(Originally published to Glitchwave on 8/22/2023)
[Image from glitchwave.com]
BioShock Infinite
Developer: Irrational Games, Blind Squirrel, 2K Games
Publisher: 2K Games
Genre(s): First-Person Shooter
Platforms: PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Release Date: March 26, 2013
Judging by Infinite’s opening sequence, the game at least exudes some sense of BioShock familiarity. One indelible image from the first BioShock title is a lighthouse prototype of the monumental pillar erected from the abyssal ocean below where the city of Rapture is located, where Jack attempted to find a place of respite after being stranded in the open waters after his plane crash. Booker DeWitt, the protagonist of Infinite, is conversely being comfortably rowed to the pillar with a better sense of certainty and purpose. After climbing the pillar and opening the gate with a secret code, Booker enters the inner vessel where Jack is introduced to his birthright from the vessel’s on-looking window screen. However, what will surprise the player is that this elevator goes up. Instead of being submerged a hundred leagues under the sea, Booker is transported to the blindingly golden glimmers of the sky. Has Booker died and gone to heaven? No, he’s gone to Columbia: a civilization sitting above the clouds modeled to resemble heaven as much as humanly possible. From the vessel’s one clear reference to the outside world, Booker views the sights of Columbia’s magnificence. From the soaring zeppelins, the lofty angel statue looking over the miles of metropolis, to the launching of fireworks, Columbia’s beauty will make the player involuntarily shed a single tear. I see what the developers did here, and I approve of their efforts to recreate the opening sequence from the first BioShock. Infinite’s opening sequence suggests that the same scenario can still elicit a wondrous effect, even if it does warrant a smidge of deja vu from how it’s directed. The core difference is that the initial glimpse of Columbia evokes a feeling of elated marvel as opposed to anxious curiosity upon seeing the outside of Rapture. Still, it’s impressive that what I regarded as the most effective hook of an opening sequence in gaming can be rivaled in scope by a game in the same series.
Columbia is as much of a culture shock for the player as it is for Booker. For a series that seemed like Rapture was destined to be its permanent stomping grounds, it’s almost ironic that this new setting is the antithesis of the underwater society. Setting foot on Columbia and seeing the sights from a more personal viewpoint will leave the player just as gobsmacked as they did as a voyeur from the vessel. The sun is radiating down on the spotless streets where a bustling crowd of people engage in mid-day merriment. Unlike the denizens of Rapture, these people aren’t missing full rows of teeth and seem to have all of their mental faculties intact. Shops are still in business and choirs are cheerfully performing an anachronistic acapella version of “God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys. The scene here is so idyllic that it’s what I imagine Norman Rockwell is busy painting in the afterlife. When Booker gains his first plasmid vigor by drinking it like an elixir, the smelling salt of BioShock recognizability prudently flashes us back to the reality of the game we are supposed to be playing. The following scene will be the first of many scrapes in the process of ripping up the proverbial wallpaper mirage that Columbia bestows. Booker uses the possession vigor to perform a Jedi mind trick on a ticket machine for an ongoing raffle. By winning the raffle, Booker gets the utmost privilege of throwing a baseball at an exploited interracial couple as a warmup for a humiliating tarring and feathering they are about to endure. Whether or not you make the right choice and do not cave into the racist peer pressuring of the time, guards will stop Booker mid-throw and accost him for the engraved marking on the back of his right hand. Apparently, this mark labels him as some kind of pariah and will stop at nothing to apprehend him. Now, the city's superficial mask has been torn off and the cop slaughter that ensues serves as the point where the game starts to make sense.
