Minerva's Den was created by a small team within 2K Marin led by Steve Gaynor, who partly based the setting on ideas he discussed in his hiring interview.

It was well received by critics, who praised its story, characters, and gameplay; reviewers, including those writing for Kotaku and Paste, considered it one of the best video game expansions of all time.

[1] The player must work with the scientist Charles Milton Porter to acquire the plans of his creation, a supercomputer known as the Thinker, and escape Rapture.

The player uses similar weapons and plasmids (genetic modifications that grant superpowers)[7][8] but obtains them in a different order,[3] with an increased emphasis on hacking security.

[3] The expansion adds new items, including the Ion Lance, a laser weapon wielded by Minerva's Den's Lancer Big Daddies,[9] and the Gravity Well plasmid, which stuns and pulls enemies towards a vortex.

[3][9][10] Subject Sigma is guided by the voice of Charles Milton Porter as he approaches Minerva's Den, Rapture's central computer core.

[9] After becoming disillusioned with his role in World War II and the loss of his wife Pearl in The Blitz, Porter traveled to Rapture to pursue his dreams of creating artificial intelligence.

Porter attempted to recreate Pearl by emulating her personality with the Thinker, while Wahl believed he could program the computer to predict the future.

[14] As Sigma progresses, the environment becomes increasingly threatening due to the Thinker's sophisticated defense system and interference from Wahl and his forces.

[19] Though many companies would treat DLC as a "cash grab" with less development time and lowered expectations, Gaynor felt these constraints also enabled more creative risks to be taken.

[5] With such a small team, the staff collaborated without remaining in segregated roles; according to Gaynor, "It has to be organic as possible, and when someone has something that's not necessarily their primary responsibility but they have a passion for it and ideas for it ...

[17] Contrasting the long development and narrative of the main game with those of Minerva's Den, Gaynor said that he enjoyed the opportunity to tell a shorter story where players understood the characters.

[13]Gaynor wanted to adapt the grand themes of BioShock to tell a different story about loss and changing the past that focused on a single character, Porter, who forms the "heart" of the game.

[5] To prevent players of BioShock 2 from feeling Minerva's Den's gameplay was repetitive, 2K Marin tried to present a different experience within the narrative's constraints.

Shadowy level design and more dangerous enemies were crafted to give a subtle survival horror feel; the team also adjusted the order in which players receive equipment and plasmids to encourage them to interact with the environment, rather than simply using aggression.

[37] The Daily Telegraph praised Minerva's Den after the lackluster BioShock 2 DLC that preceded it,[9] and Eurogamer and IGN called it an excellent finale story for the setting of Rapture.

[3][9][39] GamesRadar's Andrew Heyward said the story makes Minerva's Den a "must-play extension" of the game's universe,[6] and GameSpot's Kevin VanOrd wrote that while the setup for the expansion is familiar to BioShock players—voices on the radio telling the player where to go—the appeal lies with its "personal nature" and Porter's character.