There’s evidence thatBioShock 4will be making some interesting changes to the beloved franchise. Job listings on the website of developer Cloud Chamber request experience building open worlds and designing dialogue systems, hinting that the next game will have more RPG elements than previous installments.
AlthoughBioShock 4appears to be taking the franchise through some big changes, Cloud Chamber shouldn’t stop with branching dialogue and open worlds. In fact, there are good reasons to believe that playing it safe and sticking to the franchise’s formula could be even riskier than rolling the dice and making more changes to the series.
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BioShock’s New Direction
BioShock 4is being tackled by a new studio, Cloud Chamber. The studio includes several developers who worked on previousBioShockgames, but series creatorKen Levineis notably absent. This has led many fans to wonder about the directionBioShock 4will go.
Cloud Chamber job listingshint at more RPG features like an open world and branching dialogue, a shift already seen in several long-running series likeAssassin’s Creed. An open world could certainly make exploringBioShock 4’s setting more dynamic, challenging Cloud Chamber to tell a story through an environment that can be approached from any angle. Branching dialogue could also make for a nice change of pace from bothBioShockandBioShock: Infinite, which gave the player very few choices that affected the story, but also specifically made the player’s lack of free will or control a plot point. These shouldn’t be the only changes that come toBioShock, however.
Changes BioShock 4 Needs
BioShock: Infinitehad a great story, but it was a flawed game that released over eight years ago. There are manyBioShockstaples that likely won’t hold up that well. Players might expect more dynamic, immersive storytelling devices than previous games' audio logs, for example, which often come across as convenient blocks of exposition.
BioShock: Infinite’s combatalso left much to be desired for some fans. Fights with more powerful enemies like the Handyman could become a slog, with combat more like a war of attrition against bullet-sponge enemies. That said,BioShockwasn’t without flaws either.
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The first game’s combat could also become very repetitive at times.BioShock’s final boss fightwas so infamously underwhelming that Levine even apologized for it, and throughout the game players gained little from choosing to sacrifice the Little Sisters - the game’s main moral decision.
BioShock’s strengths have always been rich world design, a genuinely critical focus on different philosophies from Objectivism to American nationalism, and the games' big twists. Recreating the series' formula, warts and all, is unlikely to cut it nearly a decade after the release of the last game.Cloud Chambermay be treading carefully after the departure of Levine, but a fully-fledged BioShock revival is going to take ambition to exceed the original games, not just to live up to their legacy.
That’s going to require some big risks, but with some RPG features already hinted at, it seems likely that fans hoping to get a 1-for-1 recreation of theoriginalBioShockexperience are going to be disappointed anyway. If the job listings do indicate features in the next game, thenBioShock 4has already embraced significant change. To take the series to the next level, that change needs to extend to combat, boss fights, and new methods of interactive storytelling that are as innovative in the 2020s as the firstBioShockwas back in 2007. Without those changes, the next game is at risk of been overshadowed by the series' legacy.
BioShock 4is currently in development.
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