Bioshock: Infinite

[Zeonix]

GAME: Bioshock Infinite
DEVELOPER: Irrational Games
RELEASE DATE: February 26, 2013
PLATFORM(s): PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3

BioShock Infinite is an upcoming first-person shooter video game and the third game in the BioShock series. Previously known as "Project Icarus", it is being developed by Irrational Games for a February 26, 2013 worldwide release on the Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms.

BioShock Infinite is not a direct sequel or prequel to previous BioShock games, taking place in an earlier period and different setting, though it features similar gameplay concepts and themes.

Building on the ideas of American Exceptionalism in the early 20th century, the game's protagonist, former Pinkerton agent, Booker DeWitt, is sent in 1912 to the floating air-city of Columbia to seek out a young woman, Elizabeth, who has been held captive there for the last twelve years. Though Booker rescues Elizabeth easily, the two are pursued by warring factions on the collapsing city: the Founders that strive to keep the city for pure American citizens, and the Vox Populi, a hodgepodge group of several smaller factions trying to seize control from the Founders. Booker finds Elizabeth to be central to this conflict, and that she also holds strange powers to manipulate rifts in the time-space continuum that ravage Columbia. Ken Levine, the lead designer for the game, took inspiration for the story and setting from both historical pieces at the turn of the 19th century, as well as more recent events including the "Occupy" protests. Levine took an unorthodox approach with the voice actors for Booker and Elizabeth, Troy Baker and Courtnee Draper, respectively, by developing the script and details of the story alongside them during their voice work, allowing them to help define the characters and deliver more convincing performances within the game.

The player controls Booker throughout the game, eventually teaming with the computer-controlled Elizabeth. Like previous BioShock games, the player uses a combination of weapons, psychokinetic powers granted through "vigors" and "nostrums", and Elizabeth's own powers to fight off hostile foes and make their way through Columbia. In contrast to the limited spaces of the underwater city of Rapture, the open-air city of Columbia provides for more combat challenges, including combat that takes place aboard the city's Skyline rollercoaster-like rail system. The game will also feature a "1999 Mode", harkening back to games like System Shock 2 where decisions made by the player will have a more permanent impact on the game, possibly leading the player to an unwinnable situation and requiring a restart from an earlier saved game.

BioShock Infinite has received early pre-release attention, winning several awards including the "Best of Show" at the 2011 E3 show.

The primary setting of BioShock Infinite is a city suspended in the air by giant blimps and balloons, called "Columbia", named in homage to the female personification of the United States. Unlike the secret development of the underwater city of Rapture used as the settings for BioShock and BioShock 2, Columbia was built and launched in 1900 by the American government to much fanfare and publicity. The city was meant to symbolize the ideas of exceptionalism; the reveal trailer for the game alludes to the 1893 Worlds Fair which is historically considered to be the emergence of American exceptionalism. On the surface, Columbia appeared to be designed as a floating Worlds Fair that could travel across the globe; however, some time after its launch but before the game's events, the city was revealed to be a well-armed battleship, and became involved in an "international incident" by firing upon a group of Chinese civilians during the Boxer Rebellion.

The city was disavowed by the United States government, and the location of the city was soon lost to everyone else. The city became, as described by Nick Cowen of The Guardian, "a kind of roaming boogieman moving from place to place and imposing its will on people below".

As a result of the city's isolation, a civil war eventually broke out on Columbia between different factions of citizens, each trying to seize control of the city from the powers-that-be. At the time of the game's events, only two main factions remain. One group are the Founders, the remnants of those retaining power over the city led by Zachary Hale Comstock. This is the city's ruling class, which seeks to keep Columbia purely for American citizens while denying foreigners the same privileges. The other is a group named Vox Populi (Latin for "voice of the people"), a rag-tag resistance group, led by Daisy Fitzroy, opposed to the ultranationalists. Vox Populi is formed from several factions with similar ideologies that fought to seize control and restore the rights of Columbia citizenship to all. However, years of war and struggle have driven Vox Populi to fight the powers-that-be solely out of blind hatred, resulting in more violent and brutal methods and leading to subfactions in the group.

Like Rapture, Columbia is considered a dystopia, but with signs present suggesting a theocratic government taking control at some point, and similar racial-purification concepts such as Nazism, jingoism, and xenophobia. One of the items in the press packages for the game included a tag that would purportedly be worn by immigrants aboard Columbia, requiring those of non-European descent, which includes Papists, Gypsies, Irish and Greeks, to list out numerous details, including religious affiliation and data relating to eugenics; another item was a Columbia propaganda poster that warned "We must all be vigilant to ensure the purity of our people." Columbia has been compared to a cross between steampunk and the Star Wars Bespin cloud city, as well as the airships of Final Fantasy settings though Irrational's Ken Levine has compared the weaponized city to the Death Star.

