After a brief intro to the world the player finds themselves alone in a strange, unfamiliar world with no knowledge of what’s going on – but clearly something terrible has happened. The beginnings of all the Shock games (barring possibly Bioshock Infinite which we’ll get to) are the same. After briefly considering an offshoot of the Wing Commander series like they did with Ultima Underworld, they decided on a new science-fiction IP so they would have total control. You probably just said “ Madden 13” earlier with a smirk on your face didn’t you? You’re right, they didn’t influence Madden… they created it.Īfter developing Ultima Underworld and its sequel (and systematically creating Skyrim twenty years too early), key members of Looking Glass (including Warren “ Deus Ex” Spector and Doug “just worked on Portal 2” Church) sat down to create their next “immersive simulation game”.
They themselves are best known for Ultima Underworld, System Shock, and Thief. Any title that relies on creating an interesting world, emergent story-based gameplay, or the idea that games can be about more than shooting things… thank Looking Glass for that.Ī short list of titles directly influenced by games created by the studio: the Elder Scrolls series, Deus Ex, Assassin’s Creed, Splinter Cell, Dishonored, Tribes, Halo, Portal, Dead Space, and of course Bioshock. If you name a popular modern game there’s a good chance the games of Looking Glass influenced it in some way. You may not have heard of them since they folded in 2000, but their work influenced a vast number of the games you enjoy today. We start right at the very beginning with a company called Looking Glass Studios. The Shock Series, as I am going to refer to it, has a long, sordid, constantly evolving history, but one that’s nevertheless connected by the same themes of exploration, immersive environments, mind as well as gunplay, and that certain five-letter word beginning with ‘s’… so let’s have a look at it eh? You may have played and enjoyed Bioshock and its sequel, but the series didn’t start there – it started in 1994, with System Shock. You may be anticipating a certain game called Bioshock Infinite, out this month from Irrational Games.
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