By John Walker on February 3rd, 2010 at 3:19 pm.
They sneak up on you, they really do. It’s already time for the BioShock 2 launch trailer. In fact, Mr Alec Meer is playing it as I type. It’s just around the corner, after seeming like perpetually a year away for about fifty-five years. So you should probably watch the very pretty pictures.
For all my griping about the combat in yesterday’s podcast, it does look really rather incredible. Although I fear it won’t let you feel as powerful as that trailer implies. Who knows. But gosh, look at that water.
I’ve a feeling big surprises await. The obsessive inclusion of the Big Sister in all the trailers suggests they’re only showing us a glimpse of what’s inside. Although this is my guess – I’ve not spoken to Alec yet, and he’d probably be shot by a 2K sniper if he tried to tell me. Anyhow, here’s the trailer. Please to enjoy.
03/02/2010 at 15:27 CaLe says:
I’d like to see some in-game CG cut-scenes like this. The Mass Effect 2 trailers had some very cool CG but none in the actual game, which was a shame I thought.
03/02/2010 at 15:31 Lord Bigglesworth says:
Instead of (Big)Daddy issues I have some big sister issues ;____;
03/02/2010 at 15:34 Samuel Bigos says:
Rated M for mature!
Really spoils the trailer.
03/02/2010 at 15:34 TheBlackBandit says:
I’m all for this. I loved the first, and have no doubt that even if the second doesn’t quite live up to the first, it’ll be incredible.
03/02/2010 at 16:01 Jeremy says:
I think that conceptually, I prefer the idea of being the Big Daddy. It can set up some real motivation to protect the girls or girl, I don’t remember if its just one or more along the lines of the first game. At any rate, I’ll give this a play through as long as I’m done with Mass Effect 2!
03/02/2010 at 16:24 SirKicksalot says:
So how long until games look like this? 5 years?
03/02/2010 at 20:49 Bhazor says:
Around the time developers stop letting you actually play what they make and instead make animated films.
So about 8 months the way things are going.
03/02/2010 at 16:25 The Sombrero Kid says:
i’d've bought this if it wasn’t for the install limits, shame, i was looking forward to it.
03/02/2010 at 19:17 yns88 says:
@The Sombrero Kid:
Just out of curiosity, how many people have been unable to play Bioshock 1 due to its install limit? Games have been doing this for a while now, but the only negative reaction that you ever see to it is at the release date.
The only negative consequence of limited installs is a longevity issue, but often the case is that the install limit is only enforced for a (relatively) short period of time. Bioshock 1′s install limit was removed ~8 months after its release.
03/02/2010 at 20:18 Collic says:
The install limits for Bioshock were removed some time ago, as was promised.
I won’t buy the sequel because of GFWL, but they were true to their word on that for the first.
03/02/2010 at 20:19 suibhne says:
Uh, yns88, the install limit was *removed* on Bioshock in the game’s first year, after being significantly softened on several occasions after launch. That’s much of the reason why people were so frustrated with Bioshock 2′s “one step forward, two steps back” approach.
03/02/2010 at 20:21 Collic says:
@ yns88
Oops, didn’t read your reply properly there, it seems. I doubt it stung many people bar the initial steam install mishaps some had. I call storm in a tea cup. You’d think they would have learned by now though..
04/02/2010 at 08:55 The Sombrero Kid says:
i wasn’t stung by bioshock but i was stung by mass effect and vowed never to buy a game with install limits again, which i wont.
03/02/2010 at 17:24 Shadrach says:
So Coach is a splicer and lives in Rapture now?
Joking aside, I like how there is a splicer that can challenge the Big Daddy in brute force as well.
03/02/2010 at 18:31 Mistabashi says:
Even without the crazy DRM & bundled bloatware (/malware), I still have no interest at all in this game. And that’s not because I didn’t enjoy the first game (I didn’t think it was the second-coming either mind you), it’s just that the trailers and blurb have shown a complete lack of the atmosphere that made the original so enjoyable.
03/02/2010 at 19:52 Wulf says:
I actually felt the same way. From the earliest shots of this I got the feeling that it had lost “the look”. This was confirmed for me when I saw the Big Daddies, and the one in the shot that accompanies this article is a fine example. The problem with it is is that it doesn’t look like some dark, nightmarish diving-suit-come-life-support-system, which is what the originals look like, instead it looks sort of like a steampunk robot.
I can only conclude that the artistic team working on this one doesn’t really understand what made the first one work, aesthetically. And if they can’t get the look of the Big Daddies right, who’s to say that they’ll get anything right? I’m sure it’ll get high scores, as all AAA titles unfortunately do, but whether it’ll be BioShock is another matter entirely, and that’s a shame.
Moreover, it lacks so much potential. The thing is, a sequel should be a natural progression of the original storyline, something that’ll take the game in new and interesting directions whilst still being true to what it actually is. Sort of like Lechuck’s Revenge to Secret of, or Half-Life 2 to Half-Life. But this seems like a poor excuse to go back to Rapture. Why go back to Rapture? After the ending of the first game, there are so many other interesting directions they could’ve taken it in.
Because of that, it comes across as a beautified expansion pack, and that’s a shame, too.
