Hold on to your seats, BioShock fans. Irrational Games has released a teaser trailer for the next sequel to, or as they call it a “re-imagining” of, BioShock. It will be called BioShock Infinite.
The trailer looks like we will be returning to our favorite waterlogged city Rapture, but it quickly turns into something completely different. BioShock Infinite is set in 1912 America on a FLOATING CITY. Yes, that’s right. Fans are being dragged from the depths of the sea into something called the Skyline.
“Something terrible happens,” said Ken Levine, creative director of Irrational Games, establishing the stakes and the mystery. Columbia proves to be something worse than a beacon of prosperity. “This is not a floating world’s fair. Columbia is a Death Star.” In the lead-up to the events of Infinite, Columbia is embroiled in an international incident of unspecified horror and then disappears into the clouds. Our character, a “disgruntled former Pinkerton agent” named Booker DeWitt, is contacted by a mysterious man who knows where Columbia is. In that city, DeWitt is told, is Elizabeth, a woman who has been raised there and who the man wants rescued. DeWitt accepts the mission, which will be ours as a player: to rescue Elizabeth and, with her super-powered help, get out of the patriotic-turned-violent Columbia.
Although this little tidbit does sound interesting, I am personally not sold yet on leaving Rapture. Rapture provided such a creepy, believable, and inescapable environment. Will they be able to stay afloat with this idea, or will they just sink like a lead balloon? Thoughts?
The projected release for BioShock Infinite is 2012.
