What would you want out of a new Bioshock?

I assume many are done with Rapture, but to me, I'd love to see them go back one final time, but it's less about shooting (maybe none!), and about a reporter from modern times (the year the game comes out), perhaps 50 years after two, where the protagonist finds out that a city under the sea existed, so he/she search with a small team for it, and come upon the lighthouse Jack went into in the first game. I don't know how, but I'd love to see Rapture and what it'd look like now. I assume most, if not all inhabitants would be dead, and many places uninhabitable. I want to assume that Rapture is in some form still habitable though, otherwise the game obviously can't exist. The game might be similar to Outlast. I could end where they make it back to the surface and reveal to the world that Rapture existed with proof. That would be interesting to me. I can't wait for the collection, even though I have all Bioshock games on all systems (except for Bioshock 2 on 360 and the first Bioshock on iPad), and played them through multiple times.

That would be pretty cool to play an Outlast/Amnesia like game set in the world of Bioshock.

I think they're on a good track. I vote no for the Outlast-type gameplay.

Telltale BioShock?

They've done a city at the bottom of the sea and a city in the clouds, now they should do one somewhere in the between.

@beardandcompany: Well, not exactly like Outlast. I just think it'd make sense, if it took place now (which I would want most out of a new Bioshock), to have it be somewhat similar to Outlast. I wasn't thinking so much outright horror though. I think it'd make sense to have the character carry around a camera though for documenting purposes, though it doesn't have to be like Outlast where you have to hold up the camera for almost the entire game, finding batteries along the way. I just want to experience what it would be like to go to Rapture now, and what someone (this case being the characters) would feel like finding and being in a place like Rapture with our current understanding of how things are in the world now if you will. What the player would feel basically. Look, I saw your recent thread of trying to find a game like Dead Space and what have you; those kinds of games are some of my favorite, but when it comes to Bioshock, though I wouldn't complain about getting that again, I want to see Rapture again, but not in that way.

Man, I don't know. A revisit to Rapture could be cool, and I kind of like the Outlast/FPS horror angle you're going for. What if Adam was turning undersea life into sea horrors, and you had to contend with that along with splicers that were way further mutated and gone than they were in Bioshock. You had enough weaponry to fend off the splicers but you need to GTFO when the sea horrors attack. I don't know who I'd trust to pull that off though. I never played Burial At Sea, so maybe that could get expanded into a full release prequel. I wouldn't hate that but again the right people need to be onboard because it could go south real quick.

@hippie_genocide: Burial At Sea can't get expanded on really. It pretty much ends where the first game starts. That's a bit spoiler-ish, so sorry, but I won't go into further detail. You should play it; it's pretty good, though I didn't so much love the ending (although it makes sense to have ended the way it did), and I think it blatantly tries to cover over some of the things people disliked about Infinite in terms of story. It may also take away from some of the thematic elements Infinite brought too. I don't know, I thought it was great overall though. Also... As for the Adam turning sea life into horror's, I'm not sure that's possible. Little Sisters were the things that carried Adam, and with them gone, Adam isn't there anymore I think. Although we've been to Rapture before in the games, I want to discover Rapture as someone from our times, someone that didn't know anything about Rapture, like if we personally found out about a city under the sea like Rapture. I also, as stated before, don't think the game would be similar to Outlast in being outright horror, but due to the history of Rapture (and I imagine going down under the ocean like that), would be pretty scary on its own.

open world thriving space station with the conflict centered around growing resistance to the institution's ability to foresee the future (which is what largely got them to the insular, technologically advanced, and peaceful state that they're in). more dialogue-choice driven gameplay in addition to your standard BioShock fare.

basically Deus Ex 1 gameplay (plus future-tech superpowers) on a prophetic bustling fully open space station.

@theht: So, a tweak on System Shock, with it being open world you mean?

we've gone down, then we've gone up.

the only direction left is SIDEWAYS.

@ripelivejam: Could go down again and have an underground city, like Coober Pedy:

I don't think I need another Bioshock. I played those games once and have fond memories, never felt the need to replay them.

Don't know what they can expand on, I figured Infinite wrapped up that universe in a way that would make some other side-stories kind of meaningless. Great games, though.

Love a System Shock 3, but have no expectations.

@bybeach: I'm not sure in which way you're saying that in, maybe you already know, but they are making one, if you didn't.

Dishonored 2?

its a hard question to answer because the formula for bioshock is really kind of old at this point. when it first hit the scene, it was a breath of fresh air into the fps genre, but now, even with infinite, its age was showing. and to be honest, i kind of expected them to refine the combat system a bit more with infinite, but it felt very lackluster to me. maybe a skill tree, and also maybe a moral system similar to havest/save the little sisters would be cool. theyve been in the sky, and in the sea. something inter-dimensional would be cool, like one on a distant planet in another universe.

mmm, not really. it'd have a large and active society and be more focused on political intrigue and ideological differences rather than survival against actual technology gone evil. the fortune-telling machine is just a machine. how it's being used (and if it should even be used at all) would be the major point of contention.

i imagine actually using the technology to foresee various futures along the way would be a consistent plot device, or even something that would manifest as a sort of game mechanic. sort of a story focused around ambition, tradition, and principle by way of technology. you wouldn't actually go into the future or anything. it's not reality-hopping like Infinite. just a glimpse, and the effect that has on people (including how it's been used to shape and govern this society). dialogue choices and a story centered around telling the future, you gotta figure there'd be a bunch of different story paths and outcomes too.

yeah, i'd like to see something like that. take the series forward without feeling like it's just going back to the well. the further they get from being an anthology series the significantly less interested i am, to be honest.

