Levine: BioShock Was Never Just About Rapture

[Jumplion]

1. You realise Levine created the first game and had nothing to do with the second game, right?

2. You've seen a few screens and a fucking trailer, don't pretend you know all themes of the game. Or much about the game at all for that matter.

[small]I'm really starting to dislike other gamers.[/small]

What part of "supersoldier with exposed internal organs" did you miss?

The second game was bad enough, now this jerkoff is acting like everything that made bioshock good is irrelevant to future games because he completely botched his handling of rapture.

But...he had nothing to do with it. BioShock 2 was handed over to an entirely different developer. And I really have no idea what you're talking about here, what the hell does "Everything that made BioShock good is irrelevant to future games because he botched Rapture" mean?

Seriously, why are people so against the team exploring new things in the BioShock universe? Why does everyone want it to stay put in Rapture? Isn't that what made BioShock 2 a worse game? Rapture's story is done, it's over, it's finished, people said that all the time when BioShock 2 was coming out and was released. Why the hell are we clinging to Rapture now?

 

[JokerboyJordan]

Am I the only one seeing this game as ridiculous?
I can forget Bioshock 2 if everyone wants to not be reminded of it, but come on.
All they've done is change the setting from an Underwater City to a City in the Sky. It seems like all they've done is changed a gimmick.
I mean what is the next game gonna be set? Middle of the Earth? In Space?

I don't think you are the only one, but I think your fears are mostly unfounded. From the interviews with the Irrational team and the trailer, it looks like Columbia has a very different aesthetic to Rapture. I think the people who are crying about 'Rapture being Bioshock' are the same people who call Samus 'Metroid'.

However, both your suggestions for future Bioshock games would actually be pretty cool

After having researched the game in more detail, I find both the setting (steampunk) and the story intriguing.
But I will only accept the game's setting if they confirm this game is not set the same universe as Bioshock, otherwise it would be ridiculous.

 

[Jumplion]

Am I the only one seeing this game as ridiculous?
I can forget Bioshock 2 if everyone wants to not be reminded of it, but come on.
All they've done is change the setting from an Underwater City to a City in the Sky. It seems like all they've done is changed a gimmick.
I mean what is the next game gonna be set? Middle of the Earth? In Space?

I don't think you are the only one, but I think your fears are mostly unfounded. From the interviews with the Irrational team and the trailer, it looks like Columbia has a very different aesthetic to Rapture. I think the people who are crying about 'Rapture being Bioshock' are the same people who call Samus 'Metroid'.

However, both your suggestions for future Bioshock games would actually be pretty cool

After having researched the game in more detail, I find both the setting (steampunk) and the story intriguing.
But I will only accept the game's setting if they confirm this game is not set the same universe as Bioshock, otherwise it would be ridiculous.

Yes, because an underwater city filled with magical abilities and hugeass scuba-divers with drills on their hands is totally not ridiculous.

Again, why are people so clingy to Rapture? Didn't we all cry foul when BioShock 2 was coming out (Which, by the by, was created by a completely new developer) because the original BioShock wasn't really the type of story to need expanding on, at least in Rapture? Rapture is done, it's finished, the story arc is over, now we have to see what happened before it. Something had to lead to the creation of a place named after the friggin' apocalypse, right?

 

[Colonel Alzheimer's]

The first one was good, no need to whore it out completely.

How are they whoring out the series? There have been 2 games to come out in a 3 year period, and while Bioshock 2 may have been of less quality than Bioshock 1, that doesn't mean that it was a shameless cash out. Bioshock 2 is still a very quality game, and if you disagree with that, at the very least it has high production values. Not to mention that the developers of Bioshock 1 had nothing to do with Bioshock 2. Infinite is coming out sometime in 2012, which means that there will be a 5 year hiatus between titles made by Levine's crew. That seems like a rational chunk of time to me.

 

[JokerboyJordan]

Am I the only one seeing this game as ridiculous?
I can forget Bioshock 2 if everyone wants to not be reminded of it, but come on.
All they've done is change the setting from an Underwater City to a City in the Sky. It seems like all they've done is changed a gimmick.
I mean what is the next game gonna be set? Middle of the Earth? In Space?

I don't think you are the only one, but I think your fears are mostly unfounded. From the interviews with the Irrational team and the trailer, it looks like Columbia has a very different aesthetic to Rapture. I think the people who are crying about 'Rapture being Bioshock' are the same people who call Samus 'Metroid'.

However, both your suggestions for future Bioshock games would actually be pretty cool

After having researched the game in more detail, I find both the setting (steampunk) and the story intriguing.
But I will only accept the game's setting if they confirm this game is not set the same universe as Bioshock, otherwise it would be ridiculous.

