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Bioshock Infinite | Official Spoiler Thread |

PaulloDEC

Member
Here's a thought:

In the parallel world where the Vox Populi successfully rise up, there are THREE Bookers: Comstock!Booker, Our!Booker and Martyr!Booker. So, where did Martyr!Booker come from if that universe already has it's own Booker (in this case, Comstock!Booker)...?

The baptism splits Booker off into Our!Booker and Comstock!Booker. Later, the experiences of Our!Booker in Columbia split him off into Our!Booker and Martyr!Booker.

I think.
 

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
The baptism splits Booker off into Our!Booker and Comstock!Booker. Later, the experiences of Our!Booker in Columbia split him off into Our!Booker and Martyr!Booker.

I think.

According to a Voxophone (I think...), Martyr!Booker only got involved when Elizabeth was moved from Monument Island and needed the support of the Vox Populi to help him reach her. This turn of events wasn't even alluded to in Our!Booker's world, as far as I know. At what point was that split in Our!Booker's world...?
 

PaulloDEC

Member
According to a Voxophone (I think...), Martyr!Booker only got involved when Elizabeth was moved from Monument Island and needed the support of the Vox Populi to help him reach her. This turn of events wasn't even alluded to in Our!Booker's world, as far as I know. At what point was that split in Our!Booker's world...?

That's the question, I think. We've got a definitive point of origin for the Our!Booker/Comstock!Booker split, but not for Martyr!Booker.

I guess Our!Booker made a choice at some point early on that turned out to be a lot more significant than it appeared.
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
Man, this was a twist ending that makes no sense if the point was to end all paradoxes. A lot can be inferred, I suppose, but because it's all time travel and parallel universes with fairly loose rules, anything could happen.

I would have preferred the game without the tag at the end at the very least, if they truly wanted to play up the "infinite doors" thing.
 

dejay

Banned
Just doing another run through, this time taking lots of screen shots. I'm not very far in.

Has it been discussed if this is the same girl? Terrible first picture - I never thought to capture her fully until I ran across the 77 girl who looked very similar (everyone looks similar in this game).
MUGUiIH.jpg


bXXoZMS.jpg
If it is the same girl, who is she? Is she in cahoots with the Lutece twins?


Also, it maaay be a coincidence, but this is the shop just next to where the Beach Boys song is performed. Of course there were three Wilson brothers in the Beach Boys. I thought it was pretty neat.

Lastly, the winged statues, towers, etc. She's meant to be the archangel that gave visions to Comstock? This one has a key, the same way Liz had a key in the closing scenes.
 
Considering there was no-hands on with that demo, it's hard to say if it was a more in-depth game or completely scripted to showcase certain mechanics.
Thank god someone says it. Seems scripted to hell and back, booker even feels that is not controlled by a person but is just written into a cinematic that resembles gameplay.
 
Just doing another run through, this time taking lots of screen shots. I'm not very far in.

Has it been discussed if this is the same girl? Terrible first picture - I never thought to capture her fully until I ran across the 77 girl who looked very similar (everyone looks similar in this game).

If it is the same girl, who is she? Is she in cahoots with the Lutece twins?

She's a repeated model. Because, you know, it's a game.

I think people need to stop grabbing quite as much as they are.
 

Blinck

Member
Quick question that popped in my mind:

Why don't the Luteces ever tell Booker that Elizabeth is his daughter that he wants to rescue?
What do they gain by not telling him? He did after all accept to go there to get her back, but in the process he formed a different memory..
 
Quick question that popped in my mind:

Why don't the Luteces ever tell Booker that Elizabeth is his daughter that he wants to rescue?
What do they gain by not telling him? He did after all accept to go there to get her back, but in the process he formed a different memory..
Why not tell him to wear gloves and cover the AD mark?

Multiverse...
 
She's a repeated model. Because, you know, it's a game.

I think people need to stop grabbing quite as much as they are.
I prefer to believe that same identical group of two guys and a girl you keep running into several dozen times are the same trio of people who just happened to tear-jump a couple seconds into the future numerous times for shits and giggles.

"Shit, Booker's coming this way! Talk about your overbearing mother this time so he doesn't catch on."
 

Squire

Banned
What does Multiverse have to do with it?
I must be missing something sorry, did not have my coffee today yet :p

They've been watching Booker take this journey repeatedly for a long time. It could be argued they very likely have given him more direct, helpful information before to no avail.
 

