The third Video games in the BioShock series leaves the bottom of the sea behind for an entirely new setting, the floating city of Columbia, circa 1912.
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Overview
BioShock Infinite is the third installment in the BioShock franchise and is the first one to not take place in the underwater metropolis of Rapture. Instead, Infinite is set in the all-new city of Columbia, a creation of an America transforming from a regional agrarian collection of states into a world power with global reach. The game is also set in 1912, in contrast to the much later dates of the previous two games which took place during the 60s.
Despite the departure from the Video Games series' usual setting, the game still retains some of the previous games' gameplay hooks, such as super human powers and first person shooting.
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Setting
The majestic vistas of Columbia.BioShock Infinite takes place on the majestic floating city of Columbia, circa 1912. Engineered by the American government, Columbia was initially intend to be a floating symbol of American ingenuity and ideology at a time when the United States was just emerging as a prominent "world power". After being developed and completed the floating city was then subsequently dispatched to distant shores with great admiration by a beguiled public as herald for the new technological age.
Notwithstanding, what began as a groundbreaking venture to promote prosperity and goodwill, suddenly and abruptly goes horrible awry, after a major international incident within China affects the floating city profoundly and necessarily not for the better either. In addition to the international incidents already profound effects, it also somehow reveals to the citizens of Columbia and to the rest world the floating metropolises true nature: that in contrast to it's Utopian exterior, underneath the city's extensive facade lay what's merely just a heavily armed aerial warship of massive proportions.
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"Vox Populi" make the front page.The incident in question also created a rift between leadership in Columbia and the United States, which causes it to be immediately disavowed and subsequently leads to the city's upright disappearance shortly thereafter. As it vanished among the clouds in a world that wasn't equipped with the planes or radar to follow it.
Since it's disappearance however, civil war has suddenly erupted within the city splitting it's citizens into two prominent factions with drastically different ideological beliefs. The more prominent of the two"The Founders", are a group of ultra-nationalists, religious fanatics and outright xenophobes whom thoroughly believe in American Exceptionalism and very little else outside of the concept. The opposition in contrast to "The Founders" ultra-nationalist ideals is the internationalist, anti-capitalist, Marxist group coined only as the "Vox Populi", Latin for as the name suggests meaning the "The Voice of the People". With that being said, the game at least seems to retain some of the conflicts found in BioShock 2 between Ryan (who was a hard boiled capitalist similar to the Founders) and Lamb (who had communist ideals much like the Vox Populi).
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Story
Players take on the role of Booker DeWitt, a former Pinkerton agent now known as a "professional fixer" whom is essentially a 20th century private eye. This is another departure from traditional BioShock gameplay as the player took on voiceless, personality-handicapped ciphers who had no established history and instead discovered their history as the game progressed. DeWitt tasked and sent to Columbia by a mysterious man on a mission to rescue a young woman, Elizabeth, who has been trapped in the city for fifteen years, since her early childhood.
Songbird not a big fan of sharing.Finding Elizabeth will be easy enough apparently, but escaping from a city ten thousand feet in the air certainly won't be quite as simple. Players will travel throughout Columbia with Elizabeth, with the immediate goal of seeking out the residence of Z.H. Comstock, leader of "The Founders" whom Elizabeth pleads with Booker that she must see before they even attempt to escape. Apparently he's the only person that can help Elizabeth take control of her powers fully and hopefully along the way they'll find a viable escape method from the floating city in the process. Elizabeth will act as a companion to the player providing support during combat, she will also help to progress the story as DeWitt's relationship with her deepens.
"Handyman" indeed.Elizabeth is constantly being chased by the Songbird as well, a mysterious monster hell bent on keeping her from escaping. It is unclear why the Songbird wants to keep her imprisoned, even though the game seems to suggest that it has something to do with her powers and what it was initially tasked to do when it was brought to Columbia.
Also, as seen in the official reveal trailer, there will be even more steam-punk created opponents, extremely similar to the legendary Big Daddies from the original BioShock. In the trailer, Booker was attacked by a huge mechanical monster with a Human heart built into it, with mysterious chemicals being pumped into it. If examined closely, it can also be noticed that the monster nevertheless has a human face, thus leading us to make many assumptions about the experiments that were going on in the city. However, Ken Levine has stated that we will not see traditional Big Daddies nor Little Sisters in BioShock Infinite and that the moral choice system from the first two games, rescuing or harvesting Little Sisters, will also not be present. It was revealed on Irrational Games' own podcast the monster has been named the "Handyman".
