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BioShock creator explained what to expect from the "Big Three" and why everyone hates you.
11 years after BioShock Infinite was released, we're still far away from Ken Levine's next game, Judas, but we can finally start piecing together some of its lore. The article might contain some spoilers, so read at your own risk.
"A disintegrating starship. A desperate escape plan.
You are the mysterious and troubled Judas. Your only hope for survival is to make or break alliances with your worst enemies. Will you work together to fix what you broke – or will you leave it to burn?"
Image credit: Ghost Story Games
You play as Judas, a woman on the Mayflower, a city-sized spaceship on a mission to save humanity by transporting what's left of it to a new planet, Proxima Centauri. The ship is run by the "Big Three": Tom, the head of security who wants to make sure the mission goes smoothly; Nefertiti, the ship's Nobel Prize-winning biologist who is responsible for keeping people alive and wishes to create a civilization of full robots with no human flaws; and Hope, "everybody's best friend, everybody's counselor, everybody's shrink" with an existential crisis.
The three are connected: Tom and Nefertiti were married, and Hope was their adopted daughter. Their relationships are complicated, and your siding with one will anger the other two, so you need to choose carefully who you support.
Image credit: Ghost Story Games
While the Big Three might ask you for favors, their opinion of you is also not that high because it's Judas who reveals that they're not people but robots.
"And the whole ship collapses because the leader figures collapse with this new knowledge. Imagine being told none of your achievements are your own, none of your memories are your own. That just sends them down a crazy spiral, all three of them. And Judas did that. She discovers what they are, she exposes to the world and to them what they are."
Image credit: Ghost Story Games
Judas has secrets of her own, though. At the beginning of the game, you wake up from the dead having been reprinted. The crystal in your hand is a device "recording your molecular state at every second of your life." It is, however, damaged, so you're missing some of your memories and have to deal with these gaps hiding a "long and detailed history" with the Big Three.
"Imagine being stuck in this situation in a lifeboat with your worst enemy and having to learn maybe the things you thought about them, the assumptions you made about them weren't entirely true. Maybe you get to learn about what they had to go through, their challenges in life and how they became such a thorn in your side."
Image credit: Ghost Story Games
This might not be a new BioShock story but it has Levine's brand of charm in it. Judas is expected to be launched before the end of March 2025, and we'll hopefully see more of its gameplay and complex relationships soon.
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