Make This Game: Bioshock City Builder

A city-building game based in the BioShock universe? Why isn’t this a thing already?! Make it happen 2k. Come on, we’ll even show you how.

We have gotten a lot of great city building games in recent years. Cities: Skylines broke onto the scene on PC and recently came to Xbox One and is on its way to the Playstation 4. Also, Aven Colony launched in July. And that was the game that actually sparked this idea.

It feels like the genre of city simulation has always been around. It’s pretty easy to trace it all the way back to the SNES version of Sim City. In 2007, Bioshock debuted, bringing with it a horrible nightmare city for players to explore. What if Rapture wasn’t that nightmare, though? And what if playeers could build their own version of of it?

The potential is huge

A robust city builder, like Cities: Skylines scratches an incredible itch, if that is your jam. The Bioshock series is one of my favorites of all time. So needless to say, I wouldn’t need much convincing to play this, if it were to exist.

The different locations featured in the games, like under the ocean, in the clouds and in a space station (if we are including System Shock) are only three potential locales players could choose in which to build.

Some other locations that could be included as potential BioShock-themed cities could include the rainforest, the dessert, deep underground, and even the top of isolated mountains. The possibilities are really almost endless. The only limit here would be the developer’s imagination and the qualification that the city needs to be in a sufficiently isolated area.

Each location would present different building possibilities. And each type of city would have to use unique buildings and services to sustain itself.

If the creators really want to play on nostalgia, they could recreate Rapture and Colombia too. Those already existing cities could include scenarios the player must navigate and manage.

Robust tools make for robust cities

Playing around with the different tools to see what is possible is one of my favorite parts of city building games. This would only become enhanced in a robust game where you can build cities in isolated locations.

Each location would require different techniques. Cities in oceans would need to be hermetically sealed as to prevent leakage, while cities in the sky would need to have powerful transportation systems.

Tinkering with connections, resources and security would give every environment different challenges. I fully believe that if the developers got as crazy with the choices as seen in games like Aven Colony or Cities: Skylines, the possibilities would be endless.

Another staple of the Bioshock series that I would need to see in this game are the tools to muck around and play God. Players should be able to invest in different types of science, like gene enhancement and splicing. Or, getting really wild, maybe even time control and other out-there types of advancements. These would unlock different social policies, making the game actually play differently.

Also important, this game would need to have a disaster system. When cities are totally isolated, really bad things can happen to them. That’s been seen in real lost cities like Ciudad Blanco in South America. Make some things like disease, natural disasters or civil war possible if certain conditions are met.

A Man Chooses

Most importantly, a Bioshock city building game would be all about choice.

Players would choose where to build and how. Everything from transportation options to scientific study should have hefty consequences. That element would be very important. Even if the genre is different, consequences need to take some kind of precedent, if the game has the BioShock name on it.

In Summary

Listen up 2K. Just invest in a Bioshock game where players have the management capabilities they would in a Sim City or Aven Colony.

The very first Bioshock captured imaginations all over the world when we got our first glimpse of Rapture. Give us the chance to do that all over again.