Oh, wowzers!
A short while ago, Ken Levine (the master behind the original BioShock) and his team at Irrational Games well and truly blew the lid off their next major project. Although we knew an announcement of some description was due, what exactly the world was about to see has remained a mystery. Until now, that is. BioShock is back, but unlike its direct sequel from earlier on this year, the franchise’s true Big Daddy is back on board.
I didn’t expect Ken Levine to create another BioShock game, and I certainly didn’t expect any future BioShock games to totally re-invent everything we know about the series thus far. Perhaps with Levine and Irrational back at the helm, I probably should have.
It’s out in 2012 for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but I want it now; even if that means waving goodbye to an old friend. In the mean time, there’s an excellent trailer available to whet your appetite.
Email the author of this post at matc@tap-repeatedly.com
I just watched the trailer at Kotaku. Damn this looks freakin’ cool!!! I can’t wait!
After BioShock 2 I thought I was done with the series. Although I enjoyed the single player, I could never muster the enthusiasm to go through it again, compared to the fact that I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve completed the original. The online component was rubbish and I was worried about where the series was heading.
But this? Levine back and what looks like a complete re-invention of what we know BioShock is? Yeah, I’m on board with that. Big time.
I honestly couldn’t even bring myself to play the second one. I’m sure it’s a fine game, but their was the mildest sense of them milking the success of the first to rush out another. And I was so happy with how the first one ended, and didn’t want to “tarnish” it with a sequel that I feel confidant didn’t live up to the original. Though again, I’m sure it’s a fine game, and likely better then many other similar titles.
This though! This looks awesome!
Totally unrelated note: Steam is having an insane sale right now for all Bethesda and Id software games bundled for $70! I have a handful of them, and am still considering buying the bundle anyway.
http://store.steampowered.com/sub/4917/
Oh my.
Now that was unexpected.
Wha…? Bioshock Infinite? Why? Why Bioshock?
I’m cold and frightened.
Torment 2: What Can Change A Man Again.
I have a thing about Bioshock trailers. I hate them, something about them just grates. They annoy me so much I think I’m actually going to write about it. Soon.
But that aside, to see such a total reinvention of the Bioshock concept – heartening. (I couldn’t bring myself to play Bioshock 2, the first one was enough.)
I’ve read this has been in development for 5 years. Hardly a hash job!
Holy….that looks….awesome!
I finished Bioshock 2 and although it was a competent sequel that refined and improved the gameplay, the story was fairly contrived and the game couldn’t help but feel derivative. The magic was gone, and they STILL didn’t address one of my main complaints about the original: Little Sisters still all sounded and looked alike.
Anyway, I think Levine’s quote on his site says much: “We believe to meet expectations, we need to defy expectations.” I think this will be a fine game, though I must admit I’ve become a Ken Levine fanboy at this point.
Looks interesting. I absolutely loved the first one. Second seemed way too similar and I haven’t played it, so as not to over saturate myself on Bioshock.
If this game is “fresh” enough, and introduces enough new elements while still maintaining the great feel and atmosphere of the first one, then I am so there.
I just hope it doesn’t end up being the same game with a different setting.
Woah.
Final Fantasy came to mind, which is probably not right. I never really liked the Bioshock trailers either HM, unless it was game footage with Ken Levine talking over the top. But then that’s not exactly a trailer… This certainly looks interesting though.
Jason you’ve just burst my (mr) bubble because I thought they might have sorted that issue out with the Little Sisters in Bioshock 2. That irked me as well and just seemed really lazy considering the amount of work that went into the visuals.
Here’s hoping Infinite has all the depth implied in the original Bioshock design doc.
Sorry, Gregg. Yeah, I never understood why they skimped on the Little Sister models and voices, especially given the fine art direction in their settings. Frustrating, to say the least.
So what does this mean for Bioshock 3 (in Rapture)? Didn’t the developer/publisher go on record as saying this was viewed as a franchise? Is this Bioshock 3 or are we going to see a splitting of the franchise, i.e., Call to Power vs. Civilization?
Sakey–you know this stuff. Enlighten me.
As far as I know there’s going to be a Bioshock 3, though I’m not sure they’ve announced a developer for it yet. For all I know Infinite is it.
I’m totally flabbergasted by this whole announcement, just… because.
Also: was that Unreal 3?? Those were some hella falling rose physics.
I thought the little sisters were all alike on purpose. An almost clone like quality to them to make them more creepy. This may be because with such high production values, I couldn’t imagine them getting lazy with such an important element of the game..
Also, I could never bring myself to kill them for plasmids. Did anyone play that rout? Is it worth another playthrough to see the “evil” way? Also, would it have been harder for people to take the evil path if the li’l sisters all looked different? Like too much like actual little girls instead of creepy things.
I have completed it by harvesting the Little Sisters, but only once or twice, which compared to the amount of times I’ve finished the game isn’t a particularly high number. Whenever I go through the game now, I just can’t bring myself to do it. Also, I think I prefer the saviour route.. the link with Tennebaum and the rewards delivered outside Gatherer’s Gardens.
Even just from what we know already about Infinite, I think there’s more to this than a simple step up from BioShock. Levine has been quoted as suggesting that the series has “no sacred cows”, and that there will be hallmarks of the series so far that won’t feature here. He also remarked that even some things in this trailer – notably the presence of what we’re lead to believe is a Big Daddy – isn’t necessarily what we think it is.
