The upcoming Judas from Bioshock creator Ken Levine will have a complex narrative system that’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen in videogame history as it will let the player’s actions throughout the story decide the game’s villain, as revealed by a recent developer log for the game.
According to the blog, Judas will have a trio of complex and fully realized characters and each of them will react to the player’s choices during the course of the entire game and based on those, one of the characters will become the villain of the main story or antagonistic towards the player.
Players will be able to interact and befriend all of the three characters and each will respond in different ways to the choices the player makes. And based on that, one of the characters will end up becoming the villain and even get new abilities to thwart the player’s objectives in the game.
“In Judas, you’re going to get to know these characters intimately. We want losing one of them to feel like losing a friend. We want to play with that dynamic, and we want that choice to be super hard. The Big 3 are all going to be competing for your favor and attention. They can bribe you, save you in battle, talk shit about the other characters, and share with you their darkest secrets. But eventually, you’ve got to decide who you trust and who you don’t.”
This new narrative system is clearly a much evolved version of the earlier Nemesis system which was featured in Shadow of Mordor that Levine himself has alluded to in the past. But this new system is surely a breakthrough in terms of what we’ve come to expect from videogames which no other medium of entertainment can possibly achieve. Also, the “Villainy” system will make different playthroughs of the game just as unique and unexpected, based on player choices which is exceptional in lots of ways.
The original Bioshock is still regarded as one of the most unique and memorable narrative experiences in Videogame history and it really looks like the upcoming Judas is going to surpass it and set a new benchmark for immersive and branched storytelling in games.
