History of BioShock (1994 - 2019)

welcome back everyone my name is Nick 930 and today I want to share with you the complete history of one of my all-time favorite game franchises Bioshock [Music] [Applause] [Music] Bioshock is a first-person shooter franchise created by Ken Levine in a studio called irrational games the title was created as a spiritual successor to the lesser known System Shock series as revered as among the very best narrative driven experiences in gaming it's known for its uniquely extreme environments dystopian themes and its open-ended gameplay mechanics and despite lying dormant since 2013 it's legacy is still apparent across the industry so how did this incredibly immersive experience take shape and what about it makes it so special to answer that we need to take it way back and begin by talking about the System Shock series in the early 90s the video game industry has started to undergo an incredible transformation as more developers tried to break away from the mold of the traditional 2d platformer and attempted to push their experiences into the 3d space one such developer was Paul Neurath the founder of blue sky productions Paul was inspired by a 3d first-person adventure called dungeon master and decided to build a similar game only with more role-playing aspects to make it more immersive he hired a small eight-man team of developers to help his vision come to life the result of this was 1992's Ultima Underworld a first-person dungeon crawler that is credited with not only being the original first-person role-playing video game but also the first truly three-dimensional game experience allowing players to run jump and look around with full 360-degree movement following the success of Ultima the development team at blue sky who we're now going by the name Looking Glass technologies started work on a direct sequel though thought they were limiting themselves creatively according to an interview between Daniel Starr and Doug Church Church admitted to being tired of the dungeon atmosphere and wanted to make a more unique interactive environment upon completion of Ultima two the team began to discuss future projects Church pitched several interactive scenarios including one that set up the general concept behind an automated camera network that players need to bypass to avoid setting off alarms the team began to expand upon these heavily environmentally driven experiences that ultimately resulted in 1994's system shock system shock is a science fiction adventure that takes place in the futuristic year of 2072 where players take on the role of a lone hacker whose trap own spaceship controlled by a rogue AI named show dam while there aren't very many cutscenes or direct dialogue sequences system shock introduces more environmental storytelling aspects including lost audio recordings that help to explain past events the story is remarkably innovative and demonstrates one of the earliest examples of a highly narrative driven experience in a shooter game system shock also offers a creative take on the first-person gameplay formula with a lighter emphasis on its combat and a focus on environmental exploration much like Ultima players need to navigate the halls of the game world and interact with things like switches levers and drop items in order to progress through the game most environments offer a unique puzzle to the player to solve often involving a locked door that needs to be supplied with power via a hacking minigame or a special key code that can be learned from one of the many audio recordings hidden throughout the station wearers can freely explore the space station with a full range of movement and can also freely look around at any angle allowing for more creative environmental puzzle designs and more immersive combat a sizeable chunk of the experience involves picking items off the floor and storing them in the players inventory including ammunition weapons and health though these items are often limited requiring the player to take on a more thoughtful approach to encounters with enemies a hallmark of what would later be referred to as the immersive sim system shock was met with high critical acclaim with many praising the game for his advanced technological design and unique environmental storytelling aspects but it was overshadowed by the overwhelming success of its software's doom and doom - it was also criticized for having too steep of a learning curve and it's heavy emphasis on narrative and thoughtful world building just wasn't something that resonate with gamers at the time after it's disappointing release lookingglass moved away from the system shock property and turned their attention back towards franchises like Ultima and a couple of flight simulators as the studio steadily grew it brought on several talented developers including a 29 year old game designer named Ken Levine who worked alongside Doug Church in designing theif the dart project thief not only helped to redefine the stealth action genre but greatly helped to bolster Levine's reputation in the industry after production had wrapped up Lavigne broke away from Looking Glass and alongside Jonathan Shay and Robert fermier formed their own studio called irrational games their first project was the title built heavily around the concepts and designs introduced in System Shock though because of the original gains financial shortcomings they settled on the working title Junction point offering a fresh start and a chance to differentiate itself to our production a rationale worked in close collaboration with the newly rebranded Looking Glass Studios and after an agreement with Electronic Arts both teams agreed to rename junction point into System Shock 2 Levine took on the role of lead designer and push strongly for an increased amount of player freedom and much stronger survival horror elements during development several problems reared their head many members of the development team were inexperienced working with what was essentially an unfinished engine additionally there was a great amount of tension between Levine's team and the crew and Looking Glass mainly in how task assignments were being distributed but despite these setbacks System Shock 2 went on to release in the summer of 1999 and once again helped establish the immersive sim sub-genre [Music] System Shock 2 takes place after the events of the first game and once again tasks players