A rational move for Irrational Games?
Ken Levine, co-founder and creative director at
Irrational Games, has decided to close the development studio that moved the
video game world forward by creating vivid, original worlds like Rapture and
Columbia in the Bioshock series. He's cut his staff to 15 people and plans to
work on smaller, narrative driven games available via digital download.
Of course, my first reaction was one of vitriolic
anger. How could you, Ken!? You gave us the best game of the entire 360/PS3
generation with Bioshock! You romanced millions of gamers into an objectivist
dystopia by way of an FPS! You followed it up with a mind bending, reality
jumping masterpiece with Bioshock: Infinite (We all know Bioshock 2 was farmed
out to other companies.)
Now that the story has sunk in a bit, I've gained
some perspective. I trust Levine. He isn't going to suddenly start churning out
downloadable crap like Braid. He's better than that. Let's face it, the best
part of the Bioshock games was the narratives! I have a feeling we don't
need multiple weapon load outs and crazy superpowers to enjoy what Levine and
his new company will have to say.
Personally, I hope he follows the episodic route
started by Telltale games and their brilliant Walking Dead series. I don't want
adventure games from Ken, of course, but he can use his expertise in film study
and video game development to deliver regular episodes of gaming nirvana.
So, while I mourn the death of the Bioshock
universe as I knew it, I also celebrate just how important it was and still is.
I'll never forget meeting Andrew Ryan or my trips to the light houses. But this
industry moves fast, and I know that mister Levine knows what he's doing.
I can't wait to see what's next.
-Tom McDaniel