Bioshock Infinite

[BigBiker05]

I was too let down from the ending:

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

VIEW CONTENT:

It's been done plenty of times: Butterfly Effect, Looper, and apparently there was an episode of The Fringe that was nearly identical even down to a finger getting cut off by a inter-dimensional portal

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

[Peahats]

Well, I beat the game after 14 hours of play, kinda short. Not to say that the game was bad, I really enjoyed combat and it felt much more difficult and balanced than the first game (I played on hard). I felt like the two-weapon limit actually made combat more strategic and frenzied, same with the skylines. I really only found myself relying on a few vigors (Murder of Crows, Shock Jockey, and Bucking Bronco) throughout the game. My favorite sections were the peaceful parts where you and Elizibeth explored sections of Columbia. You could really tell how much care the developers put into the world with all the hidden loot and voxaphones. I loved how disturbingly racist and just wrong they made Columbia (Like the Hall of Heroes or the Raffle). Overall, the game was extremely enjoyable despite a few hitches in the story near the end.

[ShiftyDevil]

I was too let down from the ending:

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

VIEW CONTENT:

It's been done plenty of times: Butterfly Effect, Looper, and apparently there was an episode of The Fringe that was nearly identical even down to a finger getting cut off by a inter-dimensional portal

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

All those things are garbage.

[frostdillicus]

What follows is why I feel the ending of the game was a letdown.

VIEW CONTENT:

I'll preface this by saying I found almost all of the Voxophones. I am only missing a few, but I have checked and I do have all the Lutece Voxs as those are the ones that are, arguably, most important to the story.

First of all, I really enjoyed the game UNTIL the ending. I feel the world that was crafted for Infinite makes the original Bioshock feel lame in comparison. Rapture was "cool" but it was dead. In comparison, Columbia was a living city. I actually felt like what I was doing there mattered. It had character. Rapture had, water and crazy. I think why the main reason the ending let me down so much is because of how wonderful of a world that the developers crafted up until that point.

Lets start from where the ending starts, with your faceoff with Comstock. What a boring way for him to die. Seriously. He gets his head bashed into a birdbath. For all the poop this guy had done to you, I felt let down by his demise.

Next, lets discuss the final fight. I'm sorry, but it was lame. Very very very very lame. It felt like just another area of the game. When it was over, I literally thought, "Wait. That was the end?" I have had quite a few other friends share similar sentiments. There was nothing epic about it. Yes, you get to control Songbird, but all that boiled down to was holding down the F key for a while. You were too busy playing defend the glowy crystal from all the dudes to even enjoy watching him annihilate enemy zeppelins. Honestly, I can't say I have been more let down by a final fight in a while. I'd rank the final fight of Infinite below that of the original Borderlands. There was nothing special about it, just wave after wave of enemy to kill. Incredibly lame, incredibly boring.

Now, the narrative at the end. It was better than the original Bioshock, but that really isn't saying much in my book. The nod to Rapture was cool and when you popped in there I figured there was going to be some actual connection between the two worlds...but I guess not. Just another stop on the 15 minute ramblings of your, probably at this point, insane daughter. Maybe because I have read more scifi than I should have, or maybe because it's the scifi I read, but that ending was trite. They had a chance to hook the world together with Rapture in an interesting fashion, but instead fell back onto scifi tropes rather than building their own mythos. For a game that spent so much time building such a wonderful world, that was a major disappointment. Elizabeth being your daughter was a nice twist, but you being Comstock was blindingly obvious after a little while. I don't remember exactly when it because obvious because I have only played the ending once, but there was just a point where I said out loud, "Well. Booker is Comstock."

If the rest of the game hadn't had been as well crafted as it was, the ending probably would have sufficed. Unfortunately, the developers built an amazingly detailed and well fleshed out world, then went with a wrote scifi ending when they had a chance to build something interesting. The opened the door to a connection with Rapture, then just slammed it shut without a care in the world. Sure, I get a nod to the fans but they had a chance to continue world building and they didn't take it.

