After roughly three years of silence, Ken Levine and the team at Irrational Games have finally revealed what the BioShock developer has been up to all of this time; BioShock Infinite. Unveiled last night at the historic Plaza Hotel in NYC, Levine offered up a brief introduction to a handful of journalists inhabiting a decked-out room made to mimic the new game’s setting before showcasing the world’s first look at the highly-anticipated project.
You can check out the rather impressive debut trailer right here.
In addition, the below synopsis (pulled from the game’s teaser site) delivers some additional insight into the project:
BioShock Infinite is a first-person shooter currently in development at Irrational Games, the studio behind the original BioShock (which sold over 4 million units worldwide). Set in 1912, BioShock Infinite introduces an entirely new narrative and gameplay experience that lifts players out of the familiar confines of Rapture and rockets them to Columbia, an immense city in the sky.
Former Pinkerton agent Booker DeWitt has been sent to rescue Elizabeth, a young woman imprisoned in Columbia since childhood. Booker develops a relationship with Elizabeth, augmenting his abilities with hers so the pair may escape from a city that is literally falling from the sky. DeWitt must learn to fight foes in high-speed Sky-Line battles, engage in combat both indoors and amongst the clouds, and harness the power of dozens of new weapons and abilities.
As you can tell, Infinite features all-new characters in an all-new setting, but will contain the same level of intensity and atmosphere series fans have grown to love. Details on this one are obviously sparse at the moment, but we do know that Irrational is targeting a simultaneous PS3, 360, and PC release some time in 2012 for BioShock Infinite.
And since you probably won’t get too many details for a while after today, let’s take a look at a few more tidbits from the freshly-issued press release:
Originally conceived as a floating symbol of American ideals at a time when the United States was emerging as a world power, Columbia is dispatched to distant shores with great fanfare by a captivated public. What begins as a brand new endeavor of hope turns drastically wrong as the city soon disappears into the clouds to whereabouts unknown.
The player assumes the role of former Pinkerton agent Booker DeWitt, sent to the lost city to rescue Elizabeth, a young woman imprisoned there since childhood. He develops a relationship with Elizabeth, augmenting his abilities with hers so the pair may escape from a city that is literally falling from the sky. DeWitt must learn to fight foes in high-speed Sky-Line battles, engage in combat both indoors and amongst the clouds, and harness the power of dozens of new weapons and abilities.
“We are excited to expand the world of BioShock, which is one of the industry’s most critically acclaimed and beloved franchises,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “We believe that Irrational Games will lend their meticulous attention to detail and unique storytelling expertise to make BioShock Infinite an incredible entertainment experience that will immerse new and diehard fans of BioShock alike.”
With the original BioShock, Irrational Games won “Game of the Year” awards from Game Informer, IGN, G4’s X-Play, and BAFTA and redefined what players expect from a first-person shooter. “But when it came to begin work on BioShock Infinite,” said Ken Levine, creative director of Irrational Games, “we only had one rule: No sacred cows. This game is both true to what people love about the series and unafraid to question every assumption.”
Levine continued, “In order to explore the floating city of Columbia, we needed an entirely new engine. To bring Elizabeth to life, we had to build brand-new animation and AI systems. To create wide-ranging indoor and outdoor firefights at 30,000 feet, we had to rethink, rebuild and expand the BioShock arsenal. The only thing gamers can be certain of is this: the rules of the BioShock universe are about to change.”
Interesting.
That’s all for now, but of course we’ll keep you posted on any new details as they emerge. In the meantime, feel free to sound off with your thoughts on the project in the comments section below.
So… They kept quiet for three years… To tell us we’re two years away from actually playing it? It must be one amazing game, to have us waiting for it so long. Come to think of it. Five years of development time? Building a new in-house engine? Who does that remind me of… Oh yeah. Alan Wake from Remedy Entertainment. I just hope they avoid the general stigma there is around game’s with long development cycles, so they get a better reception than Alan Wake did.
In the meanwhile, I think I might replay Bioshock and Alan Wake. It’s been a minute.
Great trailer, even for one that’s not that into BioShock.