with fighting mutants on board of a ship in deep space much like the first game the story is told through audio recordings and environmental clues though System Shock 2 also introduces new ghosts apparitions allowing players to witness past events through hallucinations caused by the neural interface but System Shock 2 s most notable achievement is its returning antagonistic AI show Dan whose introduction greatly helped to shake up the industry norms regarding how stories are presented to the player System Shock 2 builds heavily on the concepts introduced in the 1994 classic with more accessible movement and combat controls much larger less confusing environments any more sandbox approach to the action by the late 90s first-person shooters have begun to establish Universal controls based around using WASD on the keyboard for movement and the mouse to freely look around this greatly improved movement and traversal in System Shock 2 and with a simplified inventory and menu design it still holds up relatively well today in response to criticisms made to the original game System Shock 2 s environments are made to be less confusing with signs that cruelly describe where paths lead to and digital highlights helping to highlight interactable objects in the environment but the biggest improvements were made to the combat design players can now tackle encounters with enemies more creatively with new ammunition types offering the chance to exploit weaknesses based on the type of enemy ammunition is still relatively rare though players can now purchase additional resources at vending machine units throughout the ship unique to System Shock 2 is a weapon degradation system the requires players to keep track of firearm condition and prepare them with rare repair kits to keep it in working order but System Shock 2 s biggest contribution is the new psionic powers that allow players to augment themselves with unique abilities abilities range from things like ice or fireballs to more passive enhancements like increased health weapon control and damage output prayers can unlock new Sai powers by means of special site upgrade unit stations and can spend collected cybernetic modules to purchase new powers or upgrades however the passive character improvements are only available a few times throughout the game through special one-time use OS upgrade machines all these changes to the gameplay formula help to make System Shock 2 more immersive assisted further by the significantly more advanced visual design and just like before System Shock 2 was met with glowing reviews the game was praised for its strong choice-based design allowing players to build their character based around their personal preference however once again System Shock 2 failed to generate acceptable sales numbers prompting the studio at Looking Glass to finally close their doors after both the financial failure of System Shock 2 and the cancellation of deep-cover irrational games open a new office in Australia and developed an asymmetric tactical RPG called freedom force freedom force once again received positive reception and further strengthened both Ken Levine and irrational games reputation in the industry opening up opportunities to secure an additional publishing deal with Vivendi Universal creating titles like tribes vengeance and swat4 but throughout the course of development Levine reached out to Electronic Arts regarding a third System Shock title still convinced that they had something special on their hands but the publisher rejected the idea setting historically poor sales and lack of interest in the property this didn't stop the team at irrational from brainstorming ideas most members of irrational shared Levine's optimism for the immersive Sims onra that they helped to create and yearn for an opportunity to give it another shot over the course of the next three years the team contributed rough ideas to this passion project most notably the communal ecosystem of protectors harvesters and drones that would eventually evolve into the Big Daddies little sisters and Spicer's [Music] this concept was established as early as 2002 but the team struggled for years to piece together the games defining underwater setting in fact early demonstrations of the game shown to potential publishers featured more science-fiction locations like a mutant infested space station and an old abandoned Nazi laboratory in 2004 irrational games officially announced that the game would be called Bioshock a clear reference to both the game's focus on biological mutation and its clear intention to be a spiritual successor to the fan-favorite system shock this was met with a hugely positive response from fans and along with a lucrative publishing deal with 2k games encouraged the studio to finally leave the pre-production phase according to edge magazine the setting for the game was finally decided upon after well being visited the Rockefeller Center in New York the art deco design and story of how rockefeller despite losing funding to the plaza during the Great Depression still successfully created the architectural wonder helped to shape what would eventually become the underwater city of Rapture over the course of the next three years the team worked tirelessly to piece the world together focusing first on crafting objects and models based on art deco themes and implementing several of the key design concepts first introduced in the system shock series things like supernatural powers security cameras and a self-sustaining economy were incorporated alongside beneath the same telltale characteristics of the immersive sim including a focus on environmental storytelling by means of ghosts and audio recordings but one of the projects most defining features was this unique three-tiered ecosystem of protectors harvesters and drones while the protectors were easy enough to design especially with the 1950s underwater theme firmly in place the design of the harvesters proved to be more difficult they initially were going to be large slugs that carried a valuable currency throughout each level however in order to make players care more about them the team instead landed on the idea of making the drones into young children something that immediately changed the meaning behind the player's actions this evolved into the choice based system present in the game today something at the time was a unique concept that gave