Let’s continue to harp on the setting of Columbia because it bothers me as much as it beguiles me. I don’t think I have to further compare and contrast how Columbia’s atmosphere differs from Raptures because anyone can plainly see it’s a night and day situation. Also, presenting a setting with a more pleasant and sparkling aesthetic, albeit on a surface level, is not the bothersome facet of difference regarding the sky city. What irks me is how far the world design seen in Rapture takes a steep regression with Columbia. While many immersive sim enthusiasts will scoff at me for stating this, the level plotting in both previous BioShocks (especially the first one) was a rich, multi-layered trek down the rabbit hole of Rapture. Areas were mapped with a great deal of meticulous plotting and inspiration, as if every corridor of the dank, sunken cesspit told its own story in tandem with the big picture of Rapture’s colossal failures. Objectives given in the first game may have admittedly tested the thresholds of tedium with fetch quests a tad too liberally. Still, the oppressiveness of Rapture’s labyrinthian hallways never faltered even with subsequent visitations. Running through Columbia, on the other hand, is as linear as an esophageal tract. To say that progression in Infinite is streamlined is an understatement: the game is ironed out like a graphic t-shirt. Infinite is one straightaway trek after another with the frequent enemy swarm to halt Booker’s momentum and distract the player from their straightforward trajectory. It’s a wonder why the developers implemented the arrow feature that points to the objective because every decimal point of Booker’s quest is conspicuously defined. What occurs when a game makes a mad dash from point A to B is that the setting becomes a foreground piece of window dressing. Infinite will take the player through countless Columbia streets, plazas, docks, and the insides of buildings with extravagant, Victorian-era decor. Still, do any of these setpieces really matter in the grand scheme of things? While exploring Columbia is still fractured by individual levels, the inability to stop and smell Columbia’s pristine roses makes the city far more of a monolith. As immense as I’ve made it sound, the context here suggests that Columbia is lacking layers. Columbia is grand from the aerial view but proves to be shallow past the surface. Even with the new sky-line mechanic that sees Booker zipping through Columbia on his makeshift transit system, the trajectory just amounts to either a shortcut or a cyclical loop on the track. Also, while I enjoy the adrenaline of the first-person rollercoaster, this extent of swashbuckling in a BioShock game makes me feel a little embarrassed for the claustrophobic previous titles in the series. We still have video diaries and kinetoscope viewings as peripheral tools for further insight into Columbia, but their implementation doesn’t make much sense considering the city is still thriving. One thing that does interest me is how they managed to implement an active beach with sand and rippling waves crashing on the shore of this floating island.
You know what video game genre revels in this design philosophy that’s as narrow as an uncooked spaghetti noodle? The first-person shooter genre, specifically the modern examples that encompassed the genre’s peak of popularity in the late 2000s/early 2010s. One might be confused by my assertion that the then-king of video game trends is the primary cause of Infinite’s streamlining considering the BioShock series has always been a first-person shooter game by definition. As I’ve expressed before, BioShock’s success was in part because it was a sophisticated outlier of its kind. It wasn’t convoluted enough for the immersive sim PC playing crowd, but its level design and narrative were far more cerebral than any of the campaigns of the gung-ho FPS games it was competing with on consoles. Guess which direction Infinite takes to throw off BioShock’s refined genre equilibrium? On top of the linear level direction, BioShock’s treasure trove of firearms organized by a weapon wheel has been reduced to two firearms on Booker’s person, swapping between the two with a button press. This limited method of alternating between the weapons doesn’t make a lick of sense to me when the more typical FPS games implement it, so you can imagine the weight of the exasperated sigh I made when I discovered that Infinite followed suit with it when I picked up another gun. However, the game still assures that Booker will be alternating his sparse selection frequently because the weapon variety retains its enormity. Booker’s first means of defense against Columbia’s righteous pigs is a small, yet effective pistol, which can soon be supplemented by the BioShock staples of a shotgun, machine gun, RPG, etc. New additions that will be objects of curiosity at Booker’s feet include the kicking hand cannon, the explosive launcher volley gun, a carbine hunting rifle, and a bodacious, automatic chain gun to turn armies of enemies into Swiss cheese in seconds. Each of these weapons also has a modified Vox Populi twin, the proletariat brand, to pick up for slight variation. Booker’s melee weapon is the sky-hook, a handy tool of the “steampunk” variety that allows Booker to latch onto the sky rails as well as obliterate the faces of the Columbia Founder's opposition to a gooey pulp. Instead of being traded in and out by the limited weapon system, the sky-hook is activated by a specific button on the controller…like the melee weapon in every other FPS game. Sigh. I’m still aggravated that I cannot wield all of these weapons in a tricked-out arsenal, but I’m pleased that BioShock has retained its standard of weapon variety.