Gameplay
Murder of Crow Vigor, may just cause adverse side effects.The game features "Vigors", which are essentially Plasmids from the previous games in the series. Continuing BioShock 2's improvements on the Plasmid system, Infinite's Vigors have been made more functional than ever. For instance, Telekenesis will now have the power to steal weapons from enemies and have them fire on their former owners. Furthermore, at one point the main character made a pack of crows attack his enemies. It has to be noted that Elizabeth also possesses a powerful array of unique abilities that can also work together with Booker's. For instance, during one particular skirmish,
A glimpse of the city itself.Elizabeth makes a rain cloud appear, and Booker turns it into a storm cloud by shooting a bolt of lightning at it. Elizabeth also possesses powers to control "tears"( in space and time) in the world which may be used to teleport players to another dimension or places or even objects from another dimension or place into another. Ken Levine has also stated that the game will feature much larger environments compared to the first two games, even though a flying city would reasonably have to be even smaller and more compact than an underwater one.
Although little has been demonstrated so far, Levine demonstrated a bit of the Colombian ecosystem. At one point, he had Booker walk into a local bar, where instead of instantly being attacked by the locals, he was simply met with disinterested glances. "Not all locals will initially be hostile" - says Levine. However, we get an impression that something strange is nevertheless happening to the citizens of Columbia. For example, in one part of the demo, DeWitt saw a woman calmly cleaning the porch to her grocery store, while the store front itself was on fire.
Voice Cast
It has been speculated that Stephen Russell, the voice actor for Garrett, the protagonist from the Thief franchise, may be providing the voice for DeWitt. There is absolutely no evidence to support this, and thus is currently classified as "wild speculation".
PlayStation Move Support & Exclusive Content Bonus Announced
Ken Levine recently announced on the stage at Sony's E3 Video Games media briefing on Monday (6/6/2011), to specifically recall how Sony won him over with PlayStation Move after his initial disinterest and public displeasure of motion control in a "particular" interview. This announcement also included the reveal of a particularly new BioShock Infinite trailer and abruptly proceed to delve somewhat into the details of it's potential motion control scheme, yet offering up no "tangible" details on how it would be implemented outside of the possibility of using it in conjunction with the Skyrail system. Move Support however wasn't the only thing announced during Sony's E3 press conference, Jack Tretton, President and CEO of (SCEA) announced that every single copy of BioShock Infinite( the PS3 version) would also come with a copy of the original BioShock right on the same Blu-ray disc.
"Name in the Game" Contest
The winner's in-game advertisement.On April 8, 2011, Irrational Games' Community Manager Chris Remo posted a contest on the Irrational website, titled "Get Your Name in the Game", offering fans the opportunity to have their name in BioShock Infinite. Fans simply have to enter their full names and email addresses for a chance to appear as the " namesake of a building, a character, a business–whatever [their] artists come up with. " in the game. Touted as the "ultimate bragging right", the Get Your Name in the Game Contest entry period ends April 13, at 11:59PM EST. The lucky winner of the contest was Payton Lane Easter and Irrational's Mike Swiderek created an advertisement for Payton Lane Easter & Sons Premium Automated Stallions.
BioShock Infinite is the third installment in the BioShock franchise and is the first one to not take place in the underwater metropolis of Rapture. Instead, Infinite is set in the all-new city of Columbia, a creation of an America transforming from a regional agrarian collection of states into a world power with global reach. The game is also set in 1912, in contrast to the much later dates of the previous two games which took place during the 60s.
Despite the departure from the Video Games series' usual setting, the game still retains some of the previous games' gameplay hooks, such as super human powers and first person shooting.
The majestic vistas of Columbia.BioShock Infinite takes place on the majestic floating city of Columbia, circa 1912. Engineered by the American government, Columbia was initially intend to be a floating symbol of American ingenuity and ideology at a time when the United States was just emerging as a prominent "world power". After being developed and completed the floating city was then subsequently dispatched to distant shores with great admiration by a beguiled public as herald for the new technological age.
Notwithstanding, what began as a groundbreaking venture to promote prosperity and goodwill, suddenly and abruptly goes horrible awry, after a major international incident within China affects the floating city profoundly and necessarily not for the better either. In addition to the international incidents already profound effects, it also somehow reveals to the citizens of Columbia and to the rest world the floating metropolises true nature: that in contrast to it's Utopian exterior, underneath the city's extensive facade lay what's merely just a heavily armed aerial warship of massive proportions.
"Vox Populi" make the front page.The incident in question also created a rift between leadership in Columbia and the United States, which causes it to be immediately disavowed and subsequently leads to the city's upright disappearance shortly thereafter. As it vanished among the clouds in a world that wasn't equipped with the planes or radar to follow it.
Since it's disappearance however, civil war has suddenly erupted within the city splitting it's citizens into two prominent factions with drastically different ideological beliefs. The more prominent of the two"The Founders", are a group of ultra-nationalists, religious fanatics and outright xenophobes whom thoroughly believe in American Exceptionalism and very little else outside of the concept. The opposition in contrast to "The Founders" ultra-nationalist ideals is the internationalist, anti-capitalist, Marxist group coined only as the "Vox Populi", Latin for as the name suggests meaning the "The Voice of the People". With that being said, the game at least seems to retain some of the conflicts found in BioShock 2 between Ryan (who was a hard boiled capitalist similar to the Founders) and Lamb (who had communist ideals much like the Vox Populi).
