Difference between revisions of "Bioshock: Infinite"

Revision as of 21:19, 17 August 2014

Bioshock: Infinite is a first person-shooter and the third game in the Bioshock series. The game follows Booker DeWitt, a private detective who has fallen on hard times. He is contacted by a mysterious client to find and retrieve a young woman named Elizabeth from the supposedly idyllic Colombia--a city in the sky. In his quest to first find and then help Elizabeth, Booker embarks on a journey through Colombia's darkest areas and finds that the city and Elizabeth are not what they seem. The game was developed by Irrational Games and published by 2K Games. It is available on Microsoft Windows, Mac OSX, PS3, and Xbox 360.

General Comments

This review includes tags and explanations for the "Burial at Sea" DLC.

Alcohol

{{subst:Collapse|There are random beer/other alcoholic beverage bottles scattered around the game as powerups for your "Salts" (i.e. mana bar). You are not required to use them. In the first level and the Vox Populi timeline level there are bars that you can enter. For the latter, you are required to go into a bar for a fight.

The main character, Booker, is implied to be an alcoholic, but he does not mention these struggles; it is implied via glimpses of Booker's apartment where the player can see multiple bottles scattered on the floor.|2=Alcohol}}

Animal Death

You are pursued by the "Songbird", an anthropomorphic human/bird hybrid that is the protector of Elizabeth. At the end of the game Elizabeth transports the bird in a cutscene to an underwater area where it drowns. This is unavoidable.

Bigoted Language

The game is set in a racist utopia and people commonly use words that by today’s standards are consider racial slurs. For example, Asians are called ‘Orientals’ and African-Americans are called ‘negroes’. Racist rhetoric is spouted both by NPCs, the villain, and over loudspeakers in the Finkton area. Every level except the last battle has some sort of racist imagery, rhetoric, or a combination of the two. Thus, those who are triggered by bigoted language may still find the game triggering.

In the Burial at Sea DLC, an Asian character is called a ‘slant-eye’ and a black woman is described as a ‘negress’.

Blood

Blood spurts from enemies when you kill them, regardless of how you kill them. You also bleed when you get hurt. There is blood everywhere. It's unavoidable.

Body Horror

The crow power earned early in the game sends crows to peck away at the skin of enemies, tearing their skin apart in a graphic way. You can avoid this if you do not use the crow power, however there is one cutscene early in the game of the power being demonstrated. Also, if you attack enemies with your melee power (which you are required to do early in the game) they will have their heads split open and spurt blood.

Your left hand is used for SALTS and this causes the hand to mutate

Brainwashing

Elizabeth, the major side character, is brainwashed after she is captured and taken away from Booker. There is an entire level devoted to uncovering her brainwashing and torture, as well as a cutscene with Elizabeth explaining the brainwashing. It is unavoidable.

Claustrophobia

There are several instances between levels that Booker and Elizabeth briefly get trapped in elevators. Unavoidable cutscenes. The Burial at Sea DLC also requires Elizabeth to crawl through tight spaces.

Dead Bodies

The corpses of enemies stay on the ground for quite a while after they are killed. You find a shot corpse in the tutorial level. You also find a shot corpse in the Fink level when you are looking for the gunsmith. The gunsmith is part of the plot so at the very least his corpse is unavoidable.

Death of Family/Friends

Booker's mentor possibly dies, if you choose to kill him. It is implied that the mentor dies if you choose not to kill him, but it happens out of the senses of the player. Booker's wife and child are said to be dead, as well as Mrs. Comstock, though these deaths are talked about, not shown.

A gunsmith that you are sent to find dies in some timelines in cutscenes.

The game ends with Booker’s death.

The Burial at Sea DLC ends with Elizabeth’s death as well.

Dehumanization

During the Asylum level, Elizabeth is shown to have been dehumanized for the purpose of scientific experiments.

Disease

Booker's mentor in the Museum level appears to have some sort of debilitating disease causing skin lesions.

Drowning

Elizabeth drowns the Songbird and you the player watch the Songbird slowly succumb to the pressure of underwater and watch it drown. In the final cutscene, Elizabeth pushes Booker's head underwater until he drowns. See also Murder.

Electrocution

One of the Salts used in the game is an electric attack. It is used in the Museum level against the Player Character and must be used by the Player Character to progress.

Emotional Abuse

Elizabeth is emotionally abused by Comstock. The extent of the abuse is revealed in the Asylum level, but Elizabeth talks of being ignored and isolated by her parents (particularly her mother) throughout the game.

Explosions

There are many weapons in the game that cause explosions, used by you and by enemies. All airships that you pilot except the one at the very end of the game end up exploding. The explosions are graphic and loud, complete with fire and the player getting flung about by the shockwave.

Fire

Explosions trigger fire, as well as explosions caused by weapons, and objects hit by these weapons stay on fire. There is also an enemy called a Fireman who uses fire and sets things on fire as attacks, usually using incendiary explosives. Fireman enemies appear in almost every level late in the game. The player also receives a fire-based attack called Devil's Kiss that allows Booker to shoot fire from his hands.

There is an entire level of the game that is on fire.

Ghosts

"Tears" appear ghost-like, as they are manifestations of other dimensions and not 100% real in the timeline the character inhabits.

There is a boss late in the game that is a ghost. This boss summons other ghosts. This boss appears after Elizabeth and Booker visit Mrs. Comstock's grave and must be defeated to complete the game.

Gore

All weapons in the game cause visible tearing and bleeding from enemies. There is also the Handyman enemy that has a beating, glowing heart in the middle of his chest that the player must shoot. When using melee combat (as is required in the first part of the game) the player splits open human enemies' faces and causes spurting blood. All deaths are graphically rendered.