Irrational and Ken Levine to do it.

I liked 2 and Mirnerva's Den a whole lot, but 1 and Infinite take the cake within the franchise.

A cool atmospheric setting, a great balance between shooty guns and fantastic powers, and some cool weapon/skill leveling, and a return to Bioshock 1's open levels.

Basically, more of the same, just a new setting with new enemy types. An interesting story would be good too, but that's not why I personally go to the Bioshock series

Space.

Yah that would be a cool choice, get back to the roots in a way. All I would want is something similar to what we've gotten thus far. A bit of philosophy in the narrative, varied gunplay with super powers, that sort of stuff.

I would prefer regenerating health as I never liked the health pickup style that Bioshock stuck to, unless they do something like Doom or Space Marine where you can regain health through active combat.

The major draw of Bioshock was world building/design. If they can make another brand new world (no more Rapture or Columbia and not a space ship/station) that is as engaging as Rapture I'm on board.

Anything but "return to Rapture for the umpteenth time".

For it to not be Bioshock

No, ignorance, though it occurs to me now I might have heard some allusion. It sounded iffy.

@ntm: I'll still pass. I don't want to carry a camera in BioShock.

I don't want a new BioShock, sadly. That story's wrapped up and the fiction, as well as locations, are sapped dry in my mind.

As much as I love Bioshock (and I love it a lot) I honestly don't see how they can add any more to that story.

You can't put a city on land! That's madness they said! But I proved them all wrong.

A bad guy with a first name surname similar to Andrew Ryan.
Harry David.
John Garry.
...
Brian Adams.

You just want a non-Bioshock game to take photos of Rapture...in a video game? Pokemon Snap?

@beardandcompany: No, not that simplistic. Also, you carried a camera in the first two Bioshock games.

I'm into Bioshock as a platform to tell narratives about storytelling itself, but I am tired of the gameplay, and honestly never enjoyed Bioshock's gameplay. Bioshock could become a Twilight Zone-style thematic umbrella under which to tell these kinds of stories, but using different gameplay mechanics where necessary to complement the story's themes; in this way, I guess the problem with Bioshock has been (through 1 and Infinite, never played 2) that the narrative has often addressed issues of unwillingly participating in violence, or violence against a class of people. Should they decide to tell stories not specifically about violence, I'd love to see an entirely different style of game.

Something mechanically similar, but tonally and narratively different.

@ntm: I have a vague memory of using a camera in Bioshock but I saw no point in it. The research thing was pretty lackluster and was only good for an achievement or two. I thought it took away from the experience and glad that it wasn't necessary.

@beardandcompany: Yeah, I didn't use it much the first few times through, but it actually gives a lot of cool new moves.

No Lighthouses.

Make it not a shooter. Allow it to be shorter. That's mostly all I'd want.

I really liked the original Bioshock and Bioshock: Infinite was my GOTY, so I'm certainly up for my Bioshock, but I don't know about the setting.

Definitely not something set in Rapture though, sorry. Underwater city has been done to death by now. I also don't want another sky city by the way.

@theveteran13: So a normal city then?

Yes

A brand new game and nothing less.

@tobbrobb: You're describing an entirely different game series. Just play that, then.

I can't see them changing the gameplay mechanics in any significant way, they'll probably just go for another different dystopia. I could imagine them going for some subterranean society but with a different angle to the wealthy/religious versions that we've already seen. I'm stumped as to how they're actually going to go about it but i'm sure they'll pull it off.

I am a huge fan of Bioshock 1 and 2, but not so much for Infinite or even Burial at Sea. The concept behind Infinite was interesting and opens up to potential of a never ending series, but the game itself wasn't very fun for me. I found myself just burning through the game just to find out the full story is about.

I want Bioshock to return to its creepy steampunk vibe on crawling through the remnants of a failed "future" city or utopia. Perhaps go the old Resident Evil route with the game taking place in an isolated city or biodome with an underground facility in where they do experiments. These experiments are meant to make their humanity transcend beyond the common masses and make society superior.

I admit I'm also a huge Resident Evil fan as well... I want Resident Evil to be great again.

@herrheimlich: I love Resident Evil, the older ones. I can't even go back and play 4 since it feels a bit dated. Even at the time of release, I was not a huge fan of not moving while shooting and the whole aiming situation. I don't mind the free-floating laser and such but I felt my character had such limited movement. Having said that, I still have no problem with the old tank-style controls in the originals.

Giving it some more thought, I've always wanted a game with a similar vibe to Brazil, and maybe a Bioshock-type game could make it work?

@teddie: That is a great idea! I am down for wacky hijinks in a Orwellian City .

My pitch would be set in the 1860's with a Jules Verne art style, in a city in the center of the earth with crazy technology that is unlike Rapture or Colombia think thermodynamics. not sure what political theme it would have