New BioShock 4 details have surfaced online, revealing insight into some seemingly unexpected features coming to what is presumably a PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC game. The details don’t come via a press release from Cloud Chamber Games or 2K Games, nor do they come by way of a leak or a rumor, but rather they come way of several job listings posted by the former. According to Cloud Chamber Games, the game is a “narrative-driven project” that is “full of character and personality” and “ambitious.”
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To realize this narrative, it sounds like the game will have some type of dialogue system. The listings specifically mention designing “dialogue systems,” but they don’t go into any detail, leaving fans with nothing but speculation as to whether this is an indication the series is adding a dialogue system full of choices like Mass Effect or Fallout, or whether this is simply talking about normal character dialogue.
Adding to this, Cloud Chamber Games refers to the project as featuring an “emergent sandbox world” and “interactive world systems and non-AI systemic ecology,” as well as “player growth systems,” “game balance,” “economy,” and “player progression.” Coupling this, the listing mentions preferring applicants with RPG experience.
In addition to hinting at the game being more RPG than previous entries, it also sounds like it will be open-world, or at least more akin to BioShock 1 and BioShock 2 rather than BioShock Infinite.
Lastly, the listings mention the creation of “a meaningful AI urban crowd system and the systemic tribal ecology of a sometimes hostile AI.” Not only does this hint at an urban setting, but large crowds that can be both passive or hostile. Continuing this, Cloud Chamber Games notes that it believes it’s “trying some new and ambitious things with AI and have high ambitions for tying AI and storytelling together.”
And this is where the details end. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of meat on any of these bones, but we know one thing for sure: BioShock 4 is ambitious. How far it will stray away from the series’ roots to achieve this ambition, remains to be seen, but at the very least it sounds like the team is experimenting.
As always, feel free to leave a comment or two letting us know what you think or, alternatively, hit me up on Twitter @Tyler_Fischer_ and let me know over there. What do you want to see from BioShock 4?
H/T, MauroNL.
