

What "System Shock 2" and "BioShock" always had that no other first-person shooter has ever captured quite as masterfully is what Levine calls a sense of "place." Shooting mechanics aside, these games always felt like living, breathing worlds, rather than simply hollow bits of code in which players could do some target practice.

No matter how flat and polygonal the zombies looked, I still remember cowering in the smallest closet spaces I could find in the Von Braun spaceship, desperately searching for some respite as these monsters continued to relentlessly taunt me.Īlso read: 'BioShock Infinite' developer hires stunning real-life Elizabeth lookalike But everyone who has played it will tell you it's the scariest game they've ever experienced. The city of Columbia was built around fierce ideals of American exceptionalism, and "BioShock Infinite" casts the white supremacist underpinnings of much of this ideology into sharp relief.Įven fans of "System Shock 2" admit that that game had abysmal graphics when it was first released in 1999. Rather than rattle off features and specs of his new game, Levine prefers to dig into the intricacies of 20th-century American or European intellectual history. military who confronts the protagonist Booker DeWitt early in the new game, to Pat Tillman, the pro football player turned soldier who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in 2004.

When I asked Levine last year about his favorite characters from "Infinite," he started comparing Cornelius Slate, a former captain of the U.S. "BioShock Infinite" tackles political and social problems with an unflinching, almost journalistic gaze. Much of this acclaim is thanks to the famously sequel-averse Levine himself, who brings a quirky kind of intellectual charisma to the gaming world.

So what is it about it that gamers find particularly intriguing?Īlso read: 'BioShock Infinite' takes the artificial out of artificial intelligence But at the moment, "BioShock Infinite" has captured the hearts and gamepads of the entire gaming nation. "Ico" and "Shadow of the Colossus" were released to universal acclaim years before "BioShock" saw the light of day. It's not the first time a game has been labeled a work of art.
