Yay, my tip worked :D

My brief thoughts - if they continue to set the game in Rapture then I think this is the way it should be done.

Though I wonder how they would be able to work it without setting it in Rapture..

Jim: Well that is true, but then you would get onto the question about 'canon' and which ending would be followed?

I think that Bioshock is a great game, but that doing a sequel/prequel would ruin it for us.

Another game taking the essence of System Shock and Bioshock would be best I feel.

Heh just my ramblings :P

What about Sim City + Rapture?

@Evo A prequel/sequel is always good for a game, developers frequently just get ruing by the pressure of living up to the first game. Who knows, Bioshock 2 could be even better then the first. Considering the the first one though, they have a lot to live up to.

I'd personally like to see Rapture building it's self back, and then a slow painful downfall :p
How they do it I don't know, but it would be awesome :D Like seeing rapture as what it was originally before it got ruined and torn.

I must be the only one that thinks this game doesn't NEED a sequel. I Love Bioshock for what it was..a game marching to it's own beat. Now they gotta milk it.

Move on with something else to wow us.

Ever since I beat this game I was thinking about what they could do next, and this did creep into my mind.. BUT I like some others kind of hoped they would go to a new IP.

IF they are insistent upon making more Bioshock games, then this should be the only way to go.

I agree with yojimbo, I'm sure it'll never happen but I don't want to see Big-Daddy branded Mt.Dew. ....on second thought a plasmid themed cola would be awesome! bring on the whoring!!

Even though I'd have my concerns about smearing such a good title with a second iteration of bioshock I'm pretty confident in the team's ability to deliver.

mmmm, Speed Boost-Berry!! more delicious than beating a little sister's skull in with a wrench!

"Does BioShock 2 even need to be set in Rapture anyway? I think not."

To your question, Jim, a question: is it still BioShock if it doesn't take place in Rapture?

Granted System Shock took place on Citadel Station whereas System Shock 2 took place on the Von Braun/Rickenbacker, but there wasn't an entirely huge difference between these settings. I'm not really sure such a close analogue for Rapture exists.

Honestly, BioShock's setting was the best aspect of the game, in my mind. Many elements of the gameplay, and even a few plot devices (Atlas=Polito, anyone?) were borrowed or adapted from earlier games, particularly System Shock 2. The concept for BioShock's plasmids, for example, is directly ripped from SS2's "Psi powers." This is not a slight on the game; Irrational/2K billed the game as a spiritual successor to SS2, after all. My point is merely that plasmids do not make BioShock particularly unique.

The game's setting, however, is all its own. Rapture was the single most original and immersive game world I have seen in years...maybe ever. So I pose another question: If BioShock 2 is not set in Rapture, will I want to play it?

I think they have no other option in making a prequel because the ending of bioshock didn't really leave anything open, it just dug them in a hole. Either you saved the little girls and all had a happy ending, or some splicers came up. Even if they were to say "well lets assume everyone got the evil ending" I doubt they could make a true sequel to the game with that. So the natural way to look at "well shit, we're in a hole" is to do something BEFORE the original game

I'd play it, I think the downfall and seeing rapture go from good to bad would be really interesting. But at the same time, it probably wouldn't be as good because its not like they could make an entirely new rapture.

I really dont want to see another Bioshock. The game can stand the test of time all by itself without a bunch of crappy follow ups that wont be as good. Although if 2K/Marin is going to do it any a prequel has the most potential.

1) Not every game needs a sequel/prequel

2) I think that not enough game developers use the Zelda/Final Fantasy logic: Just because you make a sequel to a franchise doesn't mean it has to follow the story line. So make a Bioshock sequel, but have it be about something totally unrelated. You've left Rapture perfectly...let my imagination stay where it's at with it.

YES

that is all.

Do not want sequel/prequel. If one must be made however, I'd like a sequel that ignores both endings, and continues the story with [insert malignant government agency here] discovering rapture after a decade or so of it being abandoned, and harvesting all it's neat gadgets and doodads. The player could start out in the research facility the stuff was taken(which would hopefully be located somewhere even slightly near as interesting as rapture), where everything surprisingly enough went wrong. The player going back to raped husk rapture at the end could be an effective finale. I don't think a prequel set before rapture was ruined would be as good. There couldn't be the same sense of clastrophobia and decay, which would be a major negative impact on the atmosphere.

I think they should do it somewhere that Rapture is a happy place and they have to fight off attacks from the CIA and the KGB.

Another possibility could be something like Rapture Wars, which would could play like Halo Wars but with different groups of splicers instead of covenant and human troops.

I dont want a prequel or a sequel, but a prequel is worse. Imagining how shit hit the fan is one of the best parts of Bioshock.

I think if they developed the story around the character you played as' personal experience, rather than a key character in the fall of rapture it would be good. So, not too much insight on what's going on as to not ruin everyone's personal vision of rapture, but a very closed idea of what's happening with saving your family or something, while being ignorant to the politics, like what the citizens probably actually had.

Jim, why have your commenters failed to finish the song? This is unacceptable. Ahem.

Mah luvva staaands on golden saaaaaannds

Aand watches the ships

that go saaaaaiiiiiiillin'

The great thing about Bioshock was the the twist in Ryan's office, with a prequel, we know the story already.

it would be cool to actually see the utopia's decline into madness and decay. from the first plasmid being abused to the new years party we witnessed the aftermath of. maybe from atlus' point of view? then again it would be cool to have another setting. an arctic research facility/city, with some gene-spliced wildlife, and more man vs elements story. gotta keep the vending machines though. i love to hate that effing clown "heheheeeh"

Decades after the original game, Rapture breaks free of its constraints holding it to the bottom of the ocean. Once at the surface, its technology is appropriated by the entire world. The age of the splicers is born. I see a Children of Men with people that can shoot lightning from their fingertips. Suicide bombers who can teleport. So on. It's cheesy, I know. Done right though, it could be good.

Bioshock: the phantom Daddy

I'm torn here. Part of me wants to play another bioshock game, prequel, whatever, as long as it had that same immersive feel. But can a prequel to such an immersive game accomplish this? Or would it feel like a re-hashed game put out to draw on the success of the previous one? I'm guess it will feel like the latter. But another part of me feels it should be left to stand on its own. Yup great game, and just leave it at that and move on.