Chapter 657: Games That Can Be True Art (Requesting Subscriptions and Monthly Passes)

Utopia, race, capital, religious fundamentalism, and steampunk...

These elements are common staples in many games.

However, typical games usually choose two or three themes to blend together and then present them to players. Yet, any one of these themes could serve as the primary content background for a game, let alone blending them all together.

Not to mention settings involving quantum mechanics and special relativity, which are extremely sci-fi in nature.

As for Exceptionalism, simply put, it's about providing opportunities and hope to the populace, emphasizing ideals of personal and economic freedom, leading to a unique balance of public and private interests. More directly, it's the so-called American Dream.

But clearly, reality is the exact opposite, and this will also be reflected in the game.

The BioShock series—this is the game Chen Xu is preparing to unveil next.

All of the aforementioned elements are contained within the BioShock series.

Its initial installment, thanks to its exceptional quality, directly won The Game Awards' Game of the Year award that year, and its competitors were by no means weak opponents.

Instead, they were uniformly strong contenders, including The Orange Box (which contained Half-Life, Team Fortress, and Portal), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Crysis, Gears of War, and World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.

It was truly a star-studded lineup.

Yet, in the face of BioShock, these games faded into obscurity.

By its third installment, BioShock Infinite, the series had been forged into an incredibly classic existence.

Butterfly Effect, Grandfather Paradox, multiverse, quantum mechanics, ironic exceptionalism, coupled with the BioShock series' usual utopian, racial, capitalist, steampunk, and magic backgrounds.

All these elements were thrown into the game, but instead of making it bloated, they converged to create a classic city in the sky, Columbia.

At the same time, the game's stunning art style and the supremely intelligent AI design for Elizabeth made Booker and Elizabeth one of the most memorable duos in gaming history.

Although BioShock Infinite did not win The Game Awards' Game of the Year in its release year, if industry media, including players who had experienced it, were asked to choose a game they believed best represented a work of the Ninth Art, then many would undoubtedly choose this series: BioShock.

The reason why Infinite didn't win Game of the Year back then was simply because its competitors that year were absolute monsters. That year, it faced the formidable The Three Musketeers and The Last of Us.

However, despite not winning the top award, it conquered countless media outlets and players.

Especially the design of the female protagonist, Elizabeth, which even now, in Chen Xu's eyes, can be described as utterly classic, bringing her to life with vivid detail. This will also be the most crucial aspect of the game.

In the conference room, Chen Xu introduced the relevant content to everyone.

He also conducted AI tests for Elizabeth with the project department.

Utilizing Nebula Games' internal art resources to first build a small demo scene, then proceeding with Elizabeth's program confirmation. As for how to make her appear more human-like and her corresponding dialogue, this part will require later production of voice actors and scriptwriting.

For BioShock Infinite, Elizabeth's portrayal is paramount. How to make players have a deeper impression of this character is the core focus that the team needs to pay attention to.

This is not merely a matter of piling on details; more importantly, it's about the interaction and bond between the player and Elizabeth, creating an emotional connection, much like the relationship between Joel and Ellie in The Last of Us.

It's not just about Elizabeth being able to help players in combat. More importantly, she needs to be able to connect with players on an emotional level.

Because only by being more real, more gentle, and more empathetic, truly assisting players in combat, can players develop feelings for this character. Only when there is emotion will the players' heartbreak be more profound and shattering when Elizabeth's story unfolds later.

However, regarding this aspect, Chen Xu could confidently say that no one understood healing better than him. After all, so many years of experience were not in vain. In the beginning, he might have been a little rusty, but now, it was simply second nature.

In addition, another relatively important aspect of the game is the presentation of its art style. On the surface, the external art style of BioShock Infinite should be steampunk.

Massive airships, sky-lines connecting various city islands, and colossal machinery. But simply calling it steampunk is also inaccurate.

Because BioShock Infinite's art style can be described as diversified, even an artwork in itself. From Chen Xu's current perspective, aside from its own modeling assets holding it back, the game's unique art style is truly one-of-a-kind, blending everything together perfectly.

An aristocratic art deco style, with massive gears, chains, and machinery accompanying the characters and scenes. This is complemented by a Disney-like cartoon art style rendering, imbued with vibrant, oil painting-like colors.

Steampunk, Victorian, combined with its inherent utopian religious theocracy background, made the entire sky city of Columbia incredibly stunning to countless players.

As for the game's story and worldview, the BioShock series in his previous life had three installments, but in reality, the first and third parts were the most acclaimed by players.

The second installment, much like the Dark Souls series, was even disowned by some players from the BioShock lineage. The main reason for this was that, similar to how Dark Souls II lacked its soul figure, Hidetaka Miyazaki, BioShock II also lacked its soul figure: Ken Levine.

While it was inherently excellent, aside from its background and map settings, it was largely disconnected from the original storyline. Of course, it wasn't entirely terrible, as this installment did a good job of explaining the intimate relationship between Big Daddy and Little Sister in the game.

However, compared to the first and third installments and the Burial at Sea DLC, the second part seemed a bit out of place. This is because the former two games almost achieved a perfect loop. Therefore, Chen Xu intended to develop the game into two chapters: BioShock Infinite as a standalone chapter, and the Burial at Sea DLC content combined with the first game as another chapter, thereby revealing BioShock's most profoundly moving Elizabeth ending.

(End of Chapter) <>