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
That's the question, I think. We've got a definitive point of origin for the Our!Booker/Comstock!Booker split, but not for Martyr!Booker.

I guess Our!Booker made a choice at some point early on that turned out to be a lot more significant than it appeared.

I guess that is what's niggling at me. I'm on my 2nd playthrough and although there are some neat little changes, none of the variables affect the outcome (I wouldn't expect it to either, just sayin'). I iz totally stumped trying to figure out the point at which Our!Booker would become Martyr!Booker. The main change between universes as far as I can tell is that Comstock moves Elizabeth (a sensible decision considering the lack of security at the monument... I think this Comstock read his Evil Overlord list).

"Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt." As plans go, I'd seen worse-- except this girl was already gone. Monument Island's a damn ghost town. Seems like they evacuated her when they heard I was here. An old friend told me Comstock spirited her off to that fortress of his. As a one-man job, this just went from bettin' on the river to...drawing dead."

Looks like I got a friend in town after all...Slate. He's fell in with these "Vox Populi." And for irregulars, I will say-- they are loaded for bear. Problem is, I got to help them with their damn revolution first...then we take Comstock House by storm. I do that, I get the girl.

Did Martyr!Booker even meet Elizabeth...? Doesn't seem like it. Since Martyr!Booker only passed into one of the Comstock!Booker's universes (the one where the Vox Populi successfully rebel), unlike Our!Booker who has to pass into at least two (perhaps three) Comstock!Booker universes with Liz's help, I think it has to be before you meet her, which suggests that Martyr!Booker must have been dragged to the successful uprising universe by the Lettuce Twins in the first place. Is this one of their failed attempts...? Without it though, Our!Booker wouldn't succeed in erasi--- Oh look, I've gone boss-eyed.
 

Ill Saint

Member
I figure I'm gonna be in the minority here, but I found the story so overblown, heavy-handed, over-written and unfocussed that I just couldn't wait until the damn thing ended. Between the whole Prophet, Lamb, religious order, rebel uprisings, alternate dimension, rebirths, existential identity crisis (and so on...) business, the whole narrative is crushed under the kitchen sink approach to story-telling, where every detail has to be explained, and then turned on its head. Ultimately I was left wondering if anything of substance was actually said underneath all the endless exposition and chatter. Was there a point to it all?

The real blight against the story, though, is the cowardly conclusion of Daisy Fitzroy and the Vox Populi's story arc. Too much of a risk to portray a black slave-lead grassroots resistance movement as the 'good' to the racist, nationalist fundamentalist religious leader's 'evil'? Seems that Levine thought it better to play it safe, sit on the fence, and go the old 'they're just as bad' route. Total copout.

So, ultimately no-one stood for anything, everyone's fucked anyway, and so who cares? Levine seems not to have. And I didn't.

Which is a big shame.
 
The real blight against the story, though, is the cowardly conclusion of Daisy Fitzroy and the Vox Populi's story arc. Too much of a risk to portray a black slave-lead grassroots resistance movement as the 'good' to the racist, nationalist fundamentalist religious leader's 'evil'? Seems that Levine thought it better to play it safe, sit on the fence, and go the old 'they're just as bad' route. Total copout.QUOTE]

I personally took the two sides in conflict to be representative of Booker's own internal conflict (Booker/Comstock). Which kinda makes sense when you consider the ending.
 

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
Was there a point to it all?

I'd say so. The message I took from Bioshock Infinite was this: Whatever choices you make in life, you're screwed.

Alternatively: Damned if you do, damned if you don't, not so damned if you drown yourself.

Valuable lessons there.
 
I beat Bioshock Inifinite Saturday morning and now I have zero urge to play anything else right now. Maybe it's the fact that I been waiting forever to play the game or maybe its the fact that the game was so good and weird that I feel everything that is out lately is shit. I am at that point with the game right now.
 

patapuf

Member
I'd say so. The message I took from Bioshock Infinite was this: Whatever choices you make in life, you're screwed.

Alternatively: Damned if you do, damned if you don't, not so damned if you drown yourself.

Valuable lessons there.

I learned that participating in mass murder and selling your daughter to settle your gambling debt makes you feel like a piece of shit and may lead to psychological problems.
 

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
I learned that participating in mass murder and selling your daughter to settle your gambling debt makes you feel like a piece of shit and may lead to psychological problems.

Haha! Also? I'll be carrying a tin of half opened beans on me at all times from now on.