The events of the game take place in 1912. The player assumes the identity of Booker DeWitt, a disgraced former agent of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, who was dismissed for behavior beyond the acceptable bounds of the Agency. He is hired by mysterious individuals, aware of Columbia's location, and tasked to infiltrate the air-city and rescue a young woman named Elizabeth, who has been held aboard the air-city for the last twelve years. Though Booker finds Elizabeth easily enough, he quickly discovers that Elizabeth is central to the civil war raging in the city, her rescue being the start of the chain of events that ultimately lead to Columbia's down-fall. Each faction seeks to use Elizabeth to turn the tide of the conflict in their favor; the Founders believe Elizabeth's powers can help end the conflict and place them back in control, while the Vox Populi would rather kill Elizabeth than allow the Founders to get their hands on her, believing a prophecy that if Elizabeth falls, so does Columbia. Booker and Elizabeth are forced to trust each other in order to escape. Elizabeth also seeks to understand the powers that she has been given, believing Comstock to be responsible, and refuses to leave Columbia until she learns the truth. To complicate matters, the pair is chased by Songbird, a large, robotic bird-like creature who had been Elizabeth's friend and warden over the last twelve years of her imprisonment. Songbird was designed by its creator to feel betrayal should Elizabeth escape, comparable to an abusive spouse, according to Hilary Goldstein of IGN, and Elizabeth notes she "would rather be killed than be recaptured by Songbird."

In addition to the internal strife, Columbia is ravaged by tears in the fabric of space-time. A strange shimmering effect as seen by Booker causes momentary changes to pictures, banners, and people, representing the nearby presence of a tear. The tears have brought seemingly anachronistic elements into the Columbia of 1912; for example, an early gameplay demo footage features a record player in a bar plays a woman singing the lyrics to Tears for Fears' 1985 song "Everybody Wants to Rule the World". 1UP.com's preview of the 2011 E3 game demonstration denotes that at one point, Booker and Elizabeth find themselves in 1983, evident by a movie marquee showing Revenge of the Jedi (the original working name for Return of the Jedi), a result of a misfire of Elizabeth's powers involving tears in the fabric of space-time when she tries to help revive a horse.

Though the game takes place before the events of the previous two BioShock games (occurring in 1960 and 1968, respectively), Irrational Games has not confirmed if BioShock Infinite shares the same universe with these titles; Ken Levine left the question of the possibility unanswered in an interview stemming from the game's announcement.

Like BioShock and BioShock 2, BioShock Infinite is a survival horror first-person shooter with role-playing elements similar to the previous two games. As Booker, the player moves about the various structures of Columbia using a grappling hook, a series of railways connecting the buildings called the Skyline, and other transport means to search for Elizabeth. The player will gain weapons which can be used in numerous ways within the environment, including on the Skyline, to defeat enemies.

Booker gains powers and abilities by using vigors and nostrums that are found through Columbia, the equivalent of BioShock's plasmids and tonics. Vigors grant activated powers such as telekinesis, electricity manipulation, or animal control (as seen by the manipulation of a flock of crows within the gameplay demo), while nostrums are passive abilities that can improve the player's strength or damage resistance. Unlike BioShock in which the player was able to use special Gene Banks to alter the loadout of plasmids and tonics they had, the choice to imbibe a certain vigor or nostrum is permanent and cannot be changed later in the game, placing emphasis on the consequences of the player's choices throughout the game.

Infinite does not use EVE, the equivalent of magic points, for powering abilities gained by vigors or nostrums. Each container of vigor has a limited number of charges in it, and while more can be found around the game's environment, the player can only carry a limited number of vigors into battle, with more powerful vigors containing fewer charges.

Nostrums are permanent changes to the character and cannot be removed once used. These come in two types, stable and unstable varieties, the latter referred to as "potlucks". Stable nostrums are more expensive, but the player knows exactly what effect applying the nostrum will gain them. Unstable nostrums are cheaper or can be found lying around the environment, but upon use, require the player to select one of four random effects to alter their character, an idea inspired by Heroes of Might and Magic according to Levine.

Once reunited with Elizabeth, who also has a set of such powers, the player must work together with her to escape Columbia. For example, Elizabeth can create a localized rainstorm on foes, which the player, as Booker, can then fire upon with an electricity-based attack, electrocuting the foes. The player will not be directly in control of Elizabeth, but instead she will react to the player and the current situation in a manner similar to the AI Director in Left 4 Dead, according to Levine. However, using Elizabeth's powers also harms her, an action compared to the choice of killing or saving the Little Sisters from the previous games.

Elizabeth also has the ability to interact with the tears in the fabric of space-time, pulling objects from the other side to use within Columbia, escaping from battle through these, or repairing them. The player will need to protect Elizabeth, but will not need "to babysit and hand-hold" her through the game. Levine has stated about working with Elizabeth in the game that "in no way, shape, or form is this an escort mission", identifying that players reacted negatively to a late-game stage in the original BioShock in which they were tasked to protect a Little Sister.

Several different human forces are at work opposed to the player's progress within the city. Furthermore, the player and Elizabeth are chased by Songbird (sometimes simply referred to as "Him"), who is attempting to snatch Elizabeth from the player after being her guardian and companion for the last twelve years.

A set of larger, mechanical enemies created by the Founders, dubbed "Heavy Hitters", act as mini-bosses through the game, demanding new tactics from the player. One type of these are the Handymen, so named for their large porcelain doll-like hands; they are robotic-like monsters housing a human heart and head, with the ability to jump large distances and easily throw the player- and non-player characters alike. A second class are the Motorized Patriots, once used as tour guides for the city, decorated in patriotic colors and wear a wax mask of George Washington, assaulting its foes with a "peppermill" automatic machine gun. The player will have several options of approaching the Heavy Hitters, such as by using stealth to bypass the encounter, or to hack into the machine and take control of it. The Boys of Silence are men in foppish outfits locked into a metal helmet with giant ears; the humans inside are blind but due to the helmet have super-human hearing, and act as Columbia's security system, requiring the player to chose to carefully between stealth and a direct assault, whereupon the Boys can scream to call in back up. Finally, the Siren is a mysterious, completely enshrouded female figure, based on the Spiritualism movement near the end of the 19th century, that can revive defeated foes during combat, requiring the player to decide whether to concentrate attacks on the Siren or the newly-revived enemies.

