While 2K has confirmed that the next BioShock game (for the sake of the story, we’re calling it BioShock 4) is in development, nothing much about it has been revealed. Well, that’s about to change today, as thanks to a little snooping and digging around, we’ve managed to get our hands on an in-development BioShock 4 screenshot that features the UI and even a weapon.

Of course, the image being unofficial, do expect things to change from this release (especially since this is an early build). The image comes from a 2K Visual Effects Artist, but for the sake of privacy (and we don’t want the person getting fired), we are refraining from naming or linking their online profile.

The image below is from an early demo build of the game featured in a 2021 showcase reel, and you can see the “Parkside” codename in it. Parkside was first referenced by Bloomberg’s ever-reliable Jason Schreier back in 2019 and was corroborated by Colin Moriarty in 2021, stating, “It takes place in a 1960s Antarctic city called Borealis. [The game’s] codenamed ‘Parkside’… I’ve been told that the development team has incredible latitude to get it right.” To add more weight to the Parkside rumor, a big Epic Games Store leak happened last month, which also referenced the project as possibly in development.

Speculation of What’s Going on in the Image

Now, the image itself doesn’t hold much information regarding location and such. It’s relatively low-quality, mind you. Seeing that it’s from a demo featured in a 2021 reel, we can only assume this is more of a prototyping build to show off and test mechanics. That, and the image likely predates 2021.

This is pure speculation, of course, as well as what else we try to make out in the image. The first thing many will undoubtedly notice is the tower-like structure with a ball of light on top of it. It looks almost like a miniature sun; if you look closely, you can see it emitting some flares. It’s an interesting object, and if we were to guess what it is and how it connects to the BioShock franchise, we’d say this could potentially be our first look at a lighthouse of sorts. It doesn’t appear very tall, though that could be due to perspective and player positioning, but the ball of light on top does remind us of lighthouses seen in Sea of Doors in BioShock Infinite. Each lighthouse is meant to represent a different universe and give off the appearance of a sea of stars.

Moving on, we also have our first look at a shotgun called the Ricochet Shotgun. If we recall, weapons in BioShock were pretty basic, with a mod being available for some that added ricochet bullets. We could be wrong there, but if memory serves correctly, this may indicate that the game will feature weapons with exclusive abilities and attributes. The UI portion showing the gun also shows two other shotguns, though those may be the same and just there as placeholders for the demo.

That portion of the UI also tells us that BioShock 4 may continue what BioShock Infinite introduced, in that players will be limited in the number of guns they can carry versus the weapon wheel that appeared in the first two BioShock games. The carried weapon count is now three instead of the two Infinite had. Could this indicate that the game will feature a primary, sidearm, and heavy weapon, considering that many modern games that offer three weapon slots operate as such? Maybe.

Moreover, there don’t appear to be Plasmid (BioShock 1 and 2) or Vigor (BioShock Infinite) meters on the lower left for what are clearly abilities. Instead, we now have only their icons, and if it’s like what we’ve seen in some different games, that white background in each of the icons most likely depletes (one-time use?) and then recharges over time. Above, we have the health bar and another meter, likely tied to the hourglass symbol on the left.

Previously, the shield icon was located here, a mechanic introduced in BioShock Infinite. Perhaps this ability can be swapped out now?

For what all the symbols mean, the electric one might be a version of the Lighting Bolt, with the magnet also possibly Telekinesis. The most interesting ones are the hourglass and the stopwatch symbol, suggesting that BioShock 4 may employ time-based abilities. Stopwatch for stopping time, and with the Hourglass to slow it down? Again, these are just guesses based on the image.

As for what we know of BioShock 4, or whatever 2K calls the next BioShock game, we know it’s being developed by Cloud Chamber, and franchise creator Ken Levine is not involved whatsoever. Levine is currently developing “Judas” under his own studio Ghost Story Games, which is the new name for Irrational Games, and is still also part of Take-Two’s stable of first-party studios.