video games gotta be the weirdest medium to create stories in, but it's also why they're so special. in an ideal world, all of these upcoming projects will be good and push the genre forward. it's funny to think we're all still excited about a new bioshock game a decade after the last one, and that one didn't even seem to be anyone's favorite! these games are absolutely brimming with potential, and it's nice that we're all still willing to take a peak at what might come next
I always thought instead of a movie, they should make a series set in Rapture during its heyday into its downfall. Would be interesting to see all the side characters in the first two games before the splicer epidemic
Bruh, that would be a great approach. Just call it Rapture, focus on the rise and fall of the city, and have easter eggs/subtle nods to the games and characters as it goes. I'd watch that.
I liked that Bioshock 2 was kind of a "backstage pass" of Rapture, showing us the seedy underbelly of Andrew Ryan's Objectivist Utopia. We saw that Rapture was doomed from the start. It wasn't that it fell apart; it was never together in the first place.
Your point on "safe" design choices hits spot on. We've already seen how bland the media gets when all we get is non-innovative, watered down slop. I'd rather see studios I love take actual risks and either succeed or fail spectacularly than release generic filler titles year-after-year until they're quietly absorbed and disbanded by a larger company anyway.
@@ILovePancakes24Not necessarily. Games like Halo, Bioshock, Gears, Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Final Fantasy, etc took massive risks in their gameplay, story, art direction, etc and became hits because of it. Because of their risks, those games are generally loved and well recognized. Risks don't automatically mean failure. Modern society has been conditioned to just accept piles of shit as something that is acceptable and to take the safe route.
From the sounds of it, Ken Levine is incredibly challenging to work with and for, and despite his creative vision being clearly powerful and high quality given his work in the Bioshock franchise, I kinda think that if we were to get a new BioShock game, Ken Levine would have to have a more minor role. I mean... "Narrative legos" combined with high turnover and accounts of an "eclectic style" has me imagining Ken coming into daily meetings with a fundamentally new concept for a game every day. It's kinda what Bioshock infinite's develooment was, right? So much was scrapped, looking at prerelease interviews and demos and footage. You can almost hear him in the background going "alright, we're gonna need new fuckin' assets ASAP because now the game's set in the SKY! wait, fuck that, its actually about post-civil war era racism in America and its back underwater again, but its also gonna be in the sky for half of it and Andrew Ryan will be Booker Comstock DeWitt and it'll all be the same but different"
Yea, he comes across like someone who almost needs a partner that understands his creativity, his good ideas from the bad and his overall process, but can manage him well enough to not run into "development hell". Sounds like there have been many situations (in Infinite and from leaks, in the new company) where he suddenly has a new vision or idea and wants to scrap a lot of previous ideas, creating what I imagine to be both a stressful and difficult work environment for those around him. Which is a shame, because he definitely has some cool Ideas, and they've led to some good/great games. But it's also sad seeing in this video the timeline and how little output he's had in his career. You can't rush inovation, but it's also mute if nothing ever gets released, or your process results in a potentially inovated in ways, but not so great end product too.
@RSATT01 infinite was a big project that ended up not being able to sustain the weight of its own design. That doesn't make Levine less genious. It just shows that one person is not enough to make a masterpiece like Bioshock, you need a whole team of competent people to bring a brilliant idea to reality.
Seeing a Danny Gonzalez reference while Lutece theme was playing in the background felt like a fever dream I thought only my brain was capable to produce. Wow. Great video as always! I personally prefer this francise to be left alone in piece as imo it was never about making a franchise but about the ideas and experiments of a one particular visionary. I still would like to play both Judas and Isolation (if they ever come out lol) but I don't have any high hopes for any of them.
I knew someone was gonna comment on Danny lmao Yeah, I can see what you're saying about Bioshock being left alone. I feel the same about some of my favourite franchises too, and Bioshock is so unique that if you start pulling at those strings the whole thing feels less special in the end. But 2k clearly wants to make more so that's just the reality we're living in I guess. Personally I think using the "shock" name would be the way I'd like it to go (system shock, bioshock, __shock for the next series). It won't happen but that'd be cool. You can sort of preserve what bioshock is but also continue to explore weird cities and concepts and ideologies. I'm very very interested in how and when bioshock 4 is revealed and how they market it
I loved Infinite. It’s narrative WAS convoluted and absolutely littered with plot holes and dead ends… but Lordy did it make me *feel* something no other game had up to that point. It’s not really an immersive sim though and I hope Judas leans back in that direction more. But, can we really blame developers and publishers for not supporting Immersive Sim projects more? Prey is an excellent immersive sim… and it landed with a thud for most gamers. We’ll see. Levine is one of those creatives where I say “let him cook”. We’ll get what we get and if it’s a unique experience I’ll be happy when it happens.
Great video !! I believe the current uncertainty of Bioshocks future is a good sign the series is still finding new ways to be creative. Throughout all points of my life I found the series incredibly interesting & indirectly inspired so much of my creative passion . As a young boy my mom would take me to a second hand store to buy clothes, toys, etc. And while I was there I found the coolest figure ever, it was a Big Daddy from Bioshock. I found this figure when I was 4 and didn’t learn about Bioshock until I was 8 or 9. To this day I’d argue no series has created such vivid & tangible fantasy places. My favorite game series of all time, Fallout, who’s similar aesthetics I adore pale in comparison to the rich immersion of these games. As crazy as I might sound, I’d rather have Bioshock as good as it’s been, or not at all, this series needs to be pushed to its absolute limits because when it delivers its revolutionary on so many levels; creatively, culturally, and entertainment wise. Great video !! Keep posting and you’ll definitely hit 100k subs or more!!🎉
Great video. Bioshock was the first M rated game I bought. I saw the game informer issue with it on the cover and was sold. Walmart advertising it as 39.99, so I reserved a copy and drove there at 16. Hid it from my parents so that I could play. It was the most immersive thing I had ever played. Looking forward to you making more videos!
I *just* realized Frank Fontaine was supposed to look like Atlas from the cover of 'Atlas Shrugged', which falls in line with the theme of parodying Ayn Rand's world within the book.
Its still crazy to me that the previous writers/owners of the franchise pulled a "Torch the Franchise and Run" approach when they released Burial at Sea.
