A spate of job listings for BioShock 4 may point to a Fallout-esque dialogue system and a more open-world design, according to a ResetEra post (opens in new tab).
As we previously reported, the next BioShock game is being developed for Xbox Series X and PS5 and will likely be in production for a few more years. However, a handful of job listings may point to what we can expect whenever BioShock 4 drops.
New job openings from developer Cloud Chamber Games include Senior Voice Designer and refers to the upcoming game they'd be working on as an "ambitious, narratively-driven project full of character and personality." The applicant, who must have RPG experience, would help design the game's "dialogue systems" which the ResetEra poster MauroNL suggests the dialogue system may be similar to the Fallout games, which offer a selection of responses to prompts that can shift gameplay or NPC's opinions of you.
A listing for Systems Designer describes the game as an "emergent sandbox world" which includes "interactive world systems and non-AI systemic ecology, player growth systems and progression and game balance and economy." MauroNL suggests this could mean BioShock 4 will have a more open-ended level design akin to BioShock 1 and 2, which had a hub-based world that was somewhat open for exploration. BioShock Infinite was far more linear and on rails than the previous two games.
The job listings also state that Cloud Chamber Games is trying to create "a meaningful AI urban crowd system" and think of "new and ambitious things with AI." Considering the denizens of Rapture used to scare the crap out of me when they jumped out of nowhere wielding a wrench, I'm excited to see what new and ambitious BioShock AI will do.