The Skyline is a rail-based system (originally designed for moving cargo around Columbia but later used for personnel transport) similar to the concept found in the Ratchet & Clank games and described by Levine as "a roller coaster, over another roller coaster, over another roller coaster"; players activate a wrist-mounted tool that Booker and enemies wear to jump and hang onto the self-powered tracks. Players can jump onto, off of, and between Skyline tracks at any time, and may face enemies that use the system to attack; the player can use weapons in Booker's free hand to defend the character. The freedom of movement along the Skyline allows for several varieties of combat, including flanking, cover, and area-of-effect attacks through creative uses of the system.

Irrational Games has stated that the game's set pieces are not heavily scripted; this statement was made in response to reaction to a gameplay preview video released during the week of September 21, 2010, which, within ten minutes, demonstrated numerous elements of the game. The development team called the game's pacing "like BioShock 1", and that while there will be some scripted set pieces, the developers want the player to be able to explore Columbia at their own pace.

Unlike Jack or Delta, the silent protagonists of BioShock and BioShock 2 respectively, and who are guided by radio commands from a third party, Booker will be a vocal character, with dialogue designed to aid the player in leading Booker to complete his mission.

In addition to the normal game mode, BioShock Infinite will include a "1999 Mode", so named for the release year of System Shock 2, a game worked on by Levine and several other Irrational Games developers. 1999 Mode is a more challenging version of the game, requiring the player to make mutually exclusive specialization choices, such as choosing which weapon type that Booker is proficient at, which may make later parts of the game difficult to complete, and may require the player to reload from earlier saved games to manage their resources better.

Irrational Games has not committed to including a multiplayer element within the game. While the team have experimented with concepts for a multiplayer component, Levine has stated that they would only proceed forward if it had elements not otherwise found in multiplayer games like Halo or Call of Duty. At least two multiplayer modes were examined but later scrapped by Irrational. One mode was a co-operative mini-game similar to tower defense having the player characters miniaturized within an old-time arcade machine to defend against waves of enemies. This mode was cancelled early on to focus on a four player co-operative mode tentatively titled "Spec-Ops", similar to the mode of the same name from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The four players would have worked their way through levels from the single player game to complete missions under certain requirements. Further development on "Spec-ops" has since been dropped.

During Sony's E3 press conference on June 6, 2011 creative director Ken Levine announced on-stage that BioShock Infinite will support the PlayStation Move. Though some reports believed that a new Move controller would be produced for the game based on information from Sony, 2K Games debunked these stories, stating that no new hardware is being developed for the game.

Discuss, etc.

I don't exactly want to jump right into the spoilers, because I'm not sure how many of you have actually completed the game, and if you're like me, seeing something blacked out only makes you want to highlight it more, possibly ruining the experience later on. So I'll just say this. While I'm not really a fan of the gameplay aspects of any of the Bioshock games, the narrative and thought-provoking themes found throughout the games (even 2, though I probably appreciate that game more as a result of reading the Bioshock book) are generally enough to keep me interested, and with the introduction of Elizabeth, you're slightly more emotionally invested this time around. I'm sure you've all heard that the ending is mind-blowing, which isn't necessarily true if you take it as its given to you. If you take the extra few steps to connect all the dots presented to you through the voxaphones, you'll find that the storyline is a little more complex and has a little more depth than you initially believed.

Anyway, don't really think it deserves a 10/10, but it's still a pretty great game.

 

[DaRkOwNs]

I thought it was a great game, myself. The ending was pretty mind blowing, but it wasn't anything we haven't seen before in TV, movies, or video gaming so it's only an alright ending to me. And I even predicted the majority of the outcomes about halfway through the game. (My only advice is: if you give the game a go, don't skip the credits.)

My real praise is the environment of the game itself. At first it's like you're going on a killing rampage in heaven, which is a first in my gaming experience. As far as environment goes (and I won't say too much on it since there's a spoiler in pretty much every aspect of this game), it does an even better job than HL2.

I like gameplay as well, it has multi-level combat, great enemies, and the plasmids (already forgot the infinite name) feel great to use. Found myself using the shotgun and carbine through most of the game.

I also thought Elizabeth was one of the best female companions in video gaming. She wasn't a whiny useless character that you have to protect, and was even enormously helpful while not making the game too easy. Not as good a character as Alyx, in my opinion, but a great character nonetheless.

That's pretty much all I have to say. I'd give the game at least a 9, if not 10. I had a blast and probably would've even if there was no tangible story.

 

[Deverz]

I thought it was a great game, myself. The ending was pretty mind blowing, but it wasn't anything we haven't seen before in TV, movies, or video gaming so it's only an alright ending to me. And I even predicted the majority of the outcomes about halfway through the game. (My only advice is: if you give the game a go, don't skip the credits.)

My real praise is the environment of the game itself. At first it's like you're going on a killing rampage in heaven, which is a first in my gaming experience. As far as environment goes (and I won't say too much on it since there's a spoiler in pretty much every aspect of this game), it does an even better job than HL2.

The environment is fantastic, gives you a way to play that no other game has. If you've watched video's or played some you already know why

I like gameplay as well, it has multi-level combat, great enemies, and the plasmids (already forgot the infinite name) feel great to use. Found myself using the shotgun and carbine through most of the game.