@@MrChaos500 Burial At Sea was awful. It threw out major lore mistakes, retcons, and just has an overall worse writing quality, that many fans when asked between a BOOK + Bioshock 2 or a best selling DLC in a best selling game made by the original creators of the series, that fans _often choose to pick the first two as being canon, not the second._ Burial At Sea if you try to make it work into Bioshock lore essentially just makes it a garbage fire, and now Levin isn't even working on the series anymore, he's moved on to Judas.
@@EvilParagon4Kbash imo put it best in saying that Burial at Sea basically retconned Bioshock into having the potential to tell ANY STORY so long as it has a guy and a lighthouse, which is fundamentally a concession given they had to throw out most of the worldbuilding in exchange for badly misinterpreted many worlds theory. Watch Judas end with the space station falling into the sea as some character goes "there's always a man... There's always a lighthouse... Now would you kindly open the door" or some shit
Because they recognize that not every franchise needs to be a franchise. BioShock was supposed to be a one and done deal, 2 was made by the publisher bc the first was successful, and Infinite is essentially an entirely different game. The franchise is only continuing because it’s popular, not because there’s a lot of potential there for a sequel
@@logancarlile8895 But that's a bad argument. There _is_ lots of potential for Rapture to have a sequel after Bioshock 1, and hell even after Bioshock 2 there's still potential. Bioshock 2 has a very compelling story and to write it off as just being a sequel to a popular game is foolish. Rapture has so much storytelling potential that there are multiple additional plots you can hear in both games through the audio diaries.
They are a little different, but the Dishonored games and Deathloop feature very similar mechanics and art styles, if very different settings (and with more of a stealth option, which Bioshock never really had).
@@dorianthegrayAnd if not, Prey (2017) has some of the Bioshock feel, in space. It's how I have managed my withdrawal symptoms... Along with acting like Powerade is Plasmids.
Another good one, man. I absolutely LOVE System Shock 1 and 2 (especially 2), and the original Bioshock. To me, much of their brilliance comes from creating interesting and believable worlds. Something underappreciated that more developers should learn from is that the worlds in all of these games are naturally constrained, allowing the developers to control their scope (which lets them hit a high quality level), without any sort of arbitrary boundaries breaking immersion. I'm curious to see what if anything comes of future Bioshock titles, or Shock-like titles, but like you I'm not holding my breath for any one of them. Crafting these sorts of interesting narratives, immersive worlds, and emergent gameplay systems will always be a challenge and it wouldn't be surprising to me if some or all of these titles don't pan out. Oh, and they should all be playable in VR, of course.
Honestly being on the internet so much has made me feel that we don't really need subtle themes given how many people don't understand stuff like Starship Troopers is a intentional parody.
I hope the next Bioshock isn't like Infinite where you can't save whenever, can't backtrack (you can't either in 2), can't buy all weapons & upgrades, can't earn all the money you want, enemies don't respawn like in 1 & 2
5:50 Really enjoyed the video! I had completely forgotten that a Bioshock 4 was ever even announced, so I appreciated hearing the info about that. But I had one important correction. You mentioned that most of the Irrational stuff was reassigned to other teams at 2K after Infinite came out. Sadly, most of them were actually laid off and forced to leave 2K. Luckily the publisher did put some effort into it and held a jobs fair where other developers came to 2K to talk to the staff that were leaving, but still, it was likely a sad moment for the 100 or so developers who were pushed out after so many stressful years of work. If you google around for Irrational Games Layoffs, you’ll see articles or the Wikipedia page mentioning it (didn’t want to link the page directly, in case UA-cam thought it was a link to spam)
I’m worried about it, BUT I’m excited for more bioshock THATS HANDLED WELL!!! As long as they aren’t just making more games purely for the sake of making money off of the franchise, then it should be good. Bioshock doesn’t necessarily need to be the same setting as the 1st/2nd or 3rd. I think it SHOULD make references and keep an extremely similar theme but otherwise it can be whatever.
Honestly I’m okay with the big gap in output. Time has always been what developers aren’t given enough of (see Cyberpunk). Even if it comes out in 2030 I’ll just be happy to see a game come out that’s been given the time it needs to be fully developed. Let’s hope it doesn’t take that long tho 😋
Yea knowing how long bioshock games take. I know they take the time and are well thought out of what direction they want to go. Not a rushed titled just hoping it does good always liked that from bioshock games.
6:57 That...kinda sounds like the story system in Tyranny, where the choices you make in the prologue fan out into the choices you CAN make for the rest of the story, as areas and events are locked off or opened up via certain combinations of choices you make there, and then other choices come from that. For anyone unaware, Tyranny is a cRPG(Top Down RPG, think Baldur's Gate if you're familiar with the genre at all). It can get away with the narrative being told in pieces since voice dialogue isn't everywhere, allowing them to piece together individual areas from choices you made, as stuff in the early hours can determine not just your build, and there's a lot of choices there too, but also party members, and even narrative branches you can go down. The team behind it even listened to feed back and added a completely new route, for free, to the game after launch, as they hadn't thought people would want it. Sadly, outside of one ending, the narrative ends on a bit of an open note(You finish the story being told, but it's obvious this is the first in a set of stories), and given both the game itself sold only moderately well, and it was a collaboration between two studios who don't look ready to work together again, it likely will never happen.
Personally, I don't think choice = Bioshock. We've had four fabulous stories told in Rapture, and yes, I mean the book rather than Burial At Sea. Only one of them, the original, centred on choice and agency. One could even argue There's Something in the Sea to be another great 5th story, also not about agency. I don't think a Bioshock movie or show needs to have choice as a meaning, it just needs to be a commentary.
I’m surprised you didn’t talk about the video that was posted about what Bioshock 4 is supposed to look like in Unreal Engine 5 and set in a futuristic Paris with flying machines and open world concept.
Wouldn't be surprised if Bioshock 4 was set in Paris. Do you know what the ancient name for Paris was? It was Lutetia (in Latin), and in French it's Lutece
'Schrodinger's Bioshock' is possibly the most succinct and best way to describe the future of Bioshock. This series is praised left and right from every corner of gaming, yet every game after the first has been a massive letdown. Either financially or storywise. The success of the first game has plagued this franchise with expectations beyond the scope of reasonablity.
