Irrational Games Unveil New Bioshock Prequel

[AveryMaurice]

Title speaks for itself, the creators of Bioshock and System Shock are again, continuing with the Bioshock franchise this time with a prequel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV_TDxl2UIo for PC, PS3 and X360. I don't know how I feel about this game, but since it no longer takes place in an underwater city, I'm a tad interested.

[Rohit_N]

If it has BioShock's gameplay, I'm not too interested.

[Abyssalstudios1]

Rohit_N said:

If it has BioShock's gameplay, I'm not too interested.

Oh, shaddup.

I'm interested to see how this goes. The whole "City in the sky" concept could go horribly, horribly wrong. But it could also be really cool. Time will tell.

[HackNeyed]

Hmm.





Anyone else?

[Planky]

Floating city huh. Could be interesting, but odds are it will play the same as the first two, which I won't mind as I enjoyed both games.

Don't like the name.

[Snakes]

Meh... The first one is one of the only games I've enjoyed for reasons other than gameplay and I've never even glanced at the second one. This just looks.... Well, slapstickish at times.

[Gez]

So, after Water City, Air City? Will the next game be set in a utopian city in a volcano?

[Captain Red]

We had that already. It was called Ultima Underworld

[scwiba]

Did he turn his head 360 degrees around while hanging onto the side of the blimp?

[DoomUK]

Looks pretty fresh and original (for a FPS).

EDIT: Why they continue to use the name "Bioshock" is a little odd, though.

[Gez]

DoomUK said:

EDIT: Why they continue to use the name "Bioshock" is a little odd, though.

The power of franchise compels them.

[AveryMaurice]

I always wondered if they were trying to associate with System Shock.

[negke]

Gez said:

The power of franchise compels them.

Plus there will probably still be slicers or something similar.

[40oz]

they should make more doom maps instead.

[ArmouredBlood]

I look forward to this. Bioshock 1 was awesome, good to see they're keeping the setting fresh, and depending on what the woman can do and how much using the rails can change strategy, the gameplay could be fresh too. Story seems a little common, but it's just barebones.

And I agree they should make more doom maps, heh.

[Bank]

Well, certainly an engaging trailer that's for sure.

[Mr. Freeze]

The first Bioshock petered out after the first half, and I never bothered playing the second one. I'll pass on this as well.

[Craigs]

The first was fine but the second game was absolutely terrible and completely unnecessary. I can't say I have much faith for this new one. Seems to me like they're just trying to squeeze the last few drops out of the Bioshock franchise.

Also if you loved that escort sequence near the end of Bioshock 1 you'll probably love Bioshock 2 because you have to do that every single time you find a little sister if you want the good ending. Also you need to do it about 3 times for each one of them.

Oh and I heard you'll get to play as a vending machine in Bioshock Infinite.

[Mr. Freeze]

Craigs said:

Also if you loved that escort sequence near the end of Bioshock 1 you'll probably love Bioshock 2 because you have to do that every single time you find a little sister if you want the good ending. Also you need to do it about 3 times for each one of them.

Craigs, stop lying. Bioshock 2 didn't have escort sequences! 2K actually listened to their fans!

...right, guys? Right?

[Planky]

Craigs said:

The first was fine but the second game was absolutely terrible and completely unnecessary. I can't say I have much faith for this new one. Seems to me like they're just trying to squeeze the last few drops out of the Bioshock franchise.

See now I see it completely opposite. I loved Bioshock 2, whereas #1 not so much. BS2 was engaging and I kept wanting to play more. Saving the little sisters was no biggy, though my conscience prevented me from killing them :P I did get sick of them in BS1. I do agree though with not having much faith in this new one, just end it with #2.

[Reisal]

Why not call it Aeroshock instead?

[Captain Red]

Craigs said:

The first was fine but the second game was absolutely terrible and completely unnecessary.

Unnecessary I will agree on, but absolutely terrible? I found that actual 'game' part of bioshock 2 to be more fun then the first one, so much so that when I went back to the first game it made it's problems even more apperent. I wish I had the skill and the time to give the original bioshock the gameplay balance of bioshock 2 as well as give it this endinging

Mr. Chris said:

Why not call it Aeroshock instead?

Because it's not a sequel to Aquashock?

[david_a]

AveryMaurice said:

I always wondered if they were trying to associate with System Shock.

Uh, yes? A lot of the team worked on SS2. It was announced as the 'spiritual successor' to that game.

[Planky]

Captain Red said:

I wish I had the skill and the time to give the original bioshock the gameplay balance of bioshock 2 as well as give it this ending

Thats pretty good. The idea of Fontaine repeatedly drowning indefinitely appeals :D

[Technician]

I never played any of the games, though I assume they all suck, so my opinions may be void.

[DoomUK]

Technician said:

I never played any of the games, though I assume they all suck, so my opinions may be void.

Somewhat, yes.

[Aliotroph?]

System Shock 2 was one of those games everybody at work started telling me to play. At the time it took me three days to get it running on Vista. It was well worth it. It could seriously use an HD remake, but it was really fun. The sound design is legendary.

Bioshock was less fun -- something I decided was largely caused by simplifying it. But Bioshock positively oozes atmospheric Art Deco retrofuturism gone amok! It's a pretty game.

Never played the second Bioshock. Maybe this new game will be awesome. I'll wait and see. Never played the first System Shock either. It suffers an amazingly clumsy control scheme.

[Craigs]

Captain Red said:

Unnecessary I will agree on, but absolutely terrible? I found that actual 'game' part of bioshock 2 to be more fun then the first one, so much so that when I went back to the first game it made it's problems even more apperent. I wish I had the skill and the time to give the original bioshock the gameplay balance of bioshock 2 as well as give it this endinging

Bioshock 2 did have a few good things going for it. I'll admit, the more complex endings did strike me as somewhat interesting. As far as gameplay went however, I found it to be a bit of a step down, and I really didn't feel like enough changes had been made for it to feel like a new game. For one thing, I could barely see anything half the time because there was so much shit cluttering the screen. You had your weapons that took up a huge portion of the screen, you left hand which took another fairly big portion, and then your helmet which pretty much obscured the edges.
Then there were the weapons themselves. They felt way too much like the weapons from the original game. When I heard you'd be able to get a rivet gun, I was half expecting it to be the rivet guns the rosies used in the first game which would have been awesome. Turns out it was basically just a modified version of the BS1 pistol. Hell, the fact that lead head splicers armed with pistols dropped rivets instead of pistol rounds only gives me the impression that the rivet gun is just a pistol reskin. The only two weapons that really even felt new to me were the drill and the hacking gun.

Also it's like Yahtzee said, you're basically just the guy from the first game running around with a fish bowl on his head. You can still eat food and drink booze even though you're sealed inside a massive suit and somehow you can still move at a fairly fast speed even though you're supposed to be a lumbering big daddy.

The weirdest thing though, is that you actually take more damage than the guy from the first game, which really doesn't make any sense. Jack from BS1 was just a somewhat average guy wearing everyday clothing. The main character from BS2 is a massive monstrosity wearing a bulky steel diving suit, and yet he's a complete pussy compared to Jack. How does that work? I'm guessing that it was supposed to make the game more difficult than the first one, but that wasn't really the problem now was it?

Adam was a little too easy to get as well. By the end of the game I had a massive surplus of the stuff because just about everything I needed was handed to by Eleanor throughout the game. Half the time I was just buying tonics just for the sake of spending Adam.