| Title | Ken Levine is leaving Irrational Games |
| Author | Nick Diamon |
| Posted in | News |
| When | February 18, 2014 |
Would you kindly layoff a good portion of your company and leave it to start a smaller venture? That's apparently what Ken Levine is doing now that he's finished the Burial at Sea Part 2 DLC for BioShock Infinite..
Read the full articleIs it just me or has Ken Levine turned heel? I'm quite sure there were other options available other than laying off most of the headcount of a commercially successful studio like Irrational.
Levine is quitting to work on narrative-driven games. But does anyone think this guy is a particularly good storyteller? He comes up with some neat big-idea concepts and he's had a fantastic art-design team that creates incredibly vivid and memorable environments, and they've been quite good with shooter mechanics. But stories? It makes me sad when creative types don't seem to know what their actual strengths are.
I would argue the opposite: his games are all full of great stories but not much in the way of interesting gameplay (except for System Shock 2). I even think he created some really clever ways of telling those stories, but no actual gameplay systems to support or expand them.
To say he's "leaving" Irrational implies there's an Irrational continuing after his departure, which is not the case.
My first reaction to this story was to be appalled at the ego of a man who would have this much staff let go in order to pursue this option. However, as I was thinking about it, I think this is a nice PR way of Take-Two downsizing Irrational. Bioshock Infinite took 6 years to make and there are rumors the budget exceeded $200 million. The sales don't really seem to be there to back up that kind of expenditure. While we may think it was a successful studio, maybe Irrational just didn't do anything to boost the bottom line.
I fall somewhere between you and Juan Pablo. Levine tells a better game yarn than most, but Bioshock's cartoon critique of Randism was over-celebrated, in my opinion, and too much turns on a late-game reveal that loses its potency once the surprise wears off.
It's certainly nice PR for Take-Two, but for Levine? It makes him look like a callous shit-heel.
That's what I was saying... Take-Two comes off looking better than they would if they just called it downsizing... but Levine looks like an asshole who would rather pursue his goals than worry about the employees that helped him make those games.
I agree with the fact that Bioshock's caricature of objetivism is a bit overrated, but seriously, just the fact that they were trying to even make that point is amazing. How many other games can we name that tackle philosophical questions with so much focus and skill?
Having said that, I do feel like the original Bioshock is just System Shock 2 remade for lazier audiences. It has a lot of the same mechanics, progression and even plot-twists, but almost nothing of the terrifying gameplay, even if the new setting is a lot more original.
I feel like he gets interesting ideas for stories, but then isn't really able to fully "flesh them out" so to speak. The way he told the stories in the first 2 Bioshock games was just plain bad in my opinion. Oh audio recordings, wow, this is fantastic storytelling on par with Portal's voiceovers. /sarcasm
The best things Bioshock games had going for them was the art styles and quality of voice acting. The gameplay always felt like it was lacking somewhat.
I feel bad for the rest of irrational. Ken was the main reason Infinite took so long in the first place. If he had a vision and stuck to it instead of constantly switching up things the game could have come out on time and not had to cover the cost of hiring 200+ people for nearly 6 years to make one game. If any one person deserved to get axed it was Ken Levine.
Not particularly juicy gossip compared to what we’ve seen in the MMO space over the years, but still worth a read.
https://hackernoon.com/how-2k-killed-irrational-games-a09d8865fd8b#.68bjzkfxw
Disappointing piece. It didn’t have any juicy new info. Anonymous just lay down some sales figures and made the argument that 2K interference was the essential ingredient in failure. No juicy gossip or inside information at all in that letter.
I tried to curb your enthusiasm!