Up until the ending, I would have given the game a 9/10. The ending drags it down to a 7.5/10 for me as it leaves me unfulfilled. When I end a game of such quality and my first response is, "That's it?" then the ending hurts the game. For me, it was like reading a wonderfully crafted book with an ending written by someone other than the author. It just fell flat.

[ShiftyDevil]

What follows is why I feel the ending of the game was a letdown.

I disagree.

VIEW CONTENT:

I was totally fine with the way Comstock died. He was an old man, sorry but Booker should be able to grab him and bash his face in without breaking a sweat. The last 3 "epic" boss fights from narrative games I've played have been atrocious, the way Comstock died to me felt completely realistic and understandable. The rage in Booker's voice and the sudden, up close violence of it, was more impactful to the narrative than fighting a giant monster or something.

I think, one of the most important aspects to the games over all narrative was the music that played through out. If you listen to the covered songs from the future you can hear within them over all, and, at the moment themes. God Only Knows, is for me, the overall theme to the game.

Bioshock Infinite IS what Booker would do without Elizabeth, he becomes Comstock. Elizabeth is clearly his moral anchor, without her, he's lost.

As far as them popping into Rapture, I think if they stayed there, or it was anything other than a brief walkthrough it would have undermined what they were doing with the story. There are infinite worlds, Rapture is just one of them. What happened there had nothing to do with Columbia. To me, they were re-iterating that.

As for the actual ending, I think a more interesting question is, what do Elizabeth and Booker's sacrifice mean for the universe of Columbia?

[The Domer]

I better hurry up and finish this game.

[ShiftyDevil]

I better hurry up and finish this game.

Yes, and for the love of pete, don't click any spoiler tags in this thread.

[frostdillicus]

VIEW CONTENT:

Like I said, I have no issue with anything that happens in the game up until the ending. The future music adds to the building of the world. The same world that was all but abandoned by the ending. Sure, it gave you a glimpse into what caused this entire debacle, but by that point if you had spent anytime listening to Voxophones you pretty much already knew what was going on. The only big reveal to me was who Elizabeth was. While important, one big reveal does not a good ending make.

Honestly, Comstock's death is such a trivial part of the ending I'm not even sure why I mentioned it. He seems like nothing more than a speed bump that you hit going a bit too fast. Nothing from his speech or his death really added anything to the game and that might be what bothered me about it.

Also, I still say that the final fight was abysmally designed. So. Boring.

With them popping into Rapture, they had the ability to set up a mythos. I never said I wanted them to stay there and become the founders of Rapture or anything, but they could have made a distinct connection between the two in some way. Yes, Rapture is just another stop on their journey through the infinite worlds, but it could have been so much more. Instead, you end up with the clichéd ending that the good guy is the bad guy from a different world/universe/timestream whatever. It's been done so much before that to use it you have to elevate it somehow and they really didn't. Linking the stories told in Columbia and Rapture together could have elevated it beyond a trite overused ending, but they didn't do that so we are left with what we have.

As for what effect Booker and Elizabeth had on the multiverse? My guess is probably not a whole hell of a lot. The same story, with minor changes due to the way the many world theory works, is probably being continuously played out in an infinite amount of alternate realities the same as it was in the 2-3 realities that the game touched on. In fact, the Comstock that dies in the end isn't even the one the Elizabeth you are traveling with. He kidnapped some other one from a different reality.

[ShiftyDevil]

VIEW CONTENT:

Like I said, I have no issue with anything that happens in the game up until the ending. The future music adds to the building of the world. The same world that was all but abandoned by the ending. Sure, it gave you a glimpse into what caused this entire debacle, but by that point if you had spent anytime listening to Voxophones you pretty much already knew what was going on. The only big reveal to me was who Elizabeth was. While important, one big reveal does not a good ending make.

