The podcast series at BioShock community site Cult of Rapture has begun again. Community Manager 2KElizabeth talks to Jordan Thomas, Creative Director at 2K Marin, and Hogarth De La Plante, Lead Environment Artist at 2K Marin as they introduce BioShock 2 to the world.

Not much new is discussed in the new episode past what we already know from the various magazine articles and the gameplay trailer, but it’s nice to finally hear the game introduced by the devs themselves. I’m looking forward to seeing what the new creative director Thomas is going to bring.

You know, it’s interesting, working with a different creative director this time around, it’s interesting to see what Jordan pulls out of the world of BS, that he fixates on as the interesting things as opposed to Ken who we worked on it with the last time around, so there is still the background and backdrop of the Objectivist utopia that was what Ken thought was so fascinating about that world. But now we’ve got that in the background, and Jordan’s adding on top of that the things that he thinks are interesting about the characters and the world, and what ADAM does to them, and the power struggles that happen.

Hogarth De La Plante

One small detail I noticed was the discussion of more normal NPCs that you will encounter. One of the major complaints about the first game was the lack of friendly NPCs that you could interact with; instead, any that existed at all you would only know for a few moments before their inevitable death.

Yeah, we heard a lot from fans of the first game that they wanted closer environment with live, non-spliced characters who were sane and you could have a moment of respite where you’re dealing with somebody who seems coherent. So in BioShock 2, we’ve got a new cast of characters that you get to participate in those moments with, and actually make choices about their fate, which allows you to affect the greater story in a way that we weren’t able to do with the first game.

Jordan Thomas

The original game was inspired greatly by System Shock games, both of which readily emphasized isolation, making a point of never giving you any direct contact with any living person - as far as to occasionally tease you with the possibility. With BioShock 2 it’s clear the team wants to explore new themes, and the addition of friendly NPCs is a welcome change.