The *OFFICIAL* BioShock 2 thread

[lotkrotan]

http://www.n4g.com/News-97265.aspx

I suspected it, but this looks to be semi confirmed.

MOD EDIT:
My my my my my...
You all seem very interested in the second installment almost out of no where.
So I'm going to try to organize it so we don't have all these threads running around, breaking into fenced neighborhoods to use the pool.

I'm going to merge as many as possible into here. So if some of this doesn't make sense, that is why. Make sure you quote the post you're replying to. Because otherwise we'll just have some horrid mess on our hands.

So. All future BioShock installment threads will be posted here.
All other threads will be towed, fined, and crushed in a car compactor.

NOTICE: Because we are in the General Game Forum (because this is speculation) this is a "Spoiler Free Zone". Do not put unmarked spoilers in your posts.

Spoilers can be hidden with the spoiler tags in the top part of your post tool bar. The button looks like this [?]. Alternately you can just put [spoiler] All your spoiler stuff here[/ spoiler] with no spaces.

The end result should look like this. Just click on the black box to reveal what is underneath.
_______________________
Also... as you can see the thread merging thing is evil. As is apparent by the carnage in my wake when trying to wrestle the two together.

[dacbietazn]

summer of 09, they have their work set in for this one!

[Rapture_Survivalist]

Either thats TOTALLY AWSOME!!!!!! (I would prefer a prequel over a sequel) or a bunch of bulls**t.

[birkaslam]

That is so long, but I'm glad its a prequel. I hope you will start out when rapture is at its prime and watch it fall. It would aslo be nice to choose who you side with, Fontain or Ryan. I wonder who you will play as? Mabye the Johnny who dies in the beginning of the game. I can't wait!

[BioSoldier]

I hope this is true. I can't wait (If it's true).

Anyone else like the Big Daddy Picture there? I do, a lot.

[jakeman22]

A prequel, i havent even gotten 4 hours into the game and i cant wait for one!

[ZiROBEAT]

I´d love a prequel! A sequel isn´t wrong either but a prequel would be better.

[hellsing]

a prequel certainly seems more doable than a sequel. It'd be cool to wander around rapture whilst it was a bustling metroplois, maybe seeing sander cohen as the popular entertainer still, areas blocked in bioshock ect.
but how would the plot turn out, would you be a new beat cop or something, starting in a u.s town and being led to live adn work in rapture, adn just when the awe and splendor sets in rumours start to spread about adam...

[SimpleSimon]

summer of 09, they have their work set in for this one!

Nonono... You've got it mixed up.

Summer '09 is when they will finally have a proper revoke tool produced. Fall '09 they'll start shipping the replacement BD. Spring '10 they'll release a bug patch for Bioshock. Summer '10 they release the "Bioshock 2 DRM preinstallation requirement pack", which you need to install to install Bioshock 2. Finally, when they've collected enough user data from the DRM preinstall, they'll finalize Bioshock 2 and should be ready in the spring of '11.

[Pat Shants]

Well that certainly makes things clearer

A prequel could have the New Years Eve party as the climax when the splicers run riot.

[darthkiwi]

I like the idea of a prequel - better than a half-baked sequel. Plus you can meet all the people who left audio diaries in Bx, except they won't be dead.

How this will fit into the Irrational - oops, sorry, 2k Australia - design philosophy is perplexing, though. I thought the Shock series focused on isolation in a hostile environment, being trapped somewhere. You'd find out about what happened to the place through logs, but never meet NPCs since characters are better represented through logs: if you actually met them properly they'd end up being polygons with sound files that loop over and over when you press the "use" button. This prequel sounds like it'll break that philosophy in preference to the story, which is unusual. Not necessarily bad, but unusual.

I always liked the idea of a sequel, though. If you set it 200, 300 years in the future you could have mankind discovering Rapture and exploring it. Then you could be the only man left from the scouting party, which was mysteriously whittled down one by one. And there'd be a nefarious plot linked to the futuristic world outside. Plus, you could have a blend of the Cyberpunk technology of the outside world, and the Steampunk technology of Rapture. Cyberpunk would be more effective (due to molecular micro-management etc.) but would be rarer (since the only cyberpunk stuff would have been brought down by the scouting party, since there's none in Rapture) but Steampunk would be less effective, more numerous and would just look cooler. Cos it does.

