Bioshock To Be Run Into The Ground As Soon As Possible; Star Wars Cited As Good Example

Bioshock needs a character like this to be truly successful…apparently…

When Bioshock was released, it was definitely a new experience for the first-person genre. Those who avoided the spoilers on the internet and played the game to completion almost unanimously agreed that this game was something special. Its approach to storytelling was decidedly different and although the multiple endings muddied the experience, it was still proof that not all games had to be straightforward, good vs. evil, go kill the bad guy affairs. A great deal of people expressed that despite how great the game was, a sequel or prequel would be a terrible idea. Well, the president of 2K Games thinks we are wrong. He thinks Bioshock should be a series. A long series. The worse news is that Star Wars is being cited as to how to do prequels and sequels right.

God help us.

Christopher Hartmann, the president of 2K, had this to say:

‘œFor Bioshock, because it’s so story driven, the question obviously arises: how long can you do it without turning into The Matrix? The first Matrix was great, the second one was weird and the third one, you thought: ‘˜Who [making this] is on crack and who isn’t?’ [...] But, then again, look at Star Wars. It’s a fight between good and evil, just like Bioshock. If we spin it the right way and get the right twist of innovation, we can make six parts of it, as Star Wars did.”

Let’s go ahead and get this out of the way right now – a Bioshock sequel is going to sell well. People loved the game and a lot of those people will take whatever they can get as far as more content is concerned. Just like Star Wars fans, most of them will spend money on anything to further the original story. The sales of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed are proof enough that sometimes fans will buy anything with a popular name attached, despite how absolutely terrible it might be.

Bioshock was an amazing game and I think the fact that Hartmann tries to boil it down to good vs. evil is kind of insulting to the game’s creators. For the fans of Bioshock’s story and its approach to storytelling, a sequel just doesn’t make sense and a prequel could serve to destroy what made the original Bioshock so great: the discovery. Does anyone really want to see a prequel to Bioshock? Everyone who played Bioshock came to their own conclusions about the story and its character’s pasts. Is it worth throwing that experience away just to get another game that shares the same name?

In the next game he’ll have two drills as hands and the objective will be to find a way to open a door…

None of this means that a prequel would be a bad gameplay experience. It may very well be a good game in its own right, but in terms of storytelling I have a hard time believing that it will be anywhere near as good as, and will only undermine, the original. A lot of Star Wars fans really despise the prequel films. The reason for that is the same as the reason not to make a Bioshock prequel. The original Star Wars films were fun because the character’s back stories were a mystery. The viewer got to make up Vader and Obi-Wan’s back-story and the Force was just a mysterious power that some people could use and others couldn’t. Then the prequels came and everything was explained. The force was no longer mysterious. It was explained scientifically. Everything was laid out piece by piece and the viewer’s hand was held. Bioshock proved that that isn’t necessary to be entertained. No matter what impression you may have gotten from the internet, people are intelligent enough to piece things together for themselves.

The normal argument for this is that companies are more comfortable making sequels for things that were a success the first time and will likely be a success again and again. In this case that will be again and again and again and again. As annoying and redundant as that is to read, it will only be worse in video game form. 2K should know better than anyone that something new, different, and not as idiot friendly can be successful. They should know this because they proved it with the first Bioshock.