Vigors and Salt instead of Plasmids and Adam.

I find myself using the Carbine and the Machine Gun and quite a bit of Vigor

I also thought Elizabeth was one of the best female companions in video gaming. She wasn't a whiny useless character that you have to protect, and was even enormously helpful while not making the game too easy. Not as good a character as Alyx, in my opinion, but a great character nonetheless.

I hated Alyx, She was annoying and in the way, Gordon is meant to fly solo I found I enjoyed parts without her alot more than when she was there
But Booker and Elizabeth, Great combo. She's helpful without being too helpful and when you get in a fight you can pretty much ignore her unless she's offering help or you're using her ability.

That's pretty much all I have to say. I'd give the game at least a 9, if not 10. I had a blast and probably would've even if there was no tangible story.

Although I never finished 1, I loved 2 and Infinite is looking to be right up there.
I don't like War FPS but I love games like HL and BS, they have to be different and unique. I can't wait to see if they make another

Not finished yet so I will wait to rate but it's about a 9 so far

 

[Zeonix]

I thought it was a great game, myself. The ending was pretty mind blowing, but it wasn't anything we haven't seen before in TV, movies, or video gaming so it's only an alright ending to me. And I even predicted the majority of the outcomes about halfway through the game. (My only advice is: if you give the game a go, don't skip the credits.)
My real praise is the environment of the game itself. At first it's like you're going on a killing rampage in heaven, which is a first in my gaming experience. As far as environment goes (and I won't say too much on it since there's a spoiler in pretty much every aspect of this game), it does an even better job than HL2.
I like gameplay as well, it has multi-level combat, great enemies, and the plasmids (already forgot the infinite name) feel great to use. Found myself using the shotgun and carbine through most of the game.

I also thought Elizabeth was one of the best female companions in video gaming. She wasn't a whiny useless character that you have to protect, and was even enormously helpful while not making the game too easy. Not as good a character as Alyx, in my opinion, but a great character nonetheless.
That's pretty much all I have to say. I'd give the game at least a 9, if not 10. I had a blast and probably would've even if there was no tangible story.

Each paragraph corresponds to the paragraph in your post (in case you're not sure to what I'm referring to and when):

I've yet to see anything approach the ideas presented in the end the way this game has, especially in how it relates to Bioshock, the idea of choice and why there is only a single ending this time around versus the multiple endings previously. It was fairly ingenious and thought-provoking, especially when you begin to understand the nature of infinity as it applies to the narrative.

Absolutely. Whenever I start a new game, I try to take in as much of the world as possible by reading signs, posters and things of that sort. Unfortunately, a lot of games fall flat in that regard as they tend to reuse a small number of assets very often, creating an extremely contrived experience. It becomes clear the game has little to offer in the way of an overall game verse. In Infinite, however, I was able to take the time to simply explore, be it in the form of listening to ongoing conversations, looking for the twins, understanding the motivations driving each of the characters, and so on. It's ridiculously rich and varied, and I enjoyed it immensely because I wasn't forced to necessarily play the game. It is, at its root, an experience.

I was playing on hard. The regular troops were fairly competent and went down the way they should in a game like this, but later on when fighting the handyman, for example, the game actually became tedious and a little frustrating as I'm forced to unleash hell 40 times over to kill this one enemy. I don't like when hard means this guy has a billion health and you take more damage. Gunplay was a little loose, which I expected based on the last 2 games, but it wasn't bad enough to warrant me focusing on it (until said boss-type enemy showed up). I really only used the electricity and fire powers in combat, unless I felt it necessary to close with an automaton by making it friendly for a few seconds. But overall, the only useful one for my playstyle was electricity as I was able to stun, kill and move on. Once you get the chain electricity upgrade, the game becomes super easy until boss enemies.

I'm probably one of 3 people who think this, but HL2 wasn't the ground-breaking game to me that everyone else seems to think it is. Maybe it's because I've never played HL1, but I felt like they didn't really know where they wanted to go with the story other than "Freedom Fighters" plus aliens. On that note, I don't give 2 shits about Alyx, and if she had been replaced with anything else, I probably wouldn't have noticed. I spent more time looking for hidden G-Man appearances than listening to whatever inane garbage flowed from her mouth.

On the other hand, I watched Elizabeth. I'd kinda just stand off in he distance and see how she interacted with the world around her, and I was completely sold. She made the game for me, and before it became an option, I wanted to ensure she'd never have to take a life. I was willing to do it for her every single time, so she could retain the fragile innocence she, alone, possessed in their world.

One thing that has me a little confused is people saying that Elizabeth was super useful in combat. I don't know if my game was bugged or what, but the only thing she did for me was throw the occasional medkit or ammo pack. A lot of the time I'd spot a lockpick or something and she'd run up as I'm about to pick it up and say, "HEY LOOK A LOCKPICK". Thanks, Liz. I got it.

@ Dev: I'm actually replaying 1 right now and advise you do the same. If you don't own it, let me know and I'll give you my extra copy. The sequel is supplementary to the first, and so I don't think you've really experienced just how sad and beautiful Bioshock actually is if you've only played 2 (Which tightens up the gameplay mechanics, but doesn't really compare to 1 in terms of story).