The thing is, this could’ve been so much more, but instead it looks like a new team ripping off the original BioShock team, with the only change being “Oh look, you can be a Big Daddy!”, which will probably end up being more disappointing than it sounds. I wish they’d been more brave, this could’ve been brilliant, not just a cheep knock-off.
But hey, I could be wrong, I’ll certainly check out a demo, should one come along.
03/02/2010 at 23:08 Manley Pointer says:
I liked the first game a lot, but when I finished it, I certainly was not thinking “can’t wait for the sequel.” It was clearly a one-and-done idea, but I guess everyone is so hungry for IP they’ll turn anything into a franchise.
And is this trailer promising that their whole game will be like that escort mission at the end of Bioshock? Not the most thrilling concept.
To my mind, they’ll only make a good game if they make it substantially different from the original…and it doesn’t look like they have. Then again, I hope they prove me wrong.
04/02/2010 at 09:46 Miles of the Machination says:
@Wulf Although I disagree with your assumptions of what the game will be before anybody has been given a chance to have a good look at it yet (exluding journalists who are locked away in their ivory towers, paved with non-disclosure agreements), I do agree that a fresh look would be great. Ages ago I wrote about the trends in plot and setting progressions in sequels and used Bioshock 2 as an example. At the time the only sparing information was on that Something in the Sea website, and this got me all excited about the potential for a first person adventure game in which a private detective follows the trail of the events mentioned in the news snippets. I never really bothered to develop the plot much further, but something like Bioshock could really benefit from radical plot directions, without feeling as if it is constrained to the events and locations in the first one. Also, I agree with what was said on the podcast, having a lot of the abitrary combat with splicers pruned down would greatly benefit the atmosphere.
03/02/2010 at 18:42 Frankie The Patrician[PF] says:
I can’t wait…I preordered it and will receive a Little Sister action figure…with the syringe and stuff
03/02/2010 at 21:25 Rei Onryou says:
Where’d you get that as a pre-order gift from?
03/02/2010 at 18:50 Whadahell says:
Are those turbojets on the shotgun? Sold!
03/02/2010 at 23:46 Polysynchronicity says:
I think it’s an ammo feed, good sir.
03/02/2010 at 19:47 Vinraith says:
I was looking forward to this one, but with the DRM situation as it is I think I’ll skip it. If xliveless (or something equivalent) comes along to strip out the GfWL awfulness, and if the limited installations are abandoned 6 months after release, I might pick it up in a bargain bin someday.
03/02/2010 at 20:21 suibhne says:
This. I’m a bit irritated with the DRM situation, but the inclusion of GfWL is far worse in my view than any SecuROM presence could ever be. It’s absolutely baffling that developers (and/or publishers) continue to drag down their products with such an objectively crappy basket of consumer-hating code.
03/02/2010 at 20:36 Tei says:
I really love this video. Its a amazing piece of craft & art. Congrats.
03/02/2010 at 22:47 IvanHoeHo says:
Call me weird, but my major gripes with the Bioshocks are actually their use of color and the general rounded-ness/shininess of the designs. It just looks like everything’s child-proof, or something.
04/02/2010 at 00:08 Ushao says:
It’s called Art Deco. Rather popular style around the time that Rapture was built.
04/02/2010 at 01:01 Lemon scented apocalypse says:
@IvanHoeHo
This comment made me sad
04/02/2010 at 05:24 IvanHoeHo says:
Yeah, you know what else was popular around that time? (well, -25 years, but who’s counting?) Nazi-Roman architecture! I might not be a big fan of imperialism, but the shit they build is always awe-inspiring.
There’s this retro diner near my university when I was studying not 2 months ago; the food’s great, but their furnishings literally made me cringe every time I went. I’m not saying I prefer intimidating columns and long, featureless hallways next time I visit, but I guess art deco architecture is just really not for me.
05/02/2010 at 06:33 Miles of the Machination says:
@IvanHoeHo Although I agree that the architecture could have better reflected both the ubiquitous liberal freedom, and the undertones of political menace, this would probably wind up way too contrived a justification. So they found a satisfying medium in creating an art style that was essentially a big, extravagant version of the popular art deco style that was around decades before the game was set, and I think this raises an interesting point in proving just how institutionalised Rapture’s citizens had become when its architecture and culture represented a bygone era.
04/02/2010 at 05:58 Piotr_Skut says:
Funny that they have “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition” playing in the background in this trailer when there are no firearms on screen.
04/02/2010 at 06:54 Kakrafoon says:
Yes, but it’s such a nice and jaunty song about shooting things… Very nice touch to include it.
04/02/2010 at 06:22 poop says:
that trailer elevated the game from complete disinterest to $5 steam christmas sale for me :)
04/02/2010 at 07:09 Johnny Go-Time says:
On topic, I saw this over at Destructoid, and can’t unsee it: http://www.game-rave.com/bomberman.jpg
04/02/2010 at 16:19 clive dunn says:
@IvanHoeHo
You have the first recorded case of Art-deco-itus.. Congratulations!
You’d absolutly hate the furniture in my house. A small company in Brighton (UK) make exact reproductions of art deco furniture. We got a couple of sofa’s based on ones that were on the Normandie Cruise liner (at the time the largest on the ocean) .
Anyone with any taste and couple of grand to waste on furniture should check out http://www.artdeco-sofas.com/