Bioshock Infinite - Spoilers thread

Some hours in, and ... my god, I can't stop playing, the game keeps throwing new things at you, new weapons, new vigors, new everything. Fgdsfgds. It's now 7 AM .... CURSES UPON YOU, BIOSHOCK

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Had my first encounter with a Handyman, on Hard difficulty. GOD JESUS HELL OH MAN WHAT THE FUCK. I died. A lot.

Finished it off last night, it was awesome, the sort of game I wish I could carry on playing. I'm not doing 1999 mode though as I'm not a fan of replaying games with heavy narratives and decisions as I want my first playthrough to be 'my experience' if that makes sense. Not entirely sure on everything that happened at the end either, but I guess I can read up on what it was all about online. Overall brilliant game, anyone here who worked on it did a great job

I finished it too last night (5 am). I couldn't sleep afterwards because the ending was so mind-blowing. The ending is going to need a separate thread when more people finish the game.

About 7 hours in, LOVE this game!

Haha awesome, apparently entering the Konami code on the start screen enabled 1999 mode without having to finish the game first. Although that will be way too hard for me, regular BioShock 1 drove me crazy.

2 hours in, first impressions :

- The 1999 mode is a joke. This is supposed to be hardcore, really? I haven't died once, I am already rich and there's ammo and health everywhere. I haven't bought anything because I don't need to.

- It's beautiful, the artistic direction slays.

- I like the fact that you can deactivate most of the handholding stuff, but the messages like "Fire in bursts to keep accuracy" or "Press * to stand up" really get of my nerves.

- The shooting is better than Bioshock by a landslide but it's still not quite there yet.

- The melee system is weird, why should I use another key instead of just selecting the weapon like every other FPS?

- The executions are fun, actually the first few killings are very satisfying and create a good contrast with the peaceful tone.

Just finished the Tower, if you know what I mean; BLOWN AWAY!

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Discuss Bioshock Infinite here, spoilers included! You can talk about ANYTHING you want, for those who haven't played the game yet, you were warned.

Have at it boys!

My mind is completely blown at the ending. So happy that this was one of the few games in recent memory that managed to not be spoiled for me.

Anyone else laugh at how there is a single combo lock in the game just for the '0451' reference?

Ok so in case anyone has wandered in here by accident, I'm going to start by talking about:

THE ENDING

It's very rare that I care about the story in a game, and I didn't approach Infinite expecting to care so much but I did expect a bit of a twist at the end as I'd read about it in previews and such. Whilst playing through the game I tried to absorb everything I could, collect as much as I could and take in the world while playing, but still when I got to the end i found it threw so much information at me I couldn't quite get my head around it all. I was a little disappointed, rather than being blown away as I was expecting to be, but disappointed in myself for not understanding it rather than disappointed in the ending as a whole.

Since I finished it I've been trawling forums and reading up on other people's interpretations of what the hell happened in this game. Below is a summary (that I did not write) which I think sums it all up pretty well. There's loads of questions that can stem from this though still, and different takes to be had on different aspects of it, it's all very interesting though.

I'm so used to playing through games like CoD that try to have 'clever' stories and they just get lost in amongst the gunplay and over the top action. What I appreciate about Infinite is that it will actually reward people for investing their time in it and stand up really well to multiple play-throughs. I'm not surprised that I read that Ken L said it took the team 4 months to piece together the ending!

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Summary from http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/605052-…finite/65798681

It is my understanding that the story starts at the river baptism. In this scene, our male lead chooses to be cleaned of his sins and be reborn as Zachary Comstock. Comstock is a zealous man with vision beyond his time and becomes obsessed with the ideas that eventually manifest into the flying city, Columbia. At some point after his baptism Zachary Comstock meets the Lutece twins, genuis physicists exploring, for the first time in the history of man, quantum physics and the mysteries of space and time. This part of the story is very vague, and is up to interpretation, but I believe that the Luteces' scientific curiousity coupled with Comstock's ambitions for a new world birth successful space-time travel. Comstock uses the tears as windows into the future, and gains fame and fortune by predicting future events. A following begins to grow around him, which he uses to create his own religion and society -- the infancy of Columbia. Later, he attemps to conceive a child with his wife, referred to in game as Lady Comstock, but has become infertile due to his exposure to the Lutece's devices which are the means for his fortune-telling. A middle aged Comstock then travels to an alternate reality; where he refused to be cleansed of his sins, and keeps the name Booker Dewitt; with the male Lutece and convinces a down-and-out Dewitt to sell his daughter, Anna, to clear his gambling debts. Booker hands the child over, but quickly regrets his decision and chases Lutece and himself (Comstock) down an alleyway, but is unable to save his daughter as they slip through their tear back into Comstock's reality. Anna loses her finger as she reaches back to her father and the tear closes.