 

[fuzzy]

I thought the gunplay was terrific. I didn't even bother to use the sniper rifle, the carbine can easily take down enemies at any range - aiming was spot-on. Maybe there are better games, but after Crysis 2 & 3 and the like, this was a welcome change. Also, electric and fire powers are of course the winning team, with electricity stunning large groups and making them vulnerable and fire burning them to dust.

I found the siren to be the most unnerving enemy.

 

[Zeonix]

What difficulty were you on?

 

[fuzzy]

Normal, because I simply don't have the skill and endurance.

 

[Zeonix]

It's a lot easier to tell what mechanics work and don't work when you're playing on higher difficulties. Giving the handyman a billion health and the agility of a ninja, strength of the Hulk, and speed of the Flash? Yeah, bad idea. Making all of my weapons equally useless against these enemies? Also a bad idea.

 

[fuzzy]

Yeah, the handyman is also tough, but he's usually only accompanied by a few others, in contrast to the siren. That gives you only one target to dodge and shoot at. Still, it takes a disproportionally large amount of ordnance to bring him down.

 

[Zeonix]

The siren is infinitely easier on hard as you can just spam the fire balls which will damage her and kill the surrounding guys. She'll take the time to revive them, becoming corporeal, after which you can keep destroying the shit out of her. With the handyman on hard, you literally can't do anything. Use crows, and aim for the heart, oh wait he's recovered already and he punched me 30 feet away. Cool. Lightning? Oh, he's just running right through it. Ram? Don't make me laugh. The only strategy is to keep firing.

 

[DaRkOwNs]

On my play through, Elizabeth would frequently restore my Salts which was pretty critical on the last boss not to mention the money, ammo, health, and creating all the defensive options. As far as some of the enemies, it seemed like some enemies we're made to be paired up with certain ammo and vigor upgrades. But by the end of the game, especially on hard, I only had about half of all of them.

And I loved Alyx, I thought she was funny and kinda bad-ass. But I was comparing HL2 and BI because of the atmosphere. Half-life did an amazing job creating an oppressive atmosphere while allowing it to be seemingly open world, despite the almost extreme linearity. As far as combat goes, HL2 only really changed the game as far as vehicles and physics based combat. But, I mean, cmon. Gordon Freeman. Doesn't speak once yet he's one of the most iconic heroes of all time. I thought Booker really rated up there with him, especially in the end.

One of the big criticisms I see so far is how Bookers story causes viewers to disconnect from him, but I found it pulling me in further.

 

[Zeonix]

What about his story causes a disconnect?

 

[DaRkOwNs]

What about his story causes a disconnect?

It was just what I read on some of the major review sites. (Highlight the text since I'm mentioning spoilers and can't figure out how to do the drop down text, also end-game spoilers.)

It was mentioned about how the viewer was disconnected from his story because pretty much all of it is exposed in the last half hour of the game. That and because of how you see Booker -from- bookers perspective and how it makes him the good and bad guy. In contrast to the first game where it turns out your under hypnotic suggestion the entire time, booker just...forgot. The dimension hopping caused him to create new memories, but it was never really explained why other than it's a result of the tearing. It turns out everything in the future is Bookers fault for trying to wash away his sins.

It's hard to understand, especially given the timely nature of all this information. I, personally, like this about the game. Even if the ending was kinda forced. It -seemed- like they were trying to match the twist at the end of Bioshock. And, just like bioshock, you're forced to take it for what it is despite a lot of it being paradoxical. But it makes Booker seem far more human, IMO. Everyone makes mistakes and most people have the tendency to run away from their problems.

I'd google it, I believe it was IGN's and Gamespots review that mentioned these. Both of which tend to create multi-page articles in their review. I also trust Gamespot reviews over most others since they tend to dissect who would like what genre.

 

[Zeonix]

I was in the middle of writing a long reply when it occurred to me that I'd just be reiterating what I've gathered from the game already, so I'll just repost some stuff from around the web:

Booker Dewitt, the players character, has been entrusted with the job of going to Columbia to rescue a girl called Elizabeth and bring her back to New York. Apparently, this deed will rid Booker of all his (gambling?) debts.After blasting off into Columbia, Booker goes about trying to get to Elizabeth who is locked away in a tower. Before he can reach her though, he receives a telegram telling him NOT to pick number 77. He ignores it, not understanding what it means. He then sees a sign showing off a somewhat devilish hand with the letters AD printed on the back of it. These letters (AD) match the letters imprinted on the back of his, Booker’s, hand.

The Prophecy Comstock, the ruler of Columbia, predicted that a ‘false Shepard’ would come to Columbia to try and steal their lamb (Elizabeth) from them. This false Shepard can be identified by the AD mark on the back of his hand. This false Shepard is Booker.
After going to watch the Columbia raffle on his way to the tower, Booker is told to choose a raffle ball, which he does. It is number 77 and he wins the raffle. His prize is getting to throw his ball at a couple of tied up villagers. After going to throw the ball, Booker’s hand is stopped by a Police Officer who reveals him as the false Shepard. Now Booker must fight through hundreds of people just to get to Elizabeth and hundreds more to try and escape Columbia.

After he finds her things become pretty straight forward; escape this city in the sky.
It isn’t until near the end that the plot heats up again. Before we go into this though, we need to take a look at Elizabeth’s ‘tearing’ power.
Oh, off topic but it is also important to remember she has one of her little fingers missing.

