I only just got around to playing Bioshock Infinate about a month ago and since then I can't seem to get it out of my mind, not because it was this unbelievably great game that I just couldn't stop thinking about, but rather because it has literally the most contrived and poorly executed story of any game I've ever played in my goddess damned life (EDIT: this is an admitted overstatement, it was very late when I typed this and I probably would have worded it differently otherwise, sorry about that). And this is coming from someone who genuinely loved it, especially the ending, when they first finished it. However since then I started thinking about it more and more, and slowly began to realize just how many holes this plot has, to that point that I truly feel like I found a new one every night since then, and probably more.
I'm going to try and articulate some of these problems I had with the writing, and some specifically significant plot holes I found, everything beyond this point, and inevitably in this thread, will contain massive spoilers for the entire game.
Hoooooooooly crap I only intended to list off a few plot holes and it turned into a rant that took me two hours to type, and I still have boatloads more to throw at this game, but this is just driving the point home further, this game is driving me out of my damn mind and I welcome anyone else reading this to share some of the things that might have driven them mad about this game's plot as well.
Oh and uh, yeah it's presented very well, it has some genuinely fantastic set pieces, the voice acting, animaion and character models are all phenomenal and the game is all around a joy to look at and hear. I'm not saying that it's an entirely bad game, it's plot just takes itself way too seriously and deals with way too many big ideas to be this shot full of holes, and it is truly driving me crazy.
EDIT FOUR: I am really beginning to regret starting this thread, it seems to have sparked allot of discourse and clashing of polarized opinions, and for that I'm sorry.
Bottom Line: I do not think Biohsock Infinite is necessarily a bad game, like I said I quite liked it at first, just that I personally dislike the way much of the plot is structured, and think it runs on a very confusing and contrived set of rules that frequently contradict themselves in my opinion.
I'm going to try and articulate some of these problems I had with the writing, and some specifically significant plot holes I found, everything beyond this point, and inevitably in this thread, will contain massive spoilers for the entire game.
Okay so ignoring the obvious ones (why didn't Booker cover up the branding on his hand, why are the vigors even here if nobody uses them, why doesn't anybody in a racist city in 1912 use the N word, etc.)in reality #3 (the one in which the Vox revolted) Booker #3 supposedly showed up to Columbia too late and Elizabeth had already been moved to Comstock House before he got there, so as a back up plan he joins up with the Vox so they'll help him out with Elizabeth in exchange. However in the process Booker dies and becomes the martyr of their revolution, thus explaining where Booker #3 is.
Where then is Elizabeth #3?
She can't be in the tower because if she was then Booker #3 would have been able to get to her, and wouldn't have to join up with the Vox in the first place, and she's not at Comstock House when you eventually get there in the same reality, so where is she? This also raises the question of why in the Hell Constock is even bothering to peruse your Booker and your Elizabeth, when his Booker is dead and he would already have his Elizabeth.
And what about Songbird? I thought Songbird's whole "flying Big Daddy" thing implied that he was supposed to be guarding Elizabeth, HIS Elizabeth, the one that we haven't accounted for. Why does Songbird, or Comstock for that matter, care about capturing and indoctrinating your Elizabeth when they both would already have their own?
(EDIT TWO: This has actually been explained pretty well by some other people on this thread, apparently the idea is that you don't really travel to realities two and three so to speak, but rather Elizabeth kinda overlays the universes on top of one another, hence why some people remember being both alive and dead, althought I feel this is communicated very poorly in the game)
Also, is Comstock just... not paying attention to what's going on in this city during all of this? The Vox have all but destroyed the place and they have made their intentions of coming for him very very clear, why is his highest priority right now torturing and Indoctrinating Elizabeth to become his successor? Wouldn't it make more sense to put that on the back burner for a little while while he focuses on making sure there's a city left to lead?
And that leads me into that bit where future Elizabeth pulls Booker into her timeline to supposedly show him how to save his Elizabeth from becoming her... except she doesn't do that. She gives him a picture of a cage and sends him on his way. Granted this does end up being the secret to controlling Songbird but Booker's already saved her from Comstock House well before that becomes relevant. You could argue that she was really just showing Booker a reality in which he didn't save her to strengthen his resolve in doing so, but when exactly did Booker imply in any way that wasn't his plan in the first place? It would have been a far more effective sequence if there was a bit before that where Booker seemed to have given up or said anything even remotely to that effect, but he didn't, and it almost seems as if future Elizabeth created her own timeline by pulling Booker into her reality (Snake! You've created a time paradox!).
(EDIT THREE: again, this was pretty well explained by other people in the thread, supposedly it's future Elizabeth teleporting Booker past Songbird that's the real point of this sequence, I personally dislike the direction of the plot here, but it does in fact make sense in context of the story)
But the big thing that just killed it for me was the ending, which again, I really really liked at first... until I started thinking about it. At first it bothered me that Elizebeth just magically knew all this stuff as if Ken Levine just slipped her a copy of the script off camera, but I understand that being hit by the tower exploding turned her into some kind of all knowing godlike figure so i'll let it slide I guess. But the biggest problem I have with the way Bioshock Infinite approaches the whole constants and variables thing, specifically in regards to Booker's baptism. Infinate Realities means INFINATE REALITIES, every single possible thing you can imagine, provided it follows the laws of science, can and indeed already is happening in billions of different universes, and the abundance of like universes is dependent on probability of the variables in question. these variable are not something so binary as Booker taking a baptism or not, and becoming good or evil as a result.
