If Every Game Was as Steampunk as Bioshock
(click to enlarge)
Whether you love or hate the whole Steampunk trend, what’s undeniable is that it’s produced some of the most detailed cosplay and artwork across any pop culture. The details are intricate, the technology, non-nonsensical, and it’s an aesthetic I don’t entirely hate.
It’s the style that almost all of Bioshock was based around, and while we wait for Infinite to come out after it’s been delayed, I thought we might take a look at what it might be like if other games shared Bioshock’s Steampunk-ian sensibilities.
The result is a mix of cosplay and artwork that you can check out below. If you know of any games I’ve missed, feel free to link to a picture.
Sniper, Scout, Engineer Heavy (Team Fortress)
Link (The Legend of Zelda)
Samus Aran (Metroid)
Chell (Portal)
Mario and Peach (Mario Kart)
Morgana (League of Legends)
Cortana and Master Chief (Halo)
Sonic (the Hedgehog)
Ryu (Street Fighter)
Portal and Mario Kart are my favorites here, particularly the latter.
You know, I really dig the Steampunk aesthetic, I just wish people would do a better job of incorporating it into larger things than artwork. I’ve tried to read a couple of steampunk books but felt like they were getting bogged down in their setting instead of actually focusing on the things I wanted them to.
Bioshock made it work like gangbusters. I need somebody else to do that.
@David R
I really love the idea of steampunk too, it just gets poorly executed at every turn. My first exposure to it was Steam Detectives in Animerica Extra back in the late 90s. The City of Lost Children was the closest they’ve come in feature films(I think?) but even that, like most steampunk, is more visually impressive than it was a good movie/book. I was one of the few who enjoyed Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow…
I am going to England for 10 days on business next week and have 20 hours of flying ahead of me…anyone who can recommend a good steampunk novel will be forever my hero.
Read Chris Wooding’s books. Retribution Falls, Black lung captain and Iron Jackal. Very good steam punk.
Alastair Reynold’s Terminal World is another good one.
@Piratey
I kinda dug Sky Captain, too. It’s shallow as anything I’ve seen but still addictive in a weird way.
The portal one doesn’t quite make sense.. If she jumps through the portal she’s headed for, she’ll just lose momentum and fall through the gap below..
Unless they changed the device altogether and it’s literally a “tunnler”.
Steampunk Samus is fucking stupid.
And aesthetics aside the only one of these that could even work in a real game would be Zelda.