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SPOILER Bioshock Infinite SPOILER discussion

Hylian7

Member
Another thing, and maybe I missed a Voxophone that answered this, but I want to know more about the Boys of Silence. They call all those people that have the George Washington masks on and before they are alerted, they are indestructible. Do the Boys of Silence and the George Washington mask people all exist in the seperate versions of Columbia or what?
 

Salsa

Member
Another thing, and maybe I missed a Voxophone that answered this, but I want to know more about the Boys of Silence. They call all those people that have the George Washington masks on and before they are alerted, they are indestructible. Do the Boys of Silence and the George Washington mask people all exist in the seperate versions of Columbia or what?

those are so clearly enemies that were meant to be more prominent in the game but got cut

their whole thing is like being a living Bioshock 1/2 camera and there was only one of them in the whole game

willing to bet there'll be more of them in DLC
 

greycolumbus

The success of others absolutely infuriates me.
j9G2tU03xYwly.png



I love you ken


"I, too, attempted the unimaginable, and I succeeded."


ihaRP7iAwguCh.jpg
 

DatDude

Banned
I saw the Fringe paralels instantly but honestly I didnt mind them because there's so much more than that when it comes to the game's whole story. Like you can see it as a "Fringe ripoff" I guess if you highlight exactly the things that are being brought up in that comment, wich in itself is just a theory, but that's barely one part/interpretation of it.

no matter how neat and "mindblowing" the end revelation can be, the highlight and best stuff from the game is still by far in the journey.

It is questionable though wether Ken was inspired by the show or not, but who cares.

The way I look at it is: Quality inspires Quality.

Fringe is really damn good show, but like you mention, I think it's irrevelevant what Infinite took/borrowed because at the end of the day Infinite has it's own unique traits and themes that are absent in Fringe as well.
 

diamount

Banned
Another thing, and maybe I missed a Voxophone that answered this, but I want to know more about the Boys of Silence. They call all those people that have the George Washington masks on and before they are alerted, they are indestructible. Do the Boys of Silence and the George Washington mask people all exist in the seperate versions of Columbia or what?

Probably, Comstock House is an insane asylum after all. Maybe it's a place reserved for people who died in a previous dimension because you see them flicker.
 

PaulloDEC

Member
those are so clearly enemies that were meant to be more prominent in the game but got cut

their whole thing is like being a living Bioshock 1/2 camera and there was only one of them in the whole game

willing to bet there'll be more of them in DLC

I hope so. I spent a fair chunk of the game waiting for them to show up after seeing how creepy and cool they looked in the trailers, and while their segment was definitely cool, it was super short.

I'd also like to know what the deal was with the creepy dudes in white with the billyclubs. Reminded me a little of A Clockwork Orange.
 

DatDude

Banned
those are so clearly enemies that were meant to be more prominent in the game but got cut

their whole thing is like being a living Bioshock 1/2 camera and there was only one of them in the whole game

willing to bet there'll be more of them in DLC

Would not be surprised in the slightest if the DLC focuses on them quite extensively.

Really want to see a behind the scenes video of Infinites development process.

Must have been such a hectic time in these people lives when they were constantly cutting and changing things as they went along, plus people coming and leaving, rumored development problems, delays,..furthermore pressured to make a good game that lived up to bioshock 1, and that would also be released in a fairly reasonable time.

How Ken Levine managed to make this game as good as it is, is quite a feat of it's own.
 
It just occurred to me that probably the reason Elizabeth changed so much throughout the development of the game is because they needed a bunch of subtly different models for the last scene and couldn't settle on what the differences between them would be.
 

DatDude

Banned
Probably, Comstock House is an insane asylum after all. Maybe it's a place reserved for people who died in a previous dimension because you see them flicker.

I sort of like this concept. A purgatory of sorts.

Hmmm, could be an interesting thing to look into further.

Because, that whole part felt random. An Bioshock Infinite is a game that is anything but. It's all planned and intentional..so perhaps your on to something there.
 
I can't put this in words

This entire sequence had me on the edge of my seat. It was so brilliantly executed, I honestly doubt we'll ever see a game pull something like this off again.

char_76755.jpg


You never go full super saiyan.

Also you didn't really argue why the oddities in Bioshock 1's plot are somehow better or more consistent than Infinite's oddities.