Edit: So, a quick capsule summary of Bioshock Infinite: Kleptomaniac father and daughter crime duo wreak havoc throughout time and space, murdering everyone in their wake.

That's about the size of it.
 
I learned that if you get displaced in the time based continuum and exist in all forms of time and space, enjoy the fuck out of it.
 
N

Noray

Unconfirmed Member
Coincidence that she uses a fake name that is actually her real name though? >_>

Here's my take on the Lady Comstock/Annabelle deal.

FACT: We know Lady Comstock's first name starts with A., as evidenced by that one picture of her that's all over Columbia, sometimes it has A. Comstock under it.

FACT: The gate at Comstock House mistakes Elizabeth for Lady Comstock.

Now for the theory: If we assume that Anna/Elizabeth's mother is the same woman as Lady Comstock from Booker's dimension, we can draw the following, logical conclusions: Her name was Annabelle. She died giving birth to Anna and to honor her, Booker named his daughter Anna. Comstock knows this as HIS Lady Comstock was also named Annabelle, obviously, as they're the same person. The "Annebelle? Is that you?" is just a wink-wink, nudge-nudge moment to this theory of mine, it put me on the track. What sealed it for me was the gate at Comstock House recognizing Elizabeth as Lady Comstock. Over a dress? I think not. They share genetic material because Lady Comstock is actually Elizabeth's mother, just in another dimension, just as Comstock is her father in a dimension where he isn't Comstock.
 

Riposte

Member
If Booker couldn't recognized his wife (who he knows and can remember losing throughout the game), then we are talking about a full-blown amnesiac plot device (if not a contradictory one).
 
N

Noray

Unconfirmed Member
If Booker couldn't recognized his wife (who he knows and can remember losing throughout the game), then we are talking about a full-blown amnesiac plot device (if not a contradictory one).

You mean like how he couldn't remember selling his own daughter? Both of which happened about 20 years ago, before a lot of drinking, wallowing, and being swallowed by a parallel universe? It's not the biggest stretch.
 

Milchjon

Member
Unlike the first Bioshock, I think Bioshock Infinite would make a great movie.

I think it makes a great game, much better than any movie could be. The exploration and the fact that you "are" the character and learn about the world alongside him is a big part of what made it click for me.
 
You mean like how he couldn't remember selling his own daughter? Both of which happened about 20 years ago, before a lot of drinking, wallowing, and being swallowed by a parallel universe? It's not the biggest stretch.

But he could remember his wife even after the memory disruption.
 

StuBurns

Banned
They'd both make terrible films if they were just the same story. I think Rapture is a much better setting for a film though.
 
Would Siren Lady Comstock not recognize her husband who looks 20 years younger standing beside Elizabeth when they're having their heart to heart?
 

LiK

Member
Finally saw the horse trailer people kept mentioning and I don't see why that part was missed. Doesn't make sense in context of the game.
 

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
If Booker couldn't recognized his wife (who he knows and can remember losing throughout the game), then we are talking about a full-blown amnesiac plot device (if not a contradictory one).

Or... Lady Comstock isn't the wife Our!Booker takes in his universe. Solved?
 
I beat Bioshock Inifinite Saturday morning and now I have zero urge to play anything else right now. Maybe it's the fact that I been waiting forever to play the game or maybe its the fact that the game was so good and weird that I feel everything that is out lately is shit. I am at that point with the game right now.

I didn't play anything for three days after beating it. I felt like nothing would compare to it.
 

Window

Member
Joking aside, what did you all take away from the story? I think Ill Saint made a lot of valid points except despite all those problems, for me the story did come together in the end. However due to the nature of the ending the discussion now seems to be largely about the specifics of time travel and multiverses. Once we can get past grasping the developer's idea of how all this works in their fictional world (and I think the OP has a reasonable explanation) isn't the next question about the themes and characters in the story? I'm still not sure what to make of "I'm both" and idea of choice/free will (and how it compares to the first Bioshock).
 

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
Joking aside, what did you all take away from the story? I think Ill Saint made a lot of valid points except despite all those problems, for me the story did come together in the end. However due to the nature of the ending the discussion now seems to be largely about the specifics of time travel and multiverses. Once we can get past grasping the developer's idea of how all this works in their fictional world (and I think the OP has a reasonable explanation) isn't the next question about the themes and characters in the story? I'm still not sure what to make of "I'm both" and idea of choice/free will (and how it compares to the first Bioshock).

Player agency does take a back seat. I'd say the "bigger picture" relevance of the game was more about the nature of story telling, rather than free will or the like.
 

