Bioshock Infinite Without Gravity pt.01

When you review a piece of art, what is the purpose of doing so? It seems like these days a lot of people try to "win" against it, picking apart plot holes or things that don't make sense, to come out as superior, either to the art in question or to others who didn't pick up on what they did.

But how does that serve the art? How does that serve other people? I don't think it does, and that's what I want to do.

In this series as I talk about different games, I don't want to focus on plot holes or inaccuracies for the sake of yucks or to appear smarter than I am. I want to ask two questions; what is this game trying to do, how well does it do it and what can be done to make the message stronger?

I hope you join me in my studies of games, where I'll talk a lot about games, a little about life, and all of it with a passion to elevate the medium so that nothing can hold it back, not even gravity.

I gotta be honest, I wasn't expecting to cover this game so soon. Because my sibling and I are on the same page in that we utterly hate it. So I thought it could be like a big event or something, ya know? Like "wow, I've been doing this for a year now. To celebrate let's talk about one of  the most problematic games I've ever seen."

I didn't expect this to be the second game/article in the "Without Gravity" series, but here we are.

But you know what? Maybe this is a good thing. Yeah, I'll take this opportunity to make the best of it. And since I know I'm going to hate it the more I play, I'm going to try focusing on all the good bits I can find before I utterly collapse into a pile of rage and madness. So, on we go!

So Bioshock Infinite is the 3rd Bioshock game, which was developed by Irrational Games and often seen as "being made" by Ken Levine. You know, in the same way games are "made" by one person. He was the creative designer for the first Bioshock, and is also well known for his work on Thief: The Dark Project and System Shock 2, which is basically the precursor to the Bioshock games.

I'm playing the Xbox 360 edition of Infinte, and I haven't played much of Bioshock 1 except for the demo, and I haven't played any of the other shock games, so we're going to be taking this mostly on its own merits, but I'll make comparisons where I can, alrighty?

The intro's rather fun, but it's a bit much to take in the first time. The game starts with three people in a boat; a man rowing (voiced by Oliver Vaquer), a woman (Jennifer Hale) and the player character, Booker DeWitt (Troy Baker ). The two NPCs have some playful banter I heard this time around, but every other time I was trying to get my bearings, so I couldn't really appreciate anything they were saying.

Still the location is nice, and its significance is not lost on me. It's a lighthouse like in Bioshock 1, but instead of a plane crash, here there's just a storm. Both are meant to give you a form of anxiety, that "outside" the lighthouse is peirlous, and you need to get inside asap.

It's nothing stellar, but it starts out promising before throwing it all away from some of the idiotic decisions I've ever seen in my life I hate this game so much why am I playing it right now?!

WE. ARE. BEING. POSITIVE. FOCUS. ON. THE. GAME.

*ahem* Moving on... 

As soon as we enter we're greeted with religious imagery, which will be a recurring motif of this story going forward. There's also a basin where you can get a look at DeWitt, where he then looks at the above sign and says "good luck with that." This gives us, literally and figuratively our first look at our main character, and it's worth keeping in mind as we go forward.

Speaking of going forward, moving up the lighthouse there's little of note other than more religious imagery and a dead body meant to shock the player, but I'll get into that in a while when we talk about shock tactics.

There's also... What I hesitate to call a puzzle, but I'll get back to that too.

So I know the thing you get in to get to Rapture was called a bathosphere, but I couldn't find the name of this flying totally-not-a-bathosphere, so I'll call it... a T-Nab. Yeah. So where as your decent with the bathosphere was calming and you were distracted by a in-swim movie, here you get forcibly strapped into a rickety death chamber which an ominous countdown starting as soon as you enter. I feel like whoever built this thing needs to visit a PR department

But once you're actually in the sky, you get your first look at Columbia, and it looks pretty nice and is again a contrast to Rapture. Where as your first viewing there was Andrew Ryan basically flexing his muscles humble bragging, here you get a sense of beauty and peace, like you really have arrived in heaven. It also sets it apart from the decaying and ruined Rapture. We can clearly see that Columbia is still alive and active.

This tour also serves as effective propaganda, as you're shown a large picture of the prophet and leader of the city, Zachary Hale Comstock (Kiff VandenHeuvel), and brought down to see even more relgious quotes and imagery. And another contrast to Rapture, where you arrived at basically an undersea airport, here the T-Nab lands inside of a church, right in front of this image to greet you

The people here are very religious, if you
hadn't caught on yet

Columbia wastes more water than Zanarkand

As you explore the church you begin to realize that... Ok, hold on. Who lit all these candles? Like, seriously! There's hundreds of them! There are half a dozen rooms in this church, and they all have at least 3 dozen candles each! And I wouldn't harp on that except the floor is covered in water! And it's not even a design flaw, like there's just a leak that no one's bothered to fix! Oh, no. You enter the church next to the fountain that just pours water all over everything!