Oh Lord, why did you have to post that picture? It took me many a year trying to forget about the god-awful ending to BS1 and you just have to go and remind me.
 
Bah... I'm glad there's a Fringe-inspired videogame. Hopefully it gets more people interested in that show.

At it's peak, Fringe was incredible. It combined some really neat-o science fiction tropes with awesome cinematography and deep characterizations. It had real heart and explored the human condition. I encourage anyone who enjoyed this game to watch it through... just stop at the end of Season 4. :)

---

That said, Fringe's greatest strengths are also BI's biggest weaknesses:

A) The game never really goes balls to the walls with the science fiction

There's snippets here and there, mostly in audio recordings, but given the nature of tears and parallel universes, there are so many wasted opportunities for awesomesauce. Going to Rapture was almost kind of expected, although I still had to pick up my jaw from the floor when it happened.

BUT...

Imagine actually going to the 80's in the game, or finding yourself in a world that's completely alien (Nazi's won WWII, Lincoln was never assassinated, or America never won its independence from Great Britain). Even when the game took us through worlds that were 'slightly different', I felt it would have been way cooler to have players discover the little details that had changed. In the alternate universe in Fringe, there are zeppelins in the air, double-decker cars... different fashions... different historical events (Martin Luther King is on the 20 dollar bill instead of Andrew Jackson), etc. etc. This was one of the joys of Fringe that Bioshock could and should have picked up on. In an interactive medium, discovering the differences in the worlds Booker and Elizabeth traverse would have been a goldmine of discussion - lot's speculation from everyone!

I also liked the idea of bringing in skyline cars, ammo, rocket turrets permanently (as seen in the gameplay demo trailers), but I can see why it's more convenient to allow players to switch between them, one at a time.

B) It's ultimately a shallow story with no depth to the characterizations

In the end, I don't ultimately care about Booker, Elizabeth, or anyone else in the world. If I recall correctly, Elizabeth doesn't even vocally acknowledge that Booker is her father, nor does she change her attitude depending on the player's actions (which, as FartofWar has acknowledged, is an incredibly daunting task).

The rest of the cast are merely background players that we don't interact with on any meaningful level... we could have had some great moments with Daisy Fitzroy, Saltanstall, etc.

Even though the ultimate outcome of the game is the same for every player, I feel there could have been some Silent Hill-esque branching depending on the player's conduct during the game. SH2, for instance, actually considered the player to be suicidal if they looked at certain items in the inventory frequently. If Booker was reckless, if he acted very homicidal, if he performed kind deeds for the needy citizens of Columbia.

Speaking of which, just about everyone in Columbia is a damned cartoon character.

Themes of faith vs. science is never really explored (Rosalind got together with Comstock why? Just for money?), nor is the racism meaningfully touched on. It's a mess of things that don't gel into anything substantial.

---

Finally, I also agree with Evilore's assertion that the game should not have been a shooter. I won't expand on any of his points, but I will say the waves and waves of enemies took me out of the experience.

In the end, Bioshock Infinite is a very pretty, occasionally fun, and occasionally thought-provoking game. I just wish it had been something more.
 

Lakitu

st5fu
I wonder if there are any hints in the story as to what the DLC is about? Perhaps playing as Booker under the Vox Populi?
 

ryz

Member
Did anybody notice the that only code to a door in Infinite is 0451? Guess what: This is also the first door code in System Shock 1 (It's 451 actually), System Shock 2 has lock that opens with 45100, along with Deus Ex (0451). And of course BioShock has it too (0451).
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Did anybody notice the that only code to a door in Infinite is 0451? Guess what: This is also the first door code in System Shock 1 (It's 451 actually), System Shock 2 has lock that opens with 45100, along with Deus Ex (0451). And of course BioShock has it too (0451).

And Human Revolution (first password used exiting Sarif's office), and Dishonored (code to unlock the first safe).
 

zkylon

zkylewd
Okay, really, really quick and dirty hijack of The One Who Knocks' timeline altered with a shift in perspective. And lacking a bunch of data because I'll make a better one when I have more time. And with a bad choice of yellow because I'm a fool, and not at my own home with Photoshop. Paint 4 lyf.