What about the realities in which Booker takes the Baptism but still doesn't become Comstock? Being religious deosn't necessarily mean you're going to become a racist cult leader (no wonder Reddit loved this game so much). What about the realities in which he becomes Comstock but he becomes the good guy, while Booker becomes the evil racist tyrant? What about the realities in which Comstock never meets either of the Leutices? What about the realities in which that universe's Leutice dies or is never born? And while we're talking about the Leutices, their existence proves that gender is a variable that changes depending on the universe, so what about the realities in which Booker is born a girl, or Elizabeth a guy? There's a million ways that baptism could have gone down, Booker might have initially refused it, but later changed his mind. Hell one of the first things that happens in the game is Booker being baptized in an admittedly fantastic introduction sequence, so we know it isn't just any old Baptism that can turn him into Comstock it had to be that one at time, so what if the Baptism is cancelled, or the date is changed due to weather, will Booker still become Comstock then if he takes it? And don't give me that "oh those are all just constants," no, fuck you, the date and time of a Baptism is not a universal constant, the earth being the right distance from the sun to sustain life isn't even a universal constant, this is the most tunnel visioned view of the many worlds theory I've ever heard in my damn life.
Where then is Elizabeth #3?
She can't be in the tower because if she was then Booker #3 would have been able to get to her, and wouldn't have to join up with the Vox in the first place, and she's not at Comstock House when you eventually get there in the same reality, so where is she? This also raises the question of why in the Hell Constock is even bothering to peruse your Booker and your Elizabeth, when his Booker is dead and he would already have his Elizabeth.
And what about Songbird? I thought Songbird's whole "flying Big Daddy" thing implied that he was supposed to be guarding Elizabeth, HIS Elizabeth, the one that we haven't accounted for. Why does Songbird, or Comstock for that matter, care about capturing and indoctrinating your Elizabeth when they both would already have their own?
(EDIT TWO: This has actually been explained pretty well by some other people on this thread, apparently the idea is that you don't really travel to realities two and three so to speak, but rather Elizabeth kinda overlays the universes on top of one another, hence why some people remember being both alive and dead, althought I feel this is communicated very poorly in the game)
Also, is Comstock just... not paying attention to what's going on in this city during all of this? The Vox have all but destroyed the place and they have made their intentions of coming for him very very clear, why is his highest priority right now torturing and Indoctrinating Elizabeth to become his successor? Wouldn't it make more sense to put that on the back burner for a little while while he focuses on making sure there's a city left to lead?
And that leads me into that bit where future Elizabeth pulls Booker into her timeline to supposedly show him how to save his Elizabeth from becoming her... except she doesn't do that. She gives him a picture of a cage and sends him on his way. Granted this does end up being the secret to controlling Songbird but Booker's already saved her from Comstock House well before that becomes relevant. You could argue that she was really just showing Booker a reality in which he didn't save her to strengthen his resolve in doing so, but when exactly did Booker imply in any way that wasn't his plan in the first place? It would have been a far more effective sequence if there was a bit before that where Booker seemed to have given up or said anything even remotely to that effect, but he didn't, and it almost seems as if future Elizabeth created her own timeline by pulling Booker into her reality (Snake! You've created a time paradox!).
(EDIT THREE: again, this was pretty well explained by other people in the thread, supposedly it's future Elizabeth teleporting Booker past Songbird that's the real point of this sequence, I personally dislike the direction of the plot here, but it does in fact make sense in context of the story)
But the big thing that just killed it for me was the ending, which again, I really really liked at first... until I started thinking about it. At first it bothered me that Elizebeth just magically knew all this stuff as if Ken Levine just slipped her a copy of the script off camera, but I understand that being hit by the tower exploding turned her into some kind of all knowing godlike figure so i'll let it slide I guess. But the biggest problem I have with the way Bioshock Infinite approaches the whole constants and variables thing, specifically in regards to Booker's baptism. Infinate Realities means INFINATE REALITIES, every single possible thing you can imagine, provided it follows the laws of science, can and indeed already is happening in billions of different universes, and the abundance of like universes is dependent on probability of the variables in question. these variable are not something so binary as Booker taking a baptism or not, and becoming good or evil as a result.
What about the realities in which Booker takes the Baptism but still doesn't become Comstock? Being religious deosn't necessarily mean you're going to become a racist cult leader (no wonder Reddit loved this game so much). What about the realities in which he becomes Comstock but he becomes the good guy, while Booker becomes the evil racist tyrant? What about the realities in which Comstock never meets either of the Leutices? What about the realities in which that universe's Leutice dies or is never born? And while we're talking about the Leutices, their existence proves that gender is a variable that changes depending on the universe, so what about the realities in which Booker is born a girl, or Elizabeth a guy? There's a million ways that baptism could have gone down, Booker might have initially refused it, but later changed his mind. Hell one of the first things that happens in the game is Booker being baptized in an admittedly fantastic introduction sequence, so we know it isn't just any old Baptism that can turn him into Comstock it had to be that one at time, so what if the Baptism is cancelled, or the date is changed due to weather, will Booker still become Comstock then if he takes it? And don't give me that "oh those are all just constants," no, fuck you, the date and time of a Baptism is not a universal constant, the earth being the right distance from the sun to sustain life isn't even a universal constant, this is the most tunnel visioned view of the many worlds theory I've ever heard in my damn life.
Oh and uh, yeah it's presented very well, it has some genuinely fantastic set pieces, the voice acting, animaion and character models are all phenomenal and the game is all around a joy to look at and hear. I'm not saying that it's an entirely bad game, it's plot just takes itself way too seriously and deals with way too many big ideas to be this shot full of holes, and it is truly driving me crazy.
EDIT FOUR: I am really beginning to regret starting this thread, it seems to have sparked allot of discourse and clashing of polarized opinions, and for that I'm sorry.
Bottom Line: I do not think Biohsock Infinite is necessarily a bad game, like I said I quite liked it at first, just that I personally dislike the way much of the plot is structured, and think it runs on a very confusing and contrived set of rules that frequently contradict themselves in my opinion.
