Improvisation Is at the Core of BioShock Infinite, Says Ken Levine

BioShock Infinite is still some time away from release but the developers at Irrational Games are eager to talk about their new game universe and about how the setting and the main gameplay mechanics are linked.

Ken Levine, the leader of development on BioShock Infinite, told PlayStation Access that, “A very improvisational way of doing combat. You have weapons in one hand, powers in the other hand and character growth in your body.”

He added, “There’s a lot of improvisational elements in the world as well. Having a very detailed, rich environment that are both fantastical but also very grounded in reality.”

Improvisation was also at the core of the first BioShock video game and Levine wanted to make sure that it was a foundation for Infinite but beyond that the team was ready to change a lot about the experience.

The studio leader says that the new setting for the game, a flying island called Columbia, was directly inspired by the rapid technological change at the turn of the XIX century, which saw the creation of such inventions as the car, the moving picture, the phonogram record, the airplane and electricity to drive them all.

For the average citizen of the moment the idea of a flying island city that could travel the world was perfectly palatable and the fiction of the moment explored even more outlandish ideas, like flying to the moon in a cannonball.

The main character of Infinite will be a former detective called Booker who needs to explore Columbia, find and escape with a teenager called Elizabeth.

BioShock Infinite will be launched at some point during 2012 on the PC, the Xbox 360 from Microsoft and the PlayStation 3 from Sony.

A new trailer for the game, which might reveal one of the major characters, will be aired during the VGA show.