I've left out the specific history details (eg: Comstock founding Columbia, etc), and excluded the part with the gunsmith (I don't feel it's overly essential to understand perspective, but more exposition of the tear concept), focusing more on the timelines themselves.

The main reason I re-arranged it is to focus on perspective. Considering we're dealing with quantum multiverse philosophy, understanding Booker's perspective in the game, the only one that matters to the player, is quite important. It stems from theories of quantum immortality. No matter how many timelines or universes there are. No matter how many variables. You will only ever be able to see from your own: a sequence of events and patterns interconnected. And I mean that literally. We as human beings in this world will only ever perceive the flow of time and the universe itself within the time we are alive. We cannot perceive before. And we will not perceive other. The universe only exists as long as we exist, after which we and time itself become nothing, and cease to have ever existed before. Literal nothingness, no time nor space, was before the Big Bang. And should our universe collapse, or bounce, so too will all time and space of this existence become nothingness. No trace left behind. No memory, no history. Time itself having never existed at all. Yet here we are, in the now, real and perceiving it.

As was said earlier by others and more eloquently, what it means to "be" and perceive time and the universe is one of the greatest of all philosophical quandaries. And the philosophy quandary of "meaning" is older than time itself.

The equatorial line is the perspective of Booker in BioShock Infinite, and the only one we can ever know and experience. Colours represent new universes/timelines/dimensions. Lines outside the equatorial represent universes/timelines/dimensions with known events happening parallel to Booker's perspective elsewhere.

Imagine printing it out and connecting it in a circle. It's missing the key point of what happens at the very end, what happens after the drowning. But as I said earlier, I view this as an inherently paradoxal universe collapsing the moment it came into existence, if it comes into existence at all. It is inherently paradoxal as the total sum of all constants and variables conflict and result in a situation where the universe is erased (Elizabeth's end-game doings). We still perceive events happening in a linear sequence because time and consciousness are funny things. Again, like our own universe: with nothing before and nothingness after, does what happen in the middle, reduced to zero, really "matter"? What "is"?

And if you want, you could almost look at the entire chain of events like a mini Big Bang. Take a new line and draw it down from the equator. Call that the timeline where Booker has Anna and lives on without interference. A universe born from paradox, because a paradox by nature cannot exist.

infinite1ejch.png
thanks for this, I'm surprised to have picked it up myself as much as I did, I'm usually terrible at parallel universes, but it still was helpful in sorting out in my head.

ib0yuNUJ2TjPyO.PNG


changed the yellow to green for my own reading, so I figured I might as well upload it here.
 

DatDude

Banned
The bigger issue I have with Infinite is:

B) It's ultimately a shallow story with no depth to the characterizations

In the end, I don't ultimately care about Booker, Elizabeth, or anyone else in the world. If I recall correctly, Elizabeth doesn't even vocally acknowledge that Booker is her father, nor does she change her attitude depending on the player's actions (which, as FartofWar has acknowledged, is an incredibly daunting task).

Yeah because why would she? He was an asshole who gave her up on a dime for cash. She was unwanted by him, and was his father only in a biological sense.

The rest of the cast are merely background players that we don't interact with on any meaningful level... we could have had some great moments with Daisy Fitzroy, Saltanstall, etc.

They were purposley meant to be used as pawns though. They were never meant to be meaningful characters.

It was all about Booker/Comstock, Elizabeth/Anna, and The Luteces. These are the 3 main stars of this show. Everyone else is just the supporting cast..which you could argue, why should it be this way? Which one could argue, why does it have to be that way?


Even though the ultimate outcome of the game is the same for every player, I feel there could have been some Silent Hill-esque branching depending on the player's conduct during the game. SH2, for instance, actually considered the player to be suicidal if they looked at certain items in the inventory frequently. If Booker was reckless, if he acted very homicidal, if he performed kind deeds for the needy citizens of Columbia.

Levine said he is a huge fan of just having 1 endings in video games. He expressed how when you start making multiple endings, than each ending becomes deminished in there own little way since then it becomes the argument about which was the cannon ending and which wasn't?

Plus multiple endings normally are handled badly. There always turns out to be 1 really great ending, and 3 mediocre tacked on ones :/


Themes of faith vs. science is never really explored (Rosalind got together with Comstock why? Just for money?), nor is the racism meaningfully touched on. It's a mess of things that don't gel into anything substantial.

racism is touched upon.

