BioShock is particularly known for its haunting settings, strong philosophical themes, and twist-filled narratives. A new game in the series has been confirmed to be in development at a new studio set up by 2K, Cloud Chamber, and it could deliver on all of this points yet again.
This new BioShock game has a ton of potential, but there are a few big decisions the developer will need to make and some big risks involved. Here are all the ways Cloud Chamber can help the next BioShock deliver on the hype, and where the game may run into some of its greatest challenges.
A Man, A Lighthouse, A City
“There’s always a man. There’s always a lighthouse. There’s always a city.” Elizabeth delivers this line in BioShock Infinite, and it has some huge implications for the series. On the one hand, it makes the possibility that the next BioShock will deliver a new variation of the same story formula seem likely, with a character journeying to a failed utopia and learning about its creation and downfall through environmental storytelling. The quote also hints at why this formula is so important to the BioShock series.
The BioShock games are deeply invested in dystopias and how they are created. The original BioShock began in the aftermath of huge riots in Rapture on New Year’s Eve 1958, and players explored Andrew Ryan’s failed Objectivist city and the philosophical shortsightedness which led to its destruction. Similarly, BioShock Infinite explored Columbia, a nationalist and American-centric city in the sky which was similarly eaten alive by its own doctrine. The quote doesn’t just refer to the literal inclusion of a lighthouse and a city in both games, but uses the lighthouse as a metaphor for the hope placed in radical new philosophies, and the cities as the realizations of their most disastrous consequences.
So far, BioShock's Rapture has tackled objectivism and Columbia has taken on American nationalism. Despite the differences between the two philosophies, the series was able to make similar points about cults of personality, prejudice, and destruction. The new BioShock has the potential to explore an entirely new philosophy and the aesthetics that come with it, perhaps one pertinent to people living in 2020, and to comment on the similarities and differences between it and the philosophies critiqued in previous games.
After BioShock Infinite took players to Columbia and back to Rapture in the Buried at Sea DLCs, the pressure is on for the next BioShock to create a city to rival Rapture and Columbia. With one under the sea and the other in the clouds, a natural third option isn’t readily apparent. However, it does give Cloud Chamber a great degree of freedom to make a new setting that is as distinct as Columbia appeared to be from Rapture when Infinite was first announced.
Gameplay Improvements
The new BioShock also has the potential to fix some common criticisms of the games. BioShock's combat has never been the series' strong suit. Many have criticized the franchise in the past for the repetitiveness of its combat and the lack of variety in its gameplay once all of the Plasmids and Vigors have been unlocked.
Similarly, the games have lacked meaningful moral decisions. In the original BioShock, players were given the option to free the Little Sisters or sacrifice them for ADAM, but were not given a strong enough incentive to make choosing the latter particularly attractive as it gave players the Bad Ending for very few mechanical rewards. BioShock Infinite’s decisions, such as whether to choose the bird or the cage brooch, had no impact on the outcome of the story, though this tied in thematically with its introduction of parallel universes and the inevitability of certain events.
The next BioShock should take the series in a radically new direction, tackling a new philosophy, taking players to a new setting, and adding a significant contribution to the theses of the games so far. It remains to be seen if Cloud Chamber is up to the challenge, but for now, the title has a lot of potential to take the franchise to the next level on the next-gen consoles.
BioShock 4 is in development.