players the chance to directly impact the direction of the story depending on how desperate they work for the resourcing question the game was finally shown off to the public at e3 2006 with a cinematic tremor that demonstrated just how exactly this delicate balance of power works with the protagonist attempting to seize a little sister only to be ambushed by the imposing Big Daddy well being soon after provided an in-depth look at some actual gameplay footage of a prototype build of the game detailing many of the core mechanics this demo offers an interesting insight into how the design was altered prior to the final release of the game including UI elements some of the weapon attachments scaling decor and even some changes to the powerful plasmid abilities Bioshock was later confirmed to be releasing exclusively for the then new Xbox 360 console along with a simultaneous PC release in the spring of 2007 but upon listening to a focus group and rate there nearly 5 years worth of work only a few months prior to release the team began to question their efforts the game must delayed several months and the pressure on the developers increased substantially with many developers working seven day weeks towards the end finally on August 21st of 2007 irrational games now known as 2k Boston released the landmark immersive sim Bioshock for the Xbox 360 and PC with a PlayStation 3 port releasing a year later Bioshock takes place in a fallen dystopian society called rapture built deep below the Atlantic surface the player assumes the role of a silent protagonist named Jack who after a plane crash discovers a mysterious white house in the middle of the sea Jack then boards a bathysphere waiting in the dock below that takes him directly to a secret metropolis built deep beneath the surface this city known as rapture is the product of an eccentric mogul named Andrew Ryan who desperately wanted to create a society free from government and religious intervention using his personal wealth he set out to build his city in secret and offered like-minded Objectivists an opportunity to escape from what he referred to as a society that indulge a parasitic lifestyle and while the city initially forests its lack of typical social programs and unregulated scientific expansion and never be led to a devastating collapse the player is forced to learn all this firsthand as they are greeted immediately by a grisly murder that quickly sets the tone for the adventure [Music] the player is then guided via a shortwave radio by a mysterious Irishman named Atlas who helps to explain the situation and assists the player in surviving the dilapidated city the city once bustling with the minds of the world's most talented and intelligent people is now home to mutated psychopaths called splicers who have become addicted to a biogenetic super drug called Adam Adam is a key component to the world of Rapture as it's remarkable capability to alter the genetic code of a user can grant unbelievable power like the ability to shoot fire straight from the users fingertips but because of its instability and overall rarity the city was forced to take drastic measures to help meet demands and embedded the atom producing sea slugs directly into orphan girls to serve as unwilling hosts as the city began to collapse the girls were instructed to harvest additional atom from corpses littered throughout the streets but as spices began to attack the children and steal the atom for themselves Raptors chief scientists then responded with the big-daddy protectors that follow the children around and ensured that they reach their destination throughout the course of the players journey they'll uncover the secrets behind Raptors fall told mostly through ghostly hallucinations and lost audio recordings many of which expand upon individual citizens and how the falled Raptor affected them much like System Shock 2 Bioshock excels at expressing its complex narrative through its detailed environment its licky halls upturned storefronts and bloody corpses perfectly personified the fall and Andrew Brian's ideology and make it one of the most philosophically deep video games in the medium but it's not just the story that makes Bioshock so special Bioshock and its core is a first-person shooter game built around a number of role-playing mechanics to help add to the immersion where's must explore large expansive environments filled with a mix of scripted and randomly generated enemies and complete narrative based objectives and hunt for valuable resources to help defend themselves first can equip standard weapons including the trusty wrench pistol machine gun and shotgun along with some less conventional makeshift firearms like a grade launcher chemical thrower and crossbow each of these weapons but the exception of the wrench can be equipped with alternate ammunition types similar to the design used in System Shock though the new research camera tool helps to simplify the process of analyzing enemies and discovering their weaknesses weapons can also be permanently enhanced by means of a one-time use power to the people machine hidden Tura each of the game's levels but these firearms are only one half of the equation bears can also make use of a powerful substance called atom to rewrite their genetic code and equip super powerful abilities these abilities refer to as plasmids allow the player to shoot elemental attacks at enemies including electricity fire ice and even swarms of bees these plasmids however require varying amounts of a substance called Eve to use which can be replenished by means of Eve hypose found throughout the world players can also equip more passive abilities called gene tonics gene tonics are split between a few different categories and offer things like increased speed more effective healing item use and even the ability to turn invisible these tonics don't require any particular button to be pressed activate but can be swapped out at gene banks depending on the preferred play style thanks to the smart control scheme design players can easily swap back and forth between their firearms and their plasmids with the simple press of the trigger line for unique combinations of attacks some of which are more effective against certain enemies than others the most common enemy type in the game are the splicers a group of drugged-out maniacs who are desperate for the highly addictive atom and will do anything