Summary
- BioShock 4’s development progress has been unclear for years, leading to worries about its release and vision.
- Prey’s Mooncrash DLC provided a successful roguelike twist, and BioShock 4 may benefit from a similar approach.
- BioShock 4’s potential DLC could mirror Mooncrash by offering a tangential story with heavy roguelike elements.
BioShock 4 looks like it’s still further down the pipeline than many fans had hoped it would be by now. Announced in 2019, the fourth installment in the lauded franchise has spent more than five years in development with not much being shown about it during that time. In the interim, various rumors and leaks about BioShock 4‘s progress have surfaced, with many of them indicating a seemingly increasingly troubled development. Cloud Chamber, the studio formed specifically to create BioShock 4, has allegedly rewritten the story and retooled aspects of its design multiple times, and the general silence around it has given it a stigma for a good chunk of its development cycle so far.
Cloud Chamber itself has only offered sporadic and vague assurances that the project is still underway, without elaborating on many other details. Combined with the high expectations for the next entry, the extended wait for BioShock 4 has had fans understandably worrying both about when, and if, it will finally release as well as its vision. Assuming it will eventually see the light of day, though, there is another game that the BioShock series shares many traits with, Arkane Studios’ Prey, that the former could take good notes from. Specifically, Prey‘s Mooncrash DLC added a cool new layer, and is something Cloud Chamber might consider for BS4.
Cloud Chamber is composed of some members who worked on previous BioShock and other similar titles, and the studio listed job openings for various roles throughout 2024.
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BioShock 4 Could Make Great Use of Prey: Mooncrash’s Roguelike Pivot For its Own DLC
Some of the information circulating about Bioshock 4 includes it being set in two warring Antarctic cities, and switching to a more open-world than previous titles. BioShock also traditionally explores themes of morality and free will, something that both Prey and Mooncrash contained as well, and it’s a good assumption this will remain the case. Given the similarities already present, and BioShock 4‘s possibilities, it could thus find a lot of good inspiration in Mooncrash for a potential expansion.
Prey’s Mooncrash DLC Put an Excellent Spin on its Core Immersive Sim Design
Prey is often thought of as a spiritual successor to BioShock, as both use some of the same narrative components and gameplay mechanics effectively. Arkane Studios’ history of working largely within the immersive sim genre, producing classics like Dishonored, garnered it a reputation as being one of the best developers for such games. And while the BioShock games perhaps are not immersive sims to the degree that Dishonored and Prey are, the series has always contained clear shades of the genre.
Prey‘s Mooncrash DLC had a premise that was a bit unexpected, but translated extremely well into its framework. Mooncrash essentially turned versions of Prey‘s setting into playgrounds for intense roguelike runs. It also expanded on the world building by featuring multiple playable characters, each with distinct roles and abilities, connected through a new storyline. By merging roguelike elements with the imm sim features that made Prey‘s base experience so engaging, Mooncrash offered a new challenge built around the best of both worlds.
How BioShock 4 Could Inject Prey: Mooncrash’s Roguelike Focus Into a Potential DLC
A theoretical BioShock 4 DLC like Mooncrash would probably likewise be best as a tangential tale, expanding on some aspects but not necessarily intrinsic to the main narrative. It might reference major events, but focus more on a roster of new characters in a smaller self-contained story. Most importantly, it could lean into Mooncrash’s roguelike style, incorporating core mechanics while adjusting and adding to the tool set to create a different but equally satisfying experience in new (and randomly generated) configurations of locations and levels. Although it likely remains a ways out from release, there are solid reasons for Cloud Chamber to consider adding some of Prey‘s DNA into BioShock 4, particularly for any expansions. In looking at how Mooncrash reimagined Prey‘s fundamentals to give it a fresh twist with great replay value, BioShock 4 has an opportunity to do the same in a potential DLC.
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February 26, 2013
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