Honestly, Comstock's death is such a trivial part of the ending I'm not even sure why I mentioned it. He seems like nothing more than a speed bump that you hit going a bit too fast. Nothing from his speech or his death really added anything to the game and that might be what bothered me about it.

Also, I still say that the final fight was abysmally designed. So. Boring.

With them popping into Rapture, they had the ability to set up a mythos. I never said I wanted them to stay there and become the founders of Rapture or anything, but they could have made a distinct connection between the two in some way. Yes, Rapture is just another stop on their journey through the infinite worlds, but it could have been so much more. Instead, you end up with the clichéd ending that the good guy is the bad guy from a different world/universe/timestream whatever. It's been done so much before that to use it you have to elevate it somehow and they really didn't. Linking the stories told in Columbia and Rapture together could have elevated it beyond a trite overused ending, but they didn't do that so we are left with what we have.

As for what effect Booker and Elizabeth had on the multiverse? My guess is probably not a whole hell of a lot. The same story, with minor changes due to the way the many world theory works, is probably being continuously played out in an infinite amount of alternate realities the same as it was in the 2-3 realities that the game touched on. In fact, the Comstock that dies in the end isn't even the one the Elizabeth you are traveling with. He kidnapped some other one from a different reality.

VIEW CONTENT:

I'm guessing you fight different than I do, but in that final battle I was zipping around the area, blasting dudes with RPGs/handcannons/volleyguns/machine guns from the sky while throwing fireballs and setting traps. I was throwing dudes over board and tearing motorize patriots a new bhole. I had a blast in that fight.

[frostdillicus]

VIEW CONTENT:

I'm guessing you fight different than I do, but in that final battle I was zipping around the area, blasting dudes with RPGs/handcannons/volleyguns/machine guns from the sky while throwing fireballs and setting traps. I was throwing dudes over board and tearing motorize patriots a new bhole. I had a blast in that fight.

VIEW CONTENT:

My usual fighting style was Shock Jockey/Spread on Kill/Carbine Headshots.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that fighting style is what you used for most of the game? If that's the case, then my issue with the final fight is validated. It was nothing different from the entire rest of the game. Yes, it had the Songbird gimmick, but it was just that. A gimmick. Even the Lady Comstock fight had a unique flair to it that made it different from the rest of the trash you kill in the game. In the case of the final fight though, it's just more of the same. No boss. No big evil. Just a bunch of grunts and something to defend. Bleh.

[NerevarineKing]

VIEW CONTENT:

Like I said, I have no issue with anything that happens in the game up until the ending. The future music adds to the building of the world. The same world that was all but abandoned by the ending. Sure, it gave you a glimpse into what caused this entire debacle, but by that point if you had spent anytime listening to Voxophones you pretty much already knew what was going on. The only big reveal to me was who Elizabeth was. While important, one big reveal does not a good ending make.

Honestly, Comstock's death is such a trivial part of the ending I'm not even sure why I mentioned it. He seems like nothing more than a speed bump that you hit going a bit too fast. Nothing from his speech or his death really added anything to the game and that might be what bothered me about it.

Also, I still say that the final fight was abysmally designed. So. Boring.

With them popping into Rapture, they had the ability to set up a mythos. I never said I wanted them to stay there and become the founders of Rapture or anything, but they could have made a distinct connection between the two in some way. Yes, Rapture is just another stop on their journey through the infinite worlds, but it could have been so much more. Instead, you end up with the clichéd ending that the good guy is the bad guy from a different world/universe/timestream whatever. It's been done so much before that to use it you have to elevate it somehow and they really didn't. Linking the stories told in Columbia and Rapture together could have elevated it beyond a trite overused ending, but they didn't do that so we are left with what we have.

As for what effect Booker and Elizabeth had on the multiverse? My guess is probably not a whole hell of a lot. The same story, with minor changes due to the way the many world theory works, is probably being continuously played out in an infinite amount of alternate realities the same as it was in the 2-3 realities that the game touched on. In fact, the Comstock that dies in the end isn't even the one the Elizabeth you are traveling with. He kidnapped some other one from a different reality.

