Bring us the Girl and Wipe Away the Debt.

You may or may not be surprised by the fact that I’ve pretty much only played Bioshock Infinite for the last week. I beat the game the second time through on Tuesday and it holds up just as well on the second playthrough as it does for the first one.

After my second time completing the game I had more of a chance to enjoy all the detail put into it. There is just so much to take in the game required another playthrough. The second time through I spent my time wandering around the game somewhat randomly; doubling back or checking every corner and alley looking for small pieces of gold hidden among the floating streets, buildings and barges of Columbia. I simply cannot get over the density and complexity of the game. Everywhere you look it feels like there is a story to tell. From the man slinging Betterman’s Autobody, trying to convince folks to become the powerful Handyman or it’s the mother yelling at her child in the corner of a busy public square, or watching the workers as they toiled away, trying to get their piece of faulty American dream that has been sold to them by men like Comstock and Fink.

Elizabeth and Booker seem to fit this world, they aren’t just existing in it or moving through it. There is even a world that exists outside of Columbia, and accompanied a feeling of the city trying to be a bubble but is still subject to on-lookers from the outside world. This is something that the previous Bioshock games just didn’t have. It felt like Rapture was at the bottom of the ocean. Our two protagonists have an impact on Columbia and they bring a lot of gravity with them and their actions.

The city in the clouds also has a profound affect on our characters as well. Both learn and discover things about themselves, Elizabeth especially. At the start of the game she is a naive, teenager right on the cusp of adulthood. She’s controlled by Zachary Hale Comstock and his people, but she is safe; she knows very little of the struggles within the city, let alone the world at large and just wants out of the tower she’s lived in since she was a baby girl. She is very much the Damsel in distress when the game starts out. Her view of the world is very black and white when we first meet her. Elizabeth is the most important character in the game, more important than Booker, Comstock or the twins. She’s been placed The city in the clouds also has a profound affect on our characters as well. Both learn and discover things about themselves, Elizabeth especially. At the start of the game she is a naive, teenager right on the cusp of adulthood. She’s controlled by Zachary Hale Comstock and his people, but she is safe; she knows very little of the struggles within the city, let alone the world at large and just wants out of the tower she’s lived in since she was a baby girl. She is very much the Damsel in distress when the game starts out. Her view of the world is very black and white when we first meet her. Elizabeth is the most important character in the game, more important than Booker, Comstock or the twins. She’s been placed at the center of a completely fictitious world, seemingly constructed for her and Booker to exist in, however Columbia doesn’t feel like it exists solely for them, rather they are another story to be told from within the city’s already colorful and lively existence. The way it moves and changes as the game progresses almost makes it a character in itself. Elizabeth just fits into it like that one integral puzzle piece that finally brings everything into focus and gives the story, setting and all the characters context. The story is very much tragedy in a classic sense. Our character, Booker DeWitt struggles with his past in ways that become more apparent as the story goes on, while Elizabeth struggles with the reality of what Columbia really is.

 
The Nationalist pride coupled with the feeling of white superiority over the city’s black and Irish residents is eye-opening to see in a video game. The themes of racism and religious entitlement are forced onto the player immediately upon entering the deceivingly beautiful city in ways that may be uncomfortable for some players. At the same time, it’s these facts and these ugly truths that have come from our own country’s history that make it so powerful and so believable. These themes are very much in the forefront of the game and Irrational was not looking to pull any punches it seems when exposing the player and Elizabeth to these seedy truths in Columbia. They also do a wonderful job at drawing a clear line between the haves and have-nots. Business moguls like Fink in the game are heard parroting their beliefs over intercoms and recordings, peddling their broken logic of superiority and why things must be the way they are. The “White Man’s Burden,” is very much a background themes in this game and definitely drives the story behind the scenes, pushing the Vox Populi and the disenfranchised within Columbia’s ruling class.

The game also doesn’t shy away from tying in some of the true and less savory bits of American history, for instances how the railroads in the early 1900’s were built on the backs of slaves and immigrants or how big business worked its way into government. It’s this meshing of historical reality with fiction that really helps make this world believable. In fact, much more so than most FPS games out now. Other recent titles that come to mind is Crysis 3, while the game is a gorgeous and testament to the power of today’s desktop computer was rather uninspired and unfortunately has devolved to the point of being a rail-shooter with no real spirit left in it. What Bioshock Infinite lacks in it’s  aging Unreal 3 engine it more than makes up for it in immersion, storytelling and spirit, not to mention fast-paced, nail-biting action. While there are certainly slow points in the game, this is now a bad thing. It is rather lulls in the action to simply give you time to reflect, explore and discover things about Columbia, our protagonists and hopefully even a little bit about ourselves.   

There is more substance in Bioshock Infinite then probably any other game I’ve ever played and gives the player the feeling that particular care was put into the a city too ridiculous to exist, yet has so much life in it that after completing the game it’s almost hard to believe that it doesn’t. If this is what we have to look forward to from Irrational Games and Ken Levine, then I can’t wait to see what other projects come from them in the future. Bioshock Infinite took over five years to develop and it was well worth the wait after it’s given me one of the most rewarding gaming experiences I can ever remember.

I would also suggest giving this interview a listen if you've got the time NPR definitely takes an intelligent stance on the subject and gives Ken Levine, as well as a whole group of fans the chance to speak about the game.