Irrational Games has unveiled the final “Heavy Hitter” for BioShock Infinite, and this one stands out in several ways. While the others are male and mechanical in some fashion, the Siren is a white robed female spirit who raises the dead.
According to creative director Ken Levine, ”Siren is a nod to a major social movement at the turn of the century. There was a sense of the spiritual world, and I don’t mean like when you ask people, ‘Oh, are you religious?’ and they say, ‘No. I’m spiritual.’ No, I mean, people were actually talking about contacting the dead and speaking to the dead.”
This medium doesn’t require a seance to speak to the dead however. Instead, she resurrects the enemies you just killed. The problems she creates are obvious.
“One of your challenges is going to be: who do I deal with? Do I deal with the Siren, because if I kill her, all the enemies she brought back to life will also return to their graves. Or do I deal with the guys who are actually shooting me. And I think that’s one of the real tensions that you have in the battle,” stated Levine.
Lead designer Shawn Robertson described the thought process behind her design as a ghostly figure, noting, “We started looking at the things we could do with this kind of mystical wavy and flowy type of woman who’s floating around and raising people with her voice.”
Hopefully, a developer diary will be released soon showing her in action, just as Irrational did for her fellow Heavy Hitters, the Handyman, the Motorized Patriot and the Boys of Silence.
BioShock Infinite is due to be released in October for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
