![]() ![]() Thomas believes that what made BioShock stand out was how effectively it explored these ideas through its world design – turning philosophical arguments into “architecture” players could explore – without spoon-feeding ideas. And in BioShock Infinite, a sprawling game, it was about cultism, quantum mechanics, destiny, and more. In BioShock 2, it was collectivism: prioritising groups over the individual. What things? In the original BioShock it was, primarily, Ayn Rand’s objectivism, which rested on the assumption that a human’s “own happiness the moral purpose of his life”. (Image credit: BioShock (2K Games)) Philosophy's 'double-barreled shotgun' BioShock’s greatest innovation was the depth of its narrative, and the fact that it left you with things to ponder about the world.” I wasn’t ruminating about the philosophical implications of AI. “In System Shock 2, I didn’t walk away with any kind of feeling that it had delivered me a message about the world. The philosophical themes of BioShock games also gripped fans, and Chey points to the series’ close examination of complex themes as the biggest impact BioShock had on the industry at large. It felt like the developers had thought carefully about every decision: the “manipulation” Thomas describes was a result of planning what the player would feel throughout their journey, leading up to the “would you kindly?” reveal. It's this entangling of moral choices with theme, story, and mechanics that marked BioShock as special. “Honestly, it’s kind of 101 in terms of any kind of ethical dilemma, and other games at the time had much more textured choices between the results you wanted to see, but few of those were built into the games systems-wide.” they felt manipulated to think twice about the points vs the narrative payoff,” he says. “Most people didn’t say the moral choice system was revolutionary, but they said they felt something for the little sisters. It was a simplistic ethical dilemma, admits Jordan Thomas, a level designer on BioShock and the creative director of BioShock 2. The team also landed on a role for the “Little Sisters”: young, genetically-altered girls who the player – upon coming across them – could either spare or harvest for ADAM, a resource that increased player power. Rockefeller, the writing of George Orwell, and, perhaps most importantly, the objectivist philosophy of Ayn Rand, which came to define both the game’s apparent villain Andrew Ryan and the world of Rapture itself.Īndrew Ryan, founder of Rapture. Its story gradually took shape as Levine drew inspiration from various sources: the life of John D. The two games share some strengths – a blend of shooting and RPG elements, a complex relationship between player and antagonist, and environmental storytelling – but the things BioShock is most revered for only emerged later. ![]() “Obviously, we weren’t talking about dumbing it down internally, but we were talking about making it more accessible.”Ĭlearly, BioShock turned out to be more than just an extension of System Shock 2. So what can we do to mass market it?” Chey says. “Not just because we wanted to make some money out of it, but because we felt like most people in the gaming community aren’t aware of how cool this type of game is. But parts of it were clunky, and despite critical acclaim it was never a huge commercial success.įor BioShock, Irrational – called 2K Boston by the time the game shipped – wanted to bring what it loved about System Shock 2 to a bigger audience. It's a PC classic, and one of the games credited with popularising the immersive sim genre. Chey, along with Ken Levine and Robert Fermier, founded Irrational Games in 1997 after the trio left Thief developer Looking Glass Studios, and System Shock 2 was their debut. The starting goal wasn’t to present players with moral dilemmas, but to simply build “another Shock game,” says Chey, referring to the System Shock series. (Image credit: Cloud Chamber) Shock to the systemīioShock felt unique when it came out in 2007, but the driving idea behind it was, in some ways, entirely derivative. New development studio Cloud Chamber is working on the next BioShock game.
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