Yes, because an underwater city filled with magical abilities and hugeass scuba-divers with drills on their hands is totally not ridiculous.

Again, why are people so clingy to Rapture? Didn't we all cry foul when BioShock 2 was coming out (Which, by the by, was created by a completely new developer) because the original BioShock wasn't really the type of story to need expanding on, at least in Rapture? Rapture is done, it's finished, the story arc is over, now we have to see what happened before it. Something had to lead to the creation of a place named after the friggin' apocalypse, right?

You seem to misunderstand me, I am not trying to cling to Rapture, I just coulda sworn that Bioshock was at least based on our world/timeline. I mean Rapture may or may not have been technically feasible but a city suspended on dirigibles is ludicrous. I'm also sure people from the surface wouldn't have disbelieved the stories of Rapture if there had also been a frickin' FLYING CITY in the past.

 

[jamesworkshop]

Am I the only one seeing this game as ridiculous?
I can forget Bioshock 2 if everyone wants to not be reminded of it, but come on.
All they've done is change the setting from an Underwater City to a City in the Sky. It seems like all they've done is changed a gimmick.
I mean what is the next game gonna be set? Middle of the Earth? In Space?

I don't think you are the only one, but I think your fears are mostly unfounded. From the interviews with the Irrational team and the trailer, it looks like Columbia has a very different aesthetic to Rapture. I think the people who are crying about 'Rapture being Bioshock' are the same people who call Samus 'Metroid'.

However, both your suggestions for future Bioshock games would actually be pretty cool

After having researched the game in more detail, I find both the setting (steampunk) and the story intriguing.
But I will only accept the game's setting if they confirm this game is not set the same universe as Bioshock, otherwise it would be ridiculous.

Yes, because an underwater city filled with magical abilities and hugeass scuba-divers with drills on their hands is totally not ridiculous.

Again, why are people so clingy to Rapture? Didn't we all cry foul when BioShock 2 was coming out (Which, by the by, was created by a completely new developer) because the original BioShock wasn't really the type of story to need expanding on, at least in Rapture? Rapture is done, it's finished, the story arc is over, now we have to see what happened before it. Something had to lead to the creation of a place named after the friggin' apocalypse, right?

You seem to misunderstand me, I am not trying to cling to Rapture, I just coulda sworn that Bioshock was at least based on our world/timeline. I mean Rapture may or may not have been technically feasible but a city suspended on dirigibles is ludicrous. I'm also sure people from the surface wouldn't have disbelieved the stories of Rapture if there had also been a frickin' FLYING CITY in the past.

"BioShock 1 wasn't historical, but it was set in the context of history. There was a feeling in America that we were trying to represent. And very much the same here. At the turn of the century, there was this feeling of optimism. All these technologies came in place in the span of twenty years. You go from people with cows and outhouses and growing wheat in fields, to having radios and cars and movie stars, and all these incredible things. It's almost as if they felt a city was suddenly floating in the sky. That's how much the world had changed."

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/08/12/video-interview-ken-levine-on-bioshock-infinite/

 

[infinity_turtles]

I like the new themes they're exploring, but I'm not too sure about the setting. Mainly for aesthetic reasons. Simply put, a city in the sky would be bright. That's doesn't fit well with exploring the dark extremes of an ideology. And I'm going to miss the Little Sisters. Creepy little girls improve everything.

 

[Jumplion]

Am I the only one seeing this game as ridiculous?
I can forget Bioshock 2 if everyone wants to not be reminded of it, but come on.
All they've done is change the setting from an Underwater City to a City in the Sky. It seems like all they've done is changed a gimmick.
I mean what is the next game gonna be set? Middle of the Earth? In Space?

I don't think you are the only one, but I think your fears are mostly unfounded. From the interviews with the Irrational team and the trailer, it looks like Columbia has a very different aesthetic to Rapture. I think the people who are crying about 'Rapture being Bioshock' are the same people who call Samus 'Metroid'.

However, both your suggestions for future Bioshock games would actually be pretty cool

After having researched the game in more detail, I find both the setting (steampunk) and the story intriguing.
But I will only accept the game's setting if they confirm this game is not set the same universe as Bioshock, otherwise it would be ridiculous.

Yes, because an underwater city filled with magical abilities and hugeass scuba-divers with drills on their hands is totally not ridiculous.