Booker is against racism because he had to lament the the horrible things he had to do in Wounded Knee and wanted to become a better person out of it all.

Comstock was also against racism, but felt it was a must since even god locked adam and eve out of eden, and other references.

One became a racist due to religion, while the other become un-racist due to living in the murky waters of his own past.

So it's not the central theme, but it is a side theme of the game.
 
Yeah because why would she? He was an asshole who gave her up on a dime for cash. She was unwanted by him, and was his father only in a biological sense.

Think of how much drama you could draw from that! To show Booker's remorse... Elizabeth, presumably, could have seen every point of Booker's life.

A man who once sought God is now essentially in the presence of a god-like being, and it just happens to be his daughter. I wish the two of them had a real discussion of life and choices in the endgame, but as players we were whisked along from one revelation to the next.

I'm no professional writer, so I'm not sure how you could incorporate this without creating a lull in the pacing.
 

jgminto

Member
That was an ending alright. I think it's taking shape more as I think about it.

So in an alternate timeline, when Booker repents for his sins, he becomes Comstock. Why is he older? Did the Luteces take him back?

Booker wasn't repenting for giving away Anna right? She mustn't have been born by that point?

Mrs Comstock isn't Anna's mother in Booker's timeline? It would make sense for her not to know Elizabeth as Comstock didn't have a child in that timeline.


...


It's cool to knock people off flying ships with Undertow.
 

NZNova

Member
I looked at the ending again...

When all the Elizabeth are disappearing one by one, the screen cuts to black before our Liz (the one we played the game with) fades away.

They probably wont use this - as I feel any DLC will not be based on "Our Liz" or "Our Booker" - but I think it is significant.

Sorry if this has been covered, but I'm pretty sure the Elizabeth you play the game with isn't present in the drowning scene. The pendant you chose for her is not on her choker.
 
In the end, I don't ultimately care about Booker, Elizabeth, or anyone else in the world. If I recall correctly, Elizabeth doesn't even vocally acknowledge that Booker is her father, nor does she change her attitude depending on the player's actions (which, as FartofWar has acknowledged, is an incredibly daunting task).

I disagree with this, I liked it better, they never had the chance to fully acknowledge that truth. No sappy Father Daughter moment, considering they just went through all of that. Hell, if I were in her shoes I'd probably do the same thing.

What matters is Elizabeth and DeWitt agrees that this circle has to be broken (great song btw) and did that by killing DeWitt/Compstock at the moment where he was born again. The fact that he is her father is important; but less so than the conclusion of their journey.

And oh, I cared about Elizabeth deeply. So much that after taking out that large fucking syringe from her neck I went back to the doctors I spared when I was taking out the wires and melee'd them to death.

So in an alternate timeline, when Booker repents for his sins, he becomes Comstock. Why is he older? Did the Luteces take him back?

Lucete explained it in one of the Voxophones, Comstock went sterile, got cancer and also rapidly aged by using the tears.
 

DatDude

Banned
Think of how much drama you could draw from that!? To show Booker's remorse... Elizabeth, presumably, could have seen every point of Booker's life.

A man who once sought God is now essentially in the presence of one. I wish the two of them had a real discussion of life and choices in the endgame, but as players we were whisked along from one revelation to the next.

I'm no professional writer, so I'm not sure how you could incorporate this without creating a lull in the pacing.

That discussion would go no where though

I just can't even see how that conversation would work:

Booker: Elizabeth, I'm sorry for selling you off as a baby to pay of a gambling debt! Truly I am!

Elizabeth: Oh it's okay. I've only been locked up in a tower for 19 years of my life always surveillance by a giant mechanical bird, watching my every step, entertained only my books and constantly being experimented on.

There's really nothing TO discuss.

That's why there was no tender moment at the end when Elizabeth is drowning him. Sure, I imagine she feels bad, but at the same time there's a sense of "numbness" in her that's full of sorrow or pain towards what he did to her. I mean hell, she's basically sacrificing herself, for his stupid fucking mistake.

In general, a scene where these 2 could just talk it out would just not work in general.

I mean, just put yourself in the shoes of Elizabeth. Knowing your father sold you off like trash. Your become inprisoned for 19 years, constantly experimented on.

