Creative director Ken Levine's "Judas," the sequel to "BioShock Infinite," has been in development for several years, but little information was available until January, when a story trailer revealed the basics: players will be "the Mayflower," a giant spaceship in which players try to survive in a society run by the "Big Three" that doesn't seem to be doing particularly well while manipulating a combination of weapons and non-plasmid powers. [In an interview with IGN, Levin reveals who the Big Three are, what he did to piss them (and everyone else) off, and why they need to make up unless they want to die.

(Spoilers for the early game follow, so stay off the channel if you don't want to be blown away by the surprises.)

It turns out that the Big Three are not Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft. They are Tom, the ship's head of security; Nefertiti, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist trying to lead humanity into the future; and Hope, a counselor, matchmaker, and "everyone's best friend". Once they were family - Tom and Nefertiti were married and Hope was their adopted daughter - but that was a long time ago and now they really don't get along. You, the hero, Judah, have to deal with all three of them as they each seek your sympathy and support and do their best to undermine the other two.

Unlike previous Ken Shock games in which outsiders with amnesia are thrown into bad situations, in "Judas" you are a member of society from the start. However, lapsed memories still play a role. You are not exactly alive: much like the "Vita Chamber" in BioShock or the resurrection process with the "Quantum Bio-Reconstruction Machine" in System Shock 2. As part of the process, your memories are stored in a crystal in the hands of Judas. However, when Judas begins, the crystal is damaged and her memories are incomplete. [Part of the journey is to discover what happened to you. "But most of your experience, most of your members, these characters, you interact with the Big Three. You have a long and detailed history with them and a very contentious history with them."

"Controversial" may be an exaggeration. You may not be an outsider, but you are "the least popular and most disliked person on board. Because it was you who revealed to everyone on board the very hard truth that "they are not really people - they are robots."

"They didn't know. Nobody on board knew. And the revelation of that fact put them all through a different kind of existential crisis." And as the leadership figures struggle to cope with this new knowledge, the entire ship collapses.

"When that happens, all three of them go into a crazy spiral. Judah was the one. She discovers who they are and exposes them to the world and to them. And that is one of the factors that causes the collapse of the ship.

The ultimate goal is to get down to the surface of Proxima, the Mayflower's target world, before the ship crashes. To do so, however, he will need the help of one of the Big Three, who are adversaries but not necessarily villains.

"Imagine a situation where you are stuck in a lifeboat with your worst enemy and have to learn that what you thought about them and the assumptions you made about them may not have been entirely true," Levine said. 'You learn what they had to go through, their challenges in life, and how they became a thorn in your side and you became a thorn in their side. It's really a journey of discovery. "

We said in January that "Judas" "looks no better than 'BioShock 4' with its lighthouse, people, and city," and we think we were correct in that assessment. However, Levin seems to be aiming for a more complete game world, with nonlinear storytelling, dynamic interaction with NPCs based on player actions, and a "rogue loop system" where the world somehow changes while the Mayflower is being modified. At least narratively, "Judas" promises to be a major step forward (which explains why it's been 11 years since "BioShock Infinite").

IGN's full interview with Levin is truly voluminous and covers a wide range of topics, not just the game itself; if you're interested in "Judas," it's worth a read, and if you're interested in the game itself, it's worth reading.