Played through a bit of the game on PC, it’s amazing how far behind the consoles are right now. My PC isn’t great, I can just barely run most games. Playing Infinite the way it was meant to be seen, damn. I’m jealous.
And now for the spoiler part:
Spoiler
What’s the deal with that lady in the train station in Battleship Bay who recognizes Elizabeth as Anna? Right after the arcade. She’s in with the group that tries to abduct Elizabeth, where the ticket vendor stabs you in the hand (unless you draw first) but I can’t tell how it is she recognizes her as Anna instead of Elizabeth. Was she doing that just to throw Booker off? I only played through from right before you met Elizabeth, and right around up to that point, so maybe I missed something earlier in the game. Haven’t started 1999 mode on Xbox, trying to find a quiet weekend to do it.
I finished this game last week. It is simply amazing. the ending pulled at my heart strings, and I must say that Elizabeth is one of my favorite allies in all of video games. I plan on playing it again after finals are over with and I look forward to actually doing a better job of upgrading everything and actually exploring the whole game.
[details=Spoiler]Theories: The Luteces (as well as Comstock) travel through tears studying how they work and also what they find. As such, we see that there’s a tear that leads to Rapture. There’s definitely similarities between the Songbird and Big Daddies - the eye changing color depending on its “mood/mode,” the fact that they’re iron beasts built to reflect and survive in their environment (Big Daddy = old diving suit to go along with the underwater environment; Songbird… well, you get the point). As such, I figure they noted how the Big Daddies were used as protectors for the Little Sisters and similarly wanted to create one for Liz.
Similarly, I think the procedure they were trying to perform on her was similar to the mental conditioning and pairing they did with the Little Sisters and Big Daddies. “Once Big Daddies came into full production, the Little Sisters were also put through a course of pavlovian psychological exercises,[3] designed to force them into rejecting all positive feelings towards any mother-type figure and instead place all of their affection on a generic Big Daddy archetype. As a result, the little girls see every Big Daddy protecting them as the same person, and consider the mere mention of the word “Mommy” to be taboo.” (From Bioshock wiki on Little Sisters) The voxphone after you rescue her referred to Pavlov’s dog, but emphasized that their procedure would be more menacing. So instead of her rejecting a mother, she’d reject Booker, “The False Prophet,” and thus any attempt at escape would be thwarted while also making her succumb to Comstock’s way of thinking. Only part about this that’s theory is that this all came from any interaction with Rapture.
Also, really love the foreshadowing of Booker’s necessary death with how he killed “Comstock.” They both met their end the same way.
The wiki is really, really good btw now that I’m reading through it. The bits about the Luteces are really interesting.[/details]
Spoiler
I don’t remember the face or voice, but now that I think about it I assume it was Rosalind Lutece.
She was one of Comstock’s agents, and this was just to verify that she was the Elizabeth they were looking for. Right after this, is the ambush to get you two.
Also, I feel this was added for replay value, just to make more sense once you find out who Elizabeth really is
You find a voxophone right after (skip to 5:00) that confirms all this.
hate to break it to ya:
Spoiler
Comstock isn’t Booker after Columbia. He is Booker from another dimension, if Booker went through with his baptism after Wounded Knee. He doesn’t want his daughter back, he’s sterile due to fucking around with tears so much, so he decides to steal one from another Booker in another dimension, so it’s still ‘his seed’
Ah okay. In any case, now that I think about it it doesn’t matter who she is as long as Comstock sent her because he knows the truth. Why he would specifically get her to ask that name is up in the air. Maybe to test whether or not Booker remembers. Maybe to plant a seed in Elizabeth’s head as to the truth about her backstory.
Ending/story/everything
Spoiler
Just was brought to my attention, but remember the coin flip with the Lutece’s? The theme of variables and constants is pretty significant given the proposed implications as to how they affect the storyline/universe. The Lutece’s asked every single Booker heads/tails… the answer/choice obviously varies since you have an option, but it was heads every single time they sent a Booker to Columbia (that we can see). Rosalind thinks that the result of the coin flip will never change. However, Robert thinks that there will be one time that it will change (presumably in the dimension where the loop is undone - “our loop”). However, it’s still heads. That + the scene after the credits leads me to wonder whether anything was truly undone by our intervention.
I read somewhere the implication of that was supposed to be that you were in a universe where a coin flip could land the same side 100 times in a row, thus it was a universe where insane odds could be beaten. I was mighty pissed on my replay when I realized you have no control over which side you call
And yes, the intervention helps,
Spoiler
Elizabeth just creates a new real reality for Booker and Anna/her, which is something she has stated before she was able to do, to ensure a happy ending
Hmmm, I guess it’s just a matter of perspective. Whether you subscribe to the Rosalind school or the Robert school of thought.
Spoiler
She did, after all, only go through with it because he threatened to leave her. Not because she thought that anything would actually change.
Also… more stuff I stumbled upon:
Spoiler
Possible significance of 122 (122 previous coin flips, 1-2-2 the code from the start of the game with the chimes): 122 years prior to the events of the game, the Naturalization Act of 1790 was passed which provided citizenship to immigrants who were “free white persons,” but restricted Native Americans, blacks, and Asians from gaining citizenship.
Hmmm, I guess it’s just a matter of perspective. Whether you subscribe to the Rosalind school or the Robert school of thought.
Spoiler
She did, after all, only go through with it because he threatened to leave her. Not because she thought that anything would actually change.
I am lost here, lol. What are you referring to?
FYI:
Spoiler
If you notice at the end of the game, the door to Anna’s room open’s differently then every other time you play the game and open that door, alluding to the fact it’s a new universe and not the one this Booker was from.
In one of the Voxaphones Rosalind explains that Robert threatened to leave her (and go back to his dimension) if they didn’t undo what they had set into motion. As such, you can determine that Rosalind was reluctant for some reason, but only did so because she didn’t want to lose her “brother.”
Yea Rosalind lampshades this in the Row Boat conversation when she says she doesn’t believe in the whole excersize. She’s not interested in setting things right, putting the baby back, she doesn’t even care about the Thought Experiment.
Original Bioshock was a bit unfeasable as a movie, although I feel like Infinite is definitely workable (and you don’t need a 200 million dollar budget as well).
Finished my first playthrough recently. Picked Hard to start off with and was shocked at how easy the game was.
Disappointing game. The reviews so far… sigh. Gaming journalism has no integrity. In fact, I’m not even sure it’s integrity that’s the problem. Maybe reviewer pedigree is really just that low.
Spoilers in vid below. He nails the problems with this game though:
Though he hits on some good points, it’s clear he’s overselling it for controversy.
Every clip of him playing was running into combat with 8 guys shooting at him, then harping on how much it sucks that theres no way to dodge bullets like Doom used to do… wtf
I don’t know. I think the reviews of the game are pretty fair and well deserving of praise. If people are going into this game expecting it to be the next Call of Duty or Halo, they’re going to be disappointed. While the combat in Infinite is very solid and pretty fun, the game’s true selling points are its art direction, story, environment, and characters. If you can’t appreciate that in games these days… you’re no better than the racist third grader on XBL playing Call of Duty.
I get that though and that’s how it seemed to make the most sense.