The team has given her abilities to take care of herself

Dec 14, 2012 08:39 GMT  ·  By

Elizabeth is a central part of the coming BioShock Infinite story and the members of the team working on it at Irrational Games want to make her an interesting and capable companion that the player understands more as the game progresses.

Ken Levine, the leader of the development team, tells VG247 that, “There are evolutions and revolutions. Sometimes games keep up and sometimes they don’t and the state of companion AI is testament to that. We worked very hard on Elizabeth.”

Traditionally, gamers have not reacted well to so-called escort missions because they force their characters to baby-sit an A.I. controlled NPC that often fails to perform his duties.

To build an entire game experience around cooperation with a computer-controlled character is certainly bold.

Levine adds, “Of course, it’s up to the player to decide what they think of her, but we can say that, objectively, she’s certainly more engaged in the world than pretty much any other companion AI. The bar hasn’t been set very high, to be fair; it’s one of those things that once people see in a game, the whole thing becomes harder to accept.”

BioShock Infinite is set to arrive on the PC, the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 on March 26 of next year, after two successive delays.

The team at Irrational Games is offering more information on the game in order to satisfy the fan base, which has been disappointed that the game was once again pushed back.

There are doubts about the quality of the BioShock Infinite experience, prompted by the fact that key members of the development team left earlier in 2012 and by the removal of the multiplayer mode.

The game focuses on Booker DeWitt, a former Pinkerton agent, who travels to a flying island called Columbia in order to find and rescue a mysterious girl named Elizabeth.