This traumatic event really mucks up the universe. Anna is removed from her own reality and Booker comes in very close contact with an alternate version of himself, traumatizing the both of them. Anna is too small and her mind is still developing to feel the effects of this event, but her father's adult mind becomes completely muddled. The ideas, thoughts, and memories of his child are not clear, as shown by his response to the question, "Do you have any children?" -- he replies with a very hesistant and almost confused, "No," despite recent events. Booker's daughter, however, lives for years in a reality that is not her own. It is unexplained, but I believe that her being 'out of place' is the cause for her ability to create and open tears -- in fact, her being in Comstock's reality is most likely the reason any tears exist to begin with. The realities created when Booker chose or didn't choose to be baptised are experiencing 'friction' after the event. The Lutece Twins undoubtedly realized that they were playing a dangerous game, but their curiousity drove them to follow through with this expirement regardless.

At this point Comstock has used the Lutece's understanding of quantum physics and sciences to create Columbia. He realizes early that Anna, who he has renamed Elizabeth, has these powers involving tears in space and time. He and the Lutece Twins build her a tower in which to keep and supress her anomalitic nature, so that one day she can continue his legacy as the leader of Columbia. Lady Comstock, unwell with the idea that she did not birth Elizabeth, threatens the safety of Comstock's plans, and he thus has her killed. Comstock feels that there is no more reason for his prophecies, and destroys the Luteces' space-time device. This part is unclear in the game, but I can gather that the Lutece twins are not killed. It is not specified how or to what means they rebuild their space-time technology, but they come to the realization that that have destabilized space-time and have created an infinite loop. The male twin deems it necessary that they fix the mistake they created, giving Rosalind Lutece, who values her relationship with her brother over anything, the ultimatum -- attempt to fix the loop, or seperate forever. She decides their relationship is too important and goes along with the expirement.

Bioshock Infinite begins with the beginning of The Lutece Twins' expirement. Their goal in bringing the traumatized veteran, Booker Dewitt into Comstocks' Columbia is to destroy the time paradox and stabilize time-space once again. There are two possibilities that exist; one says that Lutece brings Booker into Comstocks' reality, perhaps during one of his alcoholic binges, and leaves him to wake up to an offer of clearing his debt by bringing a girl to New York. During the game, he is questioned on how he could possibly not know about Columbia, his response is something along the lines of him being out of touch. The idea of him not even hearing about Columbia, which undoubtedly made headlines across the nation for years, while living in New York as a Pinkerton Agent is extremely unlikely. The second possibility is that Comstock created Columbia in a third reality where Booker also declined the baptism, but may or may not have given birth to Anna. I do not support this theory very much, but it is a possibility.

Booker enters Columbia, but Comstock has seen this happen through the space-time contraption he used for his prophecies. He knows of the threat and prepares his city to reject him, branding him as the False Prophet. During their journey of escape, Elizabeth's unsupressed 'powers' begin to manifest. Two times (?) she channels her ability to tear open realities, which I believe are not existing realities, but entirely new ones that are affected by her feelings. The strongest evidence to support this is when she and Booker step into the reality in which Booker has died a martyr of the revolution -- a hero. Elizabeth had known Booker to be her hero, the knight who saved her from her imprisonment and freed her, just as the revolution was to free the people of Columbia. The reality became what she projected it to become. This is supported more by the various soldiers who were killed prior to their change of realities. In the new reality, those killed were still alive, but Elizabeth's projection of them conflicted; she knew them to be dead, but reality disagreed, causing massive brain lapses and nose bleeds. This anomaly is experienced yet again when the two approach the Comstock House and encounter Elizabeth's false mother, Lady Comstock.

Elizabeth trades herself to protect the life of Booker who is nearly killed by the Songbird. During their time away from one another, an elderly Elizabeth appears to Booker and shows him proof that his dreams of New York burning under airships are true. She tells him that fate is inescapable, that he will always be stopped by the Songbird(the space-time paradox that the Luteces' created) and hands him a note to give to her younger self. Some amount of time has passed until Booker is finally able to reunite with Elizabeth. They vow direclty confront Comstock.

