In August of 2007 a game titled “BioShock” graced the market. The game was designed by Paul Hellquist and Ken Levine. The title went on to sell 43 million copies by the date of August 2024.
“BioShock” is a first-person shooter video game published by 2K. The storyline follows main character Jack after a plane crash in the Atlantic Ocean. He ends up on the doorsteps of an underwater city built by Andrew Ryan, Rapture. The city was promised as a safe haven for those who pursue discovery without limits, “Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?” The underwater “utopia” reached its peak far before Jack’s arrival. He uncovers the city went corrupt for a discovery of a genetic rewriting material named “Adam.”
What made “BioShock" so special was the deep and rich story mixed with inspired aesthetics and fast paced shooting. The plot guides the player through a serious grapple of morality and theology. Players are left to decide whether to save or kill and what man’s real limits are. The choices made throughout the game lead up to one of three endings.
In February of 2010, “BioShock 2” was released. The story is set eight years after the first’s plot. The player takes the role of the main character, Subject Delta. It has elements of the first game and more choice involved. There are double the amount of endings with many more events that impact them.
Honorable mentions for this franchise are the third game, “BioShock Infinite,” and the possible Netflix film in the future. “BioShock Infinite” had a tonal shift, a prequel to the first two games. It was set in a floating city instead of underwater. It carries a more directly religious basis, the main character carrying a “mark of the false shepherd,” and different mechanics. The movie has been under the radar since February of 2022.
The future of the franchise now rests in Judas. It is planned to release in March of 2025. This is the first project by Ken Levine since “BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea.” Despite not being labeled a “BioShock” game it carries similar nostalgic aesthetics.
The main character, Judas, is a dweller of an isolated city that was once great. She wields powers from one of her hands and a weapon in the other. The elements are riddled in retrofuturism like the first two. However the choices and world building will be much more developed.
“We want to do something a little different this time because in our previous games, Infinite and BioShock 1, you’re sort of a character who ends up in these places through happenstance and well, without too many spoilers, you think you’re a complete stranger to those places and you get the opportunity to learn about them at the same time the players learning about them. Whereas in Judas, you’re born on this colony ship that’s going from a dying earth to Proxima Centauri, which is a generational journey,” Ken Levine said on IGN.
“Judas” could be a step up from the last pieces Levine and the team have worked to develop. These games fail to gain a rating lower than that of 80% from sources like IGN and Metacritic. Only time will tell due to “Judas’” upcoming release next year.
