Wasn't that confusing if you played the other games. A lot of the story comes from all of the audio logs. It didn't feel like just another shooter to me because well I explored every nook and cranny as I went through it.
So I finally played and beat this game last night. And WOW what an incredible story.... Now I know why the game is named "Infinite". These guys at Irrational who made this game are really good at what they do.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news. Irrational closed down shortly after the release, apparently Ken Levine decided he was tired of making games? Pretty ****ty really. (for all the people laid off because he decided he was done) I liked the story too; there are a lot of people who complained about it though I don't quite understand why.
The first game is in my top 5 all time. The Second game was good, but mostly a repeat of the first. The Third game they made an attempt to change it, good for them, but they missed. It was ok. It was not a good or great game in my opinion. Almost felt too easy. But generally the concept was interesting, unique, and they had a story to tell. So a very good run.
Ah, for some reason I thought I read they were bankrupt or something due to Bioshock Infinite costing so much. Guess he just got tired.
Polygon did a good job of writing how/why Irrational got shut down: http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/6/5474722/why-did-irrational-close-bioshock-infinite There was a lot of mismanagement, especially with Ken Levine. I think he realized he couldn't manage this big of a studio (hence his desire to work with smaller teams), but I don't think he planned for the studio itself to be shutdown. If things were handled better near the beginning, the studio would probably still be open I think.
At the end of the day they had the money to keep going; they closed because Ken Levine wanted to work with a smaller developer. To me that isn't a mismanagement closure, that's honestly just someone being selfish. He could have handed the reigns off to someone else, instead he let a lot of people get laid off. Dick move.
I kinda got the impression that Levine was trying to pass the reigns off to someone else, but 2K decided to just lay off the team instead. I think he realized he couldn't handle the pressure of designing a game that MUST sell millions of copies. He's too much of a perfectionist, and the game would just end taking way too long to finish (and with a staff of ~100 people, that is a very big budget that you will have to deal with). I don't think there was anything stopping 2K from just having Levine have his own team, while the other staff continued to work on BioShock (or some other property). Well...unless they felt financial pressure to do so. He is/was a dick (as the article points out during the game's production). But I think it was a number of factors that ended with the studio closing.
I don't disagree on his motivation for wanting to leave or what not. I appreciate that he's made an effort to help certain people find other employment (but frankly they wouldn't have had to if he didn't decide he wanted to leave), I still think it was selfish. At the end of the day we all have to do what is best for each of us, but I also don't have 100+ employees counting on me. Just my two.
Still think Infinite was my favorite in the series. The scope of the story, the level design and color pallet, the characters...all incredible. The only thing lacking was the gameplay as it just felt too repetitive to the first game.
Infinite was great, but it couldn't touch the first one. Story and graphics were legit, but gameplay felt way too straightforward, kill a mess of people to get to the next cutscene. No exploration. Bioshock is in my all-time top 10, story, gameplay, atmosphere, close to perfection.
Yeah, that's true. I think he possibly could have fought against Take Two some more. I don't think he likes the studio being shut down, but if it was really that bad, he could have threatened to leave the company. He's got plenty of money (I assume), and he could easily find work elsewhere (especially if he just wanted to work on a small team). That said, I still think you can put a lot of blame on Take Two as well. At the end of the day, they could have given Levine his team, and then just hired/promoted someone else to lead the rest of the studio in a AAA project. If I had to guess, they probably didn't have the budget for yet another AAA project, especially if they were worried about it taking a long time (note that pretty much all of TT's AAA projects have taken a long time to produce). The BioShock IP is not dead, so having this team continue with that IP would have been the obvious solution. But what about 2K Marin? Perhaps they didn't want to have both studios working on big projects, and 2K Marin was cheaper (plus they were ready to work, while Irrational would likely need some time to transition). So 2K Marin got the rights to continue BioShock development (and not suffer more layoffs). Irrational was the "loser" in that decision. If money wasn't an issue, I'd find it hard to believe that Take Two would just lay off ~70 skilled developers, no matter what Ken wanted. When Jaffe (and others) left Sony Santa Monica, Sony didn't kill the studio. They just hired a new director (often promoting from within), and they ended up releasing great games that also sold millions. As much praise as we give the Kojimas, Miyamotos, Levines, etc., one person only has so much influence on a game (this is partly why these guys prefer working with small teams...so they can have more influence).
When your sugar daddy cuts your purse strings, you can't afford your girl posse anymore. Hence, the "decision" to downscale and do more intimate unplugged performances. Maybe if your previous album hadn't been labeled - our farts smell like perfume - you could have sold enough records to keep your label afloat.