Anyway, this tearing power was given to her as a child after the Lutece twins experimented on her (she did not naturally have this power). The twins had previously made machinery that could open tears, however Elizabeth, after these experiments, could do it without any help.
Tears are basically otherworldly things. Other dimensions. A tear can be opened bringing in an object or thing from another world, or an entire world itself can be opened and entered into. However, and I stress this, new universes or items can’t be created from scratch. They HAVE to already exist for them to be brought into either the current world or accessed in their entirety.
With Elizabeth’s power out the way, let’s move on.

Songbird, a massive mechanical bird that protects Elizabeth and can be summoned and controlled by a whistle flute thing, always seems to intervene at the last moment and take Elizabeth from Booker. When Songbird does this near the end, Booker goes on to try and rescue her. He hears, through mini tears in the air, Elizabeth being tortured and brainwashed into becoming the heir to the throne that Comstock wanted her to be.
After going through a tear into another dimension, Booker discovers an old, frail, Elizabeth looking out over a burning city. The chaos is her doing. She explains to Booker that this can never happen and gives him a piece of paper to give to the young Elizabeth. He then goes through another tear into a universe where Elizabeth is still being tortured and brainwashed. After rescuing her he gives her the note and all seems well.

They go on to find Comstock however after he (Comstock) tries to get Booker to explain why Elizabeth is missing her pinky finger, Booker kills him, denying any knowledge of it. Elizabeth, however, knows Booker knows something, even if he doesn’t remember.
They attempt to escape, again, however they are attacked. This time by loads of Vox. Elizabeth then realises she can control Songbird by using his whistle. They use him to help kill the remaining Vox. Afterwards Elizabeth gets Songbird to destroy the Siphon; the original source of her power and a device that forces her to remain within Columbia and stops her opening up another dimension to escape into.

After it is destroyed, Booker drops Songbirds whistle because it becomes electrified and panics as Songbird rushes towards them, no doubt about to flatten them both. However Elizabeth opens up a tear into another world, allowing them to escape. This world is Rapture.

As they wander through Rapture they then leave through a lighthouse door and come into a huge, massive, open, infinite space full of never-ending lighthouses.
This is where the explanations start.

So each lighthouse represents a world, a dimension. What are these dimensions? Well they could be anything, worlds never even heard of, but they are also the outcome of every possible situation and choice.
So, for instance, if you decided to stay at home (and play Infinite lol) rather than go to work, another dimension would be created for where you didn’t stay home and you did go to work. A new world is created for everything that could have ever been.
We then learn, by going through one of these lighthouses, that after killing thousands of African-Americans, Booker went to get Baptised to rid him of his sins, however he refused the Baptism at the last moment and went on to live his life. Booker and Elizabeth move onto another lighthouse – another thing that happened in Booker’s life.

We are now in Booker’s apartment, and there is Robert Lutece standing in the doorway. You hear a baby called Anna in one of the rooms and after entering it, you see a very young child (Anna) in a cot. Booker denies frantically there ever being a child, completely confused as to why this is happening. But to continue he must go through with the scene how it happened before. He hands his child over to Robert who then leaves, saying something along the lines of ‘Mr. Comstock forgives your sins’ or something like that. We then go to a scene where we see Comstock holding Booker’s daughter as he is about to go through a tear into another dimension (the dimension of Columbia), however Booker tries to stop him leaving, begging for his daughter back. Unfortunately Comstock gets away, however he isn’t quick enough and as the tear closes Anna’s little finger gets caught in the closing tear and gets cut clean off.

It is now obvious that Elizabeth, previously called Anna, is Booker’s daughter.

Now this is where it gets a little confusing. Booker realises that the Lutece twins, who, I would like to point out now aren’t actually twins, are just versions of the same person from different dimensions who met each other, came to help him after they were betrayed by Comstock. They came to help him get his daughter back from Columbia.

They opened a tear and brought him into the Columbia dimension. After bringing him through, Booker’s mind created new memories in place of the old ones. He created a new purpose for himself in this other world, and this purpose was what he wanted to do all along: find Anna/Elizabeth and get her back.

Unfortunately it wasn’t as simple as that.

Before entering the final lighthouse we hear Booker saying about how they will just go back and kill Comstock in his crib to prevent all this, however that actually means killing himself as you see in the next section.
When, in the original dimension, he rejected the Baptism, another world was created for if he had accepted it. This is the place they are in now. This is the world where he accepted the Baptism.

After being Baptised, what did this new, free of sin Booker do? He called himself Zachery Comstock and created a city in the sky called Columbia. He was born again but this time an evil man.
To kill Comstock when he was born, Booker has to kill himself when he turned into Comstock. And that is at the place in another dimension where he accepted the Baptism instead of rejecting it.
Lots of Elizabeths appear and they proceed to drown Booker, presumably in the Baptising basin. After he dies we see all of the Elizabeths disappear.

Now that is the end. The credits roll from there. HOWEVER, there is more. I will go into this after explaining all of the above, though.
So you might be wondering, generally, what all that meant.

When Booker was first faced with the choice of a Baptism, he declined. He then went on to have a baby. Obviously another dimension was made for if he had accepted the Baptism, in which case he then became Comstock who created Columbia. Both Comstock and the original Booker existed within their own dimensions, doing their own thing. However after Comstock needed an heir but couldn’t have a child because he was infertile, he used the Lutece twins tearing machine to take Booker’s own child, Anna from him. Technically, because Comstock is Booker but just in another world, Anna is still biologically related to him. Booker actually sold Anna to him to pay off his depts to him, and I know what you are thinking: isn’t there just another reality for if he HADN’T sold her? Well, yes but also no. Because Comstock wanted – needed in fact – Anna so badly (and it could be only Anna because she was the only child related to him) even if Booker hadn’t sold her, Comstock would have entered Booker’s world and taken her by force. There is no world, while Comstock existed anyway, where Booker and Anna stayed together.

