Bioshock Infinite: Irrational Games Takes It To The Skies
Out of the shadows and from under the waves, Irrational Games rises with a vengeance. Ever wonder what they’ve been up to for the past three years? Well now we know. Just this past Wednesday, Irrational’s Ken Levine, the man behind 2007’s initial Bioshock release, held a very exclusive showing of a new Bioshock demo and trailer.
The trailer starts off with what seems like an undersea voyage, making us feel nostalgic for the previous Bioshock titles. Irrational quickly “turns the tide” on us by showing that this undersea world was only that of a fish tank, in which the person whose eyes we were watching through was being submerged in. This robotic hand arises out of the dark like the kracken, and before we know it we find ourselves being thrust out into the wild blue yonder. This shows us that Irrational is now taking Bioshock to the skies.
This is a new Bioshock. This is a different Bioshock. This is a Bioshock of 1912.
Set in a floating city dubbed Columbia in America’s early 1900s, this new title includes new powers, a damsel in semi-distress, and some new eye candy called the Skyline.
Levine was quoted as saying “The time for silence is over.” In a room full of reporters, after all of the cell phones and laptops were confiscated, Levine starts the presentation. He went on, showing the trailer and explaining as the game more as it went. Levine stated that the new title is thematically tied to the older versions of Bioshock, but acknowledged that it would NOT be a prequel. Although the narrative is tied into the other titles, Levine said that “this is something I don’t even want to think about right now.”
After the trailer was done blowing the minds of the attendees, Levine continued to explain a little more of Infinite’s world. The main setting, Columbia, is of one some would call a “steampunk” aesthetic. This city is floating on balloons, being propelled across the country, visualizing the accomplishments of a post-Civil War America ready to show its idealistic vision.
As Levine speaks, he mentions, “something terrible” happening, showing us that Columbia is also a Utopian nightmare waiting to happen. “This is not a floating world fair, this is a Death Star,” Levine continues. The events leading up to Infinite describe Columbia intertwined in a series of horrific events as it disappears into the clouds. We learn that our character is described as “a disgruntled Pinkerton employee” by the name of Booker DeWitt. He is contacted by a mysterious man who claims to know where Columbia is, and has something of value in that floating fun-house. In the city, as told to DeWitt, exists a beautiful maiden named Elizabeth, who was born and raised within Columbia. The mysterious man offers the mission of rescuing Elizabeth to DeWitt, who accepts. At this point we learn that DeWitt, along with Elizabeth’s super powered paranormal help, will need to escape this partiotic-turned-insane floating disaster.
In a live-action gameplay presentation we see how Bioshock Infinite will play out. The demo was intensely paced, with heart-stopping action. It showed us that the framework is still existing in this title: the gun goes in your right hand, powers show in the left. The demo begins with our hero strolling along a cobblestone street in Columbia. Up ahead, a decomposing bell tower collapses right in front of our eyes. Right on ahead, an old woman is seen sweeping out her doorway while the building behind her was engulfed in flame. A horse lie up ahead in the road, being pecked to death by crows. I think it’s safe to say that Columbia is our little horror home away from home.
From the looks of it, Columbia seems like the “American Dream”. Levine describes it as “an age of American Exceptionalism”. It was built, while in the fiction, during a time where imperial racism runs rampant, and where the inventions of radios and electricity could, in theory, spawn a floating city brandishing the flag.
Our character strolls past flags containing 48 stars, all while floating near propaganda posters displaying the slogans “For Faith, For Race, For Fatherland.” Columbia’s citizens take patriotism into their own hands – literally. Gun laws are taken to the extreme. A man stands preaching to anyone who would listen inside of a run-down gazebo plastered with more propaganda posters that vividly express “They’ll take your gun.” He is surrounded by barrels of rifles, from which DeWitt can literally take his gun.
Once DeWitt had taken his rifle into his own hands, the preaching lunatic in the gazebo shot a look of sheer disgust through DeWitt’s heart. His eyes and mouth started glowing like something out of the twilight zone, and a battle ensued. We saw DeWitt with his scoped rifle up against this madman who summoned a murder of crows. Coincidentally, Murder of Crows is also the brand name of the tonic from which DeWitt later gains his own ability to summon these ethereal birds.
But, as with many other demos, we were given some insight to other powers that existed within Bioshock Infinite’s realm. During a fight scene in a bar, we gazed on DeWitt using some sort of telekinesis power to rip a shotgun out of an assailant’s hand, point it back at him, pull the trigger, and then take the weapon for himself. The same power was also used to stop a football-sized rocket shell in mid-air, spin it and propel it back at the turret from which it came.