Fortunately, all of the plasmids that I refuse to refer to by their colloquial term “vigors” can be selected on an option wheel at any time. For this aspect of BioShock’s gameplay foundation, Infinite delivers the goods after BioShock 2 half-assed the plasmid lineup with too many recycled ones from the first game. One may chide at my apparent naivety and point out that “Devil’s Kiss” and “Shock Jockey” are rebranded clones of “Incinerate!” and “Electro Bolt” from the first game, but I’m well aware of their near exact resemblances. The plasmid freshness I’m referring to is the new batch that only Columbia has in stock. “Murder of Crows” unleashes a biblical plague of the black birds to peck bits of flesh off of enemies in a whirlwind daze. “Bucking Bronco'' and “Charge” may have similar names, but the former renders enemies in a state of humiliating vulnerability by suspending them over the ground for a short period, and the latter sees Booker making a mad dash at enemies like a raging bull with his sky-hook. “Return to Sender” is a spiraling energy shield that absorbs enemy firepower and is then launched back at them. Considering the rate of enemy firepower is amplified to better fit the FPS genre in Infinite, this is arguably the most practical plasmid the game offers. My personal favorite new plasmid is “Undertow” which grapples enemies with the titanic force of giant, aquatic tentacles, making me feel as if I have the divine power of Poseidon being channeled out of Booker’s left wrist. Retain the dual-wielding mechanic from BioShock 2 with these debuting plasmids and suddenly the plasmid gameplay is finally both exciting and functional in combat.
Because Infinite erases all pretenses of BioShock’s FPS identity, the developers had to drum up a more fitting way of penalizing the player for dying. Vita Chambers are too ultramodern a piece of biological innovation for the second decade of the 20th century. Hence, Infinite settles on the FPS stand-by of subtracting a sum of money. The amount depleted is scaled by the total amount of money Booker has in his wallet, which can break the bank if Booker is sitting pretty on wads of cash. Finally, a BioShock game upholds a reasonable penance for failure as opposed to allowing the player to callously treat death like a minor inconvenience…ideally. In practice, losing a modicum of money is superfluous because it can easily be regained in seconds. The silver eagle currency is strewn about the streets of Columbia along with tons of other goodies like food, medkits, and ammunition. Making a meticulous effort to collect all of the helpful detritus is one of the only ways in which Infinite retains its BioShock roots. The major difference, however, is that Booker needn’t act like a packrat for survival. Because Columbia is still an active civilization, every resource is plentiful. If Booker ever exhausts the ammo in one of his guns, he can simply swap it out with another. Why bother purchasing medkits from one of the dispensaries when fallen enemies are strapped with them? The only logical incentive for storing large quantities of coinage is for the weapon and plasmid upgrades. Besides, Booker shouldn’t die so easily because he’s got a shield meter on top of his health to stave off dying more efficiently. Why does Booker have a shield when he doesn’t have any physical armor? Because it’s a first-person shooter, god dammit.
At least Booker DeWitt is a fresh change of pace for BioShock protagonists on the simple merit that he vocalizes his emotions. The previous BioShock entries could skate by with the typical, yet slightly archaic, character trope of a silent protagonist because Jack was a mere vehicle in learning about Rapture’s sordid past through exploration, and anything more advanced than the stolid demeanor Big Daddy in BioShock 2 would contradict the inherent brutish nature of Rapture’s bodyguards. In a faster-paced game whose narrative zooms past any chance for the environment to utter a single word of exposition, Infinite delivered exceptionally with Booker DeWitt. While escaping one of gaming’s most common tropes, Booker is still a solid fit in the overly capable male protagonist role in the grander scope of fiction. Extrapolating on Booker’s characterization of a handsome, strapping, thirty-something intrepid adventurer man should conjure up stark comparisons to Indiana Jones and other leading men cut from the same cloth. Booker’s air of cynicism and moral ambiguity also give him that edge that prevents his character from verging into cheesy John Wayne territory, which can also be said for Harrison Ford’s iconic archeologist. Booker is both a reinvigorating change of pace for BioShock’s protagonists and a cliche for leading men in an action role, a balance that makes him at least charismatic enough to appreciate.
