I was surprised to find out that Irrational Games is makinganotherBioShockgame, since I — like, perhaps, many of you — figured they’d be doing something completely different. So when I sat down last night to speak with Tim Gerritsen, Irrational’s director of product development, I challenged him to silence the folks who are asking at this moment, “Why go back toBioShock?” Here’s what he fired back with:
…we were like, “You know what? We haven’t finished withBioShockyet. We haven’t said everything we want to say aboutBioShock. Let’s throw out all the rules; let’s redefine whatBioShockis. […]BioShockis so much more than just a location. It’s so many concepts and so many ideas that, you know what, we’re not going to just keep coming back to Rapture.Wesaid what we wanted to say about Rapture.
Gerritsen’s emphasis on “we” seems to imply that Irrational is fine with the existence ofBioShock 2, since the studio had finished with Rapture. But if you’re cynical, you might be thinking thatBioShock Infiniteis merelyBioShockin a new city — “Flyoshock,” if you will. According to Gerritsen, that idea has some merit, but there’s much more to it than that:
I can totally see why the cynic may look at it as, “Eh, they’re just doing the same thing.” [But] really, for us, we feel thisisa new IP. That, because we are just sort of saying, “You know what? You’re going to have to discover once again, as you play this game, whatBioShockreally is and what it’s all about,” that — to us — this really is a new IP, and it really is something completely new. It’s that same sense of “what the f*ck is going on here” that we tried to create inBioShock 1.
He then went on to praise 2K Games and its parent company, Take-Two, for giving Irrational the creative freedom to explore themes and gameplay similar toBioShock, but in a place designed to evoke the feeling of discovery and wonderment that we all felt when we first descended into Rapture.BioShock Infiniteis a first-person shooter with powers, but that looks to be the only connection it has to its predecessors. Well, that and a steampunk aesthetic, anyway.
BioShock Infiniteis due out in 2012 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. I’ll have more from my interview with Gerritsen soon, but in the meantime, check out mypreview of the game.