to gain more these splicers range from basic melee or firearm centric types to more complex versions it could with their own genetic enhancements allowing them to climb around on the ceilings or teleport through the environment as I mentioned before the city of Rapture basically revolves around this wonder drug atom and the little sisters are one of the only ways to acquire it whether the player intends to kill the child and take the atom for themselves or rescue her for a smaller amount is all contingent on defeating their protector the Big Daddy Big Daddy's are among the most challenging enemies in the game as their heavily armoured can move quickly and condition as some serious damage but with some creative traps and the right configuration of weapons and plasmids smart players can make short work of them throughout the game world players will find a variety of helpful items including ammunition health audio Diaries and cash that can be used to purchase more items from a variety of nearby machines just like in the original system shock players can hack devices via a pipe maze minigame which upon success can grant discounted prices at vending machines or can even rewire security systems to target enemies instead these gameplay mechanics are fairly straightforward by themselves but the large volume of them allow for an unprecedented amount of player creativity when approaching competitions with enemies ask anyone you know who's played this game and they'll likely describe their method of dealing with enemies like the Big Daddy very differently some players might load up on armor-piercing rounds and approach the fight like any other classic shooter while others rely primarily on using the environment zapping conductive puddles for increased damage or setting large explosive traps with proximity mines and explosive barrels it's an ambitious gameplay design and one that builds a great deal on concepts first introduced in the underappreciated System Shock series Bioshock was also a visual marvel in 2007 it's highly creative artistic direction and unique underwater art deco style environments set it apart from the competition and its implementation of advance of water and lighting effects helped it stand out is a true next-gen experience at the time Bioshock was met with an overwhelmingly positive response from audiences with average scores from critics coming in at around 96% reviewers commended the game for its beautiful atmosphere brilliant writing and impressive voice actor performances it won several wars including Spike TV Game Informer ex play and baptists best game of 2007 an impressive achievement considering it was up against the likes of some major contenders that year including Mass Effect uncharted portal Assassin's Creed crisis and of course called duty for professionals decision to release on the next-gen Xbox 360 was well worth it as the game managed to sell over 4 million copies within the first 12 months of release finally after nearly a decade since the original system shocked gamers everywhere were made aware of what the immersive could surely offer Bioshock success permeated throughout the industry greatly influencing future developers into adopting similar environmental storytelling techniques following the monumental success of Bioshock take-two established a new studio in Nevada called 2k Marin where development on a direct sequel began shortly after however many veteran Bioshock developers including director Ken Levine refused the offer opening the door for Jordan Thomas to take the lead Thomas along with a small group of team members started pre-production only a few months after the original games release but immediately ran into some major roadblocks the first challenge was deciding what a sequel could do that the original didn't do already what more could a sequel say that wasn't already fully explored in Raptors flooded halls they eventually realized that the original BioShock focused primarily on the upper-class lifestyle of rapture with locations like malls clubs and high-end apartments taking center stage so in order to tell a different story altogether the team at 2k Marin decided to flip the script and introduced a brand new antagonist one with radically different ideologies than Andrew Ryan this new characters deep-rooted collectivist beliefs guided design efforts into focusing more on the living situation of the more common lower-class this combined with the later nineteen sixty eight setting resulted in an even more dilapidated version of rapture with more extreme flooding threatening to retake rapture once and for all another major focus for the development team was on reworking things that weren't received quite as well in the original the combat for example was reworked to be more fluid other unnecessary game mechanics were simplified and the bond between the Big Daddy and little sister one of the franchise's more critical components was reevaluated in an attempt to make the player think more about the decisions after less than a year of development 2k Marin released a teaser trailer for their project showcasing a young woman staring out at the sea with a working title Bioshock 2 sea of Dreams throughout the course of the next year the game underwent some major changes mainly a rework to the new enemy boss type the big sister who initially would have pursued the player throughout the game but was later changed function as a separate boss within each stage meanwhile a separate team called Digital Extremes work to produce an additional competitive multiplayer mode based on themes and concepts in the series after a little over two years of development Bioshock 2 hit store shelves allowing gamers to once again dive under the sea Bioshock 2 takes place in the year 1968 eight years after the events of the first game players assumed the role of a prototype Big Daddy named subject Delta who was the first Big Daddy to have successfully been bonded to a little sister this little sister named Eleanor William is the daughter of a psychiatrist named Sophia lamb the chief antagonist in the game do you understand Sophia lambs ideology differs greatly from Brian's in that she instead beliefs in collectivism but despite being on the complete other side of the spectrum the end results are ultimately the same while Ryan controlled his army of spices through the incentive of power lamb controls her army by making them