A lot of people are singing praises at how great the plot of the newest sci-fi HBO series Westworld is. But not a lot of people are aware that it is inspired by a particular popular video game combined with another one. However, if you are an avid gamer, you might have noticed some similarities already.
If your guess is Bioshock, then you are right. Westworld co-creator Jonathan Nolan said it himself during a Comic Con panel that the Bioshock Infinite is a big influence of the game. He mentioned that the game which took place in a floating steam punk city was the most thoughtful and literate piece of entertainment he's seen in the last ten years.
He mentioned the tragic fate of the AI characters in the game which gave way to his idea of treating the AI characters in Westworld with the same tragedy. Think about how guests thoughtlessly kills the AI inhabitants of the park.
"I was [with] Ken Levine, the designer of those games, talking about the non-player characters—Elizabeth, specifically, in BioShock Infinite. In a scene, I think I had just run through and shot everyone and kept going. And he was talking about how much craft had gone into all the conversations that the non-player characters had, and all their dreams and aspirations. And I just thought, Oh, isn't that tragic? Isn't that sad? And the player just ignores it all. The bastards," Nolan said.
Aside from Bioshock, another influence is the 2010 bloody Western game Red Dead Redemption where players take the role of a gunslinger as he traverse through the world of murderous gangs, prostitution houses, and beautiful countryside. Like the Westworld park, Red Dead Redemption is an open-world game where players can go wherever they want and do whatever they want.