VIEW CONTENT:

I'm guessing you fight different than I do, but in that final battle I was zipping around the area, blasting dudes with RPGs/handcannons/volleyguns/machine guns from the sky while throwing fireballs and setting traps. I was throwing dudes over board and tearing motorize patriots a new bhole. I had a blast in that fight.

[Peahats]

I was disappointed on the severe lack of Handymen, patriots, and other sprcial enemies in the game.

[BigBiker05]

I was disappointed on the severe lack of Handymen, patriots, and other sprcial enemies in the game.

Yeah, I think I only fought 2 or 3 handymen the whole game.

[Powdermilkman]

VIEW CONTENT:

I guess it was just me, but i thought the ending was very fitting. But i knew from the beginning that something was up when the light house looked identical (well very close) to the one in the first Bioshock. The only last boss encounter we could have experienced in my mind was to actually fight the song bird, but realistically we would have been torn limb from limb unless Elizabeth summoned the bird and we shot in the back of the head, which would have been disappointing. To see the song bird die a horrible death from being crushed to death after it heroically helped us fight the VOX was very sad.

I really enjoyed the multi-verse thing. Being a fan of Fringe and just fascinated by that sci fi aspect that there are different us in different worlds with different quirks is right up my alley. I do think that our decision to let Elizabeth(s) drown us at the end will drastically change the multi-verse. Since Comstock didn't technically exist until the Baptism cutting off the Baptism and killing Booker at the root the minute before Comstock is born will make sure Comstock is never born. However, in the epilogue Elizabeth does say something very telling. She tells Booker at one point "there is always a man, there is always a city", which i interpreted to be the tie to the original Bioshock besides the light house and the quick trip to Rapture.

One thing i am interested in is the scene after the credits. Booker wakes up in his office, you go to the door where your daughter is crying and before you can look in the crib fade to black. I assume this is the start where Booker gets to make his choice, which throughout the entire game he repeats in some way no one controls me no one decides what i do etc...so now is he finally getting to decide what he wants to do and can either restart the Comstock section of the multi-verse or live a normal life? Does he remember all the events of the game? I read somewhere there might be DLC that adds to the story, i would be interested to see the last scene fleshed out a bit.

SIDE NOTE: If the ending hadn't been the way it was, i could have totally seen Ryan exploring the wreckage of Columbia with a team of scientist as the last scene after the credits to me that would have been a very cool tease that the universe was connected. Though if you blinked you'll miss it, in Fink factory there is a production line making little sister dolls.

PMM

[frostdillicus]

VIEW CONTENT:

I disagree that the only realistic final encounter could have been Songbird. With Elizabeth's power there are a myriad of possible encounters that could have been brought to the table, especially if you are willing to let Elizabeth be the final boss.

What if the Elizabeth from the future lied to you and the path you took IS the one that leads to her becoming evil?

What if Elizabeth is overwhelmed by the full force of her siphoned power and it causes her to go insane and the only way to stop her is to kill her yourself.

What if Elizabeth gets her full power and realizes that you sold her to pay a debt. She could be pretty pissed at you and with her powers...

What if releasing the power stored in the siphon causes you and Elizabeth to being to randomly hop between worlds, like say to the past where Booker fought in the Battle of Wounded Knee, or maybe into the future World War I and you had to survive those scenarios until you could bring her powers back under control.

Same scenario, but what if she started randomly pulling enemies in from other dimensions be they soldiers, Pinkertons, versions of Songbird, Native American warbands, or anything else that was introduced into the game world through the story.

What if Elizabeth brought in another version of Booker and you have to fight him as he sees you as Comstock and are holding Elizabeth hostage?

I mean, these are all things I just randomly came up that, at least in my opinion, would have been a better final battle than "Defend airship core from a bunch of Vox Populi. Press F to have Songbird kill poop." They had the chance to make a truly special final battle, but instead it was just more of the same guys you had been killing the entire game.