feel part of a collective mind this is a parallel that's not just explored to the story but also in the structure of each stage the format and layout of the game's campaign shares a number of intentional similarities to the original game including the frequent communication with an unknown ally the antagonist introduction in subsequent ambush and the general pacing but Bioshock 2's narrative is strengthened thanks to its stronger audiotape characters and the interesting dynamic between Delta and Eleanor lamb it's me Bioshock 2's gameplay offers several notable changes mainly revolving around the players new character now that players are in control the Big Daddy the weapons feel much more powerful but to keep the game interesting the number of enemies on screen at any one time is increased significantly and there are now much more powerful adversaries than the typical bouncer and rosey Big Daddies the most deadly of the new enemies are the big sisters that trigger at certain scripted events and after successfully dealing with each little sister in an area [Music] unlike the Big Daddies Big Sisters are more agile bouncing off of walls and sprinting through the player she can also make use of plasmids including incinerate and telekinesis meaning players need to use everything they've got to defeat them all the weapons in Bioshock 2 while seemingly different share the same general gameplay mechanics as before there's the melee weapon that this time comes in the form of a drill the semi-automatic rivet gun a fall auto minigun a double-barrel shotgun a new video camera to research enemies a harpoon launcher and a shoulder-mounted grenade launcher however there is no equivalent to bioshock ones chemical thrower instead there's the new hack tool that can fire special remote hacking darts at machines so the purse can take control turrets and cameras from a distance and instead of needing to play a pipe a minigame hacking now takes on the form of a much simpler needle minigame that players need to stop with in green or blue sounds the plasmids are more or less the same with very few notable additions to the available powers however players can now use the plasmids alongside their weapons more easily without needing to swap back and forth clumsily and plasmas that are upgraded can now be used to fire continuous streams likely explaining the exclusion of the chemical thrower from the weapon arsenal but one of the most distinct changes to Bioshock 2 is the new little sister escort opportunities much like the proving grounds level in the previous game players will need to protect the little sisters as the harvest additional atom of the special corpses throughout the environments these corpses are often located at key Junction points with multiple entry ways that enemies Spicer's can attack firm to help contend with this many of the new weapons offer more defensive capabilities including tripwire trap bolts and automatic mini turrets this heavier focus on defensive gameplay helps to mix up the gameplay loop and provides more opportunity to experiment with different weapon and plasma configurations Bioshock 2 also features its own competitive multiplayer experience allowing players to participate in a sinclair testing program prior to the fall of rapture the multi-bear is fairly straightforward with reworked environments from the first and second game offering small arenas to fight end with players able to create personal low debts with preferred weapons and plasmids and use various environmental tools like automated turrets to best their enemies but ultimately the mode was never fully realized and came off as an obvious attempt to cash in on the popularity of the Call of Duty multiplayer scene from a technical standpoint Bioshock 2 did very little different from its predecessor the development team continued to make use of the Unreal 2.5 engine and carried over several assets and recycled them back into the mix only with some reworked textures and additional decoration to help them appear more aged in ruined Bioshock 2's lighting was also tweaked slightly allowing for pitch-black scenes that the player needs to navigate through with an automated torch light one of the most impressive new features though are the new underwater sequences that allow players to walk on the ocean for around the base of Rapture structures this and the increased amount of plant life growing throughout the corners of the city help get Bioshock to its own unique art style logic - was once again met with high review scores reviewers gave the game credit for its improved storytelling aspects and much smoother gunplay mechanics though many found the game to be too much like the original criticizing 2k Marin from being afraid to innovate shortly after work and wrapped up on development for the base game a small team of developers were instructed to create a short single player DLC to be released a year later this DLC titled Minerva's Den offers a look at the more tech oriented aspects of rapture wares take on the role of another prototype Big Daddy called subject Sigma who was tasked with assisting a scientist named Porter with escaping rapture with plans for a high-tech supercomputer unlike the main games Minerva's Den puts a much greater emphasis on using the environments at best enemies with a slower distribution of standard weapons throughout the nearly three hour campaign experience new features include the ion laser weapon a new open-ended environment to explore and several new enemy types and spice remodels this DLC was initially exclusive to the console platform with a PC version being delayed multiple times and even canceled at one point but after a large volume of complaints from fans the DLC finally released for PC users nine months later with many early adopters of the game being given the expansion for free but the damage was already done Bioshock 2's limited scope and atmosphere it's clear dissociation from the original creators and its plethora of technical issues that played the PC version greatly hurt its reputation despite the game itself actually building on the already excellent design of the original title [Music] back in 2007 almost immediately after the release of the first game ken Levine along with the remaining staff at 2k Boston have already begun working on their own sequel something that would feel like a significant step up from the original game initial