Besides the occasional instance of mumbling something under his breath, Booker’s character exfoliates through his interactions with Elizabeth, the central secondary character of Infinite. She’s also Booker’s impetus for going through the painstaking trouble of visiting Columbia as retrieving her will absolve him of some felonious debt that isn’t given context until the very end of the game. From Elizabeth’s rescue from her tall tower prison, her demure first impressions, to her stunning beauty with piercing blue eyes, one could certainly infer that Elizabeth is the epitome of a damsel in distress. The girl is more liable to get swept up by Columbia’s antagonistic forces than Princess Peach frolicking through a dark alleyway in the Mushroom Kingdom’s red-light district. However, in all that time Elizabeth was isolated from the outside world, she made the decision to thrive as much as possible in her solitary state and exceed our expectations.
After freeing her from her elevated chamber, Elizabeth accompanies Booker for the remaining duration of the game with a select few breaks in between that coincide with some specific story beats. The player’s other likely inference regarding Elizabeth’s role is that her presence has triggered another grueling escort quest, and she’ll inadvertently cause the player pain and suffering at every step in their attempts to protect her. In a twist of fate, Booker benefits greatly from having the little lady by his side. Elizabeth’s totally invulnerable from enemy fire, but cannot dole out any offensive strikes either. She instead uses her background advantage to support Booker by tossing various wares at him such as health, EVE, ammunition, etc. from the sidelines. She’ll even fling some silver eagle coin Booker’s way to finance those juicy upgrades. Whether or not she takes the time to scrounge the area efficiently or she just pulls all of this stuff out of her ass is uncertain. She also evidently practiced trying to escape her cell for years because she’s quite adept at lockpicking. While all of these ancillary efforts are appreciated, Elizabeth’s innate support ability of “tearing” is the most vital of her contributions and her most interesting characteristic. Elizabeth’s supernatural skill is ripping through the fabric of the space and time continuum when she uncovers a slit of static energy emanating in the air. Using the entry point here allows her to materialize items and ammunition, hooks to grapple onto from above, and holographic manpower to fight with Booker in the vein of those balloon-powered weaponized mosquito drones and the juggernaut Patriot enemies. Don’t judge a book by its cover.
To Booker’s slight dismay from a narrative perspective, perhaps Elizabeth is TOO exceptional as a human being. On the surface, Booker is Elizabeth’s knight in shining suede and steampunk pleather, a relationship dynamic so commonplace that it was exhausted in the oldest of fairy tales. She should be head over heels for him after rescuing her but only sees Booker as her necessary collaborator in the quest of leaving the shackles of Columbia to a promising new world. Admittedly, Booker isn’t entirely a noble gentleman either, as his intentions with Elizabeth are entirely in his own self-interest. His impression that the mission will be a breeze after finding Elizabeth is thwarted when there is a conflict of interest in which Earth city they want to visit via the airship. Elizabeth grows to (rightfully) distrust Booker after this altercation, and there is an aura of acrimony between the two. Elizabeth’s romantic wish to see the bright lights of Paris is sidetracked when it’s revealed that she’s the adopted daughter of Columbia’s supreme leader Zachary Comstock, who trapped Elizabeth in the tower to preserve her as the successor to the throne if something unfortunate were to happen to him. Elizabeth then desires to discover more about her origin and stop Comstock’s reign. Booker then realizes that he’s not going to return to New York with Elizabeth in time for supper. Why does Booker comply with Elizabeth’s plans? Well, it’s because he’s scared shitless of her, knowing that she has the potential to transport him anywhere in the world to any reality in any span of time. Booker and Elizabeth’s relationship is a subversion of the male savior trope with the helpless princess, warping a dynamic so old that Elizabeth cannot produce a tear big enough to simulate its origin point. Don’t fuck with Elizabeth, and that goes double for you, Booker.
