生化奇兵又有新作?--BioShock Infinite

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Designer Ken Levine couldn't help but smile. The team at Irrational Games began working on their latest project three years ago, and last night, for the first time, they took the wraps off of their highly anticipated game with the enthusiasm of parents presenting gifts to their children on Christmas morning. "Welcome to Columbia. We're not in Rapture any more," Levine said, unveiling the majestic floating city in the sky of BioShock Infinite.

The press-only event took place in a curtained off hall in the swanky Plaza Hotel in New York City. Levine, he of System Shock and BioShock fame, stood alone on stage in front of a large screen emblazoned with the Irrational Games logo.

"It's been three long years," Levine said. "And now the time for silence is finally over."


With that, the trailer for BioShock Infinite began to roll. If you haven't seen it yet, you're in for a treat. The cinematic kicks off with what appears to be an underwater journey back to Rapture, the Art Deco dystopia of BioShock. With a wink and a nudge, the action quickly transitions from a fish tank to the clouds and a floating city that appears to have even more character (and characters) than its deep sea counterpart, Columbia.

Before long, a chase through the city, complete with steampunk cyborgs and a dark-haired dame ensues, until we discover one of the major hazards of living up among the clouds: gravity.

Levine provided the setting for Infinite: it's the dawn of the 20th century and America is beginning to assert itself as a global power. Through ingenuity and invention, a wealthy group decides to take America's show on the road, bringing democracy, God, gadgets, and a love of all things red, white, and blue to the world via the floating city of Columbia.

"But then, something goes horribly wrong," Levine said. "The world discovers that Columbia is armed to the teeth. The city becomes a floating Deathstar. Their is a conflict and afterward, Columbia disappears."



Years later, the main character in the game, a former Pinkerton Agent and gumshoe, Booker DeWitt, is approached by a stranger. The man needs DeWitt to find a girl. Turns out, that girl is trapped on Columbia, and the stranger knows where the missing city is and how to get DeWitt there.

Synopsis complete, Levine said it was time to show a gameplay demonstration of BioShock Infinite. The demo kicked off with DeWitt already in Columbia, and one thing became abundantly clear: Infinite is Bioshock in the sky. The game is an FPS, and players will be wielding Plasmid-like powers in addition to a heavy arsenal of weapons. And they'll need them.

Much like Rapture, Columbia is a dream that its inhabitants have transformed into a nightmare, and the city is rapidly falling apart. In the demo, we saw one huge section of the floating city groan and topple, sending what looked like a copy of the Liberty Bell crashing to the player's feet. But the ingenuity of the Columbia's inhabitants is also on full display, with a marvelous skytram connecting the various parts of the floating city, and robotic horses and housekeepers dutifully performing their programmed tasks.


When DeWitt approaches a Columbia politico in the middle of an impassioned (and scary) speech about maintaining the purity of Columbia's race, all hell breaks loose. The politician's eyes begin to glow, and he calls out an army of goons to attack.

With a sniper rifle and shotgun DeWitt fought off the hordes, also using familiar electric and telekinetic abilities. We also witnessed a new ability: the power to control a flock of ravens and send them on the pecking and clawing attack. And of course, the good old fashioned melee attack was put to good use, sending enemies over the edge and for a long fall back to earth.

Eventually, DeWitt encountered Elizabeth, the Bette Davis meets Liz Taylor damsel in distress he was sent to find, and it became clear players will have a big, helpful NPC hand in exploring and escaping Columbia. Using her own powerful plasmid-like powers, Elizabeth took out groups of foes with a flourish, simultaneously showing off Infinite's highly destructible environments.


And when Elizabeth and DeWitt combined their abilities, the results were positively explosive. In one part of the demo, Elizabeth summoned a rain cloud that opened up on a group of attackers. DeWitt joined in, using his electricity abilities to turn the raincloud into a devastating lightning storm.

In the final part of the demo, DeWitt and Elizabeth were attacked by a Big Daddy-like villain whose arms and legs had been replaced with powerful mechanical limbs. "That wasn't so bad," DeWitt remarked after the foe was dispatched. But Elizabeth was quick to warn there are much bigger and badder enemies in Columbia.

Cue the massive, Mothra-like mechanical bald eagle. End demo.

BioShock Infinite is being developed for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows PCs. The game is slated for a 2012 release.