BioShock 2 might not be the final word on Andrew Ryan’s failed underwater utopia, according to 2K Marin’s Jordan Thomas. The setting, he says, is “fertile” for as much expansion as the BioShock team sees fit.
You only saw a fraction of Rapture in BioShock 1. That’s one of the guiding ideas behind the sequel, and one of the reasons the sequel can even exist. Rapture’s a big place, and just cause you stumbled into a few of its more colorful inhabitants doesn’t mean you’ve seen all of them.
We might not even get the complete picture in BioShock 2, either. Rapture, 2K Marin’s Jordan Thomas says, remains “fertile for as much expansion as a team sees in it.” The current team, he says, finds Rapture fascinating as “a city that large begs further exploration, a city with that much history,” and yeah, Andrew Ryan was a pretty rich guy – he probably built a city big enough for ten games.
So what, does that mean we’re going to start getting Rapture in different time periods, or will 2K just keep inventing new sections of the city that we happened to never stumble across before? “I absolutely believe that there might be future games set in Rapture in whatever time period, but I would also say that I think that the Bioshock brand is big enough that it could evolve,” Thomas said. That opens even more doors, and Thomas suggested that “the type of experience that Bioshock is is flexible enough to see lots of expansion down the road, and a lot of different directions.”
A lot of “different directions,” eh? That could mean anything. It could mean different genres, it could mean a huge franchise expansion.
“Whatever it is, it has to surprise the player,” Thomas said. “Whether you stay in Rapture, or go elsewhere, it’s got to bring you somewhere unlike anywhere else, unlike any other game.”
I can see it now: Imagine Big Daddyz.
(OXM)
Published: May 6, 2009 11:02 pm