Judas offers a deeper character experience than BioShock, with five years of R&D ensuring NPCs react to every decision you make.

The anticipation for Ken Levine’s next project has been building for quite some time. Known for his work on BioShock and BioShock Infinite, Levine’s latest venture, Judas, has been in development with a significant focus on research and development. The aim? To create a game where every action you take, no matter how minor, influences the characters around you.

Levine shared in an interview, “This is our first game where you truly inhabit a character in a way you didn’t in… say BioShock. From the start, we aimed to create more than just a first-person shooter. We wanted to craft a Judas simulator that allows players to navigate the story, decide whom to trust, and face the repercussions of their choices.”

While BioShock provided players with a degree of freedom within its open-ended environments, its narrative was relatively straightforward, and its moral choices often highlighted the limitations of player agency in gaming. Although BioShock’s iconic twist cleverly addresses this concept, Judas is set to explore a more ambitious narrative experience.

“The key focus is immersing the player in the character’s experience, allowing them to feel what it’s like aboard a ship as humanity’s fate hangs in the balance,” Levine elaborates. “What distinguishes this game is our development approach, which is why we dedicated five years to R&D. We want characters to respond not only to significant decisions but also to recognize and react to your actions, even the smallest ones.”

While we’ve only seen brief glimpses of this concept in action, Levine is clearly committed to it. He introduced the idea of “narrative Lego” over a decade ago, envisioning a game where story elements can be deconstructed and rearranged while still making sense. More recently, he referred to Judas as a “pseudo-procedural” approach to single-player narrative games.

Although Judas doesn’t have a set release date yet, Levine encourages fans to check out the development blogs on the official site for updates. “We’ve published two so far, with more insights coming soon. As we get closer to launch,” (whenever that may be), “you can expect trailers and other announcements.”

In this new narrative FPS, Levine has crafted a character who prefers vending machines over human interaction, stating, “Conversation is a prelude to failure.”