.

Arcadia
The entrance of Arcadia would have been a part of the multiplayer map as seen from concept art.

Fleet Hall
The Fleet Hall from BioShock's Fort Frolic was to be a multiplayer level. The stage of the Fleet Hall was supposed to have various sets built up, and the player could interact by dropping hanging walls to make new pathways, block pathways, and even kill other players. The idea was cut, replaced by the Triton Cinema found in Dionysus Park in single player mode.

Point Prometheus
The museum was to feature a Giant Seahorse, but in the finished game the Seahorse is covered. The museum was also going to be very bright with flashing lights and contain skeletons of animals found on the surface. There was to be a "Plasmids Wing"  with many cardboard cutouts showcasing the power of plasmids, but in the final game the wing is under construction. Many of the cutouts were of the multiplayer characters, such as Barbara Johnson or Oscar Calraca, who were meant to confuse or shock the player who would shoot the cutouts mistakening them for other players.

Neptune's Bounty
With the inclusion of Sinclair Metals, previously dubbed Ryan Scrap Metal, concept shows wrecked planes and ships in holding areas, possibly brought in from the seabed to be salvaged for parts or to be reduced into scrap.

Athena Steam Works
A concept art called "Athena Steam Works" shows a removed original idea for some sort of underground industrial area.

Siren Song Studios
A piece of concept art indicates there was going to be a level set on a film studio's soundstage that produced a multitude of film productions as well as propaganda-type films. The studio would have housed sets ranging from old Westerns to urban streets, and included a studio tour tram similar to those given in American movie studios in the early 1960s that ran along a rail system. A caption entailed that there were ideas to have a film studio in Dionysus Park, but no concepts were surfaced.

Audio Diaries
This is a list of every Audio Diary that was not included in the final version. Please refer to the legend below for clarity in their appearance.

CoR: in the audio files and displayed on the Cult of Rapture website.

AF: in the audio files.

Tr: only present in the game's files as a transcript.


 * Adonis Luxury Resort
 * "Big Kate" O'Malley - Attention: Workers! (Alternate) - AF


 * Atlantic Express Depot
 * Andrew Ryan - Sinclair Solutions - CoR
 * Brigid Tenenbaum - Survivors - CoR
 * Augustus Sinclair - Private Interests - CoR
 * Julianne Corona - Too Dumb to Die - CoR
 * Mark Meltzer - The Ends of the Earth - CoR


 * Ryan Amusements
 * Carlson Fiddle - Journey to the Surface - CoR
 * Sofia Lamb - Ryan Amusements
 * Davis Pittman - Welcome to the Funhouse - CoR
 * Jean-Paul Beauregard - Breaking My Silence - CoR
 * Thoroughgood Hudson - Marketing Test - Tr
 * More to be added


 * Pauper's Drop
 * James Hollcroft - Gene Gin Jingle - CoR
 * James Hollcroft - A Capitalist’s Best Friend - CoR
 * Augustus Sinclair - Rise of the Underdog - CoR
 * Augustus Sinclair - Sinclair Deluxe & Sinclair Spirits - CoR
 * Gilbert Alexander - Not Nigh Enough - CoR
 * Leo Hartwig - Successful Experiment - Tr
 * More to be added


 * Siren Alley
 * Simon Wales - Before the Lamb I - CoR
 * Simon Wales - Before the Lamb II - CoR
 * Simon Wales - Before the Lamb III - CoR
 * Simon Wales - Before the Lamb IV - CoR
 * Simon Wales - Before the Lamb V - CoR
 * Simon Wales - Path of the Lamb - CoR
 * More to be added


 * Dionysus Park
 * Earl Manley - Changes - CoR
 * Tommy Hanrahan - Scout Plasmid - CoR
 * Gloria Parson - Not Your Daddy - CoR
 * Gilbert Alexander - Alpha Series - CoR
 * Stanley Poole - House of Cards - CoR
 * Stanley Poole - Thinking on the Fly - Tr
 * More to be added


 * Fontaine Futuristics
 * To be added


 * Outer Persephone
 * Nigel Weir - Your Place of Work - AF
 * More to be added


 * Inner Persephone
 * To be added


 * Minerva's Den
 * Evelyn Klein - Recorded Announcements - AF
 * Evelyn Klein - Second-Class Work - AF
 * Evelyn Klein - Unacceptable - AF
 * Evelyn Klein - Break Room Leak - AF
 * Evelyn Klein - Fraternization - AF
 * Evelyn Klein - Vacuum Bot Contract - AF

Radio Messages
"To be added"