Again, why are people so clingy to Rapture? Didn't we all cry foul when BioShock 2 was coming out (Which, by the by, was created by a completely new developer) because the original BioShock wasn't really the type of story to need expanding on, at least in Rapture? Rapture is done, it's finished, the story arc is over, now we have to see what happened before it. Something had to lead to the creation of a place named after the friggin' apocalypse, right?

You seem to misunderstand me, I am not trying to cling to Rapture, I just coulda sworn that Bioshock was at least based on our world/timeline. I mean Rapture may or may not have been technically feasible but a city suspended on dirigibles is ludicrous. I'm also sure people from the surface wouldn't have disbelieved the stories of Rapture if there had also been a frickin' FLYING CITY in the past.

As far as I know, Rapture was never released to the public in general. It was a gathering of a bunch of smart people that built the city and lived in it. Nobody in the surface ever knew about the city, it's in the middle of the friggin' ocean.

But regardless, there's a lot of things unexplained in the BioShock universe, one major one being how the hell did Andrew Ryan built the damn place. You cannot view only one aspect of a story's universe and declare it concrete, you have no idea what direction Irrational is taking BioShock: Infinite, you have no idea how the story is going to shape up in BioShock: Infinite, and it's completely unfair to denounce the game's "believability" just because we're all comfortable in Rapture (ironically so).

 

[Woodsey]

i say if bioshock was never just about rapture then why didnt bioshock one have a caption like "bioshock: rapture" or to that extent... i think they just realized a city underwater would have limits to story so they changed their minds. I think the idea in infinite is too out there, even for bioshock, i mean a floating city? ok a(singular) huge ass hot air balloon can only carry a twine basket and a few people, what makes it realistic that what...6 hot air balloons can fucking lift a 50 story building, not to mention that if they could lift the buildings they would need constant fuel to stay up in the air... at least rapture was believable...it seems to me like they've just skiped sci-fi and went straight to fantasy.

Do you know quite how impossible it'd be to actually build Rapture?

There was a thread on here months back and someone went into major detail about it. It might seem more plausible, but it really isn't.

It's far less about how it's there and far more about what it represents.

 

[jamesworkshop]

i say if bioshock was never just about rapture then why didnt bioshock one have a caption like "bioshock: rapture" or to that extent... i think they just realized a city underwater would have limits to story so they changed their minds. I think the idea in infinite is too out there, even for bioshock, i mean a floating city? ok a(singular) huge ass hot air balloon can only carry a twine basket and a few people, what makes it realistic that what...6 hot air balloons can fucking lift a 50 story building, not to mention that if they could lift the buildings they would need constant fuel to stay up in the air... at least rapture was believable...it seems to me like they've just skiped sci-fi and went straight to fantasy.

Do you know quite how impossible it'd be to actually build Rapture?

There was a thread on here months back and someone went into major detail about it. It might seem more plausible, but it really isn't.

It's far less about how it's there and far more about what it represents.

Are people really questioning the plausibility of a story where humans have magic arms that shoot bee's

 

[IxionIndustries]

I always figured the point of BioShock was a utopian city gone horribly wrong in some way of it's design or management.

 

[Jumplion]

they explained how they built it already. it was in bioshock 2.

And I reserve the right to go "LALALALALALALALA, DIFFERENT DEVELOPERS, HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEY WERE DOING, LALALALALALALA"

[sup]okay, maybe a tad unfair since I haven't played the game so I can't judge it.[/sup]

I would love to know how they did it, though, care to explain?

But you get my point overall, right? People are brushing off BioShock: Infinite's story as "ridiculous" when A)There has been barely any details surrounding the story and B)RAPTURE WAS A FRIGGIN' UNDERWATER CITY, how the hell is that not ridiculous yet this is?

People are jumping the gun way too early and crashing through the window on the 10th story of the building, the game isn't even supposed to come out until 2012 isn't it? And already people are decrying it "ridiculous" and "milking the franchise" when we know nothing about the story, how the city works, etc...

Again, didn't we complain that BioShock 2 was an unneccesary add-on to the BioShock universe because it stayed in Rapture and completely missed the point of the city/enemies/Big Daddies (from what I've heard, I have not played it)? Why are some people (I'll be fair, just "some" people) clinging on to Rapture and going "It's not a BioShock game without Rapture!"?

Are people really questioning the plausibility of a story where humans have magic arms that shoot bee's

Thank you!

 

[Flying Pilgrim]

Didn't the lead-designer of Bioshock 2 say that the story of Bioshock IS about rapture?

 

[Miumaru]

Any who disagree are not fans of Halo: Reach. (Halo...where?)
(For the slow to get, I highly doubt any of the Halo rings will be in Reach aside from multiplayer)