Ken Levine Talks Elizabeth Role in BioShock Infinite

Despite not currently having a launch window, BioShock Infinite, the new video game from Irrational Games, has been one of the most talked-about games after this year's E3 trade conference, mainly because of the very interesting demo the development team has put together for it.

And now the leader of the tam at Irrational Games has offered some more details about the character of Elizabeth, the characters that, while not controlled directly by the player, is central to the experience.

Speaking to PC-focused gaming site Rock, Paper, Shotgun Ken Levine, who is leading the development process on BioShock Infinite, has said, “Elizabeth wants to control her own destiny and she’d rather die than not control her own destiny.”

He added, “We thought that this was something people could empathize with, but we also thought that sacrifice rapidly builds connections between people. People sacrificing for one another creates strong bonds quickly, and the demo is a microcosm of the whole game in that sense. It’s about what the characters sacrifice for each other.”

It seems that the idea for having a character like Elizabeth constantly following the player around and presenting him with another set of options linked to the game world came as the team was brainstorming on how they could expand the agency of players after the options offered in the original BioShock game.

Levine emphasized that he does not want the player to feel like he is doing a long escort quest in BioShock Infinite which will mean that Elizabeth will be able to take care of herself during fights and that he will also deliver a number of cues to the player about in-game stuff he might otherwise miss.

BioShock Infinite is set to be launched on the PC, the PlayStation 3 from Sony and the Xbox 360 from Microsoft at some point during next year, if all goes according to plan.