The next BioShock game is on its way, even if it’s still a long way off, and players have some huge expectations for how 2K Games plans to continue one of the most popular series from the PS3/Xbox 360 era. With Cloud Chamber Studios working on BioShock 4, this new developer should look at the history of the games when moving forward, and try to make up for the previous title’s weaknesses.
One specific weak point of Bioshock Infinite that Bioshock 4 can make up for is the lack of Big Daddies or the Big Sister to act as an intimidating presence that can easily shred the player from around the corner. There are comparable enemies within the more gunplay heavy title that lightened on the series’ horror elements, but none that reach the same heights as the first game’s hulking Big Daddy.
It’s not that BioShock Infinite didn’t have huge enemies that acted as an imposing barrier to new areas, however, none of them live quite up to the same level as a Big Daddy. Instead of these massive, wandering mini-bosses that often drain the player of their resources to kill in exchange for ADAM, players have to go up against Motorized Patriots and Handymen as the stand-in enemy type. While these huge, mechanical opponents are more difficult than any of the other standard enemies, they never really reach up to the same level of intimidation or even difficulty of the previous games’ Big Daddy.
The Big Daddy did make an appearance in the most recent title in spirit, in the form of Elizabeth’s flying protector Songbird, revealed to be an alternate universe version of the hulking enemy in BioShock Infinite‘s twist ending. Songbird even plays the same narrative role as the Big Daddies, with much of the game seeming to hint that he would eventually be either the final boss of the game, or a late-game one. Even though the actual ending confrontation with the character is one of the best moments in the game, it still feels relatively anti-climactic from a gameplay standpoint thanks to players never really fighting Songbird.
One reason that the absence of Big Daddies was so disappointing for players is the fact that by the time BioShock Infinite launched, the enemies had become not only the mascot of the series, but an icon of horror in gaming. The Songbird reference was well used in a narrative sense as a multiverse hopping family drama within a somewhat generic fantasy shooter, but it doesn’t live up to the horror of the Big Daddy. Bringing the enemy back in a new form that maximizes on the tension and horror that they originally excelled at may be one of the most important aspects to hold onto for BioShock 4.
Overall, what BioShock 4 really needs to live up to the series that proceeded it is to lean into the horror that made BioShock so iconic in the first place. While BioShock Infinite definitely earned its own accolades for both its gameplay and narrative, it strayed wildly from the first two games in the series by pulling away from horror. This is often what leads people to determine that BioShock is better than Infinite, due less to the actual gameplay mechanics and use of Plasmids and Vigors, and more because of the departure from horror.
The possibilities for the next game in the series are essentially limitless, and players don’t even know where BioShock 4‘s setting will be, so Cloud Chamber Studios could be moving in any number of directions. If the new developer is looking to please fans with its first entry into the series, possibly before developing a whole new trilogy, then getting back to the basics of horror may be the key to success. In that vein, there were tons of atmospheric elements that led to BioShock‘s impact on horror, but few are as strong as the intense encounters with the Big Daddy.
BioShock 4 is reportedly in development.
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