Graphic Violence

All weapons in the game cause visible tearing and bleeding from enemies. There is also the Handyman enemy that has a beating, glowing heart in the middle of his chest that the player must shoot. When using melee combat (as is required in the first part of the game) the player splits open human enemies' faces and causes spurting blood. All deaths are graphically rendered.

Guns

Almost every enemy uses guns to attack. Guns are the major weapons that they player uses. They are unavoidable and graphically rendered. The shots are loud and realistic.

Heights

The entire game takes place in a city in the sky. You can (and probably will) fall off the edge and into the clouds. There are rails that you ride on by hanging on to them with one hand that take you over open air, where the camera will pan down so you see nothing but clouds below.

At the end of the Asylum level you look down over a city from very high up.

Jump Scares

There are multiple jump scares in the Asylum level. Enemies in every room that were passive will suddenly, usually with a loud noise, jump to life and become aggressive. After the player goes through the asylum and opens the doors, a jump scare occurs via cutscene. There are no other jump scares, so you can avoid this if and only if you have someone else play through the asylum level for you.

Kidnapping

Elizabeth is kidnapped from her original father and taken by Comstock to be raised as his own. This is an unavoidable plot point that appears in a cutscene.

Mental Health Institutions

The game has the Asylum level. It is horror-based, dilapidated, and there are semi-catonic enemies that wander around. There are no other asylum-based things in the game, so it can be avoided if you have someone else play the game for you.

Murder

The player goes through a death sequence after running out of health and must be revived by Elizabeth.

Almost all enemies are human and act human, so killing them constitutes murder.

Dead bodies that are clearly the product of murder are found throughout the game.

The murder of Mrs. Comstock is often referenced in the game.

Booker graphically murders Comstock during the last third of the game.

Elizabeth graphically murders Daisy Fitzroy at the end of the Vox Populi timeline level.

Elizabeth kills Booker at the end of the game.

Mutilation

Bodies of enemies are graphically mutilated when the player attacks them, regardless of how the player chooses to fight. All dead bodies found throughout the game are mutilated to some degree.

Needles

In certain revival cutscenes, Elizabeth is briefly shown holding a needle to inject Booker with. These scenes are random and unavoidable.

Offensive Language

Booker swears, but nothing beyond "Damn it".

Racial slurs are extremely common in this game. See the "Bigoted Language" tag for more information.

Parental Abandonment

It is revealed at the end of the game that SPOILER ALERT Booker is actually Elizabeth's father and he sold her to pay off gambling debts, thus abandoning her. Though he changes his mind, there is still a cutscene where he sells her.

Physical Abuse

There is one scene at the end of the Vox Populi timeline level where Daisy Fitzroy beats and almost executes a child. The timeline where Elizabeth is kidnapped and held in an asylum implies physical abuse as well.

Psychological Horror

The Asylum level is clearly a psychological horror level, including jump scares, horrifying imagery, and allusions to psychological and physical torture. This is the only psychological horror part of the game, so if you can have someone else play it for you it is avoidable.

Psychological Trauma

During the Asylum level Elizabeth is implied via artifacts and offscreen screaming to go through psychological trauma that leads to her brainwashing. It is only referenced in the Asylum level, so if you avoid the level you can avoid the trigger.

Racism

The game is centered around Comstock, i.e. Racist McBigot. Racist rhetoric is prevalent throughout the game and is often presented via racist imagery (blackface, cartoonish renderings) or racist rhetoric spouted by various non-player characters throughout the game. In particular, targeted areas are: African Americans, Chinese, Native Americans, interracial couples.

There is also racist language in rhetoric in the Burial at Sea DLC.

Self Harm

The main character brands himself on his right hand with the letters AD off-screen. It is mentioned, but never shown.

Sex Shaming

Mrs. Comstock in a voxophone recording calls Rosalind Lutece her husband's whore because she believes Rosalind is sleeping with her husband. This can be avoided by not listening to Mrs. Comstock's voxophone recordings.

Slavery

All non-white people have a sub-standard quality of life and are only allowed to work for "tokens", not real money; though they technically get "paid" they function as slaves for white people. This is particularly addressed in the Finkton Docks area.

Stalking

When Booker first finds Elizabeth, it is revealed that people (it is unclear who) have been allowed to voyeuristically watch her activities through secret windows that she is unaware of.

Substance Abuse

Booker is implied to be an alcoholic, but he does not mention these struggles; it is implied via glimpses of Booker's apartment where the player can see multiple bottles scattered on the floor.

The player uses "salts", which are substances that are used to give the player particular powers. There is no implication that these are addicting, but they are used often.

==Suicide==The game ends with Booker choosing to die via Elizabeth's hands. He does not commit suicide himself but he chooses to die.

At the end of the Museum level, Slate begs Booker to kill him, clearly showing suicidal thoughts/tendencies. The player can choose whether or not to kill Slate.

Torture

Elizabeth's torture is implied in the Asylum level, shown beginning after beating the Asylum level.

The gunsmith Booker is also sent to find is also tortured. T

here is one cutscene midgame where there is a scene of graphic torture including stretching the person on a rack and beating them.

In the Burial at Sea DLC, Elizabeth is captured by Atlas and tortured, eventually culminating in very nearly being lobotomized. When it becomes clear Elizabeth will not break, Atlas begins torturing a little girl instead.

Violence Against Children

At the end of the Vox Populi timeline level, Elizabeth must save a small child from being murdered by Daisy Fitzroy. The child is beaten and almost murdered graphically.

In the Burial at Sea DLC, a young girl is burned alive due to Elizabeth’s actions. The second part focuses on Elizabeth trying to undo what she did, but the girl still suffers at the hands of Atlas.

Weapons

Standard shooter fare including guns and incendiary rounds.