Game watch: Next level of BioShock will return to underwater city of Rapture

Los Angeles: BioShock is returning to the sea.

Irrational Games creative director Ken Levine says an upcoming downloadable chapter of the popular video game BioShock Infinite will be set in Rapture.

The fantastical underwater metropolis served as the moody locale for the original BioShockshoot-'em-up game in 2007. The follow-up BioShock Infinitewas released earlier this year and traded the 1960 dystopia of Rapture for the idealistic 1912 floating city of Columbia. Infinitewas the top selling game in March, according to NPD Group.

Levine said Monday the two-part, story-driven chapter will be titled Burial at Seaand feature Infiniteprotagonists Booker DeWitt and Elizabeth mysteriously meeting in the submerged city in 1958 before its demise.

"I just had this vision of Elizabeth dressed in that period looking like Veronica Lake or Rita Hayworth," said Levine. "I just said, 'I want to see that image. I want to see Elizabeth in Rapture.'"

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This publicity photo provided by 2K Games/Irrational Games shows the video game "BioShock Infinite." Associated Press[/caption]

Levine hinted the downloadable adventure would marry the two worlds, explaining how the characters don't remember each other and how the all-important vigor powers from Columbia made their way to Rapture and became drinkable. He also noted that this version of Rapture would be livelier than the one glimpsed in BioShockand 2010's BioShock 2.

"We didn't have the opportunity in the first game to have civilians in Rapture," said Levine. "It just didn't exist because everyone was dead. It's been interesting to find the tone. These are the people that bought into the vision (Rapture founder) Andrew Ryan was presenting and made their life down there."

The second part of Burial at Seawill allow players to portray Elizabeth, the mysterious young woman who manipulates space and time in Infinite. Originally, Elizabeth was intended to remain as a companion to Booker.

"We thought that how part one of Burial at Seaends naturally gives Elizabeth something that was important for her to do," said Levine. "It wasn't always the plan, but once it came up, we realized it had to be that way."

Despite the franchise's upcoming return trip to Rapture, the first chapter of downloadable content for Infinite will be planted firmly on Columbia. It's called Clash in the Cloudsand is a fighting-focused mode set for release this week for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 that takes place in four previously unseen areas of Columbia. Burial at Seais expected later this year.

Associated Press