0:55 Dude, as a gamer who's been Gaming as a hobby for over 40 years now, I got bad news for you. There's that day it hit's you. "Holy shit. I've been at this for 4 decades". No regrets, once I'd accepted it. I've witnessed a LOT of history via the hobby, from the days of the Atari 2600/Commodore/Spectrum to modern day. I witnessed the rise of the "bedroom coder" and the various scenes it produced to companies, once thought too big to fail, collapsing. So far, it's been a mostly fun and highly entertaining ride, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Crazy as I feel like I’m from a very small group, but bioshock 2 is arguably my favorite. And not just the bioshock 2 game, but the DLC. Being able to play a different big daddy and go through the short story and the twist in it, it feels like a small bit of the first games twist. Bioshock as a franchise will always be my favorite videogame franchise of all time, but good lord I know if they finally come out and say here’s the next game and here’s the pre order things you can get, I’ll be immediately throwing my wallet at it.
The fact that Netflix is developing the Bioshock movie is enough for me to lose all hype/interest unfortunately. I'd be happy to be proven wrong when it eventually comes out, but their quality isnt nearly as good as it should be. If it were on HBO id by hyped af tho
i like to imagine that after escaping rapture jack writes an autobiographical novel about his personal experience and it gets adapted into a videogame in 2007
Excellent and well put together video. I look forward to coming back to this years later and reporting back on the outcomes. Bioshock 1 is my favorite game of all time, nothing compared to the world, its atmosphere and moral concepts. I’m excited to see at least 1 more game by ken and is creative mind.
The Borealis rumors- at least, that being the city name and it being in Antarctica in the 1960s- are most likely true. Everything else (even the name "isolation" and the whole vertical city thing) is most likely false. Glad you found some new info tho
I just want the next bioshock to maintain the steampunk aesthetic and the character depth they had with Elizabeth, Booker etc. Maybe even with a weird lovestory or smth. That would spice it up a little. I love all Bioshock games and I'd like to have a new entry
Bioshock is all about utopia town. I don't know why is it that hard to make a new game. They could do one on the moon, in a city like atlantide, a hidden city in india, ... There is plenty of possibilities .. You just need to take some risk. The team behind Bioshock was the sort of taking risk before, i don't see why this will change. Don't tell me than take two killed another licence again ?
1:45 umm excuse me? He did not tell capitalism to suck it. Objectivism is a capitalist ideology in much the same way liberalism is. Andrew Ryan is LITERALLY a capitalist, and wanted a utopia where the entrepreneur and indiviso was not restricted by the things he listed in his speech. Rapture is a capitalist society (which is an economic system not inherently ideological) based on the principles of objectivism. It’s not a game that’s very subtle about it either.
Honestly, I would gladly settle for a proper VR port of the first two games. I was pissed when I found out that VorpX (which projects DirectX games into VR) support for Bioshock 1 & 2 had been *_removed_* before I bought it _because I had seen B 1 & 2 on a _*_list of compatible games_* for VorpX.
If there will be a new Bioshock game I think you should get the chance to choose to play as a splicer or a Big Daddy. And me personally I think the Bioshock fandom and games are just undead not alive or dead just undead
Wouldn't wonder if Judas turns out completely different than what the trailer showed. Ken Levine has the reputation to scrap and replace stuff even late into the development. I still have some hope left but I have to note that the lineage from System Shock 2 to Bioshock 1 to Bioshock Infinite is one of diminishing returns for me. Infinite was actually quite disappointing from a gameplay standpoint. Bioshock 1 was somewhere in between the forever fantastic System Shock 2 and the very mediocre Infinite but saved by the awesome atmosphere and setting.
@@dubstepXpower Not by much but it had more exploration, felt less "on rails through a shooting gallery", subjectively felt like it had more 'emergent' stuff and posibilities to find creative solutions. That's what I remember from the top of my head but I think there's more. It has been a while since I played them but I definitely got away with that impression - even more "streamlined" to point of being almost purely an ego shooter, getting even further away from the System Shock 2-RPGLight/Egoshooter-combo than Bioshock alread did. The addition of a compagnion (Elizabeth) was mildly interesting and the story was also more interesting than your standard industry fare but also a bit convoluted in a slightly pompous Nolan-esque kind of way. Overall I expected better from this studio and hand hopes that they would mov slightly more into the System Shock-direction again - as they broke some promises on the first Bioshock already. Same with Judas now, although my hopes a signficantly lower now.
@@dubstepXpowergunplay in infinite felt better and more polished. But the overall level design and lack of exploration makes it the worst of the three. It pretty much feels like a traditional fps. But I still like infinite a lot
If a mirrored city was a development idea it's been long scrapped I feel like that could never be realisticly pulled off. Also I kinda hated the frozen areas of bioshock so I hope the entire game isn't just more of that.
How does it feel when the Algorithm 'lets a video out' All your stuff should be at this view count !!!!!! This platform is so broken, nice vid btw, (I made a similar one)
You could have AAA list actors, director James Cameron, and a soundtrack composed by John Williams, Netflix will find some way to ruin it. They have a terrible track record at this point, 98% flops, and what doesn't flop, gets canceled.
Nice video! I do wish that you had talked about The Black Glove as well, as it being made by the former irrational games devs, under the name day for night games. I'd like to hear your take on that as it relates to all of this.
I think that a Bioshock movie/show set before the events of the game would work really well... assuming the people who make it actually played the game and understand the lore. The biggest problem with the game, and the biggest reason I'm okay with the idea the franchise not being brought back, is that no one seems to actually understand Andrew Ryan and Rapture. Everywhere you go you hear people say that Rapture is "Extreme Libertarianism" or "extreme Objectivism," when in reality its a Fascist Society wearing the skin of those two ideologies as a disguise. Then on top of that the fact that no one actually seems to understand what Fascism is, opting just to slap the label onto their own modern day political opponents, and its just a mess. If the wrong people get their hands on the IP then the movie would just be a political cartoon of Trump written by a Vox journalist who doesn't leave their own house and is nostalgic for the Pandemic of 2020. It will almost certainly be twisted away from its original themes into some stupid modern political drama and be bogged down in modern political fighting. Instead of being about control it will be about Trump or whoever the new Trump is when they start writing it.
This comments should be memorialized for lack of self awareness. "People are too political to understand concepts, not me, I'm smart, btw here's my own political drivel"
@@RatherCrunchyMuffinAre you sure? The comment seems to be criticising political ideologues of both North American left and right, and seems to look down on drama caused by political ideologues.