In this new installment in the Bioshock series, it presents a sort of new grandeur by incorporating the roles of Elizabeth, and the Skyline – the railways connecting all of Columbia’s floating network.
The Skyline is mainly used for sky-trains that travel between rooms, or city blocks. However in the demo, they were used by Cloumbia’s citizens. During the fight with the preaching lunatic, we observed him grasp one of the railways, zipping out of view and then returning for a massive melee attack. Our hero could also take use of this technology by grabbing on to a railway, zipping down its length to quickly gain ground in a fight, travel from one place to the next, or even flank enemies for a better battle outcome.
In most games, the incorporation of the Skyline would likely function as a limited-use means of transportation, which could easily take away from the uniqueness of the feature. Levine made it very clear that the Skyline is not just a conveyance, but more like a tactical option during battles, and the backbone of this floating Columbia.
Next, is Elizabeth. Elizabeth is a skinny-waisted, large busted, beautiful maiden that seems to be sometimes in distress, amidst other times being a key element in combat. She is a computer-controlled A.I. ally, and according to Levine, never supposed to be a nuisance. Elizabeth is instead a character whose actions enable the sort of along-the-way dialogue-driven storytelling seen easily by Valve’s characters in Left 4 Dead. Irrational wanted to incorporate a new style of getting the story across to players, without sacrificing the pace of the gameplay.
During the demo, Elizabeth used her powers to place a storm cloud over a group of heavily armed men. At this point, DeWitt could use his own powers to blast electricity into the cloud, creating a constant rain of electric death from above. It is this kind of combat element that Levine wants to provide to the players, to get their minds working with different ways to approach every situation. After the battle, Elizabeth was stumbling over herself, falling back with a bloody nose. Levine explained, “When she helps you, it takes a toll on her being. She’s no superhero, and neither are you. You’re both up against a very difficult challenge, and it will push you to the extreme.”
Levine described Elizabeth’s role more in depth by saying, “She is there to enable things that are of a scale that you just couldn’t do in the first Bioshock.” Just as he was narrating her existence to us, we see a man, who appears to either be in a robotic suit, or is a robot, scowling at DeWitt from atop a bridge. In this scene Elizabeth zapped an orb high above the suspension tower looming over the assailant. At this point, DeWitt was able to use his telekinetic powers to bring the orb down on the man’s head, collapsing the bridge amidst the chaos. With the bridge destroyed, a robotic bird flew across the screen, putting an end to the demo.
While Levine was addressing the press, he went on to explain that players of Infinite would feel like they were playing a character who has significance in the Bioshock world. The first Bioshock included a hero that, while being a great part of the storyline, still ended up feeling like a husk. This time around, the character will bring the players even more into this fictional world. Booker DeWitt will not be blank like previous characters. HE will be a specific guy with his own specific story. “He’s known as a man who gets the job done… for a price,” says Levine.
Levine wants the players of Infinite to still have that control of the actions in the Bioshock world. Players will still be able to make their own decisions on what powers to use, how to fight through each conflict in Infinite, using whichever weapons and team moves they desire.
Something different this time around, explains Levine, is that we are geared more towards visualizing the people of Columbia as a collection of individuals. Infinite expands upon the idea shown in Bioshock, that not every character the player encounters is necessarily gun-wielding lunatic. “We showed that idea of ‘neutrality’ in the demo,” Levine said to the press. “When you walk into the bar, the guys there just look at you. They don’t attack right away, which is very deliberate. We thought ‘wouldn’t it be great if you walked into a room in this game and didn’t necessarily know the dispositions of the people in it? Are they going to stay there? Are they going to attack you? What might set them off?’ We really wanted to have a notion that not everyone in the city was automatically hostile towards you. Instead it has more of that ‘Wild West’ feel where you walk into a bar with your hand on your pistol and you’re not sure what’s going to happen to you.”
As it stands, Bioshock Infinite is at least 16 months away from completion. The game is set to release in 2012, a century past the time in which the game takes place. Levine did not stammer on about too much else regarding the title, only explaining that the Skyline will be the focus of a future showcase in the game. As for multiplayer, Levine was non-committal about the subject, saying only that it would make sense for the game to include multiplayer if Irrational could think up something extraordinary to include. He also wouldn’t touch on the significance of the word Infinite in the title, only expressing that it “has meaning.”
After three years we finally get a glimpse of what Irrational games has been up to. We also know the future of Bioshock – a completely remodeled past. A brand new Bioshock is on its way. It is set up to explode out on the market, displaying more unbelievable action than we have ever witnessed.
All of this, set in a Utopian construction that we’ve never before imagined.
Look for Bioshock Infinite to change the gaming world as we know it in 2012.
