Summary
- BioShock series excels at immersive environments & gameplay, but a new open-world setting could take the series to the next level.
- Helldivers 2's success shows that shaking up a winning formula can lead to massive viral success, a strategy BioShock 4 could consider.
- Balancing scale and detail in an open-world setting for BioShock 4 will be a challenge, but with dedication, it could surpass its predecessors.
BioShock and its two subsequent sequels were some of the most important games of the seventh console generation. They were able to tell thought-provoking, theme-rich stories in an atmospheric setting, all the while providing an engaging gameplay experience that kept the whole thing still feeling fun. It was a winning formula back when the first game came out, and it’ll likely stay a winning formula whenever the long-rumored fourth BioShock game eventually hits the market.
Winning formulas can always be improved for the better. The original Helldivers was a traditional top-down shooter that had modest success. The sequel turned the series into a third-person action game and went on to massive viral success when it was released earlier this year. And even though the series has had massive success sticking with its past formula, the next BioShock game could do well following in Helldivers 2’s footsteps and shaking things up ever so slightly.
BioShock 4 Might Consider Going for an Open World
An Open World Can Highlight BioShock's Strong Settings
Whether Rapture or Columbia, BioShock has always had beautifully realized, richly detailed environments, but the level structure has always been relatively constrained. In all three games, the player is dropped into a vast, if slightly linear, chunk of the city and can only move on after completing whatever miscellaneous objective the narrative called for at the time. But the next entry in the franchise can shake things up by opening up larger chunks of the city at once.
Rapture and Columbia were both arguably the stars of their respective games, with so much of the developers’ care going into making those cities feel like real places, despite the fantasy elements inherent to them. There’s no better way to continue this series' trend of spotlighting the setting than to make it an open world, in something akin to the Far Cry series.
With how focused the BioShock games are on exploration, an open world just seems like the next logical step. Searching for hidden collectibles would be one of the best ways an open-world BioShock game could encourage players to get into the weeds of whatever dystopian city the series has on offer. Perhaps optionally collectible audio logs would be hidden over the map, as a means to encourage deeper exploration into the map and the environment – a strategy all three previous games have embraced to great effect.
Obviously, with a more traditional series like BioShock, there would need to be some barriers on where the player could go in the world and when they could get there. Perhaps certain chunks of the map are blocked off without access to a certain upgrade, or after they hit a certain story beat. Maybe a certain gun or an armor upgrade is needed to progress into a new part of the city – something to keep certain areas locked off and maintain a sense of progression throughout the game.
An Open World BioShock 4 Would Need to Be a Balancing Act Between Scale and Detail
As cool of an idea as an open-world BioShock would be, it would be an extremely ambitious undertaking for the developers. A huge part of the appeal of the original three games was the immense attention to detail in designing Rapture and Columbia; it was integral to the immersive nature of the games and made those cities feel like real, tangible places. While the freedom of an open world can also do wonders for the setting’s believability, it can also be a balancing act. Environments in open-world games usually aren’t as detailed or as intricate as a curated, traditional level would be. But with the right care and dedication, the developers can create an open-world environment that rivals the best levels of the original three games.
If the devs put in the time and the heart to create an open world that feels just as atmospheric and alive as its previous two settings, then there’s nothing stopping BioShock 4 from being the most immersive game in the series. And with the recent news that a new game in the series is already in development, players might get to juice up with plasmids again sooner than they think.
- Released
- February 26, 2013
- ESRB
- m
- Developer(s)
- Cloud Chamber
- Publisher(s)
- 2K Games
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 3
- Franchise
- BioShock