Bioshock may be a franchise that had trouble in the making, but when it comes out, people seems to love it So even if it takes years for another Bioshock to come out...all i know is that in the end it will be remembered for a long while
Wonder how many bioshock fans would just like a real remake from 2k of the first one with some of the cut cut content restored. Maybe even reference or even explore places inspired from the second one and add the alpha series big daddies.
Watching this video has really excited me to play Bioshock. Other than the praise, the only thing I knew it for was being one of games which idiots thought wasn't political but actually was (& some hated it for that).
It's a great franchise. I think the gameplay holds up decently well for a game from 2007 (although weirdly it feels like Infinite aged the worst) and it's one of the more unique AAA series for sure
One of the things that I hate and love about bioshock is how the people in the game are frequently wrong about everything. There is information all around for you to find that tells you the opposite of what the characters state. They blame the Eve for the insanity but it is the Adam that causes that... not the super juice. The only bad thing that Ryan did was potentially murder his mistress, but that was a set up by bad people to get leverage, and somehow they were able to take his illegitimate son from the murdered lady but left her body at the scene? If you remember Ryan rejected outright the proposal to use pharamones to control the population that was then used by Atlas. Ryan valued the freedom of choice... to the sacrafice of his own life for his son; a Man Chooses, a Slave Obeys.
I wish they would make a Bioshock Infinite Remake with all those beautiful features that were in first trailer and got lost on final release. The game was awesome nevertheless, and a big deal for its time, just saying it had even more potential left in the tank. I hope 4th will deliver something groundbreaking and shake the series from its sleep.
I don't want a BioShock movie nor would I want to write, direct or act in one. Here's what I would do. A series called "Rapture". About Rapture before it fell, with flash-forwards to the time it is in ruins.
Superb video. I'm trying to remain hopeful for the Bioshock franchise and I'm also really intrigued by Judas. Hopefully they can pull it out of dev hell because it looks awesome
I just can't wait for Judas. Also anyone got a bioshock tattoo I got Mr bubbles and with a little sister sitting on his shoulder on my arm. Like the video man
Honestly, that idea with the two conflicting seems interesting enough, and doesn't sound like it "repeats' the first three games. This is also the first time I'm hearing of this idea. I always thought of these leakers as studios going undercover seeing what actually sticks and what people like. I'm all for the duo cities idea.
I asked levine where he'd take the shock series since system shock was in space, bioshock was in the ocean and infinite was in the sky and he said next up is a city in detroit
Join the Discord- discord.gg/Gcx93UPZh7
Would you kindly make more awsome videos.
nt
video games gotta be the weirdest medium to create stories in, but it's also why they're so special. in an ideal world, all of these upcoming projects will be good and push the genre forward. it's funny to think we're all still excited about a new bioshock game a decade after the last one, and that one didn't even seem to be anyone's favorite! these games are absolutely brimming with potential, and it's nice that we're all still willing to take a peak at what might come next
Yeah man that's why atomic heart created such a great world, but failed to be a great game
It was my favorite
@@Zebcaramel hell yeah keep rockin dude
Mass Effect storyline all the way! The best
Bioshock was not a fav but it was cool and original which I can appreciate. Definitely embracing video games as an art.
I always thought instead of a movie, they should make a series set in Rapture during its heyday into its downfall. Would be interesting to see all the side characters in the first two games before the splicer epidemic
The book would be a great way for them to adapt bioshock into a series
they should just sick with bioshock 1 characters and lore. its the only gamein the series that everyone mutually likes
@@Jacob-ml5bp It would still be nice to see some nods to Bioshock 2. That game undeniably deserves more love even if it's not the best game out there.
@@joyfulleader5075 yeah for sure i personally enjoy bioshock 2, but i understand why alot of people dont aswell
Bruh, that would be a great approach. Just call it Rapture, focus on the rise and fall of the city, and have easter eggs/subtle nods to the games and characters as it goes.
I'd watch that.
Thank you for calling Bioshock 2 underrated. While it lacked the same feeling of wonder, the gameplay was greatly improved
Greatly improved. The mechanics were a lot smoother and enjoyed the story it told. Always say if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
@@Izzy-nh9sk While the main story couldn't live up to the twist of the first, I feel Minerva's Den made up for it.
@@petercampi2840 bio shock 2 is better than infinite
I liked that Bioshock 2 was kind of a "backstage pass" of Rapture, showing us the seedy underbelly of Andrew Ryan's Objectivist Utopia. We saw that Rapture was doomed from the start. It wasn't that it fell apart; it was never together in the first place.
@@Izzy-nh9sk
" Bioshock 2 is better than infinite " 🤓🤓🤓
Your point on "safe" design choices hits spot on. We've already seen how bland the media gets when all we get is non-innovative, watered down slop. I'd rather see studios I love take actual risks and either succeed or fail spectacularly than release generic filler titles year-after-year until they're quietly absorbed and disbanded by a larger company anyway.
You want them to take risks because you have little to lose, if they fail. But they have everything to lose.
@@04dram04I don't buy games because they take no risks.
Steamunlocked has everything you need.
Honestly, from a gameplay perspective, Bioshock was a "watered-down" System Shock 2. Everything else about it was pretty original though.
If they did this then you'd only have Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo as game studios because everyone else failed spectacularly
@@ILovePancakes24Not necessarily. Games like Halo, Bioshock, Gears, Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Final Fantasy, etc took massive risks in their gameplay, story, art direction, etc and became hits because of it. Because of their risks, those games are generally loved and well recognized. Risks don't automatically mean failure. Modern society has been conditioned to just accept piles of shit as something that is acceptable and to take the safe route.
That idea for BioShock 4 sounds awesome with the two versions of a city at war against each other.
Honestly as soon as I heard that I think its a pretty great idea, we'll have to see what we get haha
And being an open world ?
@@SniP3rHavOkinstantly reminded me of the background of Arcane (the Netflix series from LoL) with the war between Piltover and Zaun
@@youamazing41 Yeah that makes me so mad/sad lol. I loved the linearity/density of Bioshock, and making it open world could soo easily ruin that.
@@DatHombre also it's very open-world in it's own way. Not actually a open-world but Bioshock 1 and 2 maps are very big
They should make a series about the Bioshock book, it’s a prequel but has so many characters and forshadowing to things in future games
Yes please
Name of the book?
