"It was a much bigger delta, I think, between System Shock 2 and BioShock than it was between then and now because at some point the switch flipped from games being a real niche," he tells me. When I ask Levine the simple opener of whether it feels to him like BioShock came out all of 15 years ago, he gives a diplomatic 'yes and no' answer, adding that in terms of the industry itself, BioShock feels relatively young. It didn't come as much of a surprise that when I reached out to BioShock creator Ken Levine, he was unaware that the game was coming up to its 15th anniversary (much though I like the idea of Levine, every five years since 21 August 2007, pouring himself a glass of bourbon in a grandiose Deco bar and raising a glass to a portrait of Andrew Ryan - Rapture's founder.) It's a predecessor to certain genres that would come later - like the 'walking sim' - and it was the first blockbuster game that showed the medium to be capable of seriously exploring some high-minded ideas, but that mix of emergent gameplay, eccentricity, and worldbuilding where you piece together the story of a fallen city through desecrated rooms, meticulously positioned corpses, and brilliantly delivered audio diaries hasn't quite been repeated. Playing it today, it doesn't feel like a 15-year-old game, and I realise that's in large part because so few games have attempted to really follow in its footsteps.
One of the most important shooters of all time, BioShock, has turned 15.
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