How? How is this a thing?! Why is it a thing?! Who lights all these candles? How do they do it? Do they use vigors, the magic power in this game? I doubt it considering the only people we see use the fire vigor is... Not well. And why on the ground in water? I mean someone's going to fall at one point or kids will run up the aisle and splash 30 candles out at once, and whoever's job it is to light these things will question why they have to light all these damn candles all the damn time and─

FORGET. THE. CANDLES. FOCUS. ON. THE. GAME.

Eventually you find the entrance to the city, but you can only enter if you get baptized first. This is significant for 2 reasons; first it hints that this religion is pretty big in the city, since you can't enter without becoming a member first. It's also significant because we learn much later that one of the most significant moments in Booker's life was when he refused to be baptized, which was part of the reason he said "good luck with that" earlier. It's pretty good foreshadowing honestly.

It's just a shame literally everything I've spoken about up until now probably should have been cut.

After Booker wakes up from the priest nearly drowning him, we wake up to see more religious propaganda, but this time it's statues of the founding fathers, but BUFF! This is a much better opening scene, but first I needa talk about some real stuff

This game uses a lot of racist imagery in this game, and that presents a huge problem. Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's bad to use it if you're going to talk about issues involving racism, which this game tries to do. But Satire is dead, and some of the imagery created for this game was used by real racists to further their racist agendas. Fox News used the logo and switched the words out to say "defend the homeland" and another image with the words "it is our holy duty to defend against the foreign hordes" was used on the homepage of an actual, literal white nationalist hate group.

When creating propaganda for your universe you need to be extra careful not to give real racists ammo, and that's why I can't get behind the explicitly racist stuff. The buff founding fathers, on the other hand, are a much better use of in-universe propaganda that aren't really problematic, or at the very least don't create new problems.

Why? Well, to explain that, we need to go back to what I said about the intro and how we could have scrapped basically everything thus far. Why? Well, that's actually one of the reasons; we aren't told why. Or what. Or who. Or when, and only kind of where. You're just some guy in the ocean who doesn't help with the rowing during a freaking storm going to a lighthouse for reasons even he doesn't seem to know!

Then the game just assaults you with religious propaganda, a stupid bell "puzzle" watery floors and... ugh... candles... It's just too much, man. It's a lot to take in all at once and you're not given a foot hold in any of it, so it kinda goes in one ear and out the other.

But that's why the buff founding fathers are actually so good here. The shot with you staring up at them with the sun behind them should have been one of the opening shots, if not the opening shot. And that's because if you grew up in America, you know who these people are, and you recognize exactly what's going on here; these people are mixing patriotic imagery with religious imagery.

Thing is these guys ain't just buff; they're heavenly. The sun is shining down from behind them, they're draped in flowing robes, and each on of them are holding out different items, almost as if they're offering you gifts of divine favor. This image alone tells you everything you need to know about Columbia.

And let's talk about the items they're handing you, from left to right it's a key, a sword and a scroll. I don't recall them meaning really anything in the grand scheme of things, but let's pretend they matter for a bit.

Now the first time the player is going to see these items is from the stupid bell mini-game right before entering the T-Nab. Introducing them here is dumb because the player still doesn't have a grasp on anything, and also the puzzle itself is stupid. I mean, it outright tells you the answer, doesn't keep the items in the same order as the buff founding fathers, and is so forgettable you probably didn't even remember it before I started saying how stupid it was.

The bells mean nothing to the player, which is why introducing them here is pointless and bad. But with the buff founding father, it's juxtaposing the alien imagery with familiar imagery; namely the founding fathers. You still don't know what it means, but you know it means something. And that familiarity with who these people are along with the unknown items should make you curious about what the symbols do mean.

And this is even further shown by the statues being made of stone, while the items are made of the strongest metal known; bronze!

... Yeah, that was a long way to go for a Clones of Bruce Lee joke...

So with all that said, why not just open here? Start with a pseudo-dream sequence with the two boat folx telling Booker "go to monument island, get the girl and the debt will be cleared." You don't even know that much by this point, so it would have been a much stronger, quicker opening.