I only feel inclined to discuss Comstock’s antagonist role as Columbia’s supreme ruler because he’s the central commonality in the Bioshock series Venn diagram I proposed in my opening paragraph. The one core attribute Infinite shares with its predecessors, the conjunctive tissue that defines the series, is the megalomaniac figure at the highest governing power in their dystopian creation, ruling under an unchecked dogmatic idealism that formed the city’s cultural and economic identities. The execution of their philosophies in the game also suggests a biting critique of their fundamentals from the developers. Delving into Comstock’s extreme Americana fueled by religious fundamentalism is so on-the-nose that it's boring. Growing up as an American, these kinds of nationalistic ideals are heavily ingrained in our society, even in the 21st century. Columbia is the quixotic fantasy of every one of my country's villains I learned about in history class coming to fruition. Comstock’s philosophies are just deranged and self-righteous with no room for arguments. He’s the kind of person who made Andrew Ryan abscond from American soil to start his own society, and Ryan’s ideals are at least academically credible.
If one couldn’t tell from the scene with the couple in the beginning, a large facet of this waspy wet dream is that it is incredibly racist . So racist, in fact, that Comstock is a huge proprietor of eugenics, whitewashing Columbia of all racial diversity and calling it a cleansing. The worst part is how Infinite decides to tackle this subject. In the middle section of Infinite, Booker, and Elizabeth are detoured from their mission by the ongoing class struggle between the bourgeois Founders and the impoverished lower class called the Vox Populi (the voice of the common people). It’s no coincidence that the members of the Vox Populi resistance group are all racial minorities, namely their leader Daisy Fitzroy who is withholding Booker’s airship from him. While assisting the cause, Elizabeth becomes disturbed by the extent Daisy takes to ensure equality for her people, and the moral breaking point is when Daisy attempts to murder a Founder child in cold blood. What we’re supposed to take away from this scene is that there is no justification for the brutal violence of the lower class, emphasized by Elizabeth when she comments that Daisy is no better than Comstock. Check your privilege, Elizabeth. Sure, there are lines one can cross in the fight for freedom, but is this really the time to point that out given that Comstock’s vision for Columbia is to exterminate all non-whites from his society like they’re a contagion? The game’s narrative shifts its view to Elizabeth’s colossal Songbird guardian trying to reclaim his “property” for the remainder of the game almost as a distraction from how deep Ken Levine lodged his foot into his mouth.
Ultimately, BioShock Infinite is not as intelligent as it thinks it is. Problematic sociological topics aside, this assertion really comes to light at the game’s climactic point. In their futile attempts to vanquish the Songbird, Elizabeth resorts to using her tear ability to transport the terrifying mechanical marvel to the bottom of the sea where he drowns (or rusts). We’re somehow back in Rapture, only for the game to become suspiciously cinematic. With Elizabeth liberally using her tear powers to manipulate time, we learn through a clusterfuck of exposition that Elizabeth, also known as Anna Dewitt, is Booker’s daughter who he had to give up as payment for his massive gambling debts when she was an infant. Comstock and his dearly departed wife were respectively sterile and barren and could not bear an heir, so there was a mutual agreement between both parties along with the phantom-like Lutece twins enacting the transaction. Obviously, Booker’s decision haunts him severely, hence why he went to the great lengths he did in Columbia to get her back. The debt instilled upon him was self-inflicted, and he must cleanse himself of his unforgivable sins through baptism, only one that sacrifices himself for the ultimate act of repentance. All the mysterious loose ends are resolved…or are they? While attempting to make sense of the game negating all narrative pacing to dump all of this information on us, the game also suggests that Booker’s sins account for his contributions to the Wounded Knee Massacre and that he might also be Comstock himself? What?! I don’t know if it’s because multi-dimensions are the hottest plot device nowadays and I’ve gotten sick of them. For Infinite’s case, you can’t use the endless possibilities the concept gives you to throw away any logical character or plot bearings in an attempt to make your convoluted slop plausible. Do you know what other game regrettably ruined itself with a heap of nonsensical exposition as an addendum? Metal Gear Solid 2. Quit borrowing Kojima’s fart inhaler, Ken.
