Last April FiringSquad got to play the first two levels of BioShock at a 2K Games press event. After we finished playing the levels we were allowed to play we knew we had to chat with the man in charge of bringing this upcoming and unusual first person action-RPG to life. Fortunately Ken Levine, the founder and head man behind BioShock developer Irrational Games was only too happy to take a few minutes to chat with us.

We first asked Levine about the massive amount of content that we encountered in just the first two levels. The amount of weapons, the special powers (called plasmids in the game) and other factors made BioShock feel like a full game. Levine assured us that we haven't seen anything yet. "There's like 12 or 14 active plasmids in the game," he told us, "There are eight weapons. You haven't even seen the weapon mods or the crafting and invention system. You haven't touched the storyline. You are just getting started, man".

The world of Rapture in BioShock is certainly an very strange location for a game; an underwater world with art deco designs that was created as a utopia that went horribly wrong. Levine revealed to us that the development team did a lot of focus testing to make sure that players got used to the world they were going to explore. "We didn't have the plane crash; you were never on the plane in the first focus test. People didn't see the diving sequence from the lighthouse. They were like 'Where am I? What is this stupid place?' We realized how important it was to bring people to this strange world." Levine also revealed that more focus testing got the developers to put in more action in the first couple of levels and give them access to more plasmid powers than they originally had planned to do.

BioShock has a ton of content in terms of searching for items in the environment. Dead bodies can yield money, weapons, ammo and more. You can read all sorts of diary entries written by characters in the game. Levine told us, "We have very little hunting for things you absolutely need to have in the game." At the same time he also admitted that there will be players who will want to hunt and find every single item, weapon and plasmid in the game. "We support that".

In addition to exploring Rapture, finding items and fighting off mutated humans, BioShock also puts you in the middle of a power struggle between the founder of Rapture Andrew Ryan and other members of the community. While Ryan is merely a voice on Rapture's radio, Levine hinted we might get to meed him eventually in the final game. "What kind of game developer would I be if if I didn't give you a chance to meet Ryan?," he told us. Levine said that not only do you learn more about Ryan in the game, he actually learns more about you. You also learn about the power struggle between Ryan and other characters like Atlas and Tenebaum. Levine told us that a sequence we played in the game where your character is forced into a moral debate between Atlas and Tenebaum is one of his favorite sequences in the game. "They are all opposed to each other. That's life to me. That's how the real world is."

One thing we encountered while playing the press demo is seeing some kind of ghostly apparition at times that switches your viewpoint for a few seconds. Levine told us, "As you modify yourself genetically you are getting other people's genetic codes, and sometimes memories are genetic codes. Memories exist somewhere and they can identity the chemical components of various memories. That's what's happening." Levine said that it was a way to give the player more information on what happened to Rapture that's a bit more immediate than reading diary entries.

Being set in an underwater city, having water is a massive artistic theme in BioShock with water flooding parts of the city. Levine told us that was a deliberate move. "They built this utopia but there are cracks in it and there is no better way to show it than the water coming in." Levine said they expanded their use of water after E3 in 2006 to become a gameplay element rather than just a visual element through the use of electricity as a weapon inside the water or seeing characters on fire try to extinguish themselves in the water.

Achieving utopia is obviously the main literary theme of BioShock. Levine told us that growing us he read novels like 1984 and saw movies like Logan's Run ("That was my favorite movie as a kid growing up") that talked about people trying to reach perfection but finding out there's always a catch. In BioShock human endeavor is the ideal for Rapture but Levine told us, "What happens when people get involved and mess up those ideals? BioShock is the study of that." Since we only played the first couple of hours of the game, it's clear that BioShock will give the player more than one choice (follow Atlas or follow Tenebaum) which will affect certain gameplay choices and events in the game.

There were some questions we asked that Levine declined to answer, such as "What caused the opening airplane crash?", and "Will we get out of Rapture?" and "Will there be additional downloadable content for the game after its release?". During our quick chat it was very clear that Levine is very proud of what he and his team at Irrational Games have created. Late August can't come soon enough.

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