Irrational Games combined first-person gameplay with literary ambitions, creating System Shock 2 and BioShock before closing in 2014 as Ken Levine pursued smaller-scale development.
Ideas as gameplay. Irrational Games emerged from Looking Glass veterans determined to push narrative boundaries in interactive media. System Shock 2’s SHODAN and BioShock’s Rapture became landmarks—games that treated players as intellectually curious adults. The studio’s closure shocked the industry, but its influence persists in every game that dares to ask philosophical questions.
Fast facts
Founded: 1997.
Founders:Ken Levine, Jonathan Chey, Robert Fermier.