I’m loving these false 80s history dealies that Irrational have put out. The second one hit earlier today. It gives us a greater look at one of the game’s antagonists, the Songbird, a monster whose purpose exists to attempt to keep secondary-protagonist Elizabeth captive on the floating city of Columbia and does it through the form of an educational video. The aesthetic is totally spot on, it’s this dirty, ancient, dry take on an factual conveyance that reveals information without any flair, just like something you’d have at school on a VHS wheeled into the classroom to show to some inattentive kids.
What’s really surprising is just how classy all of this is. BioShock isn’t a series that plays to the base shooter audience. It tries to really have a purpose in storytelling, being a game about ideas rather than using the plot as forward momentum. It makes sense that the marketting would be notable, would display that there’s more to be expected from this than just another shooting gallery.
When you think about every other way a video game is sold to us, someone using a gun very well, dramatic vignettes that aren’t indicative of the final product, weird meta reveals that are for a game different from the trailer says they’re actually showing you, it’s just nice to be shown something that’s much more unique while also being tonally correct and far less pretentious.
Release your video game already, because I want to buy it. You have made me want to buy it with your marketing. Great job.
