BioShock 2 was a real letdown to me. I’ve never played the game, but everything I have seen and heard about it has completely turned me off. The game’s main selling point was that it was a return to Rapture, but the first game ends in a way that doesn’t give you a reason to go back. The game lets you play as the Big Daddy, but what made Big Daddies cool were the fact that you had to fight them, not be them. The game featured multiplayer, even though multiplayer wouldn’t have fit within the context of the BioShock universe. I understand that the video game industry is a business like movies and music, but it seemed like all the creative in the first game was funneled out by business teams that wanted a quick sequel that would improve on the predecessor through lots of focus testing and marketing dollars. Ugh.
BioShock Infinite was just announced today and it’s coming from Irrational Games, the creators of the original. This post won’t be a thorough preview or a breakdown of the trailer. There are places that will do a much better job of that than I. The following are just a few gut feelings about what I know as of now.
Unlike the first two games, BioShock Infinite takes place in a 1920s steampunk floating city. I guess if you wanted to get away from an underwater utopia, that’s as far as you can go. The trailer doesn’t tell us much else, though. The only other real details we know are that it involves a Big Daddy like robot thing and some girl who can make roses float.
The trailer has definitely piqued my interest. I love the look of the world and it seems to convey a lot of environmental charm like the first game did. I’m really interested to see what Irrational has cooked up.
My concern at this point though is in the name and where this fits within the context of the BioShock world we already know. Is this still tied to the story in BioShock 1 and 2? Or is this completely unrelated, but sharing the same name like Final Fantasy? If it’s a completely different story, then it would almost feels like money-hungry executives are trying to cash in again. Sorry if I’m a bit pessimistic about the suits at 2K, but you did say you would make what I thought was creatively a one-shot deal and milk it into a six game series.
This game won’t be in our hands till 2012 at the earliest, so it’s way too early to be uptight about anything. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this game will blow my mind like the first one did.
In Third Person 