Almost nothing official has been revealed about BioShock 4, but leaks have suggested the game will take place in an open world set in Antarctica. It's a setting that video games have rarely explored, so a series known for its fantastic world-building heading there is understandably exciting to many. However, the open-world direction could mean that one of the greatest aspects of the original BioShock is lost.
BioShock 4, rumored to be called BioShock Isolation, will be the first installment in the series since 2013's BioShock Infinite. First announced in 2019, development is being headed by 2K's new studio Cloud Chamber. Additionally, original creator Ken Levine has confirmed he has no role in the project. These behind-the-scenes changes explain why BioShock 4 seems to be taking a very different approach from past games. The series so far has set an incredibly high bar for the newest title, so how this new direction is executed could make or break the game's greatness.
The Incredible Atmosphere of BioShock
BioShock's Rapture is one of the most iconic game settings of all time. The underwater city balanced atmospheric horror - created by masterful sound design, enemy encounters, and environmental art - with compelling story-telling, through both the progression of the story and the contextually placed audio diaries. Coupled with some survival gameplay elements, it created a world that was tense and genuinely frightening at times without becoming so focused on fear that it detracts from the game.
Part of what made that possible was the claustrophobic setting of Rapture itself. The dark corridors and collapsing structure added to a feeling that it was a genuinely unnerving place to be stuck in. BioShock 4 moving to an open world means this kind of confinement is lost. This is further supported by a job listing which suggested BioShock 4 will feature an "urban crowd system". That all sounds like a far cry from the unsettling solitude of 2007's BioShock. That could mean that any attempt at atmospheric horror in BioShock 4 simply won't land as effectively.
Of course, it's not the only time the series has made such a move. BioShock Infinite heavily opened up its level design and tonally moved away from the horror-inspired elements of BioShock and BioShock 2, but this was thematically suitable for the third game. The city of Columbia is mostly bright and boisterous, but clearly dangerous upon closer inspection. This presentation was a good reflection of ideas of American exceptionalism and religious motifs as a facade for much darker truths.
What's different now, however, is that BioShock 4 sounds like it would much better suit the atmosphere of the original game than that of Infinite. It'd be pretty hard to have a more lonely and desolate setting on Earth than Antarctica. Even the rumored name of BioShock Isolation suggests it might try to go for a more subdued approach than BioShock Infinite, but an open world could make that much harder.
If the spaces where missions take place are too open, then trying to create the tension and atmosphere of the first game will likely prove difficult. A feeling of isolation across the map is one thing. Many open-world games do a good job of making the player feel alone outside the cities, settlements, and buildings they contain, but it's hard to instill a fear of "What's around that corner?" if there are no tight corners and corridors to speak of. Likewise, if the previously linear audio logs are now scattered across an open map, their story-telling potential could be hurt by the loss of context they once added to the unsettling scenes around them.
BioShock 4 is currently in development.