From the sounds of it, Ken Levine is incredibly challenging to work with and for, and despite his creative vision being clearly powerful and high quality given his work in the Bioshock franchise, I kinda think that if we were to get a new BioShock game, Ken Levine would have to have a more minor role. I mean... "Narrative legos" combined with high turnover and accounts of an "eclectic style" has me imagining Ken coming into daily meetings with a fundamentally new concept for a game every day. It's kinda what Bioshock infinite's develooment was, right? So much was scrapped, looking at prerelease interviews and demos and footage. You can almost hear him in the background going "alright, we're gonna need new fuckin' assets ASAP because now the game's set in the SKY! wait, fuck that, its actually about post-civil war era racism in America and its back underwater again, but its also gonna be in the sky for half of it and Andrew Ryan will be Booker Comstock DeWitt and it'll all be the same but different"
I've always imagine Ken Levine to be a strange visionary like George Lucas, the two sagas also had similar flaws (success, failures and controversies)
Yea, he comes across like someone who almost needs a partner that understands his creativity, his good ideas from the bad and his overall process, but can manage him well enough to not run into "development hell". Sounds like there have been many situations (in Infinite and from leaks, in the new company) where he suddenly has a new vision or idea and wants to scrap a lot of previous ideas, creating what I imagine to be both a stressful and difficult work environment for those around him.
Which is a shame, because he definitely has some cool Ideas, and they've led to some good/great games. But it's also sad seeing in this video the timeline and how little output he's had in his career. You can't rush inovation, but it's also mute if nothing ever gets released, or your process results in a potentially inovated in ways, but not so great end product too.
Crazy to me that anyone trusts Levine after Infinite being up its' own ass and Burial at Sea ruining the franchise.
@RSATT01 infinite was a big project that ended up not being able to sustain the weight of its own design. That doesn't make Levine less genious. It just shows that one person is not enough to make a masterpiece like Bioshock, you need a whole team of competent people to bring a brilliant idea to reality.
@@AksenowtCcYou can't even spell genius right, genius
Bioshock 2 will always be my favorite, I enjoyed the multiplayer too. What a nice change up back then.
Pretty cool that the MP acts as a prequel to the first story, thus B2 expands the original Bioshock in both directions.
Seeing a Danny Gonzalez reference while Lutece theme was playing in the background felt like a fever dream I thought only my brain was capable to produce. Wow.
Great video as always! I personally prefer this francise to be left alone in piece as imo it was never about making a franchise but about the ideas and experiments of a one particular visionary. I still would like to play both Judas and Isolation (if they ever come out lol) but I don't have any high hopes for any of them.
I knew someone was gonna comment on Danny lmao
Yeah, I can see what you're saying about Bioshock being left alone. I feel the same about some of my favourite franchises too, and Bioshock is so unique that if you start pulling at those strings the whole thing feels less special in the end. But 2k clearly wants to make more so that's just the reality we're living in I guess. Personally I think using the "shock" name would be the way I'd like it to go (system shock, bioshock, __shock for the next series). It won't happen but that'd be cool. You can sort of preserve what bioshock is but also continue to explore weird cities and concepts and ideologies. I'm very very interested in how and when bioshock 4 is revealed and how they market it
I loved Infinite. It’s narrative WAS convoluted and absolutely littered with plot holes and dead ends… but Lordy did it make me *feel* something no other game had up to that point. It’s not really an immersive sim though and I hope Judas leans back in that direction more. But, can we really blame developers and publishers for not supporting Immersive Sim projects more? Prey is an excellent immersive sim… and it landed with a thud for most gamers. We’ll see. Levine is one of those creatives where I say “let him cook”. We’ll get what we get and if it’s a unique experience I’ll be happy when it happens.
Great video !! I believe the current uncertainty of Bioshocks future is a good sign the series is still finding new ways to be creative. Throughout all points of my life I found the series incredibly interesting & indirectly inspired so much of my creative passion .
As a young boy my mom would take me to a second hand store to buy clothes, toys, etc.
And while I was there I found the coolest figure ever, it was a Big Daddy from Bioshock.
I found this figure when I was 4 and didn’t learn about Bioshock until I was 8 or 9.
To this day I’d argue no series has created such vivid & tangible fantasy places.
My favorite game series of all time, Fallout, who’s similar aesthetics I adore pale in comparison to the rich immersion of these games.
As crazy as I might sound, I’d rather have Bioshock as good as it’s been, or not at all, this series needs to be pushed to its absolute limits because when it delivers its revolutionary on so many levels; creatively, culturally, and entertainment wise.
Great video !!
Keep posting and you’ll definitely hit 100k subs or more!!🎉
Great video. Bioshock was the first M rated game I bought. I saw the game informer issue with it on the cover and was sold. Walmart advertising it as 39.99, so I reserved a copy and drove there at 16. Hid it from my parents so that I could play. It was the most immersive thing I had ever played.
Looking forward to you making more videos!
I *just* realized Frank Fontaine was supposed to look like Atlas from the cover of 'Atlas Shrugged', which falls in line with the theme of parodying Ayn Rand's world within the book.
Clockwork Revolution is one to keep your eye on. Very BioShock-esque
yeah, it look like bioshock infinite younger cousin
Its still crazy to me that the previous writers/owners of the franchise pulled a "Torch the Franchise and Run" approach when they released Burial at Sea.
How do you mean bro be nice to know what happened. Been a while since I played
@@MrChaos500 Burial At Sea was awful. It threw out major lore mistakes, retcons, and just has an overall worse writing quality, that many fans when asked between a BOOK + Bioshock 2 or a best selling DLC in a best selling game made by the original creators of the series, that fans _often choose to pick the first two as being canon, not the second._
Burial At Sea if you try to make it work into Bioshock lore essentially just makes it a garbage fire, and now Levin isn't even working on the series anymore, he's moved on to Judas.
@@EvilParagon4Kbash imo put it best in saying that Burial at Sea basically retconned Bioshock into having the potential to tell ANY STORY so long as it has a guy and a lighthouse, which is fundamentally a concession given they had to throw out most of the worldbuilding in exchange for badly misinterpreted many worlds theory.
