The
BioShock First Look/Exclusive First Impressions on GameSpot has the promised
announcement of the new project from Irrational Games, and though it is not the
System Shock 3 announcement that had been anticipated, the game is described by
Irrational's Ken Levine as the "spiritual successor" to System Shock 2. They
offer first impressions of the game, said to be in development for three years
now, as well as a video Q&A about the game with Ken that can streamed for free.
Here's a bit from the preview:
BioShock takes place in a mysterious
genetic laboratory. Other than that the complex is strewn with corpses (also for
reasons unknown), nothing is clear to you. From what you can tell, the
laboratory complex is apparently a holdover from World War II--you'll see
remnants of the war as well as peeling paint throughout the complex. Something
apparently happened back then that caused the complex to be abandoned by whoever
was using it. In fact, the complex has only recently come back into use by the
scientists circa the early 21st century, and advanced, top-secret contraptions
used for arcane biotechnology experiments have been hastily bolted into the
rotting walls of the complex.
You'll explore the complex from a first-person perspective, similar to System
Shock 2 or Deus Ex, and you'll find it inhabited by three primary "castes" of
creatures, which Irrational is currently referring to as "drones," "predators,"
and "soldiers"--creatures that might once have been human. We were shown a few
concept images of creatures that were part human, part monster. Exactly how
these creatures came to be this way isn't clear, but Irrational has suggested
that some of them are actually fused with human anatomy: human lungs are grafted
onto their bodies to breathe, and the human arm dangling off to the side can
still hold and fire a gun.