BioShock Infinite is ridiculous. A series that was once perceived as a monumental achievement in gaming narrative and atmosphere is a cheap shell of its former self. BioShock was a title that rolled out the red carpet for the burgeoning FPS trend of its time due to its innovative execution of the genre’s mechanics. Now, Infinite’s full commitment to the first-person shooter’s tried tropes six years later is indicative that perhaps the genre should be put out to pasture. Strictly as a first-person shooter, BioShock Infinite is still an exemplary addition to the genre. I may have my nitpicks, but they mostly pertain to how the FPS genre evolved since the first BioShock was released and not Infinite on its individual merits. When I turn my brain off and relish in the stunning, albeit creepy, setting and paint its pristinely white roads with the insides of its denizens, I always end up having a blast. Then, the narrative rears back around and forces me to flip my cognitive switch back on and reflect on so many bafflingly knotty plot points that it makes my brain hurt. Actually, it doesn’t hurt my brain because I know it’s just pretentious bullshit. Overall, BioShock Infinite is technically the BioShock game I wanted after BioShock 2 merely retread the old ground of Rapture. Still, I wish the final product wasn’t a contrasting blend of dumbed-down attributes competing with intelligency bloatedness. I still don’t know if BioShock Infinite is a worthy successor.
(Originally published to Glitchwave on 9/7/2023)
[Image from igdb.com]
BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea - Episode 1
Category: DLC
Release Date: November 12, 2013
The first of two chapters in Burial at Sea is set entirely in an alternate timeline to the base game of Infinite, which is why both Booker and Elizabeth exist in 1959 at the same ages they were in 1912. Booker is still the gruff private dick he was in the former half of the 20th century, but Elizabeth is practically unrecognizable. Here, she’s a sultry femme fatale with that fierce, cunning sexuality associated with the role. Unlike her demure self in Columbia, she’s got experience with the outside world and then some. She sashays into Booker’s office in the typical film noir fashion with a job to rescue a little girl named Sally from Rapture’s Little Sister Program, and Booker is highly invested in this job on account of her being his adopted daughter in this reality. Just roll with it.
Given that Burial at Sea takes place a few years before the ultimate fall of Rapture, Booker and Elizabeth arrive at the tailend of the city’s prime. Seeing Rapture in its state of regal prosperity that we all only heard of through audio diaries and other lord pieces is a succulent treat for every fan of the first two games. If Rapture is a wondrous spectacle as a darkened ruin, imagine how it looks with the lights still on. Rapture resembles the swanky, elegant, mid-century aesthetic seen by the billboard advertisements and general furbishing of the city. From the looks of the plaza on High Street, Andrew Ryan’s actual goal for Rapture was to surpass the scope of the surface world’s gallant balls. Imagine the New Year’s Eve photo from the end of The Shining but located at the aquarium at night. Elizabeth distracting the various shopkeepers from Booker stealing a bunny mask as entrance to Sander Cohen’s ongoing exhibit subtly gives the player a chance to bask in Rapture’s refined form. Oh, and seeing Sander Cohen again before he was TOO far gone from sanity is also a nice piece of fan service as well.