Watch Judas end with the space station falling into the sea as some character goes "there's always a man... There's always a lighthouse... Now would you kindly open the door" or some shit
Because they recognize that not every franchise needs to be a franchise. BioShock was supposed to be a one and done deal, 2 was made by the publisher bc the first was successful, and Infinite is essentially an entirely different game. The franchise is only continuing because it’s popular, not because there’s a lot of potential there for a sequel
@@logancarlile8895 But that's a bad argument. There _is_ lots of potential for Rapture to have a sequel after Bioshock 1, and hell even after Bioshock 2 there's still potential. Bioshock 2 has a very compelling story and to write it off as just being a sequel to a popular game is foolish.
Rapture has so much storytelling potential that there are multiple additional plots you can hear in both games through the audio diaries.
I just want the next game to be where you play as Eleanor.
I have feeling bioshock series with arcane style gonna be amazing
Bioshock style games are just so amazing. Atomic Heart recently cured my 10 year itch for a new Bioshock game, but that itch is coming back lol
I think you need to see a dermatologist.
Really looking forward to playing Atomic Heart!
But not until the price has dropped, and it's on a Steam Sale - so it may be a while.
They are a little different, but the Dishonored games and Deathloop feature very similar mechanics and art styles, if very different settings (and with more of a stealth option, which Bioshock never really had).
@@wrathshorts2894 Dr Steinman is my general physician
@@dorianthegrayAnd if not, Prey (2017) has some of the Bioshock feel, in space. It's how I have managed my withdrawal symptoms... Along with acting like Powerade is Plasmids.
Another good one, man.
I absolutely LOVE System Shock 1 and 2 (especially 2), and the original Bioshock. To me, much of their brilliance comes from creating interesting and believable worlds. Something underappreciated that more developers should learn from is that the worlds in all of these games are naturally constrained, allowing the developers to control their scope (which lets them hit a high quality level), without any sort of arbitrary boundaries breaking immersion.
I'm curious to see what if anything comes of future Bioshock titles, or Shock-like titles, but like you I'm not holding my breath for any one of them. Crafting these sorts of interesting narratives, immersive worlds, and emergent gameplay systems will always be a challenge and it wouldn't be surprising to me if some or all of these titles don't pan out.
Oh, and they should all be playable in VR, of course.
Honestly being on the internet so much has made me feel that we don't really need subtle themes given how many people don't understand stuff like Starship Troopers is a intentional parody.
I think Judas will be similar to Prey. That game is also very bioshock-ish.
I hope the next Bioshock isn't like Infinite where you can't save whenever, can't backtrack (you can't either in 2), can't buy all weapons & upgrades, can't earn all the money you want, enemies don't respawn like in 1 & 2
5:50 Really enjoyed the video! I had completely forgotten that a Bioshock 4 was ever even announced, so I appreciated hearing the info about that.
But I had one important correction. You mentioned that most of the Irrational stuff was reassigned to other teams at 2K after Infinite came out. Sadly, most of them were actually laid off and forced to leave 2K. Luckily the publisher did put some effort into it and held a jobs fair where other developers came to 2K to talk to the staff that were leaving, but still, it was likely a sad moment for the 100 or so developers who were pushed out after so many stressful years of work. If you google around for Irrational Games Layoffs, you’ll see articles or the Wikipedia page mentioning it (didn’t want to link the page directly, in case UA-cam thought it was a link to spam)
I’m worried about it, BUT I’m excited for more bioshock THATS HANDLED WELL!!!
As long as they aren’t just making more games purely for the sake of making money off of the franchise, then it should be good.
Bioshock doesn’t necessarily need to be the same setting as the 1st/2nd or 3rd. I think it SHOULD make references and keep an extremely similar theme but otherwise it can be whatever.
I wish they would make Bioshock TV series called Rapture.
Where each episode is it’s own small story inside Rapture.
Honestly I’m okay with the big gap in output. Time has always been what developers aren’t given enough of (see Cyberpunk). Even if it comes out in 2030 I’ll just be happy to see a game come out that’s been given the time it needs to be fully developed. Let’s hope it doesn’t take that long tho 😋
Yea knowing how long bioshock games take. I know they take the time and are well thought out of what direction they want to go. Not a rushed titled just hoping it does good always liked that from bioshock games.
I find it weird that the Antarctic city in BioShock 4 is allegedly called “Borealis” when that word refers to the Arctic
6:57
That...kinda sounds like the story system in Tyranny, where the choices you make in the prologue fan out into the choices you CAN make for the rest of the story, as areas and events are locked off or opened up via certain combinations of choices you make there, and then other choices come from that.
For anyone unaware, Tyranny is a cRPG(Top Down RPG, think Baldur's Gate if you're familiar with the genre at all). It can get away with the narrative being told in pieces since voice dialogue isn't everywhere, allowing them to piece together individual areas from choices you made, as stuff in the early hours can determine not just your build, and there's a lot of choices there too, but also party members, and even narrative branches you can go down.
The team behind it even listened to feed back and added a completely new route, for free, to the game after launch, as they hadn't thought people would want it. Sadly, outside of one ending, the narrative ends on a bit of an open note(You finish the story being told, but it's obvious this is the first in a set of stories), and given both the game itself sold only moderately well, and it was a collaboration between two studios who don't look ready to work together again, it likely will never happen.
Personally, I don't think choice = Bioshock.
We've had four fabulous stories told in Rapture, and yes, I mean the book rather than Burial At Sea.
Only one of them, the original, centred on choice and agency. One could even argue There's Something in the Sea to be another great 5th story, also not about agency.
I don't think a Bioshock movie or show needs to have choice as a meaning, it just needs to be a commentary.
I’m surprised you didn’t talk about the video that was posted about what Bioshock 4 is supposed to look like in Unreal Engine 5 and set in a futuristic Paris with flying machines and open world concept.
Wouldn't be surprised if Bioshock 4 was set in Paris. Do you know what the ancient name for Paris was? It was Lutetia (in Latin), and in French it's Lutece
Mirroring cities, one underneath the other? That sounds really similar to the concept of the Upside Down in Stranger Things!
'Schrodinger's Bioshock' is possibly the most succinct and best way to describe the future of Bioshock. This series is praised left and right from every corner of gaming, yet every game after the first has been a massive letdown. Either financially or storywise. The success of the first game has plagued this franchise with expectations beyond the scope of reasonablity.
If they were to do a movie, this kind of seems like a stupid idea, but they could make it like one of those interactive shorts on Netflix
My friend is an artist currently working on BS4. From what I hear development is a nightmare.
Infinite one of the best settings in gaming? Nah. Empty husk. Rapture tho? Yes.
