Fast forward 2 years, and you get Bioshock 2, developed by 2K Marin. Set in the same city as the first game, Bioshock 2 was just that, more of the same. It brought multiplayer to the Bioshock universe, but other than that, we didn't really see many new things introduced, which had many fans concerned over the future of the franchise. Then Irrational Games stepped back into the picture and shocked everyone with their most recent announcement, Bioshock Infinite. Take a look at the reveal trailer below.
Set around 1912, in the fantastical, floating city of Columbia, Bioshock Infinite takes the franchise to completely new heights. Irrational Games has given the boot to flooded hallways and lumbering dive suits, and has instead created a vibrant and colorful utopia, peppered with American flags and toting the grand idea of American exceptionalism.
You play as Booker DeWitt, a former agent of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, and are hired by a group of individuals to find and rescue a woman named Elizabeth. According to this "group," Elizabeth was abducted as a child and has been living in the floating city ever since. Once in the city, you find Elizabeth pretty easily, but soon learn that she is part of something much more elaborate than a simple kidnapping. The game takes off from there, with DeWitt and Elizabeth working to escape Columbia, aided along the way by Elizabeth's special powers, plasmids perhaps?
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| The citizens of Columbia are very patriotic. |
In my opinion, Bioshock Infinite is a completely unexpected and welcomed announcement. While the name feels a bit forced, tacking on the whole Bioshock logo, I have a feeling us gamers are in for a real treat. Personally, I'm looking forward to exploring the city of Columbia. From the moment the man in the trailer burst through the window, I was hooked and wanted to see more. I just hope Irrational Games can pull off that same feeling of wonder and curiosity that Bioshock 1 had and while providing some new and unique gameplay as well.
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| 2012 couldn't arrive sooner |
Sunday, August 15, 2010
This looks and sounds like it will be awesome. I really interested to see a really good look at these Big Daddy like creatures. I cant wait for more info.
Soooooo looking forwards to this...
Bioshock was amazing, the second one was less so, but still a good game. This could be the proper sequel (albeit actually a prequel by the sounds of it) that the series deserved.
The setting sounds brilliant, can't wait to see what they do with a big open city area as opposed to the underwater rooms/corridors thing.
This is how games should be made! Bioshock would be a great franchise to explore new fantastic settings in the 20th century. Looking forward to this and (eventual) sequels.
Keep up the creativity irrational games!
This is how games should be made! Bioshock would be a great franchise to explore new fantastic settings in the 20th century. Looking forward to this and (eventual) sequels.
Keep up the creativity irrational games!...
As long as this is not connected to Bioshock from a storytelling standpoint, I could see it being truly amazing Reply
Columbia is a pretty bad name for the setting imo, it just doesn't sound... original, for want of a better word.
Rapture sounded like it was a real place but still tinged with fantasy, but this just sounds a bit mundane.
Awful name, what the shit.
Columbia is a city in the sky so that means that no place on land has any real say to what goes on up there. The only group of people who can is the Federal Government but... since it is a flying city, it would be quite hard to govern it since it could just poof, disappear like it did before the story started.
Its really like a warship in international waterways. It is free like a bird but with some major firepower...
Also, the "Siege of Columbia"? Look like someone tries to take the city. The second poster shown gives me the impression that it was not by its own home country but... it could be. I'm thinking like a sort of civil war sort of thing. I would imagine the split happened since the heads of Columbia feels so powerful, that they feel like the masters of the United States.
I'm most likely wrong but... yeah. Time to wait and yeah, I'll need a power house of a PC to play it. :)
I'm nonplussed about this. I'm sure it's way too early to make such a judgement, but it still doesn't feel right to me.
First off, a city in the sky just doesn't seem to offer the same kind of atmospherics that we've become used to in this series. The tangible creepiness and foreboding isn't there. At least, I don't see how it could be.
Second, a city in the sky? Really? It just isn't something I can wrap my head around. Yes yes, a secret, massive underwater city is technologically just as impossible, but it still feels like something that I can suspend my disbelief for. This... not so much. Especially in this time period. Which leads me to...
Third, setting this in 1912 is an odd choice. Again, I think we're headed in a very strange direction. All the technologies and feats of wonder really take on an added level of improbability when you consider the state of technology of pre-WWI society. Humanity had yet to master the internal combustion engine. Electricity was quite rare. The Wright Brothers had just completed their first flight less than a decade prior. Penicillin hadn't even been discovered yet. And now we're launching entire cities into the clouds and imbibing people with superhuman tonics? It seems like too much to swallow, even for a video game (at least, for a videogame with the Bioshock legacy of storytelling).
The time period for the original Bioshock games was perfect... coming right off of WWII, with the literal explosion of science and optimism that had occurred during the war and immediately after. Our new understanding of the atom, genetics, metallurgy, physics, engineering, medicine... all of these things were actually blossoming at a breakneck pace in society and set up a perfect foundation for the storyline. It gave just enough of a twinge of reality to make the entire story digestible.
What were the great technological breakthroughs of the Civil War that could, even on the wayyyy outside fringes of theory, make any of this possible? There really aren't any.
Mind you, I'm a HUGE fan of both Bioshock games. Absolutely adore them. So I do have a great deal of faith in the developers to weave this all together in a way that's satisfying and enjoyable. I just don't see how they're going to do it right now, and hope they do live up to expectations.
Honestly, I would have very much preferred to have seen the new Bioshock be a prequel... where you play in Rapture shortly before it all goes to hell. Maybe even include some surface missions, or have you slowly become a splicer yourself as things deteriorate. Seeing Rapture as a functioning society would have been great.
Oh well, maybe in Bioshock 4.
Skyoshock?