The trailer looks incredibly beautifull, but it says for the rest absolutly nothing, only atmosphere and a bit of storytelling. Very clever move though to leave Rapture, because there has been a bit of a stir since the devs and 2K said that there could be easily 6 games or more based in the universe. But in this way it is much more effective to make it.
@Truthteller’s point about Alan Wake: with Alan Wake the first game took 5 years too develop, Bioshock has already delivered 2 big games, one in 2007/2008 and one this year, so I think its fair to say that they wont have that going up against them.
And yet again the team of Irrational is attacking a certain philosophy, apparenty this time Jingoism is being used. For those unknown with the term, including myself: extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy”. with thanks to wiki.
I’m interested in Infinite for now. I hope they tie it to the original titles somehow otherwise they could have named it Skyshock or Cloudshock. I kinda wanted to see Rapture reborn like Bio 2 had promised and even the return of Ryan but this will have to do.
To me this isn’t Bioshock as I knew it. I see it as a new IP that could potentially kick its predecessor’s ass. I’ll wait and see. Will Columbia experience a “fall” from grace like Rapture or be like Fallout with wings?
Irrational were the ones that made the original Bioshock, and not the sequel. And the same could be argued about Remedy, who especially proved themselves with the Max Payne series before Alan Wake. In anyway, I look forward to seeing how this will pan out.
I liked the first BioShock game. I realy liked the second one. Thought it was realy cool that i got to play as a Big Daddy. =) So its back to boring human? Im gettin realy tierd that gamers always get to play a white male human and always fight against white male humans. I think it whould be cooler to play a afro-american in a game insted. Like a Samuel L Jackson type of character. A realy cool dude with a badass temper or somethin.
There have been no showing of plasmids or what will replace them. This seems like the true sequel to Bioshock. It look great. I think the threat of falling will keep people on their toes. And the new Big Daddy Machine looks to be a great enemy.
2012 RELEASE!!!! WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I guess they listened to Tony Grice and instead of delaying the game, they are sure it will be ready by then…
…(silenced pause)…
….Unless it gets delayed because it will compete with Modern Warfare 4 and Assassins Creed 4, so it will get pushed again for spring 2013
okay when i first saw the title i have to admit i wasn’t to excited but seeing as in Irrational Game studios is working on this i have high hopes and high expectations still awhile before we’ll even know any details as a huge fan of the original Bioshock i look forward to what Infinite has in store for us
Isnt it technically a prequel to everything that has happened in Bioshock, regarding the timeline and all, this game plays out in 1912 and the first Bioshock “happened” in 1960. I just hope they manage to ties those two things in as one overarching storyline…
They should have listend to EBC damn it. Two years is a hell of a long time ahead to make a statement on release. There is no way in hell that it’s gonna be accurate, and i can’t remember one time when developers pushed back the release date. Stupid move i have to say.
By the way, this must totally suck for gaming 2012 enthusiasts believing we’ll all die by that time.
Oh and one more thing. Let’s all hope for a guest visit in-game from John Marston. Hell, let’s name it “Red Dead Bioshock”. Awesome.
I guess it is a prequel. But I don’t think Andrew Ryan was alive at the turn of the century. I just want to see the demo they showed at where ever they were.
mixed feelings about the trailer, happy to see a new bioshock game but sad to see them leave rapture , i think this is a good thing as it could see them take the game in a diff direction , i really hope this ties in with the first 2 games
Not every game stars a white male, such as Carl “CJ” Johnson, Lara Croft, Chun-Li, Bo Jackson, Samus, Riddick, the person from Afro Samurai, Neko from GTA4, the guy from GTA: Vice city stories, the guy from GTA San Andreas, the guy from the True Crime series. And then theres all the characters like Star Fox, Kirby, yoshi, donkey kong, etc that aren’t even human (so technically they aren’t ‘white males’
I was originally skeptical about this just being another attempt to bleed out the franchise for cash.
BUT
when I saw that the original SS/Bioshock dev team and writers were back on board, I became very excited.
I feel like they might as well of made it a new game and not used the Bioshock title though. I am sure they are doing that for recognition and sales boost.
I’m hoping it’s different enough that it doesn’t just feel like a rehash in a new setting (air instead of water).