concepts involved a return to the iconic rapture hoping that the location would start interest among fans but after the first few months of pre-production they found themselves creatively limited by the claustrophobic corridors and opted instead to take the experience in the complete other direction high in the sky completely free of any limitations according to Levine returning to rapture would have been a disservice to fans as one of the core components of Bioshock is the opportunity to learn about an entirely new and interesting environment when brainstorming the setting Levine offered a number of concepts and ideas to the team based heavily around the 1893 World's Fair Columbia Expo in Chicago that epitomized the philosophy of American exceptionalism Levine then helped his team visualize this new environment by comparing Raptors 1959 New Year's Eve atmosphere to July 4th and 1912 the conceptual aid that greatly impacted the art direction moving forward after work for an ex-con project had been reassigned to 2k Australia 2k Boston who by 2010 returned to the original irrational games moniker that entered into full production for this new Bioshock title the initial focus for the project was on world building and conceptual brainstorming Levine encouraged the team to innovate and expand and continuously over-salt the development process costing significant time and money meanwhile 2k Australia decided to step away from the XCOM project and assisted irrational with the arduous task of environmental design the environments were initially massive offering large sight lines and numerous interconnected paths greatly dwarfing anything offered previously but it wasn't until Jordan Thomas joined the project that it really started to come together Thomas helped to reel in the out-of-control development process and advocated for the cancellation of an unnecessary multi-part component a move that redirected focus back towards the design of the core combat mechanics as the bulk of development team toiled away at creating the world of Columbia Ken Levine focused a great deal of time and effort on the narrative you worked closely with the lead voice actors choy Baker and Courtney Draper who played a major role in defining the personalities of their characters Draper's character Elizabeth was a major focal point for the development process as she was designed to be a worthwhile companion from the start as to avoid the entire experience feeling like an escort mission Elizabeth's AI was evolved greatly from the design of the Big Daddy and little sisters allowing her to interact and not just with other NPCs but also with the environment itself looking at important landmarks and commenting on them based on the situation the future you have a man a little power by the end of the year irrational games finally revealed the project with the cinematic trailer highly reminiscent of the original reveal for Bioshock back in 2006 the trailer aimed immediately to break the association with rapture that fans have come to expect from the franchise's name and revealed the awe-inspiring world of Columbia only a month later a rationale released its first early gameplay demonstration this footage shows a drastic change between the original concepts and the final product with a significantly larger world and much more immersive elements sight lines were absolutely massive offering a real reason to use the new sniper rifles and NPCs were more dynamic with the ability to call in for reinforcements and even the ability to act as neutral factions offering more weight to the players choices the gameplay also demonstrates some wildly different abilities including a distinct telekinesis power and the ability to work more closely with Elizabeth to dispatch enemies combining an electrical attack with our own storm clouds [Applause] four score and seven years ago new book and Lincoln a year later another gameplay video was shown off at e3 this time demonstrated the redesign to Elisabeth powers that were now based around manipulating dimensional rifts as opposed to using uncharacteristic magic just like the original gameplay demo this video showcases a much more dense yet expansive environment to explore with far more interactive elements and a much more complex AI design for the enemies just like before the demo ends with a brief glimpse at the powerful songbird who's openly protected relationship with Elizabeth was designed to draw parallels to Raptors Big Daddies and little sisters a concurrent theme throughout the series sadly these early demonstrations outside of a few basic similarities would never become a reality for gamers as the games overly ambitious design proved to be too much for the consoles limited hardware and the overall scope of the project by late 2012 Ken Levine reached out to Rod Fergusson who had just recently stepped away from Epic Games after the Tencent acquisition Ferguson came on board as the vice president of development and significantly scaled back the project's scope with more strict deadlines and a clear direction to counter Levine's highly ambitious process this ultimately resulted in a drastic redirection for the title as Levine's strong narrative became the primary focal point moving forward finally after years of development BioShock Infinite went gold and released for the Xbox 360 Playstation 3 and PC in March of 2013 BioShock Infinite takes place in the year 1912 on a separate timeline from the original BioShock titles the player assumes the role of a private eye named Booker DeWitt who is tasked with tracking down a girl named Elizabeth and bringing her back to New York after following a string of clues in the white house off the coast of Maine Booker is propelled high above the clouds two mysterious floating city called columbia columbia was founded by a man named Zachary Comstock who convinced the American government to fund the floating project as a way to parade American values across the world but after Columbia's foreign policy became too extreme it seceded from the US and freed itself from all outside pressure at first the city appears to be a magical paradise with a thriving community participating in a friendly raishin but it's soon revealed the city is not at all what it seems with institutional racism causing a massive schism between the upper and lower class the player gets the chance to witness the fall columbia firsthand and arise