Booker was caught in a never-ending cycle of trying to save his daughter. He had already been to Columba over a hundred times before. This is proved when he is in Columbia and asked by the Lutece twins to flip a coin. He does and it is heads. They mark it on a chalk board under ‘heads’ and you see that there are tons (over 100) of other heads markings on it. No tails have been marked down. This means that Booker has been there over 100 times before, flipped the same coin and, as always, had the SAME OUTCOME. While you can choose, during the story, to kill someone or let them live, that is a choice (no doubt another world is created to accommodate the other choice you had) and not chance. Flipping a coin is chance. He already flipped the same coin every time he had been to Columbia before and, as always, just like all the events there, it was scripted to heads.

Back to where we were before, though. It didn’t matter what happened, he would always end up where he was. It was IMPOSSIBLE to avoid. Because Booker had a daughter and Comstock needed her and he made their dimensions cross and he took her, there was NO OTHER dimensions with a different outcome. Every world Booker existed in ended up with him losing Anna and going to save her. A never ending-loop.

HOWEVER, it does end, here. After Booker accepted he needed to die to kill Comstock, he allowed Elizabeth to kill him. By killing himself at the point in time where he accepted the Baptism, he killed off ANY POSSIBILITY of a Comstock. Comstock never existed. Comstock never came and took Booker’s baby and Columbia was never built. Anything Comstock had an effect on or had anything to do with was destroyed and never happened.
This is where a lot of people lose it. They think Booker, Comstock, Elizabeth and Columbia ALL died, but they didn’t. Booker didn’t kill himself when he was first born; he killed himself when he turned into Comstock. All that did was kill off any Comstock version of him that there ever was.

After the credits, there is a little, tiny section, where Booker wakes up in his apartment and hears Anna crying. He goes into her room and calls out “Anna?!”. That is where the game really ends.
This little part backs up what I am saying.

Because only Comstock was killed and stopped from ever existing, the Booker that declined the Baptism STILL existed. However because Booker and Comstock’s worlds crossed, all parts of Booker’s life that included Comstock or anything from the Comstock dimension itself was removed from his life. There were no Lutece twins who came to collect his daughter, no Columbia, no Comstock and no adult Elizabeth in his, or any other dimension ever. He then went back to the last time in his life that was free from Comstock related madness: him in his apartment with Anna as a baby before he met Comstock.

Now people may come back with “But Elizabeth disappeared from the scene after drowning Booker”, and while this is true, it makes sense, and is also one of the most depressing parts of the game, despite its happy ending. Elizabeth in that form never existed. The girl you went through the entire story with? She never existed. Anna IS Elizabeth, but because every outcome of baby Anna’s life was to end up in Columbia with Comstock in that tower and grow up there, when Comstock died and everything he had done and he had effected died with him, the adult Elizabeth also went. There was no adult Elizabeth in any other dimension that Comstock wasn’t in. Because he was in every world she was in, when he died, the adult her died to, leaving only baby Anna. This means that while Anna will be free to live with Booker, she will never turn into the same person. She will never be able to open tears as that was an ability given to her by the Lutece twins in Columbia, she will probably never be able to pick locks (why would she need to learn to do that?) and a lot of her personality that was influenced by being in Columbia will be different. She will never be Elizabeth. She will always be Anna, a completely different human than the one we got to know. So, in a way Elizabeth DID die. That, to me, is a very, very, ver depressing thing indeed, as Elizabeth was an incredibly crafted character and the best female character in any game I’ve ever seen.

Another quick thing to note, that some people may mention, is: why did they bother to stop Comstock at all? Why not just change what had happened by going back to old memories and parts in time through those lighthouses? The thing is that they can’t. When you go back to previously, already, made memories, you can only relive them, you can NOT remake them. Booker couldn’t go back and choose to run off with Anna, because his decision to sell her was made and he HAD to go through with it even if he went back knowing it was wrong. Even in an alternate reality where he DIDN’T sell her, Comstock still came to steal her away.

Now, the only slight odd thing about this is: if you can’t change already made memories and situations, how did he allow Elizabeth to drown him and kill off Comstock if that ISN’T what happened? Well, while Elizabeth was not in his memory, and could not effect proceedings to do with other people, you’ll notice she can still touch and interact with Booker. So while her control over the entire, overall scene is limited, she can kill Booker in that scene herself, and end it there.
So there you have it! Ask any questions you want in the comments and I will try my best to answer them!

Quickly; if you want a summary of what happened minus the confusing shit: Comstock was Booker in an alternate reality where he didn’t decline the Baptism. Comstock took, either by force or through buying, Booker’s daughter Anna (also Elizabeth). Booker went on a cycle of trying to get her back that never ended and always ended up the same. In the end, he let himself be killed at the point where he turned into Comstock and thus everything ‘Comstock related’ died. He became himself in his last pure, Comstock-less memory, which was him with baby Anna. The end.

P.S: A quick note I forgot to mention: The AD on Booker’s hand stands for: Anna Dewitt. Comstock foresaw Booker coming now doubt because he knew he would try and get his daughter back because he never wanted her to leave.

