In Bioshock creator's new game Judas, your actions decide who the villain is

As the Bioshock 4 fiasco rumbles on, the series' creator Ken Levine is ready to fill the void with Judas. An immersive, zany, narrative-driven FPS, Judas has been high on folks' wishlists (mine included) for a while now, but Ghost Story Games has been fairly quiet about how things are going. Summer Game Fest, and most recently Gamescom, came and went without any updates. But lo and behold, Judas just woke from its months-long nap to shout about its Villainy system, which will see your actions turn one of the initially friendly Big 3 characters into your arch nemesis.

While there's still no word on the Judas release date - Levine says in today's new dev blog he's "not quite ready to finalize that" - Ghost Story is celebrating the completion of its Villainy system. Calling it a "major milestone," Levine reveals new details about the trio of characters that will be influenced by your actions, either assisting or hindering you as you progress through the FPS game. Rather than having a single big bad or a set lineup of villains, any of the Big 3 can evolve into a fearsome antagonist.

"In Judas, your actions will attract members of the Big 3 to you as friends," Levine says. "But ignore one of them enough, and they become the VILLAIN. From there, they will get access to a new suite of powers to subvert your actions and goals." The example given sees Tom, the moustachioed sheriff-like character, sabotaging a Rent-A-Deputy machine. With Tom on your side, it looks like you'll be able to acquire an AI-controlled, gun-toting ally from these machines. But if he's the enemy, he'll sabotage the machines and turn the Rent-A-Deputy bots against you.

Levine likens the Villainy system to the Nemesis system in Shadow of Mordor, only in Judas you can drill deeper into the characterization of your friends and foes as opposed to the evolving orcs in Monolith's iconic game. Cynics might say that Villainy is just a dressed-up version of the faction-driven systems we see in Bethesda and Obsidian RPGs, but this appears to be far more reactive and able to directly affect gameplay moments.

"In Judas, you're going to get to know these characters intimately," Levine continues. "We want losing one of them to feel like losing a friend. We want to play with that dynamic, and we want that choice to be super hard. The Big 3 are all going to be competing for your favor and attention. They can bribe you, save you in battle, talk shit about the other characters, and share with you their darkest secrets. But eventually, you've got to decide who you trust and who you don't."

I'm really intrigued to see just how radically different this feels to other reputation-style mechanics in RPGs. Already you can see the replayability potential too - of course, that's also reliant on the core gameplay and story being good. But if Ghost Story has managed to make a genuinely fresh-feeling system that creates believable rifts and allegiances that directly impact your journey, then it could be a real landmark game.

While likely coincidental, the timing of Judas' return to our collective consciousness comes just a week on from ex-Diablo lead Rod Fergusson joining Cloud Chamber to help right the Bioshock 4 ship.

To see what else is coming in the near and more distant future, head to our upcoming PC games guide. Alternatively, check out the best RPGs if you want to start building (or wrecking) relationships right away.

If Judas is as high up your personal wishlist as it is mine, head to our Discord server and let me and the rest of the PGamesN community know why you're so hyped for it.