Bioshock will always be my favorite game.
0:55 Dude, as a gamer who's been Gaming as a hobby for over 40 years now, I got bad news for you. There's that day it hit's you. "Holy shit. I've been at this for 4 decades". No regrets, once I'd accepted it. I've witnessed a LOT of history via the hobby, from the days of the Atari 2600/Commodore/Spectrum to modern day. I witnessed the rise of the "bedroom coder" and the various scenes it produced to companies, once thought too big to fail, collapsing. So far, it's been a mostly fun and highly entertaining ride, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Crazy as I feel like I’m from a very small group, but bioshock 2 is arguably my favorite. And not just the bioshock 2 game, but the DLC. Being able to play a different big daddy and go through the short story and the twist in it, it feels like a small bit of the first games twist. Bioshock as a franchise will always be my favorite videogame franchise of all time, but good lord I know if they finally come out and say here’s the next game and here’s the pre order things you can get, I’ll be immediately throwing my wallet at it.
I hope they take notes from deathloop in terms of replayability cause it was such a small game yet ridiculously expansive
The fact that Netflix is developing the Bioshock movie is enough for me to lose all hype/interest unfortunately. I'd be happy to be proven wrong when it eventually comes out, but their quality isnt nearly as good as it should be. If it were on HBO id by hyped af tho
i like to imagine that after escaping rapture jack writes an autobiographical novel about his personal experience and it gets adapted into a videogame in 2007
Excellent and well put together video. I look forward to coming back to this years later and reporting back on the outcomes. Bioshock 1 is my favorite game of all time, nothing compared to the world, its atmosphere and moral concepts. I’m excited to see at least 1 more game by ken and is creative mind.
Fantastic work on this- I didn't know about the Borealis rumors- even if they're fake
The Borealis rumors- at least, that being the city name and it being in Antarctica in the 1960s- are most likely true. Everything else (even the name "isolation" and the whole vertical city thing) is most likely false. Glad you found some new info tho
I just want the next bioshock to maintain the steampunk aesthetic and the character depth they had with Elizabeth, Booker etc. Maybe even with a weird lovestory or smth. That would spice it up a little. I love all Bioshock games and I'd like to have a new entry
Bioshock is all about utopia town. I don't know why is it that hard to make a new game. They could do one on the moon, in a city like atlantide, a hidden city in india, ...
There is plenty of possibilities .. You just need to take some risk. The team behind Bioshock was the sort of taking risk before, i don't see why this will change.
Don't tell me than take two killed another licence again ?
1:45 umm excuse me? He did not tell capitalism to suck it. Objectivism is a capitalist ideology in much the same way liberalism is. Andrew Ryan is LITERALLY a capitalist, and wanted a utopia where the entrepreneur and indiviso was not restricted by the things he listed in his speech. Rapture is a capitalist society (which is an economic system not inherently ideological) based on the principles of objectivism. It’s not a game that’s very subtle about it either.
Cohen's masterpiece playing in the background is the only music that fits this ☺️
this is a banger of a video. short, simple, and not hard to understand. Good job!
I think BioShock does not need to go on. It is a great series but it is a series of a gaming era long gone.
Damn, this channel is so fckn slept on. Keep up the good work, your content deserves so much more.👍💪
Fucking*
Honestly, I would gladly settle for a proper VR port of the first two games. I was pissed when I found out that VorpX (which projects DirectX games into VR) support for Bioshock 1 & 2 had been *_removed_* before I bought it _because I had seen B 1 & 2 on a _*_list of compatible games_* for VorpX.
If there will be a new Bioshock game I think you should get the chance to choose to play as a splicer or a Big Daddy. And me personally I think the Bioshock fandom and games are just undead not alive or dead just undead
Wouldn't wonder if Judas turns out completely different than what the trailer showed. Ken Levine has the reputation to scrap and replace stuff even late into the development. I still have some hope left but I have to note that the lineage from System Shock 2 to Bioshock 1 to Bioshock Infinite is one of diminishing returns for me. Infinite was actually quite disappointing from a gameplay standpoint. Bioshock 1 was somewhere in between the forever fantastic System Shock 2 and the very mediocre Infinite but saved by the awesome atmosphere and setting.
How does bioshock 1 have better gameplay than infinite?
@@dubstepXpower Not by much but it had more exploration, felt less "on rails through a shooting gallery", subjectively felt like it had more 'emergent' stuff and posibilities to find creative solutions. That's what I remember from the top of my head but I think there's more. It has been a while since I played them but I definitely got away with that impression - even more "streamlined" to point of being almost purely an ego shooter, getting even further away from the System Shock 2-RPGLight/Egoshooter-combo than Bioshock alread did. The addition of a compagnion (Elizabeth) was mildly interesting and the story was also more interesting than your standard industry fare but also a bit convoluted in a slightly pompous Nolan-esque kind of way. Overall I expected better from this studio and hand hopes that they would mov slightly more into the System Shock-direction again - as they broke some promises on the first Bioshock already. Same with Judas now, although my hopes a signficantly lower now.
@@dubstepXpowergunplay in infinite felt better and more polished. But the overall level design and lack of exploration makes it the worst of the three. It pretty much feels like a traditional fps. But I still like infinite a lot
If a mirrored city was a development idea it's been long scrapped I feel like that could never be realisticly pulled off. Also I kinda hated the frozen areas of bioshock so I hope the entire game isn't just more of that.
How does it feel when the Algorithm 'lets a video out' All your stuff should be at this view count !!!!!!
This platform is so broken, nice vid btw, (I made a similar one)
Saying the possibility of Judas be “bad” is a hot ass take especially with Levine
The problem with “narrative legos” is that it sounds a lot like the scrapbooking style of filming Disney has been using to horribly effect.
"Schrodinger's bioshock" is one of the best lines I've ever heard
dope thumbnail
Unfortunately, Ken Levine seems to be his own worst enemy.
Damn, I love the Bioschock games so much! Especially Infinite. It’s crazy that it’s release was 10 years ago…
Congrats on this video blowing up!!
You could have AAA list actors, director James Cameron, and a soundtrack composed by John Williams, Netflix will find some way to ruin it. They have a terrible track record at this point, 98% flops, and what doesn't flop, gets canceled.
Nice video! I do wish that you had talked about The Black Glove as well, as it being made by the former irrational games devs, under the name day for night games. I'd like to hear your take on that as it relates to all of this.