I mean, ok, you lose the going up to the lighthouse, but that wasn't really needed, and you could have had the dream sequence at the light house (like much later). And yes, the game does give a note that tells DeWitt to get the girl to clear away the debt, but it was a single note made by someone I don't know to someone I don't know because I didn't even know I was DeWitt by that point!

Ok, with that out of the way, the majority of this opening is actually pretty spectacular. You walk through a beautiful garden before you open a door, and there you get your first glimpse of Columbia! ... for the second time!

 

We... We just did this. Not 5 minutes ago. Did you think I forgot?

Another reason that the beginning part of this story should have been cut is that seeing the propaganda poster and the stain glass window of our antagonist, Comstock, wasn't as strong as this is.

Check it out; the main point of focus when you open the door is that statue. And as you approach it, you get to see how freaking HUGE it is. It's bloody massive, with you being about the same size as its shoe. And when you approach it, you can hear a nearby civilian say "I dunno if this is as sick-azz-nasty as the real Comstock"

... Ok, they actually say it fails to capture his divinity, but still, that's a way better villain introduction than *points finger at picture below this text* THIS

Anyway, the itself city looks really, really good. The city itself is brown and white, there are plants everywhere giving it shades of green, and all of this is complimented by the blue sky with the occasional white cloud. The warm city colors contrast really well against the cool nature colors, and it gives the city overall a balanced, comforting feel.

There's a lot of background chatter, too. And while I won't go over pretty much any of it, it's still welcomed because pretty much everything said will be relevant later on in the game. You can over hear people talking about the Vox, how the city works, someone even mentions lady Comstock. If you keep your ears open, you might learn something cool ahead of time. There are also a ton of posters and other images that are important to the plot and the lives of the loquacious citizenry.

Then there's falling to your death, too! It's actually handled rather well. You don't take damage from falling off the edge of the world, and you instantly respawn where you just were within a split second. Not only is this great since enemies knocking you off the world won't be a problem when/if it happens, but it's also just fun to jump off for a lark!

After about 10 minutes of walking around I eventually see a huge angel. It;s Monument Island, which only now the game tells me is where I need to go. But as Booker looks at it, a kid walks up to him and gives him a telegram, which is basically a creepy message warning him of danger. Weird.

Soon after that you find yourself at a carnival. Here, you see a man talking to a crowd about an amazing new product, Vigors! Vigor are the stand-ins for Plasmids in this game, which if you don't know give people magic powers but prolonged use drives folx insane.

Generally people consider Vigors to be a plot hole. Like, why doesn't everyone use them like in Rapture? Why do only a few enemies use them. Well, apparently I was the only one paying attention here in class, because I can tell ya; they're new. 

Again, it's a contrast to Rapture. Where as there we saw the worst possible result of the society that got super powers through drugs, here we're seeing the snake-oil salesmen pitch to the populace that it's real. Heck, the reason they're giving some away for free is so that they can prove they're selling more than snake-oil to begin with!

I do have a problem with them, though, and it involves this carnival bit. For the most part, I love this part because it's a carnival that has stuff to do, and those things you do help you get better at the game, such as the shooting gallery, since you haven't fought with a gun yet. It gives you a safe environment to try it out.

Employee: Hey, chief? Do you really think it's okay to just give
away mind control powers to anyone who walks by?

Boss: Eh, what's the worst that could happen?

But then there's the game with the Cast out the Devil game, where you're given a temporary vigor! Yeah. It gives you Bucking Bronco, which the man helpfully informs you that "whether you need it lifted, lofted, tossed or tumbled, Bucking Bronco is just the ticket!” during the mini-game. But when you leave, it's just gone. How?! Why?! And if they can give out temporary vigors, then why on earth do the give you permanent mind-controlling power?! Ok, yeah, they advertise it as technopathy, but still, the vending machines in town sell upgrades that allow you to brainwash people, so I still politely offer a huge WTF to whoever came up with this marketing gimmick. How'd they even set up vending machines with Vigors that quickly?

Also, it's here at the fair that I notice that, like, every single person in the entire city wears a hat. I don't think it means anything, especially since there are a few exceptions like the sales ladies but still... It's creepy. Seriously. 99% of the people here wear hats.

But, hey, as long as we're talking about Vigors, I really love the game's magic UI! So like most games you have a set amount of energy (salts) you can expend to cast Vigors. But what's cool is that the UI changes slightly for each Vigor. Look at the picture to the side here; the both the upper and lower image have the same max salts, but because the Vigor on top costs more to cast, it only has two sections, whereas the lower one has 5.

