Bioshock Infinite altered over religious themes, says Levine

Developer Irrational Games altered one character in the upcoming Bioshock Infinite due to religious themes following conversations with religious members of staff, creative director Ken Levine told Official PlayStation Magazine.

"I had some very valuable conversations," said Levine, referring to the development process that drove the creation of the game's characters. "One of the characters in the game was highly altered based upon some very interesting conversations I had with people on the team who came from a very religious background, and I was able to understand they were kind of upset about something."

According to Levine, these conversations didn't lead to an avoidance of religious themes as a way of appeasing those with religious beliefs, however.

"What I said to them was, ‘I'm not going to change anything to get your approval, but I think I understand what you're saying and I think I can do something that's going to make the story better, based on what you said.' So I did that, and I'm grateful for them bringing in their perspective. The last thing I wanted to do was change something because it offends somebody, but the thing they pointed out was making it a lesser story."

Like the original Bioshock, Bioshock Infinite deals with a number of darker themes including racism, indoctrination and concepts surrounding American exceptionalism.

Check out our recent interview with writer Drew Holmes on how Bioshock Infinite will fix the faults of its predecessor's system of choice.