Upon Comstock's airship, the three (two) main characters gather for the first time since the day Comstock took Anna away from her father. Enraged, he beats and drowns (baptises) Comstock, but not before the knowledgable villian hints at a deeper connection between Elizabeth and the ignorant Booker. At this point, like a few other scenes, Booker's nose begins to bleed as his muddled brain attempts to process the space-time paradox that he subconciously is aware of. Elizabeth deciphers the note and uses the musical notes C-A-G-E to tame the Songbird. The final stand ensues as Booker, Elizabeth, and Songbird, destroy the remains of the revolution. At the bow of the ship, Elizabeth transcends her knowledge of a single reality and tears into Rapture, the underwater city in the 1950s, where they watch as the Songbird drowns.

Elizabeth guides Booker through various doors, explaining to him the complexities of multiple realities through the use of a metaphoric lighthouse. She explains that there are millions and millions (infinite) realities that are all bound together by certain conditions. "Constants and variables. There's always a lighthouse, you, me, a Songbird. But sometimes something's different... yet the same." This ties Bioshock Infinite into the original Bioshock in a very esoteric way. The two ride a bathysphere to the lighthouse featured in Bioshock but are stopped a locked door. Suddenly, a key appears in Elizabeth's hand -- the key that was in the box given to Booker by the Lutece twins, and also the metaphor key to fixing the paradox they created. When asked where she got the key, Elizabeth replies that she feels like she had it the entire time. In the final scene, Elizabeth (Anna) takes Booker to the source of all of the encompassed realities, the river baptism. He relives his refusal to be baptised, and finally comes to understand that he is Zachary Comstock, had he let himself be cleansed. She takes him through one last door, leading to the river baptism yet again. Booker remarks that it is the same location, but Anna corrects him. Multiple visions of his daughter appear and grab hold of him, one says "He is Booker Dewitt," the other, "He is Zachary Comstock." As they lower him into the water, he replied, "No. I am both."

After the credits, the player awakens in Booker's office. The cries of an infant can be heard in the side room. Booker opens the door and asks, "Anna? Is that you?" This scene is open to intepretations. My theory is that this is the result of The Lutece Twins' expirement, that it was a success, and the lives of Booker Dewitt and Anna Dewitt have finally stabilized. In no way do I think that the Booker after the credits is the same as the one who saved Anna. When Elizabeth/Anna enlightened Booker, I feel as if all alternate realities that stemmed from the baptism ceased to exist.

Just started it on 1999 mode, amazing actually how many little references there are to what it's all about, for example:

- The very first thing you see is a quote about how the mind will fabricate memories, related to how Booker makes up memories when the Lutece's take him through the tear at the end of the game. The book that the quote is from is written by R. Lutece and is called 'Barriers to trans dimensional travel'

- There are scrolls in the gardens that state 'What is Columbia, if not just another Ark for another time'

- The first time you use a viewing telescope you can see the Lutece's down below you through the scope. However when out of the telescope, they're not there

This game is awesome

Quote from PaulH

- The first time you use a viewing telescope you can see the Lutece's down below you through the scope. However when out of the telescope, they're not there

Yeah man, I thought that was a bug or something, lol. What's that all about? ahah

I think it's further proof that the Lutece's don't physically exist in the multiple timelines

You finished it already then HP? I swear I saw you only post a pic of the collectors edition on Facebook earlier on today! Or did you receive it yesterday or something

Nah, I'm only like 7/8 hours in. Taking my time, last thing I want is to rush this, even if it takes me 2 weeks to finish it.

But you're in the spoiler thread? Hope you didn't read about the ending already

Of course not!

Anyway, better come here again after finishing it! hf

Ok don't read this HP...

..I noticed something else. When you meet Elizabeth she tries to hit you with a book, the books called 'The Principles of Quantum Mechanics'. I see this as a cheeky reference to the ending and the IG guys metaphorically and literally trying to hit you over the head with the main thing that explains the ending

LOL HP, you're so playing with fire, don't spoil the game dude

Just read the summary you posted PaulH, that was roughly how I understood it as well, though I do agree that it all went pretty quick at the end, but I felt like I got most of it. There's subtle cues an hour or two before the ending where Comstock's voice over the PA suddenly sounds a lot like Booker's for brief moments, even then I started piecing it together.

Anyway, Loads of things to pay attention to for a second playthrough though, starting over in 1999 mode now~

So, I finished it in roughly 15 hours. Overall it was a very good game, but it's not, in my eyes, a masterpiece. I think Bioshock is still superior so far, especially in terms of storytelling. I feel the pacing is off with the narration, and it hurts the story as a whole even though it is very interesting. The ending was great though.