You can also tell that the colors are slightly different, with both ends having a light blue color. This is to show that section doesn't have enough salts to cast, whether because it's not full (top image) or it is full but the section itself doesn't have enough for another casting (bottom image).

This is really smart design because you can tell at a glance how many times you can cast each Vigor and since gaining salts doesn't always restore a full charge, you need to be deliberate with each spell you cast. And what ties this whole thing together is the Vigors are actually really good. If you know how to use them properly, once cast can completely change the tide of the battle.

There are some issues with Vigors later on, most notably that they don't have enough variance, but if nothing else the foundation they're built on is solid, and it makes for a satisfying magic system

I trust you guys because you don't wear hats

And it's at this point you meet the Lutece Twins. We don't get much with them yet, just a game of heads or tails, but if you were paying attention on the boat, then you'll probably notice that these two sound exactly the same as the people who brought you here.

Now I don't like this game, mostly at all, but I have to admit that the Lutece Twins are great characters, and deserved a much better game. Which is why I'm officially giving them my stamp of "You Are WAAAAAAAAAAAY Too Good For This Game" award! Congrats

So you maaaaay have noticed at this point that this intro is incredibly slow and very little action has happened. But you know what? I stand by what I said with Twilight Princess; slow intros are good. It's taking its time, and while not a lot happens, it is setting up things in the background, so it ain't wasted

"Woah, I can't wait to ride the most disappointing boss battle ever!"
... You know what? Songbird gets a "too good for this game stamp," too

Another thing to bring up is that the way this town is set up is very, well, artificial. I've been walking in a straight line this entire time, and only once or twice did I see an alternate route, and one of them had a roadblock at the time. Heck, after a while even the propaganda posters start to look more like advertisements for new attractions than anything else.

But, honestly, it's good design. I mean, yeah, if feels like I'm walking through a town as real as Disneyland's Main St, but that's kinda the point. It's a town built by and for rich people. It's supposed to look nice, not be efficient.

Anyway, I keep walking down the street, and eventually I come across a sign that says "you will know the false shepard by his markl." ... Oh, sorry, "mark." Font problems aside, as soon as Booker sees the poster, he raises up his hand and says "what the?" So cool, now we know that Booker has the mark, and he has no idea why. It's a good little moment, made more significant because the poster is in the middle of the road under an archway, so it's cloaked in the shadows with two lit sconces on either side. It has a very foreboding feel to it all and is a nice set up to a mystery. I don't think the payoff is good, but the set up is nice.

Oh, dear, we're finally here, aren't we? The raffle. *deep breaths* Okay. Let's talk about this scene, and the use of racism in Bioshock Infinite.

You arrive at the raffle, hosted by local businessman Jeremiah Fink (Bill Lobley), participate and draw the exact ball you were told not to get in the telegram, #77. And then, all of a sudden the current on the stage opens and, well, this happen;

"Are you going to throw it, or are you taking your coffee black now? Haha!"
... Christ

Because, yeah, at first glance this scene looks really effective. You've just walked through this beautiful city, through a fair no less, and it's been nothing but jovial. Sure, some things the people have said have been questionable, but nothing too eye raising. Then, BAM! This happens!

Yeah, I get it, it's suppose to shock you, and it does... To an extent. And honestly I'd be fine with this scene if just a few things were tweaked about it. Namely, remove the racism from it. Because, mate, right from the word go this game's use of racism is just bad.

Let's be clear about this; what they're doing here is using racism for shock value, and that's not cool. And look, shock value is a good and useful tool, but when you do it with material as sensitive as racism, you better know what in the hell you're doing, because it can quickly get into "YIKES" territory if you mess up. And trust me, by the time we're done with this game, we'll have gone to "YIKES"-ville so many times that you'll know it like the back of your hand, as well as where all the best restaurants are located!

Because, really, what does this scene accomplish? Basically two things;
1) the people of Columbia are incredibly disingenuous
2) behind their veneer of decadency, they are incredibly violent and racist

Ok, cool, that scene accomplishes that. Just one question though; why did we need to know they're racist, and why in this way? Because I'd argue there shouldn't be a "reveal" for "this people are racist." If they're this racist, then it'll come through when we see nothing but black people as janitors, or you could have just had us walk by wash rooms for whites and colors, and that would have done the job just fine.

Heck, in the next session we'll be meeting Columbia's chapter of the KKK, so we were still going to get to the whole racism thing sooner rather than later.

Actually, I take it back; there is a reason for the racism here; it's so you know immediately why they're up on stage about to be stoned to death... By baseballs. Balled to death. Hmm.