prior to the brewing revolution and as the game progresses the city slowly begins to tear itself apart once again damaging the flaw in the utopian concept but this all serves mainly as a side story as the primary plot is focused around rescuing Elizabeth from the grip of Comstock and applying mechanical monster called the songbird upon meeting Elizabeth the story expands significantly as is revealed that she can manipulate time and space using interdimensional rifts called tears from here the plot deviates drastically from the likes of previous Bioshock games as it deals heavily with the relationship between Booker and Elizabeth and how choices can directly affect the future another key theme shared throughout the series in terms of gameplay design BioShock Infinite offers a great deal of changes from the previous titles the biggest change is to the level design BioShock Infinite offers much larger level environments easily traversable by means of the new sky rail system first can simply jump on to the rails to reach higher vantage points in the area adding significantly more verticality to the action but despite these larger environments the actual structure of the levels aren't quite as open ended as rapture there are a few exceptions but most environments in Columbia offer very strict linear paths to follow dictated heavily by the more story centric approach the combat has also been heavily reworked forcing players to choose between only two weapons at a time according to Levine this was done to encourage players to try different configurations of weapons against enemies as he felt players typically stuck with their favorite weapons in the original game too often weapons include several turn-of-the-century firearms including a clip loaded pistol a powerful hand cannon a lever-action shotgun a submachine gun semi-automatic carbine a sniper rifle various grenade launchers and the multi barrel crank gun about halfway through the game for more vox modified variants become available to the player offering even more variety to experiment with the players health system now includes a new shield regen system similar to the Halo series encouraging more direct conflict the super-powerful plasmids return an infinite but are now called Vigors it can be charged up to perform unique attacks bigger share a lot of the same abilities as before including electric and fire based attacks but new abilities like the undertow and bucking bronco stand out as worthwhile additions instead of Eve players now need to acquire a substance called salt and are now forced to find additional salt in the environment more frequently as far as can no longer store extra stock items for later use the tonics were replaced with new gear items that can be equipped to one of four corresponding clothing slots each with their own unique passive abilities players can also permanently enhance their characters abilities by means of rare infusions or by purchasing weapon upgrades at armory vending machines only without any visible changes to the weapon itself but one of infinite smo stuff finding gameplay features is the coordination with elizabeth who will continuously toss extra ammunition health and money at the player and will also offer the opportunity to open tears in the environment giving players the chance to summon powerful allies or create new pathways to traverse when not in combat Elizabeth can be called upon to open locked doors with some doors recording additional lock picks to access enemies are composed mainly of Comstock security forces and the rival Vox Populi both of which will ambush the player in large numbers at set points throughout the game additionally players will need to contend with special enemy types including the fireman the crow various automated turrets the motorized patriot and the massively powerful handyman unfortunately some of the enemies initially plan to play more of a prominent role or scaled back considerably in the final game like the boys of Silence were only featured in a tiny section towards the end and the songbird who's only ever featured in scripted sequences throughout the story in finis gameplay certainly isn't as ambitious as it initially set out to be but still offers a much more fast-paced and exciting shooter experience with more weapons and a greater mix of enemy types visually BioShock Infinite benefits greatly from the newer Unreal 3 engine environments are not only larger but more vibrant and detailed with gorgeous lighting effects and more impressive set pieces this idealized vision of the early 20th century America is brought to life with streets filled with interactive NPCs and the unique soundtrack helping to add a new layer of depth to the mysterious floating city it doesn't feel quite as immersive as rapture like we do to the increased frequency of large-scale combat sequences but the moments where the pacing does slow down offer an interesting insight into how these people might have lived in the clouds for so long BioShock Infinite was met with an overwhelmingly positive critical reception with most reviewers praised the game's brilliant writing and visual design the city of Columbia was noted as infinite's most defining feature and was a breath of fresh air after the dreary underwater volcanoes titles others praised the game for the design of Elizabeth whose ability to seamlessly interact with the player make her more than just a plot device however a few criticize the game for its combat design seeing the two weapon inventory system and the lack of visible upgrades as a step backwards from the open-ended approach of the past games but despite these criticisms the game was met with exceptionally high sales numbers with over eleven million copies sold within the first year the game was up against stiff competition as well including Grand Theft Auto 5 and The Last of Us it managed to beat them out for the best game of the year from a large number of journalists including Game Informer and The Escapist soon after the game's release work began on the season pass content which was set to include three large story based expansions to give a rationale a break after the exhaustive amount of work that they had just put in 2k Marin was contracted to develop the first of the two expansions and began working on a heavily narrative driven experience that would have seen Columbia crashing into the ocean but this was later scrapped as