Teggy

Member
OK, I hate even asking this question because time travel plots are notoriously screwy and are best just taken at face value, but which Booker is drowned at the end?

If it is 1912 Booker from a different timeline getting drowned how does that affect the past? Wouldn't they have to go and drown 10-years-ago Booker?
 

tipoo

Banned
Also what was the debt? was it never mentioned?

I also get the coin scene now, If I am not mistaken that is a constant, right? because Dewitt always picked heads and it always landed on heads, there is/was no other outcome.


The first debt was literal monetary debt from gambling, it was paid off by giving over Anna. The second debt was his guilt.

And I believe you are correct, 123 coin tosses were all heads, so I think anything that is random chance is a constant, while human choice is a variable. You can choose the bird or the cage, you can choose head or tails, but when flipped the random variable will always be the same.

How many infusions did you guys find? I only remember getting two, I'm sure I missed oodles? There were also one or two that I saw and never got because I'm stupid, I assumed they were just salts, but you can tell from the three changing colours. How many in total are in the game?

I also didn't end up spending most of my money because I didn't realize how close to the end I was before it was too late to get to a vending machine, I think I had 4k banked, on regular, and I still found most battles easy. The final ship was the only hard part, never died during the ghosts.

I think it was deserving of all the 10/10 reviews, but part of my was let down by the lack of a singular final boss of some sort.

The end is so bittersweet, I've been thinking about it for days. Booker and Anna (seemingly) get to live as father and daughter and Anna never gets imprisoned for life. On the other hand, Anna never becomes Elizabeth, she'll grow up as a different person with different memories. Unless Space Elizabeth is still out there somehow.

The track "Elizabeth" on the soundtrack sums up the feeling very well.
 
I think it was deserving of all the 10/10 reviews, but part of my was let down by the lack of a singular final boss of some sort.

I actually disagree with you on that. I much prefer FPS games without gigantic bosses. Look at the final battle in Bioshock 1. It just felt out of place. Like it didn't belong. I much prefer setpiece battles, like with Songbird and the airships.
 

tipoo

Banned
Did anybody else notice the differences between the Elizabeth's at the end? I think the first one on the left of the screen is the original model from the 2010 demo!

They kept changing her model since the early showcases, why not use what you've already made I guess. I'm pretty sure they de-boobied her from the original.
 
N

Noray

Unconfirmed Member
Joking aside, what did you all take away from the story? I think Ill Saint made a lot of valid points except despite all those problems, for me the story did come together in the end. However due to the nature of the ending the discussion now seems to be largely about the specifics of time travel and multiverses. Once we can get past grasping the developer's idea of how all this works in their fictional world (and I think the OP has a reasonable explanation) isn't the next question about the themes and characters in the story? I'm still not sure what to make of "I'm both" and idea of choice/free will (and how it compares to the first Bioshock).

This one's not so much about the relationship between games and players. It's a bit more about the relationship between the protagonist and the player, but mostly I think it's just a character drama, a sci-fi Greek tragedy about atonement, "paying your debts/washing your sins away." In the end, the only way for Booker to do that is to literally wash himself away. Water as a motif is used really well throughout the game, as it equates baptism to drowning several times. The irony of Booker having to accept Elizabeth's 'baptism' to wash away his own and Comstock's sins is deftly done. The end is simply an incredibly cathartic moment when both the audience and the protagonist know what has transpired, the tragedy of the horrible chain of the events having been caused by us, and that the only way to wipe the slate clean is to not just kill Booker but purge his very existence, and Liz with it. Really I think everything in the game is ultimately in service of that catharsis.

It throws in some commentary about the nature of games and stories in general, with constants and variables. I like the take that the multiple Elizabeths and Bookers in the sea of Lighthouses represents other players who made slightly different choices yet ended up in the same place. For the writer, the multiverse also represents the myriad choices he could've made to change the story, yet end up in the same place. For example the scrapped bits of the game we see in demos (nudged at by the original Elizabeth design showing up at the end).
 

tipoo

Banned
They went though two tears in the game and ended up in lets call it Universe 3. So does that mean Booker and Elizabeth no longer exist in Universe 1? And why are there not Elizabeths in Universe 3 then, or would universe 3 Elizabeth have already torn through and gone to her own version of universe 3, so the Elizabeths just keep shifting over?

In that vein, which universe "matters"? They get the guns in universe 3, leaving universe 1 as it was?
 
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