Because it's a man and a woman of different colors, you immediately get why they're up there, and I'll give Irrational Games this; I can't think of another "crime" they could have committed that's instantly recognizable like that outside of homosexuality. Still, I'd rather not have it there at all. Just have Fink say "Hey, these guy's rustled some cattle! And we hate cattle ruslers! Let's give them the Leon Kuwata treatment!"

Oh, glob. I got so caught up in the racism I forgot about the choice. The. Choice. So when Fink reveals the couple to you, you're given a button prompt to throw the ball at the couple or Fink. My question is, why give you this in a button prompt? Why not let the player aim the ball wherever they wanted? I wanted to throw the ball into the crowd, but the best way I could think of to subvert the game's expectations was to let the time run out. Little did I know at the time how apropos that is to Booker's character, but that's another mess that I'll deal with later.

So actually it doesn't matter what you do, since where ever you try to send the ball, a cop grabs your hand and tells everyone you're the false Shepard! They try to execute you on the spot with a spinning saw thing, but you steal it from them by shoving it directly into directly into a guy's face! OWCH!

But that shows right there why we didn't even need the two on stage to begin with! Have Booker win the Raffle, he lifts up his hands, someone sees the mark and the police grab him just like they do here! In fact, it's more effective that way because one minute you're partying with everyone and the next they've got a saw in your face! Same scene, with 100% less clumsy use of racism!

You didn't need the rascim here at all! You wanna show how violent the city is? Show how quickly they resort to violent when they see you are the false shepherd!

And it would drive home how violent Booker is as well; I mean, yeah, they try to kill you on the spot, but Booker gets first blood, and he even aims for the guy's face. That was effective enough to show how the city is super violent, but that Booker is going to fit in just fine here.

Honestly there's probably more to say about this scene, but I feel like if I dwell on it anymore it'll just be an unfocused mess. Bottom line is maybe, MAYBE, I could tolerate the use of racism here if I was playing a game that handled racial tension with more delicacy and nuance than Birth of a Nation, but unfortunately that's not the game we're playing. SO. We're moving on.

Now you get your first real taste of combat, and it's effective enough. Cops come at you 2-4 at a time so you're outnumbered but not overwhelmed, you get a few tutorial section to show how certain mechanics work. It's fine. You may die a few times going through it, though, since you don't have your defense yet and can't store health items, well, ever. I'll have more to say on combat as we go on.

The atmosphere of the place has change here, too. When entering Columbia it looks like an average city (albeit in the sky) with people talking, walking, children playing, you know. But now the streets are empty, and you even pass by some places you did before and the only people around want you dead or are dead because of you. It's a nice shift in tone and creates some tension in the atmosphere. And the environment is all the same! Same orange & white buildings, same greenery all about, same blue sky. It's all the same, but the tone has changed dramatically. And this is all before you get to the mini-boss!

Soon enough you find yourself at a gate and on the other side is a fireman. It's an amazing encounter. The colors are now red, orange & burning, the trees are pitch black with embers, you can't even see the sky anymore through the smoke. It's a brilliant encounter

... Which certainly makes it a shame that I took him down with my pistol before he came within 20 feet of me, but whatever. Beat him, and now we have our second Vigor! It's a fire power! Basically it's a power that make rocks that explode on contact. So... So there's no way that this fire Vigor could have lit all those candles! Then how the hell did they all─

RULE. OF. THREE. FOCUS. ON. THE. GAME.

 But hey, ya wanna know something cools? Check out the burning trees here next time you play. This game is know to have some amazingly fake looking flat textures, but the trees where the firemen attack are a great example of how to use them well. They're all all black, except for where the fires are. Because instead of putting flame animations there, they just make the colors on the branches shift between various shades of yellow and orange to give the illusion of being on fire without putting fire on the tree. A+ on that!

After the fight there's another small fight where you're supposed to use oil to clear out the enemies, but I completely missed it. So, I just shot them. You find yourself at a new location called the Blue Ribbon, and inside we meet the Lutece Twins again! What are they up to? Well, we'll see about that next time.

I think this is enough for a part 1 on this. Next time we'll talk to the Lutece Twins, learn about some more mechanics, both cool and disappointing, and as mentioned earlier, we'll meet Columbia's very own brand of the KKK. Oh, boy! I'm already shuddering!

Thank you so much for reading, and until next time, take care 💜

"Hey, guy! Check out this cloud! It's crazy, right! I mean, are you guys seeing this?"
Narrator voice: And that was the last time that Zachary Comstock did drugs
Narrator 2: It wasn't

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3