Bioshock is ditching the seas and heading to the clouds. We’ve known for some time that the original Bioshock developers, Irrational Games, have been working on a super secret project. There were even rumors of it involving the skies. But nobody could have guessed that they were working on a new Bioshock title that changes the locale of the conflict from the underwater realm of Rapture to the sky fortress known as Columbia.
Bioshock Infinite takes place in the early 1900s, when American imperialism was at an all time high and years before the construction of Rapture in the 1940s. Whether or not this is going to be considered an official prequel to the other two games, or if it’s just taking the role as a spiritual successor to them remains to be seen, but from the trailer it’s easy to tell that we are going to be dealing with the same themes of power, utopia and control. The city of Columbia is perched atop flying airships and great huge balloons, and it is gorgeous and fascinating to look at.
It’s no secret that I was not grabbed by the first Bioshock game, but the new Bioshock Infinite trailer and its setting have me itching to see more… but unfortunately, it doesn’t release until 2012. I guess that gives me plenty of time to go back and finish the original. What do you guys think of all of this?
Also, go ahead and get your “Skyoshock” jokes out of the way in 3…2…1…
Words cannot express how excited I am for this game based on the trailer and Ken Levine’s interview about the concept behind it.
The setting is just so inspired. That time period (late 19th/early 20th century) is a microcosm of everything that is both great and terrible about the United States and the fact that this game is set in the context of the Philippines occupation is just freaking brilliant.
I loved the original Bioshock mostly for the setting, but that did wear a little thin by the end of the game. While it was great to see the terrible human and social consequences of taking Ayn Rand’s Objectivism to its logical conclusion, the actual gameplay got a little stale after the big reveal with Ryan (culminating in that TERRIBLE final boss encounter). Hopefully this game will have a little more variety to keep things fresh.
Loved the first game and I am really excited about this. Looks great and really inspired.
Goosebumps. For reals.
Well I absolutely loved the first game, and so I’m glad to see Irrational is back in the driver’s seat for this title. Looking forward to it.
Dang, that was pretty awesome. I think it’s pretty well known (at least on this site) that Bioshock wasn’t my favorite game back in the day, but this looks really cool.
Want.
Well, I’ll play it since it’s the original studio that’s making this one, but I was really wishing that they would have made a true sequel to Bioshock. It looks good but the ad on the wall gave me an instant feel of “old concepts in a new environment”. I also hope that this makes sense in relation to the story of Bioshock, either that or plasmids aren’t in this game to keep from confusing storylines, either way, as long as the story’s better than Bioshock 2’s.
By the way, Eddy and Mitch, why didn’t you like the first Bioshock?
[quote comment=”12642″]By the way, Eddy and Mitch, why didn’t you like the first Bioshock?[/quote]
That was on Podcast number 6, I believe.
[quote comment=”12642″]By the way, Eddy and Mitch, why didn’t you like the first Bioshock?[/quote]
Goes back to the whole igloo and Canada thing. Cause no normal person could not like Bioshock. And I don’t know what to say about Eddy.
I didn’t think it was a bad game or anything, it just didn’t grab me. I was actually kind of bored. I mean, I see why people love it, but for some reason it just didn’t hit me the way it hit everybody else on the planet.
My comment above seems a bit harsh now that I read it, I was totally joking by the way.
I can understand why some people didn’t like Bioshock. To be honest, I thought the shooting mechanics were a bit finicky. And if you’re not crazy about the setting, then it could get old real fast.
I really liked it, but I think it’s a classic example of a game that’s about 3-4 hours too long. I found the last few levels to be especially tedious (go here; do that; oh, wait, now you have to do this).
The game really loses it’s narrative steam after the big encounter with Andrew Ryan.