And how it connects to Bioshock:

Many crazy things happen at the end of BioShock Infinite, but the final mind-warping sequence is kicked off by a surprise trip to Rapture, the underwater city from the original game.While I was playing through BioShock Infinite, I thought it was strange that there were literally no references to Rapture or Andrew Ryan at all. Like, zero. Even if it wasn’t integrated into the plot, I thought perhaps I’d at least find a newspaper clipping lying around talking about that “other” unbelievable city, or some passing mention of a rivalry between Ryan and Comstock or something.

When you get to Rapture, Elizabeth explains it by saying it’s another possible universe. Okay, I thought, we’re simply playing in a different game universe accessed via lighthouse, and didn’t really think about it much past that.
What I failed to realize is what she really meant. That Rapture, and really all the events of the original BioShock are direct, alternate parallels of everything that happens in BioShock Infinite, right down to the characters themselves.

The proof that can’t be overlooked? In the original BioShock, it’s made expressly clear that only Andrew Ryan himself can operate the Bathyspheres in the city once they’re on lockdown. Part of the twist of that game as that you can also operate them, and you eventually discover than you, as Jack, are Andrew Ryan’s illegitimate son (or probable clone) which allows you to use them yourself.

In Infinite, you’re operating them once again.
The implication here is that DeWitt/Comstock is Jack/Andrew Ryan. Both was some version of the other, who goes on to kill their elder who has created a massive city as a tribute to their own ego. I even think that they do it the same way too. We are explicitly told that Booker enters Columbia from a parallel universe via the lighthouse, but we have to remember that Jack did the same thing. By entering through a lighthouse, that would also indicate he’s coming from another universe as well, right? Perhaps his plane crashed through a tear?

What else do we have if Jack is Booker and Andrew Ryan is Comstock? Well, we have the obvious idea that Rapture is Columbia, sunk under the ocean instead of floating above it. In this universe, things get a bit wonky, but the comparisons are still clear. Plasmids are Vigors, EVE is Salts. Taking it a step further, Atlas/Fontaine is Daisy Fitzroy, the blood thirsty working class hero/eventual psychopath who challenges Ryan/Comstock and leads to Rapture/Columbia’s downfall.

Dr. Lutece is Dr. Tenenbaum, looking after the little girls with magic powers. That would make Little Sisters fractured versions of Elizabeth, looked after by a multitude of Big Daddies, all condensed into the massive Songbird in Columbia. The brown hair, the nearly identically arranged blue and white clothes. It’s now impossible for me not to see Elizabeth in the Little Sisters. Their eyes are glowing yellow, but if I bet if that light faded, you’d see a sparkling pair of blue eyes staring back at you.
It all lines up almost perfectly, but is still hidden enough where most people (myself included) might not realize the full extent of the crossover until days later. It’s too well arranged not to have been crafted on purpose. Look at Elizabeth next to that Little Sister! How is something so obvious, yet so subtle at the same time? Well, because most of us were attempting to untangle the events of Infinite alone, a monumental task in itself. There really wasn’t time to make all these connections in the moment.

Many thanks to a few commenters for pointing out the Bathysphere genetic code item, which led to me attempting to unravel the rest of the parallels. I highly doubt I’m the first to do so, but if I can help blow some minds by spreading the theory, that works for me.

 

[DaRkOwNs]

Ahh, yeah I didn't even put those events together. It didn't even occur to me that he shouldn't be able to operate the bathyspheres.

 

[Zeonix]

A lot of people seem to forget (or ignore altogether) that Columbia was siphoning off technology from Rapture, allowing for the creation of plasmid-like technology, the Songbird tech derived from Big Daddies and such. In some of the voxaphones, you'll hear Fink talk bout peering through the tears, marveling at the technology displayed by these people, and wondering how he could go about stealing it for profit on Columbia.

 

[Zeonix]

http://peripsuche.blogspot.com/2013/03/bioshock-infinite-thematic-analysis.html

 

[Damaera]

I honestly didn't expect much from this game, even after seeing the review scores but after beating it I have to say that this was a pretty ******* amazing game. The main thing that confuses me is how Elizabeth got her powers. Maybe it's because I didn't find all the voxaphones, but I just don't really get it.

 

[Zeonix]

Obviously, spoilers ahead.

So Comstock offers to take on Booker's debt in exchange for his daughter. Comstock heads into an ally, with Booker chasing him as he instantly regretted his decision. Lutece opens up a tear with the goal of retrieving both Comstock and his package.. After viewing a world appear out of seemingly nothing and with people and machinery on the other side of the tear, Booker freaks out, and grabs hold of her, and a tug of war commences. Comstock orders Lutece to close the tear, but Booker refuses to let go. Comstock draws in most of Anna before the tear closes, but at the last second she reaches out for her father (as she tends to do throughout the game and as Little Sisters do to the Big Daddys, which also happens to correspond with Booker Dewitts initials 'BD'). The tear closes around her finger, severing it from her hand, effectively making her exist in two separate universes simultaneously, giving her the ability to both perceive and open doorways to alternate realities. She believes her ability is a form of wish fulfillment, or that she's generating these realities, but the truth is, because there are infinite universes existing simultaneously, she's really just opening a tear into whichever verse is closest to what she desires.

TLDR: As a result of Booker's failed rescue of Anna from Comstock, her finger gets severed making her exist in multiple universes at once, creating some kind of paradox and she get powers that are exceeded only by the Lutece "twins".

 

[fuzzy]

Well, the twins' "condition" is also the result of an "accident". It's on one of the recordings in their shop.