[Drixe]

YEA prequel, hope its true, can't wait

[Stan1977]

YEA prequel, hope its true, can't wait

Me either, I think a prequel is the way to go. Who would you be though? Who cares it should be great.

[Person_99]

Who would you be though? Who cares it should be great.

Random splicer?
I can't really say if I would like a sequel or not, considering I just started the game... but almost every prequel to games I have played has been much better then the sequels.

[4theloveofgodBS2plz]

I like the idea of a prequel - better than a half-baked sequel. Plus you can meet all the people who left audio diaries in Bx, except they won't be dead.

How this will fit into the Irrational - oops, sorry, 2k Australia - design philosophy is perplexing, though. I thought the Shock series focused on isolation in a hostile environment, being trapped somewhere. You'd find out about what happened to the place through logs, but never meet NPCs since characters are better represented through logs: if you actually met them properly they'd end up being polygons with sound files that loop over and over when you press the "use" button. This prequel sounds like it'll break that philosophy in preference to the story, which is unusual. Not necessarily bad, but unusual.

I always liked the idea of a sequel, though. If you set it 200, 300 years in the future you could have mankind discovering Rapture and exploring it. Then you could be the only man left from the scouting party, which was mysteriously whittled down one by one. And there'd be a nefarious plot linked to the futuristic world outside. Plus, you could have a blend of the Cyberpunk technology of the outside world, and the Steampunk technology of Rapture. Cyberpunk would be more effective (due to molecular micro-management etc.) but would be rarer (since the only cyberpunk stuff would have been brought down by the scouting party, since there's none in Rapture) but Steampunk would be less effective, more numerous and would just look cooler. Cos it does.

I think this is a very good reason to not have a prequel, and a great way to illustrate how sequels allow more story to be produced than prequels. Why recharacterize the NPCs we met in a previous game?

My name's bs2plz but that just means "I wish for more of this kind of thing." I wish I could change my name to "moarshockplz" or something..

[Drixe]

Good Idea from Darthkiwi imo

[dcp1987]

if its a prequel does that mean that there will be no little sisters or big daddys?

[BioShockWins]

if its a prequel does that mean that there will be no little sisters or big daddys?

Big Daddies and Little Sisters were around before the fall of Rapture. But I think then they were more confined to morgues and such.

*Speculation* Remember. I don't have any connections with the dev team.
The very beginning of the game will be just before the fall of rapture. But the main story line will be when humanity is still dissolving.

A while back (maybe even a few months) some guy when on and on about how great Fontaine was. And how if there was a prequel, he should be the main character.

Now that I think about it... that's a really good idea.
Also, I'd want a different main character anyway. Thus to base the story more around the City than Jack.

[dcp1987]

how about your the father of a girl
this is around the time of the civil war
during all the chaos your daughter is kidnapped and you must find her soo yall can escape to the surface
but you find out she has been turned into a little sister and you have to find a way to turn your little girl back to normal
u also find out that your daughter is the first little sister and that the entire program is built around her example.
you would be able to see the early prototypes of a big daddy and so on and soo forth

it would be cool if you would get the bad ending where the only choice you have to be with your daughter is to become a big daddy yourself and protect her for the rest of your lives

that would also add some guilt cause youd be like oh man i could have killed him in the first game

[BioShockWins]

That would be interesting. But it would be more of an action film, than a Survival Horror Video Game.

And a better "bad ending" is that you have to destory or kill the thing you've been trying so hard to protect (your daughter).

I have to completely agree with that last bit.
Replaying the original BioShock is going to be a whole new experience all over again.

[dcp1987]

That would be interesting. But it would be more of an action film, than a Survival Horror Video Game.

And a better "bad ending" is that you have to destory or kill the thing you've been trying so hard to protect (your daughter).

I have to completely agree with that last bit.
Replaying the original BioShock is going to be a whole new experience all over again.

regardless its going to be a bit diffirent
and it would be cool cause you could do missions for diffirent characters to gain info about your daughter

[PrivateJoker]

Ok...there is going to be a Bioshock 2 but that link reeks of "rumour".

If it were a prequel the games story should attempt to put a completely different perspective on Andrew Ryan, maybe show him as a hero and brilliant ideologist. Then twist the events around him, show his fall and corruption, but render him a sympathetic figure in all his nihilistic glory!

