Our 12 for 2012 preview series continues with a game that gives a new meaning to reaching for the skies, forcing us to dredge the very depths of clichéd writing in our struggle to describe it. We are, of course, referring to Bioshock Infinite.
Irrational's latest is comfortably the most interesting shooter you'll play this year, and much like Skyrim, we're finding it difficult to stop writing about it. Press ahead with your questions, hypothetical interlocutor! And please refer to our Aliens: Colonial Marines, Tomb Raider and Halo 4 previews if your thirst for simulated dialogue knows no bounds.
There are a few reasons for that. One is that Irrational would like to distance themselves from Bioshock 2, the Rapture-based sequel put together by other 2K studios in the wake of Bioshock's far-from-guaranteed success. Team Levine had nothing to do with that game's creation, and it's keen to start afresh rather than pick up where imitators left off.
Levine wants to keep surprising players, so revisiting old ground was never really an option. "What excited us about Infinite was: what if were to throw away all the things that made us comfortable?" he told Edge in a recent interview. "Things like the city and the setting and the things that were probably the most successful elements of the first game. Those were exactly the things we thought people had come to be familiar with, in a way that was counter to the notion we wanted to generate. Familiarity in Rapture, you know? Not a good thing."
The other thing about "Infinite", and we hope you'll forgive us for being skin-deep here, is that it reflects the choice of setting. Evidently, the sky isn't the limit.
Tell me about Bioshock Infinite's setting. Tell me about Columbia.
Well, as you've doubtless sussed, it's a floating city - a nineteenth century burg that's slipped the surly bonds of earth via yet-to-be-divulged means. A dramatically literal way of countering preconceptions from the first game, with its claustrophobic tunnels and rising tides. Columbia is as perilous as Rapture, every street pervaded by threat, but where in Rapture the threat pressed down on you, there's too much space in Columbia, too little weight.
10 comments so far...
bamozzy on 5 Jan '12 said:
Still not sure about this one - I loved the first Bioshock, the second was ok but was rather short and had an awful multi-player. This looks good but I don't know if it will create the right atmosphere - from what I have seen so far, I don't think so! There was something about Rapture and the fact that it was underwater added to the sense of claustrophobic tension.
So far from what I have seen of this, there is none of that. Also pretty much everything that moved before posed a threat of some sort. I have seen nothing about the Plasmids and/or Adam. Do you still need to harvest Adam? I think I caught a glimpse of one Plasmid in a video though - it looked like Swarm (from previous Bioshock games) but instead of bees it was birds (Is this what is meant by the Birds and the Bees
)
Graphically it does look quite good and fairly fast paced with the rails etc everywhere but it just doesn't strike me yet as a game that will create the same scary atmosphere of the first. Maybe it is wrong of me to expect it to be like the previous games or even in the same genre due to its new setting of Columbia and I should be judging it as a stand alone game. But with the Bioshock name maybe it is inevitable that this will be compared with its predecessors.
Anyway it is not due out for quite a while yet so things may change or new information may be released. As it stands at the moment though it will remain on my watch list but there are a lot of good games out during this year and whether or not it moves on to my buy list, only time will tell.
CunningSmile on 6 Jan '12 said:
They are trying to replace Rapture's claustrophobia with vertigo and sudden drops, I think it will work but guess it will all come down to what you fear more.
They won't have Adam since the worms were discovered whilst building Rapture, but they do have plasmid like powers called Tonics. How they will deal with the powering up of these hasn't been revealed yet but I'm sure they will come up with something.
And I think you are right that you need to think of this as a stand alone game. The common themes of ideas and politics gone wrong (also shared by Levine's first game System Shock 2) are the only real link, everything else is seperate.
ATATCCU on 6 Jan '12 said:
Bioshock 2 and the multiplayer never bothered me. I ignored it. I saw it as algebra in a numbers world. I can get by with simple sums so 'letters in maths' simply by-passed me entirely.
I'm looking forward to this 'Infinite' game with a great deal of antici...................................................................pation. I also think that video games magazines add nothing to the debate by regurgitating old info and re-cycling screens and interviews are meaningless, to me anyway. I know the intention is to whip up enthusiasm (hysteria)? But I feel this just takes the edge off the product. Leave us alone with our imaginations please. What really 'grinds my gears' in this cyber world is somebody new to the scene telling me just how good something is because they have just become exposed to it! It's a bit like Cocoa Cola telling the world how exciting the footy world cup will be simply because they've put their name to it, only don't open yer gob too wide to shout out because yer rotting teeth may precede the bellow!
Long live Bioshock. AND please, let's get back to Rapture, surely we've not finished there! Minerva's Den was a good way to go. In fact why not make it an open world game where the player can be who they want, when they want. Wander on the sea bed if the fancy takes you. Skyrim of the underwater realm!
Decent_Jam on 8 Jan '12 said:
I think these features have given a good round up of what's out there in a "The story so far..." sort of way, and certainly BioShock continues to intrigue me.
I didn't know Levine didn't do BioShock 2, which makes me think that I don't need to bother with it before (possibly) checking this one out. I think if I manage to complete the first one (got as far as getting to the submarine bay so far), then it will show I can cope with another, but for the moment, there are too many other games I haven't finished.
I wonder if this one will get a demo, would certainly be interested to try it.
comabob on 8 Jan '12 said:
its he 3rd in a franchise - surely a demo is redundant
bamozzy on 8 Jan '12 said:
Bioshock 2 certainly carries on the story of Bioshock but without giving away the ending of Bioshock, I won't say much more.... But as Infinite is set in Columbia and I think in a different era too, I don't think it really matters if you haven't completed either game.
It may be the third in a franchise but also appears to be a stand alone game in its own right too - doesn't appear to have much in common with the previous 2 - falling and rail travel and rail combat is all new so a demo is not that unreasonable. The only thing it appears to have in common is plasmids - now tonics and the first person perspective
ATATCCU on 23 Jan '12 said:
I still think that the first person to come up with a useable parachute in 'Infinite' will become a millionaire overnight. As most of the planet is water; then maybe an inflatable liferaft would be an essential part of the 'only way is down package'. Launching in October though...AWWww come on Ken...NOWNOWNOW!
ATATCCU on 15 Feb '12 said:
AND now I read somewhere it's going to be a December release date....time given over to stop that spiv developing that parachute come life raft idea then!
badboyz92 on 21 Feb '12 said:
has there be any news on when the game will be cuming out yet coz i hope its nt December or October.
ATATCCU on 6 Mar '12 said:
October the nineteenth it is then....'spose I will just have to make do with Skyrim and ME3 until then. You can end up wishing your life away with this computer game lark!