As fans patiently await the first BioShock 4 trailer, speculation has been running wild about what the game will be like. Recent job postings for Cloud Chamber, the studio behind the game, suggest that it'll be an open-world title created in Unreal Engine 5. However, the seemingly concrete details provide nothing about what the game's story will actually be like. The BioShock series is a high-tier franchise when it comes to excellent video game storytelling, so it makes sense that its narrative is one of the things that fans are most looking forward to.
The first place that most BioShock 4 fans begin with their plot speculations is the game's setting. Over the course of BioShock, BioShock 2, and BioShock: Infinite, players have had the opportunity to explore and learn about the two very distinct cities that are Rapture and Columbia. While trying to guess where BioShock 4 will be set is all well and good, understanding why it's set there is perhaps even more important.
Settings Inform BioShock Stories
Plenty of game settings are described as having a character of their own, and while that may be true for many titles, that anecdote describes the settings of the BioShock series perfectly. Both Rapture and Columbia are unique in their own ways while also sharing thematic similarities that bind the two together. While the settings of the BioShock games are interesting, what really makes them so impactful is how integral they are to the overall story of each title. The events that happen in BioShock couldn't happen anywhere other than Rapture, as its isolated underwater location and the ideology behind its founding are crucial to the central conflicts of the game's narrative.
Because of how deep each title dives into its respective setting's history and lore, players are given no choice but to learn about what made each city the way that it is. Because of this, every story moment, environment, and enemy in the BioShock series feels directly informed by the game's setting. When BioShock 4's setting is finally revealed, it will hopefully be tied to its story in the same impactful way. While having a unique gimmick attached to its location is definitely fun, hopefully Cloud Chamber recognizes that the reason BioShock stories are so successful isn't because of where they're set, but why they're set there in the first place.
Connecting BioShock 4's Setting to the Rest of the Series
Although Rapture and Columbia are directly tied to one another, as explained in the Burial at Sea DLC expansions for BioShock: Infinite, the base games' stories don't really allude to any connection other than thematic ones. Similarly, whether BioShock 4's world is directly connected to the overarching stories of Columbia and Rapture won't really matter as long as the game's story justifies its setting. Answering certain questions that were integral to the other games in the BioShock series will be just as important as ever for BioShock 4. Questions about why certain characters are involved and why the city is the way that it is will surely be on players' minds, just as they were in the other games. As such, these sorts of questions will play an important part in making the new setting truly feel like a worthy successor to both Rapture and Columbia.
The BioShock series is also full of philosophical questions that each game's setting is usually tied to, something else that needs to be kept in mind. Hopefully, Cloud Chamber is able to capture that important aspect of the franchise and by choosing a setting that really lends itself well to the game's central themes and story elements.
BioShock 4 is currently in development.