EDIT: Also the prequel should run into, and interweave itself with the plot of Bioshock original, perhaps introducing us to other members of Ryan's inner circle, each being a particular powerful and wealthy splicer.

[Ammo_Bandito]

If the new year raid is included, i want a Fitzpatrick style cutscene of McClintock getting her face blasted off.

Also nice would be Cohens fall and the creation of the clay splicers.

Even better: Playing as a clay splicers and actualy setting to set off the bomb in Kashmir's.

[SweetTooth]

as for a prequel. ugh. as much as i love Bioshock (and as i type this in between playing the game through again) i really dont want prequels or sequels. the game is a brilliant stand alone. i mean how Rapture fell was blatantly obvious: people started splicing, the splicing made them go insane, Fontaine was a smuggler and controlled the Little Sisters, Ryan controlled the industry, corruption vs capitalism was the conflict, when people go insane society crumbles. so we enter Rapture was the decaying city it once was. what would they explain??? You are a person trying to escape Rapture during the riots? oh wait that would be the same basic idea behind the game now. Escape from Rapture can be the only idea behind the game. Unless they were to make you the cop that had to arrest Fontaine and you as some Jackie Chan super cop with plasmids and such. But then that would turn the game into a mystery game where you have to unravel all of Fontaine's shady business dealings to pin him on some bull**** like they finally pinned Al Capone.

Summary: Bioshock was too good and too solid a story to make a prequel or even a sequel without really making things so screwed up and retarded.

[FreshLaundryX]

No Ken Levine?
But they sold Ken as hard as they sold the product! That's ridiculous!

[BioShockWins]

If the new year raid is included, i want a Fitzpatrick style cutscene of McClintock getting her face blasted off.

Also nice would be Cohens fall and the creation of the clay splicers.

Even better: Playing as a clay splicers and actualy setting to set off the bomb in Kashmir's.

That's the type of stuff I'd want to see. And we probably would, assuming it is a prequel.

Anyway, Mr Scary clown man, It's kind of too late for them not to make another BioShock game. This one sold too well, and Take Two is going to want another!

[Save_Little_Sister]

Here's an idea. Embrace the theme of Bioshock and create a whole new story in the future, on a space station.

[BioShockWins]

Here's an idea. Embrace the theme of Bioshock and create a whole new story in the future, on a space station.

I call it... SYSTEM SHOCK!

[BioShocked62]

Well if it's a preqeul how would you play through the happy undestoried city how would missions be and would it be all that fun can't they just make a half hour long movie that is downloadable via xbox live and or internet and just show us what happened how can you play through the city before it is well the rapture we know and love and are mildly creeped out by

[BioShocked62]

I call it... SYSTEM SHOCK!

Was BioShock suppose to be among ths S/S titles becuase the theme and all is so similar right down to the title......

[sci010]

How about the prequel this fall and the sequel in 2009?

[PrivateJoker]

No Ken Levine?
But they sold Ken as hard as they sold the product! That's ridiculous!

I agree very strongly with you. I would be EXTREMELY disappointed if Ken Levine was not involved with the game. The best part of Bioshock was Ken's writing and creative vision. Without that all we will have to look forward to is an inferior sequel.

EDIT: Also it would be dishonest to the larger creative body of the original Bioshock to show Rapture in its "thriving" state. The whole ambience and theme is of loss and fallen utopian society. Everything is a dangerously faded memory, and the only thing that is left is decay and horror. Showing Rapture in its prime, or pre-fall state is a complete and total sell out of the original game's brilliant integrity.

[BioShockWins]

If it was a prequel, it would be hard for the story to fail.
First it would be reletivley nice and normal. With some uncomfortable rumors of things happening (People being rounded up in Arcadia, etc.). Eventually this would grow to the over-throwing of Rapture.
They'd have all the disturbing new things that are happening, rather than hearing about them happening long ago.
Maybe you'd have a good relationship as friends with Cohen. And then after being seperated from the revolution (reminds me of the Russian Revolution I guess) you come back out of hiding to find him in an appartment with his parents (or other personally sugnifican figure) on a table, with Cohen leaning over him/her covering the victom(s) in plaster. All the while Cohen manages to talk to you as if nothing irregular was happening.

