Remember the final boss in BioShock? If you don’t, let me give you a little primer — it’s terrible. It’s basically a fight against a naked bloke called Fontaine who, after spending some time getting juiced in a chair, throws some ice and fire your way while charging around a bit.
It’s dull as dishwater. And Irrational Games knew it — but they didn’t have any other ideas.
The admission was part of a new interview with Rolling Stone to mark the release of BioShock: The Collection. And while the interview covered more than the ongoings behind the first BioShock, there were two nuggets of information about the original that stuck out.
“The gunplay was good but not great,” Levine said about the state of BioShock at release. “We didn’t have a ton of experience with that. And the ending lagged a little bit.”
He then agreed that while the game was beloved, the final boss battle was a shocker. “You have this great game, and then you end up fighting this giant nude dude. We didn’t have a better idea.”
The second revelation about the original BioShock happened when, according to Levine, the game was more or less complete. A focus group was brought in, people with no experience or knowledge of the game whatsoever, and they hated it. Completely.
“The focus test guy sort of patted me on the back and said, ‘Sorry, this game is going to be a failure.’,” Levine recalled. “That was one of those moments where you either accept the fact that somebody tells you you’re a loser, or you double down and say, ‘The fight’s not over yet.’”
Their response was to add a scene at the opening that would explain the player’s identity, which ended up being the iconic scene with the cigarette in the aeroplane:
You can read the rest of the interview, which covers the reception of the BioShock games, managing studios, the impact BioShock Infinite had on his health, and the only game that Levine ever scrapped, at Rolling Stone.
Comments
12 responses to “BioShock’s Final Boss Sucked Because The Developers Ran Out Of Ideas”
Didn’t play Bioshock until about 2011, it was the first FPS I bought on Steam, from memory. I had sorta known the story and twists already but managed to completely forget them by the time I got around to it. As this game is already in my Steam library it seems the upgrade will be too.
I see what you did there, sir. (Thanks for that, incidentally.)
But yeah, you’ll automatically get an upgrade for BioShock 1 and 2. Not for Infinite though.
Any time, sir 😉
Yeah the last boss was a bit pants (or lack of *drum crash*), but a lot of games were doing this around that time, disappointing final bosses were common, but the rest of the game was great so it gets a pass.
I shudder every time I hear the words ‘Focus Group’ by the way
Halo 4 was still far worse. A single QTE button press to defeat the game’s big bad boss.
I’d much prefer this style of boss fight than the bullshit 3 stage boss fight that’s well and truly worn out its welcome. I loved the single gun shot boss “battle” of Fable 2, for example. Games have progressed into such realistic realms now, it seems so stupid that the industry is still clinging to these very early video game ideas about what makes a satisfying conclusion to a game.
The gunplay was floaty and the whole game was a repetitive grind.
I loved the Bioshock universe but wasn’t a great fan of the gameplay. Infinite especially seeme hamstrung by being a shooter. Oh yay, 10 minutes of shooting so I can get to the next interesting part.
As weak as the final boss was, the next two games were more weak,
Would you kindly tell us when the PC versions get the graphical upgrade?
it’s meant to go live on the 15th for PC… I assume tomorrow for us Australians
I always assume a date is American partly to dampen any excitement =p
Never actually saw the boss, all I got was a mass of pixels charging around the place. Finished the game alright, maybe the textures were corrupted.