BioShock

The Vault Dweller

The Vault Dweller

always looking for water.
I read a very good article yesterday in the magazine "Game Informer" about a game in development. Unfortunately I've looked online and cant find it or any really relevant article about it. The best I could find were new fansites with simplified description so I'll just write my own here.

-
Bioshock is going to be made by the same people who made System Shock which although I've never played it sounded very appealing to me. The game is going to follow along in the same "dark" setting with a very immersive environment.

The story goes like this:

You get stranded in the ocean as part of an accident. Somehow you end up discovering and exploring an underwater city that was built to be a Utopia long ago, but has fallen into terrible ruin.

The backstory is that the city was founded and kept hidden in order to create a utopia of peace and prosperity. The idealism behind the creation was one of pure capitalism (Ayn Rand) and things went well. However some scientists discovered an organism that lived on the ocean bottom that produced a substance to "enhance" any human characteristic when taken as a drug. This lead to certain elements of the society becoming much more prominent than the rest by buying and taking the drug. Eventually the ones who didnt felt that this was leading to a two-tiered society that they were on the bottom of. On one side were a group of idealists who wanted the drug banned and on the other was an entreprenuer who got rich selling the drug. This became a war that destroyed the utopian city...the few who survived were only able to by increasing their capabilites by taking large amounts of the drug leading not only to dependency, but often terrible, body changes that werent meant to be. The survivors can now barely take care of themselves and the city is falling into ruin with water infiltrating many of the once beautiful art-deco towers.

You find yourself exploring this world from 1st person. Although there will certainly be guns the plot should develop in the sense that you can try to help the survivors regain some vestige of humanity or simply do whatever keeps you alive and out of harms way. Theres also an opportunity to side with the two factions which now exist, but only barely. You can becoming specialized by taking the drug yourself...at a risk of course.
-

I'm really not giving a good description and I cant find any on the net, but this one fansite summarizes it somewhat well;

"- Core gameplay centered on player choice and customization

- Game takes place in the early 60s

- Developer's main goal is total immersion in the story

- You wake up in the ocean surrounded by debris and your first goal is survival

- Something about creatures in the ocean discovered by scientists

- "We're creating a world for to be in. What you do is up to you, and you have to live with your choices."

- One of your skills is agility and it makes you run faster

- Most upgrades will affect weapons

- You can create weapons and items

- You can hack stuff by being an engineer

- A walkthrough is useless - you take the game where you want it to go (Sounds really open ended)

- BioShock holds many mysteries

- Xbox 360 and PC - O N L Y"
Click to expand...

http://bioshock.co.uk/index.php

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/bioshock/preview_6110044.html?q=1&tag=gs_hp_flashtop_bg

Thanks and I'm glad to report on a game.

Sincerely,
The Vault Dweller

P.S.

I found a nice interview actually...

http://pc.ign.com/articles/556/556421p1.html
 
Didn't we have a thread about this a long time ago, and everyone hated it, because it was System shock without the RPG part?
 
It looks nice, but apparently it's been so long in development already and there's still not much new data. Bad sign?
 
Maybe they wanted to work on the concept more? If so thats a great sign. Of course...theres no way to tell.

Sincerely,
The Vault Dweller
 
Scans of a new article, shamelessly stolen from another site but since they're on a free image host I don't think they can complain:

http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock19ld.jpg
http://img371.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock29ke.jpg
http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock37yc.jpg
http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock49au.jpg
http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock51gy.jpg
http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock64up.jpg
http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock76pp.jpg
http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock80ef.jpg
http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock90js.jpg
http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock107tm.jpg

This game is looking great and the interviews are really getting me to believe that this game could even surpass System Shock 2; and unlike say, Peter Molyneaux, everything Levine says sounds realistic as far as actually having the game turn out as he says it will turn out.
 
"- Core gameplay centered on player choice and customization

- Game takes place in the early 60s

- Developer's main goal is total immersion in the story

- You wake up in the ocean surrounded by debris and your first goal is survival

- Something about creatures in the ocean discovered by scientists

- "We're creating a world for to be in. What you do is up to you, and you have to live with your choices."

- One of your skills is agility and it makes you run faster

- Most upgrades will affect weapons

- You can create weapons and items

- You can hack stuff by being an engineer

- A walkthrough is useless - you take the game where you want it to go (Sounds really open ended)

- BioShock holds many mysteries

- Xbox 360 and PC - O N L Y"
Click to expand...

These look like hollow PR buzzwords to me. They tell me nothing about the game itself.
 
