Say it with me: "BioShock." The game’s title alone inspires a wide array of emotions in most gamers anticipating its release. Excitement to try a first-person shooter where not a lot of shooting will take place; intrigue (as well as awe) at the art direction the game showcases; anticipation at facing an AI system that, as they all do, promises to deliver hitherto unheard of challenges; nervousness… mostly due to the same reason I listed for excitement. I mean, a first-person shooter that doesn’t feature lots of shooting? Sure, they’ve been done before, and successfully, but what about this one?

That remains to be seen. After all, in this age of video gaming, the hype machine works overtime for just about every title due out on any given platform; sometimes reality lives up to hype, and sometimes, it just doesn’t. Will BioShock be all that Irrational hopes it will be? The presentation at E3 which showed stunning gameplay footage whet many an appetite, but still, I wanted to know more.

Thankfully I had the chance to interview Ken Levine, Creative Director and President of Irrational Games, to learn more about this promising title.

Shack: BioShock looks absolutely stunning. What went into creating the environments, the characters, the overall setting, etc.?

Ken Levine: First off, BioShock is not only ambitious from a visual standpoint, we have really set a demanding goal for ourselves: we intend to redefine what gamers expect from a first-person shooter. We want BioShock to do for FPS games what Gran Turismo did for the racing genre, or GTA did for the action genre: To raise the bar for features, user choice, open-endedness, immersion, story and setting, and replayability. Imagine going back to Ridge Racer after Gran Turismo, or Driver after GTA. You can’t.

What goes into this? Well, starting with the environments and look of the game, a huge amount of work. To be honest, we blew it the first time around. The first prototype we took to Take 2 really didn’t work. Fortunately, they let us go back and try again. To me, that’s the real difference between having a decent budget for the first time: second chances.

Shack: What made art deco seem the perfect "feel" for the game?

Ken Levine: I think art deco always looks like somebody’s vision of the future, no matter how old it gets. And Rapture, the underwater failed utopia where BioShock takes place, is about the future….it’s about changing the very idea of what a man can be.

Shack: Tell us about the BioShock's story, as well as how it was dreamed up. Did something in particular provide motivation, or was it just something a creative genius had been sitting on for a while?

Ken Levine: Like the look of the game, it’s something that evolved over a long period of time. We worked on it and worked on it till we got it right. With all the games I’ve worked on, I’m generally driven by the "I’m sick of that shit" mentality. If there’s something we’re sick of in games, we try to do it differently. Considering how [similar] video game stories tend to be, this mentality is pretty prevalent when it comes to doing our stories.

Shack: Why an underwater city? What not outerspace, or even a post-apocalyptic setting?

Ken Levine: How many games have you played in outer space? How many in a post-apocalyptic world? How many in a fantasy world about to be overrun by a mad Necromancer?

All in all, it seemed like the underwater city was due.

Shack: In some games, I don't feel background music really has a place. It's great and all, but sometimes a game feels more immersive if it's just not there. This is how I played through both Half-Life games, for example.

What role does music play in BioShock? Also, what about sound effects?

Ken Levine: The key importance of sound in BioShock is to convince the player that Rapture is a real place. As sound is pretty much 100% realistic in games (as compared to graphics), it’s one of our best tools for this.

Shack: BioShock seems to thrive on emotion. When I watched the presentation at E3, I felt a sense of despair as I watched the demo guy walk around some of Rapture's environments; it was once so beautiful, but now is in a crumbling state of disrepair.

What are some of the emotions the team has set out to spark in the player, and what has been done to ensure that they are accurately and convincingly portrayed onto the player?

Ken Levine: Rapture is a failed dream. Before it fell apart, it was beautiful. That’s the difference between drama and tragedy: tragedy demands that things MIGHT have worked out, MIGHT have been great if only things had gone differently.

BioShock is a tragedy.

Shack: How do NPCs, such as the Big Daddy and the Little Sister, function? Is there some sort of AI hierarchy that dictates all the actions an NPC takes? If so, what is it?

Ken Levine: I can’t think about the AI in BioShock without getting all excited. Our lead AI guy John Abercrombie has really outdone himself. Our goal was to create a giant web of interactivity. The Little Sisters and Big Daddies are a great example: They have a co-dependent relationship. The Little Sisters look to the Big Daddies for their survival. He’ll actually grab her by the scruff and pull her out of the line of fire if the situation warrants. She’ll run behind him and hide when threatened. They’ll even mourn each other when one is killed. It’s quite a sight to see, really like nothing I’ve ever seen in a game before.

Shack: So basically, unless I go after the Little Sister, the Big Daddies will let me go about my business?

Ken Levine: You betcha. They’re only motivated by their desire to protect their little charges.

Shack: Not that I'm bitter or anything, but you must realize the number of times gamers have been promised "uber-realistic AI" in a game only to have it far fall short. What makes BioShock's AI work so well?

Ken Levine: It’s not a question of making them more realistic. It’s all about giving them interesting, believable motivations. It’s about letting the player understand what those motivations are so they could manipulate the AIs to their advantage. It’s about creating a world where AIs can go about their own business: protect one another, search for resources, and even get into conflicts of their own which have nothing to do with you.
You know, like people.

Shack: What exactly is Adam, and what role does it play in the game?

Ken Levine: Adam is the equivalent of oil in rapture: it’s the genetic material that drives all the mutations that the survivors of Rapture depend on to survive.

Shack: Let's say I need some of the Adam the Little Sis is harvesting. Ammo seems like something I may want to really conserve in this game, so what are some different ways I could go about eliminating the Big Daddy in order to get at the Little Sister?

Ken Levine: There’s around six million ways. You could: Shoot him; distract him; send other AIs against him; turn the security system against him; take over a turret and lure him into it; set a mine and lure him over it; light him on fire; [or] even make him think you’re a little sister and have him protect you!

Shack: So open-ended design is the primary direction of BioShock. What are some other examples of the freedom of choice the player receives?

Ken Levine: The whole game is designed with a single principle: To make a first person shooter where there are literally dozens of ways to do anything. Hack machinery. Craft new power ups. Modify your weapons. Experiment with insane genetic powers. Lay traps for your foes. Take over security systems. The list really doesn’t end.

Shack: How does the player improve him or herself over the course of the game?

Ken Levine: It’s all about getting more and more cool stuff to do: Over the game, the player: Acquires new weapons; gets new and more amazing genetic powers; takes photos of foes that gives them insight on how to fight them; crafts new items and power ups; modifies their weapons to make them more powerful; hacks into a wide variety of machinery to turn them to the player’s advantage.

Shack: What was the dev team's reaction when everyone found out about Take Two purchasing Irrational Games?

Ken Levine: I think they were thrilled. It’s nice to have a sugar daddy.

Shack: What is it like working with Take Two?

Ken Levine: So far, it’s strictly been a good thing: mo’ money, and no hassles. We have a good relationship with the production team, too. Which is cool.

Shack: Any concerns that working for a huge publisher such as Take Two will put a damper on creativity? What I mean is, many are concerned their favorite companies will be forced to sell out, so to speak, by adding or removing game elements based on what their rich publisher commands them to do. Is this a problem?

Ken Levine: If you think them spending millions of dollars on a ground-breaking first person shooter set in a failed underwater art deco utopia populated by scavenging Dickensian waifs and their genetically modified guardians to be a damper on creativity, then you have higher expectations out of life than I, my friend.

Shack: Thanks so much for your time! Anything else you'd like to add?

Ken Levine: BioShock is insanely ambitious. It’s also a blast to make. As game developers, we couldn’t really ask for more.

BioShock is due out in 2007 for PC and Xbox 360.