A leaked image has appeared for the next BioShock game, codenamed Parkside.
As reported by MP1st, the image comes from a 2021 demo and was part of a showcase reel. While it’s possible that some or all of the elements found in the image will not make it to the final game, it’s worth checking out anyway.
The first thing MP1st noted was the weapon name, a Ricochet Shotgun. For those who were curious, the Shotgun appears in BioShock 1 and 2, but Ricochet was not one of its enhancements. Ricochet appears as an enhancement for the Machine Gun in BioShock 2, with this description:
“A high density electrical field prevents shots from breaking up on first impact, causing them to ricochet.”
So, if your bullet misses an enemy, it will ricochet off of whatever object it hits. So hopefully any time you miss you still have a chance to hurt an enemy via ricochet. Of course, in real life, shotguns can ricochet, but it sounds like developer Cloud Chamber is mixing things up for a slightly different experience.
The UI also seems to indicate a three weapon count for usable weapons. BioShock Infinite only had Booker carry two weapons at a time, whereas the first two BioShock games let you just build up an arsenal. On a game design level, Cloud Chamber can design everything in such a way that you would only want two to three specific weapons at a time. Having your player carry and ramp up an arsenal may add to a power fantasy, but it can also make later levels too easy, instead of giving you a fun challenge.
There also don’t appear to be any Plasmid or Vigor meters on the UI. This may be something we can disregard for now, as once again, this is from an earlier version of the game. Cloud Chamber may have simply chosen not to work on it first, and we can see those systems appear in the end.
But of course, Cloud Chamber is free to change things around as much as they want. We may see Codename Parkside come up with some new system for power systems. But it’s also possible, that Cloud Chamber makes another break in the story like BioShock Infinite did, to tell another completely original story in the same universe.
We won’t dwell too much on the rest of the speculation, but it seems from the little we can gleam here, that Cloud Chamber doesn’t feel tied to the prior games that much. We know they can make a story that fits the game, instead of the other way around, and we’re as interested as everyone else to find out what they decide to do here.