Jesus after the recent debacles with games I've been looking forward to I'm actually afraid to look forward to anything....

If modern games weren't such shit I'd definetely be loooking forward to this one...
 
Montez said:
Scans of a new article, shamelessly stolen from another site but since they're on a free image host I don't think they can complain:

http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock19ld.jpg
http://img371.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock29ke.jpg
http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock37yc.jpg
http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock49au.jpg
http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock51gy.jpg
http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock64up.jpg
http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock76pp.jpg
http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock80ef.jpg
http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock90js.jpg
http://img389.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bioshock107tm.jpg

This game is looking great and the interviews are really getting me to believe that this game could even surpass System Shock 2; and unlike say, Peter Molyneaux, everything Levine says sounds realistic as far as actually having the game turn out as he says it will turn out.
Click to expand...

Thank you Montez I knew you'd be incredibly helpful.

Sincerely,
The Vault Dweller
 
Well those links are certainly nice to have if you do not have the magazine they were featured in. So thank you for shamelessy stealing it from another forum Montez. :wink:
 
Heh, I like this quote:

"Here's what I hate," Lavine elaborates. "You start up a game, and the first thing you hear is 'Alright marine, we're going to teach you how to walk!' And you're like 'Aw f--- man. I know how to walk'. We will assume that the player is competent from the start, and then we'll watch. If they aren't competent, we'll give them a little help. And if they're really incompetent 'Alright, Marine!'"
Click to expand...

Rings pretty true, I'm glad they aren't subjecting players with a degree of competence to the same training mission BS as the nooblets.
 
While it doesn't quite promise "role-playing" (and quite frankly, neither did SS2), it does look like quite a promising advance in action game design. There needs to be many advances in the genre, and it looks like they intend to try for them.

It's up in the air as if they could actually DO them, but they seem to be ambitious. The Art Deco style that Fallout also borrows from is quite a nice touch, and at least it promises to be a bit more atmospheric than the miserable DOOM3.
 
Thanks for reminding me of something Roshambo.

I remember them specifically mentioning how the whole city would be covered in idealistic capitalist advertisements that completely clash with the reality of the city. Specifically in that the advertisements are bright and cheerful about life while the city itself is a utopia dead and decaying.

Sincerely,
The Vault Dweller
 
The_Vault_Dweller said:
Thanks for reminding me of something Roshambo.

I remember them specifically mentioning how the whole city would be covered in idealistic capitalist advertisements that completely clash with the reality of the city. Specifically in that the advertisements are bright and cheerful about life while the city itself is a utopia dead and decaying.
Click to expand...

A very important aspect of retro-Art Deco, which is almost a redundent term, but you can't relaly have Art Deco without having spending excess come into face of national economic ruin. It's meant to portray the government or "rich elite" spending to make the country look better, while not actually making anything better. It was used in some ways as a "re-culturization" for the Great Depression by borrowind from historical cultural styles, looked impressive, but without anyone actually caring about it or able to support it, it turns into disrepair and ruin. Which is ironic, since it's primary purpose was to try and jump the country back out of the Depression by promoting a lot of spending. It was a way to try and cover up the social problems of Prohibition and other matters during that time, by trying to extend the "Roaring Twenties", but instead paved the way for the "Dirty Thirty's".

A common, but dwindling, by-product of this era was the grand movie and stage houses.

I'd say that if they intend to design the game with such a setting, it would be quite interesting and atmospheric, compared to many contempory fantasy and science-fiction settings.
 
http://www.ignpc.com/

I just watched the latest bioshock video and this game shows some promise, the A.I seems very good, gameplay looks like it is going to be intersting as well. kinda makes me wish they where developing fallout. it seems they are trying to do something new and change the standard in gaming.

So if you have not seen the video I suggest you have a look.
 
The game seems promising plus the design is pretty cool. Love the combination of "art deco" and underwater environments. It looks pretty creepy and cold. The only thing that worries me is that it is mainly developped for Xbox 360. Hope they don't fuck the PC version too much.
 
just took a look at the vid with levine explaining stuff. the thing that struck me most was: "OMFG! falloutboy!"

hehe, the men's toilet icon used in the game is really pretty similar to out beloved falloutboy. (it ought to, the design is supposed to be 1960-ish with a comical touch)

overall really nice. i can hardly wait. :)
 
The games looks very Doom 3 like I tell ya what if it has Doom 3 steep hardware requirements then forget it I have a pretty fast machine and video card and I still couldnt get Doom 3 to run smooth! These days I could give a shat about hardcore graphics anyway!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top