Friday, March 29, 2013

Bioshock: Infinite - Elizabeth is Annoying

Bioshock Infinite is the third game of the Bioshock franchise. The game was hyped up delayed and many people left the company. There was also the whole ending fiasco.

"There was a scene in the game at the end where . . . one of our artists--who got to a point in the game, played it, turned off BioShock, opened up his computer, opened Microsoft Word, and wrote a resignation letter; it had offended him so much," said lead designer Ken Levine in an interview with GameSpot. 

Really? Because the ending sucked about as much if not more ass than mass effect 3's ending. Only difference was Mass Effect spanned three games so the build up was bigger before the fall.

Bioshock Infinite takes place in SURPRISE another dystopian city, this time Columbia that flies over America led by the prophet Comstock. The game starts with you, a man named Booker DeWitt who to pay off gambling debts have to kidnap a girl called Elizabeth. As you do this you get dragged along different factions. The rich white folk the Founders, and the Chinese, Native, Black, Irish folk, the Vox . Basically the game is a social commentary of the 1900's except it suddenly changes halfway through the game and focuses solely on Elizabeth.

Now Elizabeth is a pretty useless character. She points out stuff, like explaining about the military and other things. What I found confusing was how she even know all this being locked away in a tower. Other than that she is used as a portable lockpick. Walk up to a locked door and click F. She will walk over and unlock it for you. Other than that she doesn't do anything other than throwing you an occasional item. Although she does give conversations sometimes which makes the game a little less lonely. However, the first two Bioshock games had people radio you so there is really no difference in her being there or not.

She also whines and cries. When things doesn't go her way she cries and runs away in a tantrum. When she runs off she is immediately captured and requires you to rescue her. Isn't that a great thing to teach women? A battered woman running away from the man and then get punished for doing so! This happens a lot in the game actually. Pretty much the whole game revolves around her getting captured again and again and requires your rescue. One thing I noticed in the game is she gets more and more battered as the game goes on. There is even a long torture scene where you can hear the sounds of her screams. Then you rescue her half unclothed 17 year old body from the chair and "help her." In the end of the game she is covered with cuts and bruises everywhere.

What I find annoying as hell is how powerful she is. She is able to bend space and time yet she has to be "protected." You are constantly telling her to stay behind and leave everything to you. She never joins you in battle. Like what the fuck? Shes a fucking God, let her do some work too. Its not like your guns or vigor powers are any good either. Compared to the other games it feels lacking.

Near the second half of the game, everything falls to shit. There was already a huge shortage of character compared to the first two games. Having killed off the few major characters like 25% of the way into the game wasn't really much help either. It ended up with just the two of you versus Comstock. The story became weird and haphazard as if it was suddenly rushed to meet a deadline. The two factions as said above were claimed to be "equal." The Vox is just the Founders with a different name was what Booker pretty much said. I found that to be quite bullshit because the Founders pretty much have government sanctioned stoning to death for interracial couples, while the Vox is trying to change things albeit a bit violently but what other way could they have done it?

Either way the factions merely exist as fodder. The game isn't about Columbia, it isn't about the factions, it all about you and Elizabeth and Comstock. The ending doesn't really explain everything either. Its filled with plot holes and pretty much ruins everything you've done in the game. Its also a 15 min long exposition from Elizabeth. But don't worry, all this can be solved with the season pass! The season pass is basically another name for the DLCs.

They're now selling DLCs before they even come out.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"how she even know all this being locked away in a tower" she explains it as when you have nothing to do in a tower you read. she had an entire library at her disposal, and as she said, the bird kept bringing her more books.

"Shes a fucking God, let her do some work too." shes never used a gun and you are an expert at them. her powers are quite powerful in the end when they are unlocked, but until that point they are limited to opening tears that are already there and only one at a time. also because of being locked in the tower she didn't get much exercise, so she isn't strong either, which is seen when she has trouble opening large doors that you can open just fine.
And lastly i suppose you were too focused on the action to put 2 and 2 together. I understood the plot perfectly and wanted to explain its detail to all my friends because i thought it may be hard to understand, but sadly I couldn't because they all understood it just fine too. but then again not everyone is good at doing that.
We also found the ending to be mind blowing. that last bit of revelation before the end to leave you paralyzed at the keyboard putting the final pieces of the puzzle together. but i understand where you are coming from, too many people seem to think that: main character dies = terrible ending, no exceptions. which is silly if you ask me. It wasn't rushed, it was in the original script years before the game started being developed.
Not saying your opinion is wrong, i just wish it was a little more thought out. this game apparently wasnt for you, and you should stick to Battlefield and CoD. :)