Players take on the role of Booker DeWitt, a former Pinkerton agent now known as a "professional fixer" whom is essentially a 20th century private eye. This is another departure from traditional BioShock gameplay as the player took on voiceless, personality-handicapped ciphers who had no established history and instead discovered their history as the game progressed. DeWitt tasked and sent to Columbia by a mysterious man on a mission to rescue a young woman, Elizabeth, who has been trapped in the city for fifteen years, since her early childhood.
Songbird not a big fan of sharing.Finding Elizabeth will be easy enough apparently, but escaping from a city ten thousand feet in the air certainly won't be quite as simple. Players will travel throughout Columbia with Elizabeth, with the immediate goal of seeking out the residence of Z.H. Comstock, leader of "The Founders" whom Elizabeth pleads with Booker that she must see before they even attempt to escape. Apparently he's the only person that can help Elizabeth take control of her powers fully and hopefully along the way they'll find a viable escape method from the floating city in the process. Elizabeth will act as a companion to the player providing support during combat, she will also help to progress the story as DeWitt's relationship with her deepens.
"Handyman" indeed.Elizabeth is constantly being chased by the Songbird as well, a mysterious monster hell bent on keeping her from escaping. It is unclear why the Songbird wants to keep her imprisoned, even though the game seems to suggest that it has something to do with her powers and what it was initially tasked to do when it was brought to Columbia.
Also, as seen in the official reveal trailer, there will be even more steam-punk created opponents, extremely similar to the legendary Big Daddies from the original BioShock. In the trailer, Booker was attacked by a huge mechanical monster with a Human heart built into it, with mysterious chemicals being pumped into it. If examined closely, it can also be noticed that the monster nevertheless has a human face, thus leading us to make many assumptions about the experiments that were going on in the city. However, Ken Levine has stated that we will not see traditional Big Daddies nor Little Sisters in BioShock Infinite and that the moral choice system from the first two games, rescuing or harvesting Little Sisters, will also not be present. It was revealed on Irrational Games' own podcast the monster has been named the "Handyman".
Gameplay
Murder of Crow Vigor, may just cause adverse side effects.The game features "Vigors", which are essentially Plasmids from the previous games in the series. Continuing BioShock 2's improvements on the Plasmid system, Infinite's Vigors have been made more functional than ever. For instance, Telekenesis will now have the power to steal weapons from enemies and have them fire on their former owners. Furthermore, at one point the main character made a pack of crows attack his enemies. It has to be noted that Elizabeth also possesses a powerful array of unique abilities that can also work together with Booker's. For instance, during one particular skirmish,
A glimpse of the city itself.Elizabeth makes a rain cloud appear, and Booker turns it into a storm cloud by shooting a bolt of lightning at it. Elizabeth also possesses powers to control "tears"( in space and time) in the world which may be used to teleport players to another dimension or places or even objects from another dimension or place into another. Ken Levine has also stated that the game will feature much larger environments compared to the first two games, even though a flying city would reasonably have to be even smaller and more compact than an underwater one.
Although little has been demonstrated so far, Levine demonstrated a bit of the Colombian ecosystem. At one point, he had Booker walk into a local bar, where instead of instantly being attacked by the locals, he was simply met with disinterested glances. "Not all locals will initially be hostile" - says Levine. However, we get an impression that something strange is nevertheless happening to the citizens of Columbia. For example, in one part of the demo, DeWitt saw a woman calmly cleaning the porch to her grocery store, while the store front itself was on fire.
Voice Cast
It has been speculated that Stephen Russell, the voice actor for Garrett, the protagonist from the Thief franchise, may be providing the voice for DeWitt. There is absolutely no evidence to support this, and thus is currently classified as "wild speculation".
PlayStation Move Support & Exclusive Content Bonus Announced
Ken Levine recently announced on the stage at Sony's E3 Video Games media briefing on Monday (6/6/2011), to specifically recall how Sony won him over with PlayStation Move after his initial disinterest and public displeasure of motion control in a "particular" interview. This announcement also included the reveal of a particularly new BioShock Infinite trailer and abruptly proceed to delve somewhat into the details of it's potential motion control scheme, yet offering up no "tangible" details on how it would be implemented outside of the possibility of using it in conjunction with the Skyrail system. Move Support however wasn't the only thing announced during Sony's E3 press conference, Jack Tretton, President and CEO of (SCEA) announced that every single copy of BioShock Infinite( the PS3 version) would also come with a copy of the original BioShock right on the same Blu-ray disc.
"Name in the Game" Contest
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