Levine served as lead writer and designer, and the game shipped in 1999 to critical acclaim. System Shock 2 is the sequel to Looking Glass' System Shock (1994). The studio's first game was System Shock 2, an early hybrid of a role-playing game and first-person shooter. In 1997, following his work on Thief, Levine left Looking Glass along with two coworkers, Jonathan Chey and Robert Fermier, to found Irrational Games. At Looking Glass, Levine worked with pioneering designer Doug Church to establish the initial fiction and design of Thief: The Dark Project. In 1995, he was hired as a game designer by Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Looking Glass Studios after replying to a job ad in Next Generation magazine. Before he got into gaming, Levine used to work as a computer consultant on Wall Street but admitted he was not very good at it, describing his attitude towards the job as a 'slacker.' Looking Glass He studied drama at Vassar College, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in drama in 1988, in Poughkeepsie, New York before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a film career, writing two screenplays. Levine was born in Flushing, New York to a Jewish family. He received the inaugural Golden Joystick 'Lifetime Achievement Award' for his work.

Levine was named one of the 'Storytellers of the Decade' by Game Informer and was the 1UP Network's 2007 person of the year. He led the creation of the BioShock series, and is also known for his work on Thief: The Dark Project and System Shock 2. He is the creative director and co-founder of Ghost Story Games (formerly known as Irrational Games). Levine (born September 1, 1966) is an American game developer. Video game designer, creative director, author, screenwriter

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