Potential renaissance setting for BioShock Infinite

Irrational Games' user experience specialist has revealed that BioShock Infinite could have had a very different setting, in particular it could have been based on the Renaissance.

Speaking with Polygon, Bill Garner says he pushed for the flourishing artistic and scientific period to be the central focus of the game but says the company was put off when Assassin's Creed 2 beat them to the punch.

The upcoming game's striking theme and visuals are so linked to 1900s America that the tone shift is hard to imagine, to read more about the game take a look at our hands-on preview.

Additionally, Garner went on to explain that the company had to cut a lot of levels, game mechanics, characters and more in order to create a final product.

"We cut off enough things to make five or six full games," he said. "It is alarming."

Additionally, Irrational Games has unveiled a new trailer, showing off sidekick Elizabeth's role:

James Lee

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James Lee is a freelance writer and analyst with extensive experience in the technology, media and games sectors. For the past few years he has provided content for internationally published industry reports, SEO companies and a variety of news-focused websites. Prior to this, James was responsible for covering news and producing in-depth features for GamesIndustry.biz while occasionally contributing to its sister-site. Eurogamer.net. In addition to this he has contributed to other notable sites such as CVG.co.uk, Edge-Online and DigitalSpy.