An than, your father returns, only to pay off a gambling debt in his mind.

Would you even want to talk to him? Would you even want to be alive in general? Knowing you were never wanted by anyone, and only became a play thing for others. I mean, that is just to fucking depressing...

I mean, there's just honestly no road where this could lead where they could just "talk it out"

It's just TOO FUCKED UP.
 

Hylian7

Member
That was an ending alright. I think it's taking shape more as I think about it.

So in an alternate timeline, when Booker repents for his sins, he becomes Comstock. Why is he older? Did the Luteces take him back?

Booker wasn't repenting for giving away Anna right? She mustn't have been born by that point?

Mrs Comstock isn't Anna's mother in Booker's timeline? It would make sense for her not to know Elizabeth as Comstock didn't have a child in that timeline.


...


It's cool to knock people off flying ships with Undertow.

It was a necessity with those fucking rocket guys, at least in 1999 mode. They can take five rockets in the fucking head and STILL survive it!
 
Haven't even begun scouring the whole thread, but I have a couple of quick questions, mostly regarding the Luteces.

How do you find out in the game that Robert and Rosalind are alternate reality versions of themselves?

How do you find out the reason why the Luteces decide to bring Booker into Columbia-verse?

Is it mentioned in the game that the reason why Rosalind works with Comstock is to be with her "brother"?

How can they do the things they do throughout the game if they were killed in Columbia-verse? Are they one and the same couple throughout or are there some alternate reality versions you encounter as well?

Great, now my head hurts.
 
The only thing that would have made this game better was if there was a third DeWitt, who dreamed of building an entire city underwater because baptism felt soo good.
 
Finished it last night. Still digesting alot of it, and probably woun 't fully form my thoughts on the whole narrative until I've had a chance to replay it and see it from that angle but just quickly on the end

- Back to rapture: I think this is the moment most people expected in the game, and even if you went full media dark until you got Infinite, as soon as you make it an hour in and you start to see the nature of the story, you can imagine pretty easily how Rapture/Bioshock 1 is connected to Infinite. Fantastic nostalgia moment though, and an awesome way to see the songbird bow out.

- Elizabeth is Anna: Very cool, did not see this coming until I was in the mind boggle ending phase, although I could see some people seeing this coming a little earlier. I really reallyl ike this twist though, and the best part about the whole ending. So sad, for both of them.

- Booker is comstock: I guess this was their ace in the hole. Some people could have figured out Elizabeth and Booker's connection from the word plays and foreshadowing etc., but this was the real "it's in front of your face the whole time and you never saw it coming". Off the top of my head, it does seem very clever and works alot with the plot and the themes of the game, but personally it got a little too convoluted for me here. It makes sense and is clever, but it just felt like one "wtf" too many in one go at least. I barely had the breathing room to think about it, both from the previous revelations, and the sudden ending. I'm not actually a big fan of paradox stuff, but they had me up to here, but I'd personally rather have just had the Anna twist then focus on what that means and the resolution of the characters' relationships through that. Instead we saw the characters we invested in dissipate with no real resolution. They don't get a happy ending, nor a comeuppance.

I do like the plot overall, and overall the end credits scene gives us a little glimpse of a clean start, but I'd personally like to have seen a real resolution of our characters we spent 12 hours investing in, not salvation for an alternate realities version of them. I probably could have taken the comstock revelation and the anna revelaiton separately too, perhaps an hour between the two, to give Booker and Elizabeth an hour to live with each other in game with the fact hanging that Booker gave her up, see them discuss it etc.

Great game though, and can't always have a plot that does everything for everyone.
 

DatDude

Banned
Mrs Comstock isn't Anna's mother in Booker's timeline? It would make sense for her not to know Elizabeth as Comstock didn't have a child in that timeline.

I believe Ms. Comstock is.

Justifies why you see her as a ghost, since Bookers wife died during childbirth.
 
those are so clearly enemies that were meant to be more prominent in the game but got cut

their whole thing is like being a living Bioshock 1/2 camera and there was only one of them in the whole game

willing to bet there'll be more of them in DLC
Looking at the art book (which I would recommend checking out, has a TON of really early development material and all of the art is fantastic), it also seems like sirens were meant to be more of a typical enemy and not just the mini-boss they were via Lady Comstock's ghost.
 