It would be nice to see or hear about (at least in one way or another experience) most if not all of the audio diaries in the orriginal BioShock.

Like I was thinking before, it almost writes itself. Although I'd hope the author (Ken) will remain creative. Which I'm sure he will.

[atlasshrugged]

Love the idea. Don't know how it would work. We'd have to follow a different set of unknown character since we already know what happens. I mean, the end of the game is already obvious so what could possible lead up to it? We have no chance of saving rapture so where is the tension? If I know as a player that rapture will fall, then I'm can't play a character that doesn't know this -I'm not going to be too sucked in as I already know my efforts are futile. Of course, they could do a twist where the player causes the fall for ulterior motives. It'd be interesting, for instance, if we got an answer to where Tenenbaum went in this game i.e she is the real evil. This was all orchestrated by her or we play a previously unknown character that made it to the surface or whatever. In any case, the only way for a game like this to work ( and it follows the theme of the first game anyway) is to answer some unresolved issues about *characters* in the first game. We don't necessarily know what happened to all the characters and the game could make it plain where they are at the end of the prequel and dupe us yet again ( i mean, we could easily find out that Tenenbaum is far more sinister than she lets on answering the question of what happens to her and rapture).

[BioShockWins]

Main charactor could be Johnny from the very beginning of the current BioShock.
Except, he doesn't actually die at the end (beginning?) there. For a plot twist, or at least to keep it interesting he'd somehow survive and it would end differently for him.

That or, you don't know that you are Johnny until the very end. Some sort of odd cycle I guess. Johnny dies, just in time for Jack to take over the story.

[BnetTheAwesome]

Please everyone, no Bioshock sequels. Very rarely do sequels work. SS2 worked because the story was open to it. Bioshock, although, isn't. Irrational (Sorry, 2k Boston/Australia) builds their games as mysterious and devoid of many friendly NPCs. A gigantic world of them with the same graphical quality is ridiculous (Referring to a prequel). Why revisit a story of which we know the ending? Rapture will fall, that is that. Yes there are unexplored parts of Rapture but DLC remedies this better than a sequel/prequel.

My greatest fear of a sequel is them jumping the shark. Such as ANDREW RYAN RETURNS FROM THE DEAD. These things are a fans dream but would make developers who now see Irration...2K Bos/Aus as the beacon of good story telling ruin their image of them if they where to succumb to money and cliches. Let the classics be. Irrational should be working on an IP. They should mix the right amount of FPSing and RPGing. SS2's RPGness with BS's FPSness would make the recipe for another GOTY.

Everyone, please no Bioshock sequel. Let them surprise us with a new IP. Rather than 2 years from now playing Bioshock 2 saying "Meh, it wasn't as good as the original". Or worse, it winning some "Biggest Disappointment of 2010" on some gaming site.

My 2 cents. I know for sure that 99.9% of forum posters will bash me though.

[BioShockWins]

Yeah. How about you go talk about haloz0rz and Adjutant Reflex back amongst your own kind! Jerk!

Just kidding.

[Septimiux]

Was it not worth seeing Star Wars Episode I-III because you knew how it ended anyway?

I'd be very happy if 2k Marin made a prequel: http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?op...8557&Itemid=53

But if you look on the bad/not so bad ending video a group of slicers comes up to the surface, but that's maybe the story for Bioshock 3...?

[Kill_switch_Engage]

I agree that a prequel would be much better than a sequel, I'd really like them to expand more on the characters that weren't explained much, such as Sander Cohen and the reason he has for wanting those four men dead, perhaps he gets betrayed by them? Or Tenenbaum before she became good?
I also really like the idea of playing as Atlas' assistant, Johnny. Where he could be your guide throughout the game, doing various jobs for him to help bring down Ryan and other people.
I am rather disappointed that Ken Levine is not confirmed for it, because without him, Bioshock wouldn't be the amazing game it is.

[darthkiwi]

Everyone, please no Bioshock sequel.

Well, it looks like whatever we do or say here, there's going to be one anyway. Bx was a commercial success, thus it MUST have a sequel, by the irrefutable laws of culture-less bureaucratic vultures. Me, I say we sit and wait and judge it after it's come out. Take System Shock 3, being made by EA. I just KNOW they're going to screw it up. But I'll go no further than that until the game is released. Then I'll see how they did, and comment relevantly.