BioShock 2 Devs Brace For Fan Criticism
BioShock 2’s creative director believes that the 2K Marin team is preparing itself for criticism from fans returning to the world of Rapture.
BioShock 2’s creative director, Jordan Thomas, spoke to Destructoid in an interview, revealing that the developers are expecting some fan backlash.
Well, since the early days, I’ve been candid with the team about the fact that no matter what we finally produced, we had to be comfy with the idea that a lot of people would disagree with our core creative choices — internally and externally. For a lot of people, the idea of a sequel to BioShock will always be an abstract ideal, against which any physical experience (with realistic limits) must pale. It’s the nature of fan enthusiasm, I think, to hold a special place in our hearts for things that are novel, and originality certainly drove the first game’s success.
Candidly, I think BioShock 2 will foster much more dissent than the first by its very nature — we’re going to see some critics and fans who adore the particular ratio of nostalgia to novelty that we happened to choose, and that’s grand. But there will be others who wanted Something Else so badly that they’ll crack open the backyard shed, gaze longingly at their favorite torches and pitchforks, and march on Novato. We had to make our peace with that over two years ago, scary as it is.
Now that isn’t to say our game is perfect and we’re these misunderstood creative martyrs — even if we weren’t being compared against that First Love effect, we’d have strengths and weaknesses like anybody.
There will be those who argue against the need for a BioShock sequel, as 2K Marin explains:
Generally speaking, the argument that a sequel to X is doomed can only settled by a group of people who, themselves, were excited enough to return to that mythos that their passion is self-evident in the work itself,” offers Thomas. “You can’t please everyone, but I’ve found that at the end of the day, if you take the problem of familiarity seriously — and try to empathize with the audience — you can offer a compelling experience in any setting.
BioShock 2 will be released worldwide tomorrow, and won’t feature any dedicated servers or LAN. You probably won’t see the game’s twist coming, either. Expect our review of the shooter soon.
8 Responses to “BioShock 2 Devs Brace For Fan Criticism”
My copy will be in at 10 am. Pittsburgh is in a state of emergency from all the snow, and my college has shut down… Conditions are perfect.
On the content of the article though- Pleasing everyone is going to be very, very hard, and with any great series, topping the ground breaking first title is near impossible, and only really accomplished by teams of the original cast (in some cases), like with God of War- the sequel stretched and surpasses what the first boldly trumpeted in with. I also think of Banjo Kazooie for an example, partially because it’s late and I can’t think of a more recent example, but mostly because Tooie was a phenomenal sequel in every regards to what I’m trying to prove. Both games sequels were made by almost the whole crew that created the first ,and they wanted nothing more than to bring their new ideas, or things they couldn’t fit in the first, and make them work in the sequel. I think there’s a sort of passion that develops when you work so hard on a title, then see it succeed. You must feel some sort of exalting pride when it keeps getting praised, and I imagine (at least if it were me), I’d feel like I couldn’t wait to get my hands back in on the action to create somethign new that people would love.
What I’m getting at is that Marin is probably pretty hesitant because Bioshock was made by 2K Boston, and they’re just trying to step up from the shadow.
I honestly hope I’m wrong though, I hate the idea that Marin made the game with the thoughtsi n the back of their minds that they weren’t going to be able to surpass the original and therefore they didn’t have the drive or gaul. I guess I’ll see tomorrow though.
After playing for about 3 hours, I can honestly say…. I am bored.
It just has a very annoying feel to it for some odd reason, specially all the new text pop ups that inform you “If you need a hint, press M” …. They really dont want you to browse the environment in this game.
@Se7en – they offered hints in the original too, and you could turn it off in the options menu. I’d be surprised if you couldn’t turn it off in the sequel too. I’m also willing to bet that if its similar at all to the original, you don’t need to explore, but it will benefit you a lot to do so…
Who the hell is arguing against a sequel to this? It seems to me that a sequel is natural here and it would be a shame to not have made one.
Well, I’m probably about 4 hours in. I felt pretty disappointed at first. The story just wasn’t drawing me in, and it felt like they might as well have just dropped me in the middle of the first game.
I’m officially in love again now though. It’s not that it’s offering anything new or amazing (except the trap rivets, I think those are new, and they’re awesome), but something about the Bioshock formula just makes me happy.
I’am about 2 hours into the game. I think its great. I like it just as much as the first game. The story doesnt seem to be making sense to me yet but I’ve only just scratched the surface of the story and am just beginning to get pieces of audio files and all that. The big sisters are a great addition and I love the new hacking method. I love the combat tweaks and how you dont have to reload your EVE as in the previous game. I think its an improvement on the first game and just as entrapping when you get into the scenery and life going on around you in rapture.
l’m 0 hours into the game and l can’t wait to play it, looks fun
I havent played the first one but Im thinking I might try this game out.. maybe a rent
Your mum. There that’s all. I only just got bioshock 1, except me to tell you what I think of bioshock 2 ounce I find it for a tenner.