DatDude

Banned
Looking at the art book (which I would recommend checking out, has a TON of really early development material and all of the art is fantastic), it also seems like sirens were meant to be more of a typical enemy and not just the mini-boss they were via Lady Comstock's ghost.

That would've become annoying real fast. Glad they cut that.

Also, anything else noteworthy from the art book?
 

Milchjon

Member
Do they explain those 6 months passing near the end? How does it happen? How does Booker spend that time?

I guess I missed stepping through a tear? Is that wavy moment leading up to Comstock House supposed to be one?
 
That would've become annoying real fast. Glad they cut that.

Also, anything else noteworthy from the art book?
It seems like they had dimension hopping in mind from the start, so you have quite a few pages of brainstorming concepts like people 'fusing' with alternate dimension versions of themselves to create these grotesque mutations. Stuff like this old guy's face fused with himself as a baby, or this grumpy bowler-hat wearing gentleman with three eyes and two noses. Neat in a dark way, but probably too similar to Rapture's horror elements.

Also a lot of different steam-punk/autonomatronic concepts, like bizarre looking toys (vaguely mentions a vague idea of a demented toy maker) and robot gentlemen. Really great, creepy stuff all-around, but glad the final game didn't go for it. Maybe they could explore it more in the DLC?
 
Do they explain those 6 months passing near the end? How does it happen? How does Booker spend that time?

I guess I missed stepping through a tear? Is that wavy moment leading up to Comstock House supposed to be one?

No extra time passed for Booker (or the player). From losing Elizabeth to finding her was one continues moment in time.
 
That would've become annoying real fast. Glad they cut that.

Also, anything else noteworthy from the art book?

According to some pre-release info they used to function like mobile versions of Bioshock 1's cameras. I very much doubt they always summoned the high health zombie-like enemies they do now.
 

Blinck

Member
Do they explain those 6 months passing near the end? How does it happen? How does Booker spend that time?

I guess I missed stepping through a tear? Is that wavy moment leading up to Comstock House supposed to be one?

Old-Elizabeth transports Booker into a future timeline. During the time that he is in there, 6 months pass in the "normal" timeline.
 
According to some pre-release info they used to function like mobile versions of Bioshock 1's cameras. I very much doubt they always summoned the high health zombie-like enemies they do now.
Well that's still how they sort of act; they periodically turn around and then 'wake up' those creepy president kids to charge at you if you enter their line of sight/hearing too long, just like Bio 1 & 2's security cameras (they even turn yellow momentarily if you briefly step into their light like the cameras did). Admittedly I have no clue where the hell that beam of light is meant to be coming from considering the whole point was supposed to be that they're blind but have hyper-sensitive hearing.
 

Opiate

Member
While I didn't especially love Bioshock 1's narrative either, it was at least more focused. Where Infinite tries to take stabs at jingoism / American nationalism, religious fundamentalism, racism, free will, capitalism, and quantum physics/multiple universes, Bioshock 1 is significantly more coherently focused on its central theme of libertarian freedom of choice.
 
Well that's still how they sort of act; they periodically turn around and then 'wake up' those creepy president kids to charge at you if you enter their line of sight/hearing too long, just like Bio 1 & 2's security cameras (they even turn yellow momentarily if you briefly step into their light like the cameras did). Admittedly I have no clue where the hell that beam of light is meant to be coming from considering the whole point was supposed to be that they're blind but have hyper-sensitive hearing.

Aren't they all stationary now and just rotate around? I can't recall all i know is that I was super low on ammo when I entered that sequence and I did my damnedest to avoid triggering them after the first one since the minions dropped no loot and had way too much health to be wasting shots on.
 

Fafalada

Fafracer forever
Metroidvania said:
This then creates the paradox of Comstock never existing, and thus, the universe 'rights' itself to only leave Bookers who could never become Comstock.
I may be reading into something that isn't there (Ie. I don't know if Levine is a Greg Egan fan or not) - but the premise is close enough to Infinite Assasin (eerily so in some parts) that I'd take it as a possible interpretation for the ending.
Ie. you may not be able to eradicate all possibilities of Comstock "branch" - but if Elizabeth is really omnipresent as demonstrated, she could map them into a function of measure-zero, which is about as good as non-existence from perspective of influence in an infinite number of universes.