I think that a Bioshock movie/show set before the events of the game would work really well... assuming the people who make it actually played the game and understand the lore.
The biggest problem with the game, and the biggest reason I'm okay with the idea the franchise not being brought back, is that no one seems to actually understand Andrew Ryan and Rapture. Everywhere you go you hear people say that Rapture is "Extreme Libertarianism" or "extreme Objectivism," when in reality its a Fascist Society wearing the skin of those two ideologies as a disguise. Then on top of that the fact that no one actually seems to understand what Fascism is, opting just to slap the label onto their own modern day political opponents, and its just a mess. If the wrong people get their hands on the IP then the movie would just be a political cartoon of Trump written by a Vox journalist who doesn't leave their own house and is nostalgic for the Pandemic of 2020.
It will almost certainly be twisted away from its original themes into some stupid modern political drama and be bogged down in modern political fighting. Instead of being about control it will be about Trump or whoever the new Trump is when they start writing it.
This comments should be memorialized for lack of self awareness. "People are too political to understand concepts, not me, I'm smart, btw here's my own political drivel"
@@RatherCrunchyMuffin Hey, man, you clearly wrote this on the wrong comment thread, seeing as it has nothing to do with anything I said in mine.
@@RatherCrunchyMuffinAre you sure? The comment seems to be criticising political ideologues of both North American left and right, and seems to look down on drama caused by political ideologues.
Middle School? Jesus you're making me feel old. I was 23 in 2013.
Bioshock may be a franchise that had trouble in the making, but when it comes out, people seems to love it
So even if it takes years for another Bioshock to come out...all i know is that in the end it will be remembered for a long while
Here to say I love Bioshock, including 2, Infinite, AND Burial at Sea.
Bite me.
really well edited and paced, very nice.
A long anticipated game with a Borealis? We all know HL3 was going to have the Borealis, so BS4 confirmed for never coming out
Wonder how many bioshock fans would just like a real remake from 2k of the first one with some of the cut cut content restored. Maybe even reference or even explore places inspired from the second one and add the alpha series big daddies.
Bro Bioshock came out when I was born. Now I can legally drive
Watching this video has really excited me to play Bioshock. Other than the praise, the only thing I knew it for was being one of games which idiots thought wasn't political but actually was (& some hated it for that).
It's a great franchise. I think the gameplay holds up decently well for a game from 2007 (although weirdly it feels like Infinite aged the worst) and it's one of the more unique AAA series for sure
You can get the collection with all three games. I highly recommend it. If my picture is not enough to convince you.
I hope the new game has the same graphics & that it takes place during the lead up to the Rapture civil war & the war itself
One of the things that I hate and love about bioshock is how the people in the game are frequently wrong about everything.
There is information all around for you to find that tells you the opposite of what the characters state.
They blame the Eve for the insanity but it is the Adam that causes that... not the super juice.
The only bad thing that Ryan did was potentially murder his mistress, but that was a set up by bad people to get leverage, and somehow they were able to take his illegitimate son from the murdered lady but left her body at the scene?
If you remember Ryan rejected outright the proposal to use pharamones to control the population that was then used by Atlas.
Ryan valued the freedom of choice... to the sacrafice of his own life for his son; a Man Chooses, a Slave Obeys.
Happy 16th anniversary bioshock
Just watched 21 other bioshock specific videos in celebration
I wish they would make a Bioshock Infinite Remake with all those beautiful features that were in first trailer and got lost on final release. The game was awesome nevertheless, and a big deal for its time, just saying it had even more potential left in the tank. I hope 4th will deliver something groundbreaking and shake the series from its sleep.
The thumbnail, man 🤌 Nice job
Great video man. Can’t wait to check out your other content
There's the "Return to Rapture" Half life Alyx mod allowing you to play Bioshock in VR at least.
Maybe for the movie they go with a more Bandersnatch approach (where the viewers get to interact with story choices)?
I don't want a BioShock movie nor would I want to write, direct or act in one. Here's what I would do.
A series called "Rapture". About Rapture before it fell, with flash-forwards to the time it is in ruins.
Honestly I'd put Infinite over Bioshock 1, the art direction was so pretty I just love being up there more than Rapture
been replaying it. spent hours just taking in the city, now in the later game the city has gone to shit and i just miss it
Lmao no
Superb video. I'm trying to remain hopeful for the Bioshock franchise and I'm also really intrigued by Judas. Hopefully they can pull it out of dev hell because it looks awesome
That is a damn good thumbnail
2:16 I absolutely fucking agree and the fact it might not be cannon now upsets me. Game was fun as hell
I just can't wait for Judas. Also anyone got a bioshock tattoo I got Mr bubbles and with a little sister sitting on his shoulder on my arm. Like the video man
Honestly, that idea with the two conflicting seems interesting enough, and doesn't sound like it "repeats' the first three games. This is also the first time I'm hearing of this idea. I always thought of these leakers as studios going undercover seeing what actually sticks and what people like. I'm all for the duo cities idea.
I gotta say I think positioning Adam Levine as the end all be all of a good bioshock is crazy I feel Levine got in the way of infinite
7:07 what game is this?
The only direction I can think of is to have a city in a volcano. Might as well add fire on to air and water
Without the 60s music ambience, that space game wouldn't be like bioshock, at all.
I asked levine where he'd take the shock series since system shock was in space, bioshock was in the ocean and infinite was in the sky
and he said next up is a city in detroit
I think Deus Ex already has cyberpunk Detroit covered.
Cave people.
Fantastic video. I have high hopes for Levines next project.
Bioshock in space: billionaire creates large moonbase gone wrong.
NO THE STORY IS DONE NO MORE BIOSHOCK
Whats really holding Ken back is that he's unfortunately a hack.
Someone had to say it
Ken created one of the most iconic series in gaming.
You lobbed an ad hominem...😅
@@ShirleyTimple "Ken created" I'm looking at the credits to bioshock right now and I'm seeing more then one name.
@@applejhon8308 yeah, and your name isn't on it because all you can do is call people names🤭
@@ShirleyTimple Wow that's some lazy bait. Put some effort into it man.
"Ever since bioshock came out 16 years ago-"
Me: RIP
Its subjective.
I understand that others may feel differently but I LOVE the Bioshock games.
The first is a top 3 favorite game of all time.
Enjoyed bioshock 2 a lot more than infinite