in which the editors debate the possibilities for Bio-Shock 3.

My favorite idea was the concept being the leader of an strike team sent from the ’surface’ to capture? assassinate? subvert? Rapture. As the leader, over the course of the game can influence your team to ’splice up’ or not, watching in horror/shock/glee they become increasingly more inhuman.

I think this is a fantaastic idea. The concept of being able to genetically build a team of super-soldiers while slowly sacrificing their humanity strikes me as a classic game dilemma (it would require some trade-offs – perhaps the genetically engineered brutes would become impossible to control, or having more ‘human’ troops allows you more sympathy/control with the locals).

I think it would be very interesting to build a team from the various plasmids/tonics available in Rapture – I’ll make this guy my chameleon spider sniper, my other man will become my brutish drill-arm booze hound (complete with Big Daddy suit!) and this one I’ll make my half electronic hack master…

And can we say perfect vehicle for 4 player co-op? Wouldn’t Rapture be a great place to test out the video game moralities in your group of online buddies? Would you allow someone on your team to harvest a little sister, or would you fight to save her? The potential for human drama here is potent.

If I had about a year of spare time, all the bio-shock assets and access to some world-class voice talent, this would be my next mod project.

Fun sidenote – this concept is so ‘Apocalypse Now‘, which was the original premise of System Shock 2.  This allegory fits perfectly – your squads mission is to assassinate Andrew Ryan, and as you journey on through Rapture everything becomes more and more insane…