The Game Awards ended with dozens of announcements and trailers for soon-to-be and already-released games. One of the most anticipated, yet somewhat unexpected, was the reveal trailer for Judas. Joining the game’s creator is Ken Levine, the same mind behind the iconic BioShock series, it’s safe to assume there will be at least a few similarities between the games. While Levine has said he wants to make more of an immersive sim game than a traditional linear FPS or RPG, Judas seems to have even more in common with the iconic BioShock series than first expected.
Revealing trailer for Judas begins with the line, “From the creator of BioShock” and cuts to footage that immediately resembles one of the most iconic scenes in gaming. I BioShockthe first time the player takes control of the character is after an opening scene where their plane crashes in the Atlantic Ocean and they must swim to a nearby lighthouse surrounded by wreckage and flames from the crash. Judas appears to have a similar opening, as the camera peers through a broken window to see a female protagonist surrounded by debris, flames and bodies.
Judas and BioShock’s Shared Mind of Ken Levine
The rest of the trailer looks straight out BioShock in several ways, starting with the designs of some of the NPCs players will come across. The voiceover in the trailer also suggests that these characters may serve a greater purpose than those seen in them BioShock. Although BioShock’s characters such as Fontaine, Dr. Tenenbaum and Sander Cohen are all unique and play their own roles in the story, it seems that the characters in Judas will play a more important role. As the footage later in the trailer suggests, the player can even fight alongside these characters, and they can be more like companions in this game as opposed to characters players only talk to over the radio and through cutscenes.
As the trailer continues, we see glimpses of recurring ‘biopunk’ enemies, propaganda and a dystopian world reminiscent of BioShock game. Some of the enemy’s designs i Judas have similar characteristics to the Big Daddies with their metallic nature and bright red eyes, and one is a small robot with a large bolt of lightning on its body, which the player explodes with shocking effect. Judas shows a slightly more animal origin to the designs, with horse-headed enemies and a large mechanical dog that appears to be this game’s means of travel in the world, similar to the Bathyspheres in BioShock.
As for gameplay, the trailer shows off first-person action with a mix of gunplay and supernatural abilities that appear to be this game’s version of Plasmids. These abilities appear to be less organic and more mechanical in nature, with the player seemingly switching or charging the device inside their hand before demonstrating a fire ability, similar to burning from BioShock. Visible from the trailer is what appears to be a revolver and a crossbow, which were weapons inside BioShock, and there are even towers that one of the NPCs jumps on top of to hack and target an enemy. The main character also uses a hammer instead of a wrench, but fans off BioShock will be happy to see the player retain a credible melee weapon to deliver a classic one-two combo.
Judas is in development for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X.