As Sander Cohen sends Booker and Elizabeth on the bathysphere set to Sally’s location after a fit of impassioned artistic rage, we are reminded that Rapture’s downfall was a gradual outcome of persisting corruption. We are also reminded that we’re still playing BioShock Infinite with its FPS-intensive gameplay mechanics. However, in order to keep this DLC section from becoming a Splicer bloodbath, ammunition for every weapon is incredibly scant. Booker can only blow through a few bullets of a select few weapons from the base game before his defenses run dry. Hope you got well acquainted with the sky-hook melee strike attack in the base game because Booker will have to resort to using it in lieu of the now-scarce resources. I’m glad the developers chose to approach combat like this because it makes Booker feel less capable in the more claustrophobic setting of Rapture as opposed to the sprawling skies of Columbia, retaining the effectiveness of the setting. EVE is still abundant, but the number of plasmids has been reduced along with being forced to use some for means of traversal. It’s fairly interesting using “Old Man Winter”, a stronger version of the “Winter Blast” plasmid, to freeze running water to make it into solid platforms. Also, the explosive laser Radar Range weapon is a thrilling new addition, but its use is hindered by the fact that it is unlocked so late in the chapter.
I was having fun with all of Burial at Sea’s new stipulations until the ending, and it’s when I can no longer reserve my vocal critiques on Ken Levine’s convoluted tomfoolery. To Booker’s dismay, poor little Sally has transformed into a Little Sister and is hiding from him in the sinuous Little Sister vent network. Booker’s solution is to force her out by cranking up the heat in the pipes, but Sally is a stubborn one. She sics a Big Daddy on Booker who serves as this chapter’s final boss, and it’s where the parsimonious ammunition system does not bode well against a burlier enemy. When Booker finally defeats the brute, Sally still won’t emerge because of Elizabeth. In this timeline, Booker is an amnesiac Comstock who regains the memory that he transferred to Rapture after he couldn’t shake the guilt of losing Anna/Elizabeth. Elizabeth doesn’t forgive him, leaving the Big Daddy to eviscerate Booker’s torso with its drill and kill him. I chose to ignore the Booker is Comstock resolution because it still doesn’t make any fucking sense. “But have you seen Booker and Comstock in the same room together?” YES!! Now, the falling action of Burial at Sea forces me to digest it along with a new spree of nonsense plot points that make it even harder to swallow. What does Sally have to do with any of this? How is this reality’s Elizabeth still alive after we see her get decapitated through the tear instead of severing her pinky finger, and why is she especially vengeful here as opposed to in the base game? What does any of this matter if there are infinite Comstocks/Bookers? I’m supposed to be gut-wrenched by the result, but I’m even more pissed off at the throngs of twists and turns the game expects me to accept. I can’t believe this hacky writing came from the same guy who wrote the first game.
(Originally published to Glitchwave on 9/7/2023)
[Image from igdb.com]
Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea - Episode 2
Category: DLC
Release Date: March 25, 2014
But how can Burial at Sea continue considering that Booker’s vital organs have been liquified and he lays still on the ground dead as a doorknob? In Burial at Sea’s second half, the primary protagonist's viewpoint has been shifted to the smoking, seductive Elizabeth of this reality. Actually, that Elizabeth was also murdered by the Big Daddy and her body is propped up in the dank corner of the vicinity, so the game introduces an Elizabeth more akin to her personality from the base game. Isn’t that convenient? However, what totally isn’t convenient is that this Elizabeth possesses no extraordinary tear powers, rendering her as frail as a newborn puppy. Nevertheless, this Elizabeth persists in her quest to rescue Sally, now from the deranged mobs of Atlas’s goons who are holding her captive. Also, another version of Booker is here to play guitar in the background and to provoke Elizabeth’s guilty conscience every so often, because why not!