Anyway - on another topic (that maybe got addressed in this thread, but it's long :/) - I am curious about one thing that I didn't see plot address at all after it gets a one-off mention by Elizabeth - ie. is she actually creating new branches when she wants to, and what's with people in them remembering cross-branch, especially dead ones.
 

DatDude

Banned
While I didn't especially love Bioshock 1's narrative either, it was at least more focused. Where Infinite tries to take stabs at jingoism, American nationalism, religious fundamentalism, racism, free will, capitalism, multiple universes and even (to a smaller extent) quantum physics, Bioshock 1 is significantly more focused on its central theme of libertarian freedom of choice.

You'd have a point if these were MEANT to be the main themes of the narrative as well.

They were just associated with the world of Columbia. They weren't trying to prove a point on how racism is bad, capitasm is bad, american nationalism is bad! They were just trying to take a relative snap shot of what America in 1912 was like. It does nothing for the narrative except create the perfect backdrop and setting.

There window dressings more or less.

The main centrail theme is a constant that is about choice and how they are nothing but illusions/irrelevant, and Multi Verse/Quantum Mechanic aspect.

Those were relevant from Second 1, and relevant till the very last second.
 

Opiate

Member
You'd have a point if these were meant to be the main themes of the narrative as well.

That is precisely my point: these other serious, complex topics are breached and briefly ruminated on without ever being tied in or resolved but nevertheless given some focus.

It would be like me saying "racism stinks" in the middle of this post. I mean, you can discount it and say it doesn't really matter because it clearly isn't central to the post I'm making right now, but one should question why I'd add that in to a post that is otherwise not about racism at all. It detracts from the post's coherency.

They were just associated with the world of Columbia. They weren't trying to prove a point on how racism is bad, capitasm is bad, american nationalism is bad! They were just trying to take a relative snap shot of what America in 1912 was like. It does nothing for narrative except create the perfect backdrop.

No, these elements were given significantly more focus than was strictly necessary for these sorts of efforts. It's entirely possible to create a racist, religiously fundamental nation without giving those ideas the focus they did.

There window dressings more or less.

Tight, coherent storytelling does not have "window dressing" that takes up as much space as, say, the ruminations on Capitalism did. The entire Fink zone was dominated by (cartoonish) allusions to the gilded age and the pitfalls of deregulated capitalism creating an underlying serf class, without ever really being tied in to the central thematic purpose of the game.

Again, it's not really all that surprising because both stories are fairly facile, I'm just trying to show why Bioshock 1 had some strengths that Infinite doesn't. It doesn't mean that Bioshock 1 is superior in every capacity.
 

DatDude

Banned
I love how when you first play you're like "what are they on about!?!?" and when you see it a second time you know exactly what is being implied.
I'm really enjoying seeing stuff I missed previously.

The stuff that just clicks together is equally as mind blowing as the ending I think.
 
Old-Elizabeth transports Booker into a future timeline. During the time that he is in there, 6 months pass in the "normal" timeline.

I love how when you first play you're like "what are they on about!?!?" and when you see it a second time you know exactly what is being implied.
I'm really enjoying seeing stuff I missed previously.

It's explained in a Voxaphone that the women was there as a checkpoint of sorts in case Booker and Elizabeth came by and that's how the guy at the ticket booth knew who they were when they walked into the room. It wasn't just some random hint.
 
This isn't comprehensive, but here's a look at the evolution of Infinite from the debut trailer to the launch trailer.

Debut
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WDQ4FhslSk

Debut gameplay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_DSfjAdhlU

E3 2011 demo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEBwKO4RFOU

VGA 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvIU1e7k7Oc

launch trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wq5KHPYWWY

Staggering how different the game was initially. Elisabeth was a much more active character in the battlefield. I know they earlier demos are essentially nothing more than vertical slices/targeted gameplay demos, but some of the changes, cut content and reworked content are really interesting.

Especially the E3 2011 demo. Also didn't realise they changed the design of the skyhook from the initial demo to E3 2011. I quite like the original design.
 

zkylon

zkylewd
ok, you probably have figured it out already but did Liz/Anna's birth happen after or before the baptism?

I mean, it'd have to happen earlier so Liz can exist and so be able to kill her own father, right?
 
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