The next game in the BioShock series - known colloquially as BioShock 4 - is being developed by a new studio, Cloud Chamber, set up specifically to tackle the project.

With the departure of series creator Ken Levine and over eight years since the release of BioShock Infinite, fans are wondering just how similar the upcoming title will be to the original trilogy. There are some good reasons to think that the next BioShock won't exactly be BioShock 4.

RELATED: Why a New Setting for BioShock 4 Makes More Sense Than Rapture or Columbia

The BioShock Formula

Bioshock 1 Infinite

Although the distinction goes far beyond the title, the next BioShock game already appears unlikely to be called BioShock 4. For a start, the current BioShock games are BioShock, BioShock 2, and BioShock Infinite. If BioShock went down the Assassin's Creed or Fallout routes when it came to naming conventions, this would make the next game's title BioShock 3. Cloud Chamber's website is careful to avoid naming the game, instead saying that the studio is "hard at work on the next entry of the critically acclaimed BioShock series."

That also seems unlikely, however. BioShock Infinite, as its title suggests, isn't just a straight-forward sequel. At first the game appeared to be a sort of spiritual successor, taking elements like the lighthouse from the first game but shifting the setting and story to something new. Towards the end of BioShock Infinite, however, Elizabeth reveals that a multiverse full of parallel realities exist, and that there's "always a lighthouse. There's always a man. There's always a city."

In other words, BioShock 1 and BioShock Infinite are in some way revealed to be the same events taking place in different realities. In one reality, the city is Rapture, in another it's Columbia. In one reality the man is Jack, in another it's Booker DeWitt, and so on. In one part of the retail release and the two-part DLC Burial at Sea the player even returns to Rapture. This gives Cloud Chamber some great reasons to break from the first three games and establish the next BioShock as a standalone story, or the launching pad for a new narrative.

RELATED: BioShock 4 is Being Made By a New Company but with the Old Guard

A Fresh Start

bioshock statue of columbia open world

If the next BioShock is BioShock 4 and attempts to pick up somewhere in the same continuity as the first three games, Cloud Chamber will have a problem. It will have to develop a story which follows what Elizabeth makes sound like fundamental laws of the BioShock stories - there's always a lighthouse, there's always a man, there's always a city.

In fact, the next BioShock will likely go to lengths to make it clear that its new story is not also playing into this formula, otherwise players will be expecting Elizabeth or the Lutece twins to show up halfway through the story and whisk them away. That might have worked for Infinite and its DLCs but if the next BioShock is going to have as distinct an identity as Infinite forged in comparison to the first game, it needs to leave the past behind.

To leave the original BioShock trilogy and the expectations that come with it behind, the next BioShock needs to make it clear from the get-go that it is a spiritual successor with its own standalone story. It's likely to feel that way mechanically as well, with evidence that the next BioShock will have RPG features like an open world and a branching dialogue system. Whether or not Cloud Chamber will actually be able to come up with a story and setting to match or exceed BioShock and BioShock Infinite has yet to be seen.

BioShock 4 is currently in development.

MORE: BioShock 4 is Sounding a Lot Like Assassin's Creed Right Now