If you couldn’t infer the linear notes from the previous paragraph, playing as Elizabeth is a far cry from the physically adept swashbuckler Booker. As I stated before, Elizabeth must fend for herself in the drowned neon streets of Rapture’s deep sea ghetto, as the apparition of Booker is too ephemeral to switch her role and provide aid when needed. Elizabeth is on her lonesome in a dire situation, a terrifying prospect that fills her mission full of dread. Fortunately, just because Elizabeth can’t summon Patriots to mow down Splicers doesn’t mean the game leaves her as a stark naked sitting duck ready to be plucked by the malformed ghouls at a moment’s notice. Elizabeth’s offensive and defensive means have been reworked to fit the new context, as BioShock has been reconfigured as a stealth game. Elizabeth will lurk around the watchful eyes of the Splicers, who still give away their positions due to the effects of long-term ADAM usage causing them to think out loud. When a Splicer is in the line of sight, an overhead indicator signifies their alert level and if it’s a yellow or under, Elizabeth can subdue them with one hearty thwack of the sky-hook she “borrowed” from Booker. Failing to stealthily curb the Splicers by altering them to Elizabeth’s presence should result in Elizabeth running like the wind to regain her hidden position because ammo is still scarce and the dainty whacks with the sky-hook Elizabeth gives to them do little to no damage. Rapture has always exuded a creepy vibe but with the stealth gameplay as the focal point, Rapture has now become genuinely scary. The simplest of mistakes can lead to utter disaster for Elizabeth and working with this radical new mechanic never before seen in a BioShock game adds a fresh layer of difficulty.
Elizabeth eventually stumbles across an inactive machine devised by Rapture’s superwiz scientist Yi Suchong and has to recover all of its missing parts to activate it once again. Using a tear, the machine served as a portal that connected Rapture to 1912 Columbia, communicating ideas and passing down technology through both of the franchise's eminent dystopias. The general purpose for this machine might be the most excusable use of the time tear that has fucked Infinite’s narrative to oblivion. It explains why Columbia is as advanced as it is for existing in the prime of the industrial age when things like automobiles were still a revolutionary stride in technological advancement and why Rapture shares the same assets with Columbia like the vending machines and the inclusion of “vigors” that Suchong originally branded as plasmids. It’s a clever way of canonizing Infinite with the two previous BioShock games despite all the ways it deviates from it. By visiting both Columbia and Rapture in this Burial at Sea episode, we are treated to a dichotomy between the two civilizations, as seeing Columbia for the first time since the base game and then returning to Rapture feels surreal. Don’t get too prideful, Ken: You’re not out of the woods with this plot device just yet. However, I am somewhat impressed that you’ve finally made this work.
Returning to Rapture also reminds us that the notable people we’ve come to have a nostalgic wonderment for were/are right bastards. Throughout the episode, Elizabeth is collaborating with both Suchong and Atlas, two figures of interest from the first two games that up until now, the player has never had any intimate interactions with either (well, technically not for Atlas if you discount who he actually is). The second episode of Burial at Sea is going to make the player yearn for the times when they were voices in audio diaries and communication arrays respectively because they were both despicable people when they were still alive. Suchong is a total creep who physically and verbally abuses the Little Sisters he’s testing, and I’m not the least bit perturbed by his grizzly death scene at the hand of a Big Daddy because of it. Once Elizabeth helps Atlas return to Rapture’s metropolitan sector, he continues to probe Elizabeth more on a coveted “ace in the hole,” which turns to be his iconic catchphrase “would you kindly?” that he uses to manipulate Jack in the events of the first game. Before Elizabeth knows this, Atlas’s method of interrogation involves an ice pick lobotomy in one of the most uncomfortable torture sequences I’ve sat through in a video game. He disposes of Elizabeth once he gets what he desires in his mission to usurp Rapture from Ryan (who, by the way, unleashes hordes of his guards on Elizabeth after learning of her scavenging around Rapture while belittling her like Ryan would do) by bludgeoning her with a wrench, leaving her to die while Sally holds her in her arms. Cohen electrocuting his subjects while painting was charming compared to the actions of these scumbags. Then again, these are the kinds of people that Rapture attracts.
This conclusion would be a satisfying way to circle around to the beginning events of the first BioShock if not for one nagging bit of information. Killing the two protagonists from Infinite and thus ending their involvement with the overarching BioShock story could’ve been incredibly impactful if not for the fact that these are technically not the same Booker and Elizabeth from the base game. In fact, any emotional impact that the deaths of these characters would elicit is totally negated by the fact that there are infinite versions of them existing in this world and can evidently be swapped out at any given moment. You almost had me, Ken. Still, the stealth mechanics in the second episode of Burial at Sea prove to be a far more engaging way of retreading Rapture than what BioShock 2 offered.
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