User blog comment:Charly Cohen/BioShock 4/@comment-70.26.73.88-20131224150018/@comment-75.18.48.225-20131225214501

The whole "Cold War" theme is not only something already mentioned in recent games like Fallout 3, Metro: Last Light, and Singularity, but most of us already heard the "cold war in space" idea enough. May be some people agree, but that's mostly from the same people that already said it. Also, copying BS assets from from 2007 on UE2 looks really dated to port on UE3 (companies like Valve could get away with that kind of thing with their games because they created their own engine instead of buying one, and they know enough of it to keep those games looking fresh, and to have those same items compatable enough to barely revise them when ported on future games). Not to mention, most of those non art deco assets would still look like Rapture in space, anyways, which even the System Shock 2 fans would find that ironic (considering that they find BioShock a rip-off of System Shock 2 rather than a predecessor).

Also, I don't think either BioShock game was meant to be that hard of a Sci-fi, much like neither of those games were ever meant to be a hard horror, a hard fantasy, or even historical (as if BioShock is on some pedistal of being one specific genre or being flawless). Its a terrific game with some amazing scenery and characters, and may be better than the other two games, but its also inconsistant with itself, glitchy, linear (even being a coordoor), unoriginal ( especially if you played System Shock 2), showing its age for being on UE2, having clunky controlls, and being easy enough to barely use Plasmids, let alone having a reason to just constantly save Little Sisters for "morality" when they're all the same model (at least make one uglier, fatter, or a different race- now that'll makes deciding on harvesting/saving more of a challenge). BioShock being only Sci-fi? I get the machined insulated buildings, makeshift weapons, and security robots being sci-fi (which even Columbia had their own automatons and factories), but Plasmids are not that scientific. Stemcells may have some possible catalyst ability to improve genetics to make anyone smarter, faster or stronger, but if it were "sci-fi", it would be easier to limit it as that in the game (showing people having additional genetalia to impress the opposite sex, or just have someone seen having a genetic swap of race/sex that was mentioned at least twice), and related Tonics as natural defense mechanisms (callus armor, actual electric Eel flesh, or even six arms for combat), which all of that would look too much of a Croonenberg film. As for the Plasmid superpowers themselves, it's not as much of a sci-fi thing (unless it was a psi-amp like in System Shock 2), and too much of an alchemy kind of pseudo-science that most shows, movies, games, and books (especially comics) rely on as an excuse to have a catalyst (or as you say "do whatever we want, no explanation needed" plot crutch) for making characters into superheroes or mutants, especially when those powers are just that- powers. It wouldn't be any different than if Rapture used Gamma rays or any kind of radiation for genetic manipulation instead of stemcells (even most 50's sci-fi did that kind of thing in comic books and movies), let alone even knowing how to create those specific superpowers just to make those "work" with a catalyst; it would just be just as fictional to make those Plasmids work, especially when even Plasmids are just another version of magic superhero powers, anyways.