a rationale assumed full control over the DLC content and were forced to slap together a wave beat survival mode within a short nine week period as expected this first DLC was received poorly drawing criticism from fans for spot letting the weak combat mechanics you got a name this Elizabeth following this harsh criticism irrational quickly got back into the groove of things and with Ken Levine back at the helm directing the story elements they put together the first of their two-part story expansion burial at sea burial at sea returns to the underwater city of Rapture only now follows the fan-favorite Booker and Elizabeth as they hunt down clues regarding a missing child named Sally this expansion shows a unique sign of rapture prior to its devastating collapse with lavishly decorated environments and what appears to be a healthy thriving society but after traveling deeper to a sunken department store the experience begins to feel a bit more familiar with crazed splicers leakey hauls in a creepy atmosphere burial at sea episode 1 plays a lot like BioShock Infinite only now if its players swap between multiple weapons the game mechanics still aren't quite as deep as the 2007 classic but it's nearly 2 hour long one time it makes it feel like a fair compromise after Barrett oh let's see part 1 released and was met with a familiar positive reception the irrational offices started to see a distinct change in its attitude first the office had to be relocated due to city development greatly impacting the morale of public transit commuters additionally irrational began rounds of layoffs as Levine aimed to move away from the large 200 plus strong studio environment Levine made mention of a future project involving an evolution of Elizabeth's AI design but outside of that there was never any firm plans for the future of the studio something that worried many as the final infinite expansion neared its completion burial at sea episode 2 would be the last new entry to the Bioshock franchise in the very last title to be worked on by the series longtime creative director Ken Levine as such it serves as a swan song for the series coming full circle and establishing a direct connection to the original classic in episode 2 players assume the role of Elizabeth as she continues to explore the ruins of Fontaine's department store buried in a deep chasm near rapture proper to help translate the stark difference between Elizabeth and Booker the gameplay is altered to play more like a stealth action game likely a callback to Levine's time with thief first can make use of a small crossbow clipped with non-lethal munitions like sleeping darts noisemakers and gas grenades and must rely more on the environment to bypass threats more standard weapons like revolvers and shotguns can be equipped but the limited ammunition makes them less practical this reworked weapon balancing slows the pacing down substantially providing a largely unique experience in the world of rapture this final DLC was praised for its unique gameplay direction and beautiful story design closing the book on irrational games time with the Bioshock property in February of 2014 Ken Levine announced to his staff that irrational games would be closing down a decision that Lavigne stated was due to the stress of triple-a game development and its impact on his personal health and relationships Levine along with a small handful of his hand-picked staff opened a new studio called ghost story games and are currently working on an unannounced immersive sim game set in a sci-fi environment meanwhile Levine provided full access to the Bioshock property to 2k games who in turn released a remastered collection with the help of the team at blind squirrel games giving players on more recent consoles a chance to experience the trilogy again 2k has also confirmed that they plan on continuing the series without a rationale in a rumor to have tasked 2k Marin with the fourth title - the series currently being referred to as Parkside outside of that small tidbit of information not much is known about the future of Bioshock it's hard to imagine anything more extreme than a city in the sky or a city under the sea but that at its core is what makes Bioshock so special it's not something you would expect the world of rapture was something never before experienced by gamers sure it borrowed practically all of its gameplay mechanics from the likes of its older System Shock brothers but it's intoxicating atmosphere and top-notch storytelling helped to set the bar high for the first-person shooter genre several games have adapted similar techniques over the years most notably our clean Studios Dishonored series and the reboot of pray that shared many obvious similarities meanwhile the System Shock series is set to make a comeback with both a complete remake of the original game and a direct sequel to the classic System Shock 2 set to release sometime in 2020 in with that the immersive Sims onra comes full circle what started as a revolutionary take on the first person Jon wrote that fell victim to obscurity we finally get the recognition it deserves thanks a largely in part to the series that spawned from it whether or not this pans out and sees a resurgence in that series is unclear but one thing's for sure the Bioshock series will remain one of the most creative and influential narrative driven experiences out there and one that I intend to replay for years to come but what do you guys think which bioshock experience was your favorite and where do you think 2k marriage should take the series next let me know in the comments section and if you want to see more documentaries like this one please considering becoming a member of my patreon your support helps make these videos possible and of course don't forget to Like and subscribe for more videos posted every week [Music]

Channel: Nick930

Views: 973,965

Keywords: BioShock, System Shock, Andrew Ryan, Sofia Lamb, Zachery Comstock, Booker DeWitt, Elizabeth, History, Retrospective, 2K Games, Irrational Games, Ghost Story Games, Looking Glass Studios, Blue Sky Productions, Development, Story, Gameplay, Features, Review, Impression, Summary, Full, Analysis, Fan, Favorite, Best, professional, High Quality, BioShock 2, BioShock Infinite, Burial at Sea, Concept, Early, Comparison

Id: bmS9C3PYHlE

Length: 49min 34sec (2974 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 07 2019