BioShock 4 is in development at Cloud Chamber, a new studio set up by 2K to deliver the next installment in the surreal dystopian series. Many fans of the franchise will be excited to see how Cloud Chamber plans to follow up Rapture and Columbia, some of gaming’s most famous settings, as well as how the new studio hopes to weave a narrative to rival its predecessors.
BioShock 4 has a lot going for it, not least the opportunity to build off a great premise. However, one of the most shocking reveals in BioShock Infinite’s plot may make writing BioShock 4’s story extremely difficult if the next game takes place in the same continuity as the previous games in the series. Here’s BioShock Infinite’s story's greatest strength, and why it could be BioShock 4’s biggest problem.
The (Canonical) BioShock Formula
“There’s always a lighthouse. There’s always a man. There’s always a city.” Elizabeth delivers this line towards the end of BioShock Infinite, when it is revealed that the characters exist as just one possibility among an infinite number of parallel universes. This includes many different versions of Booker DeWitt and Elizabeth, but it also includes the plot of the first BioShock. The lighthouse the plane crashes near at the start of the game is, naturally, the lighthouse. Jack, the player character, is the man. Rapture is the city.
It’s a cool twist, even if it doesn’t as cleanly align with the plot of BioShock 2. It’s also left unclear what exactly Elizabeth means by “always.” Does she just mean that these events or something parallel to them takes place in every possible universe? Does her statement allow for alternate stories to be told within those universes that don’t abide by that formula? How does the game's claim relate to the gaming medium itself? Is the man always the player character, or could it be someone else? The twist perhaps leaves the BioShock Infinite player with a few more questions than answers, though seeing what was originally though to be an unrelated story tie back into the story of Rapture was a treat for many fans of the first game.
Here’s BioShock 4’s big problem. The studio will have to decide whether or not the next game will fulfill that same formula and therefore validate the events of BioShock Infinite at the risk of predictability, or whether the game will break from a formula which has not only come to be expected but which may literally be in-universe canon.
Part of the reason BioShock Infinite’s twist worked was because the vast majority of the game is spent under the impression that, while Booker and Columbia have parallels to Jack and Rapture, the similarities are more to do with the themes of the franchise than anything with an in-universe explanation. The realization that is forced upon the player isn’t the similarities – which most players who enjoyed the first game would likely have already noticed – but the fact that these similarities have an in-universe explanation. Or in-multiverse.
The Possibilities of BioShock 4
BioShock 4 could open with the player character arriving at a lighthouse and finding their way to a dystopian city, just like in BioShock 1 and BioShock Infinite. Unlike Infinite’s replay of these events, however, the third time round the beats of the formula risk feeling predictable. If fans already suspect they are experiencing just another possible retelling of the story in another possible universe, it’s possible they will be less engaged in the stakes of that individual story.
After all, it seems like there’s an infinite number of lighthouses, men, and cities, so why worry too much about the fate of the next BioShock protagonist? It even seems possible that the Infinite reveal could undermine BioShock’s famous philosophical edge, which saw the first game take on Rand’s Objectivism in the city of Rapture and Infinite tackle American nationalism in Columbia.
If players already believe the story they are experiencing to be just one possibility of many, then aren’t there also possible universes where the ambitions of men like Andrew Ryan, if only by pure luck, paid off? Isn’t it possible that there are Raptures where Objectivism worked out not by any merit of the philosophy itself, but because like a room full of infinite monkeys and infinite typewriters, the multiverse produced every possible outcome including successful ones?
If nothing else, BioShock 4 could have to battle for the full attention of it’s player. After Infinite, BioShock fans will likely be on the look out for who the new BioShock's Jack or Booker is, who the new version of Andrew Ryan or Comstock is, and who this story's version of Elizabeth is as well. BioShock Infinite sets up a very specific group of expectations which, even if the new game takes place in a completely separate canon, the developers will have to contend with when trying to craft a compelling narrative.
It’s a huge task, but not an insurmountable one. BioShock 4 could begin a new timeline and go down the spiritual successor route once more – the original was developed with the aim of succeeding the System Shock series. Perhaps Cloud Chamber can find another way to disguise the true nature of the next game and how it connects to the series, just as Irrational Games disguised BioShock Infinite’s connection to the first game until later in the story. Maybe, as with BioShock 2, the story can take place within the BioShock universe but outside of the structure Elizabeth talks about.
There are plenty of other challenges too. After creating a city in the sky and one deep under the sea, a natural third option doesn’t easily present itself. BioShock 4 will also likely have to make significant improvements to the series’ combat, which has been criticized for repetition and bullet spongey enemies in the past. Many fans will be just as curious as to how Cloud Chamber plans to tackle all of these problems as they are excited about the story of the next game. Whether their anticipation will be rewarded, however, will rely on the new studio finding a way to strike a fine balance between player expectation and originality.
BioShock 4 is in development.