I’m excited. For me the step away from Rapture, the change in environment, even subtle things like the change in character and color palette, mean Irrational have the opportunity to deliver a fresh new experience in the same way that they gave us the original BioShock. It’s an opportunity I have every faith in them to take, and that excites me.
BioShock was an insta-classic for me, I couldn’t and still can’t get enough of it. I think I need to play it again.
Please God no sequel to Torment! I’ll yank the power cable running into Irrational out with my bare hands first.
Bioshock worked for me for a single run through. I thought I wanted to play it again but didn’t get very far. Not sure why and never did pickup BS2. Not sure what to think about this one. The big assed hands seem to be a thing, huh?
Armand, Bioshock is definitely not worth playing another time just to see the “evil” ending. First, anyone who harvested little sisters on their initial play-through is just demented. Second, the “evil” ending sucked such hard goat horns that it honestly made me feel embarrassed to not only be playing the game, but to be alive on the same planet as the people who wrote the two endings to Bioshock.
If you are a fan of these endings, I’m sorry, but I just hate them. I thought the happy one was so forced and sickening that I played as “evil” purely because I wanted to see the other ending, thinking it had to be better… like maybe everyone would die and Rapture would crumble? Which would have been fine with me. But nuking the fucking world? Actually? Seriously??? I think that’s the worst ending of all time- game or any other medium.
Granted, I haven’t had a chance to watch Plan 9 from Outer Space yet, but it can’t be worse than the last 10 minutes of Bioshock.
“I’m excited. For me the step away from Rapture, the change in environment, even subtle things like the change in character and color palette, mean Irrational have the opportunity to deliver a fresh new experience in the same way that they gave us the original BioShock. It’s an opportunity I have every faith in them to take, and that excites me.”
I’m totally in alignment with you here, Mat. I think this idea, however strange it still is to me right now, is the way to go with sequels. Especially a sequel to a game so beloved that no fan wants its image tarnished be a samey sequel. This game should be Bioshock 2.
That’s where I think the Final Fantasies get it right: move on. New world, new characters, new ideas, etc. Defy expectations.
This Bioshock Infinite idea seems odd and foreign now, but do you think that’s not exactly what Levine and co. were aiming for? The fact that they’re now able to milk a 2 year waiting period before release is, well, brilliant and not at all surprising.
I bet this will be a winner, even if for the time being I don’t think it should have “Bioshock” in its title (kind of like how XCOM, to me at least, seems like it should bear no affiliation to the X-com of yore.)
“Please God no sequel to Torment! I’ll yank the power cable running into Irrational out with my bare hands first.”
My point exactly. Bioshock isn’t in the same league but…
To xtal: I sure hope that’s what they’re doing. Bioshock blew most of its impressive creative load in a pre-release splooge. Once I realized the wonderfully strange Big Daddy wasn’t unique my interest was fatally holed. There’s an assembly line jamming diving helmets and drills on people? Was there a Doom 3-style UPS cockup which left them with crates of the stuff?*
A game that deserved to not be sequeled was DURING the first game, and then again stand alone.
Gamers are dumb. We want the genuinely new, then clamor for more same.
*I realize those assets were doubtless so expensive they had to be reused, but the repetition of a few wildly inventive and divergent mobs undercut adam’s conceptual impact.
After having a few days to stew with this now, I think I’m over the title. If Levine says that we won’t “get” the Infinite part until we’ve finished the whole thing then I’ll take his word for now and find out in a couple of years.
I’ve watched the trailer half a dozen times now … I wonder if we’re supposed to believe this fellow is the protagonist? If you recall that initial Bioshock trailer it featured some poor soul who got a Big Daddy’s drill rammed through his chest; up until that happened it seemed like we were led to believe this was our character. Of course, “Jack” wasn’t much of a character at all, so maybe the perspective seen in the Infinite trailer is the star of the show.
What’s most likely is that yes or no, the trailer really just exists to open our minds to this new city.
A good interview with Levine over at RPS:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/08/13/the-bioshock-infinite-ken-levine-interview/#more-35892
@xtal on nuking the fucking world: What I saw was that Jack had evolved into a tyrant and stealing nuclear weapons meant you had global ambitions, not that you were out to nuke the surface.
I’m not saying I particularly appreciated either ending – Bioshock left me with no appetite for a Bioshock 2 – but I don’t think it was as demented as it might have seemed to you.
Speaking of demented: did anybody notice the “falling guy”‘s ability to turn his head 360 degrees?
@HM, agreed, but I just thought it was way over the top. I didn’t care about little sisters getting married and holding my hand and shit. Nor did I care about who wanted to dominate what in the outside world.
I wanted some kind of closure or epilogue for Rapture. I think most of us will agree that Bioshock’s setting was #1.
Both endings seemed extremely out of line with the whole experience of being sucked into this brave new world.
Relistened to the end of the first Irrational Behavior podcast. Every time, that epic riff on the little sisters that might have been leaves me gasping for air.
Speaking of which, the current episode went up today and it’s all about the making and meaning of the trailer.
http://irrationalgames.com/insider/irrational-behavior-episode-7-part-2/