Lower Story Expectations

[mdesaleah]

Edit: didn't think a Bioshock discussion would attract "that" type of player in the comments but here we are I guess. The type that really should touch grass.

After Infinite, I think everyone should just lower their expectations for the story a ton.

Like, what was Infinite even about? Don't just drop a timeline of events, actually think about what its about. Its about nothing.

Its big statement is just that none of its details matter, because all you need is a dictator, some lighthouse style building, and a person to fight against it. What they are fighting against doesn't matter. Its why the whole racism angle of the story is so messy and then vanishes for the rest of the game. That part didn't matter in the story.

BS1 is technically also like this, but at least there you could get a lot more out of the setting and what the characters stand for outside of what Kevin says about them. They can say it doesn't matter in BS1 what Rapture reflects, but its clearly still explained throughout the game instead of being entirely dropped. In comparison to Infinite, it did things a lot better.

Don't be surprised if Judas is all show, but when it comes to making any analysis it just throws that away in favor of "your choices don't matter, the setting doesn't matter, and any statement we may imply doesn't matter". Like Infinite did.

[AlHudsonFX]

I love all 3 Bioshocks and like Ken Levine.

But my suspicions is that Judas will be a forgotten flop.

Let's start with that terrible name "Judas", then with literally Zero advertising.

[Dios]

ZogSlopdas

[Dios]

I will get the game for like 15 lol

[KamelittaOida]

I'm speechless. a stonethrow away from Atomic Heart.

Originally posted by ZIGS:

Looks like your typical feminist power trip

https://streamable.com/wtlanb

https://streamable.com/tb54ku

also, is that cringelord Baker?

[chakkman]

Originally posted by AlHudsonFX:

I love all 3 Bioshocks and like Ken Levine.

But my suspicions is that Judas will be a forgotten flop.

No wonder. Looks freaky. Freaky characters. You play a woman (of course, as if the male population, which surely still makes 90% of gamers who play such games, could all identify with a female PC). Gameplay looks to be the same as the Bioshocks.

I don't think I'll buy it, although I loved System Shock 2, and liked the Bioshock, and, I'm in general a fan of Ken Levine. But, it looks like he also has to bow down to the (stupid) trends of the game industry, even though he's only a better Indie developer.

Oh, and, yes, the name sucks as well. "No advertising" is surely down to the low budget. I'm sure the people who know Ken Levine will also hear of the game.

[distantlight]

Originally posted by AlHudsonFX:

I love all 3 Bioshocks and like Ken Levine.

But my suspicions is that Judas will be a forgotten flop.

Let's start with that terrible name "Judas", then with literally Zero advertising.

It's SUCH a bad name. It tells you nothing about the game and suggests there will be some truly ham-fisted Christianity overtones. I'm hoping there won't be, but that's what the title screams at me.

And this talk of "narrative lego" just sounds like word salad to me. I think it'll be incoherent at worst, or have very little affect on the gameplay, at best. Kinda like in the Walking Dead games, where players thought they were experiencing an interactive story but actually weren't.

I suspect the game was just stuck in development hell for years, because as usual, Levine didn't really know what sort of game he wanted to make. And now they're just throwing together something that, once again, resembles the most successful game he ever had (Bioshock) because the team didn't really know what else to do.

[chakkman]

Originally posted by distantlight:

I suspect the game was just stuck in development hell for years

From what I read of its development, it was. But then, as you say, Ken Levine is no stranger to that.

I think it's more about experimenting, and trying out what works and what doesn't. Nothing wrong about that really, but, this kind of approach also has to work, otherwise the end result won't be very coherent, I guess.

Anyway, I really like Levine's work, but, his bowing down to the trend of today's game industry is totally unnecessary for a better Indie game studio.