BioShock Infinite
=== Setting ===
BioShock Infinite is set in 1912 and takes place in a fictional steampunk city-state called "Columbia"—named in homage to the female personification of the United States—which is suspended in the air through a combination of giant blimps, balloons, reactors, propellers, and "quantum levitation." The city of Columbia was founded by self-proclaimed prophet Zachary Hale Comstock, who used his connections in Congress to have the American government build it. The government intended Columbia to serve as a floating world's fair and as a display to the rest of the world of the success of American exceptionalism. The city was launched to much fanfare and publicity at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, and was later dispatched to distant shores, travelling from continent to continent.
Initially seen as the pride of the United States, tensions eventually rose between Columbia and the American government. In 1901, against the government's wishes, Columbia brutally and violently put an end to the Boxer Rebellion in Peking. This event revealed the floating city as a heavily armed aerial battleship, capable of unleashing devastation across the world. The American government subsequently demanded Columbia's return to sovereign soil, and, in response, Columbia seceded from the United States and disappeared into the clouds, its location soon lost to everyone else. Free from outside influence, Comstock now had complete control over the city, transforming it from a floating world's fair to a theocratic police state.
Under Comstock's rule, Columbia became a militant pseudo-Christian utopian society that worshiped him as a divine prophetic figure and the Founding Fathers of the United States as religious icons. Despite Columbia's apparent utopian exteriors, it is soon revealed to be a hidden dystopia. Institutional racism and elitism are widespread in the city, with white supremacy of the upper and middle classes heavily enforced by the government as law. Despite the drive for racial purity in Columbia, people of minority races are purposely brought into the city to exploit as a source of cheap labor. They are the underclass of Columbia, and commonly serve as indentured servants. As a result of this subjugation, minorities are largely relegated to menial and hard labor with no obvious opportunity for upward mobility. Racial segregation is also heavily enforced within the city, to the point where interracial couples face the risk of a public stoning.
By the time of the game's events, racial tensions have risen to the point where Columbia is on the verge of revolution, instigated by the insurgent "Vox Populi" against the government institutions and the counter-revolutionary "Founders". The Founders, led by Comstock, are the prevailing political faction in the city, and are the rulers of Columbia. The city's ruling class, they are the racist ultra-nationalists who seek to keep Columbia's privileges purely for White American citizens while denying the same right to foreigners. The Vox Populi (Latin for "Voice of the People"), led by Daisy Fitzroy, are a rag-tag anarchist-communist resistance group who fight to give the rights of Columbian citizenship to people of all races and religions. However, years of bitter struggle have driven them to fight the opposition more out of blind hatred, resulting in more violent and brutal methods.
In addition to the internal strife, Columbia is ravaged by "Tears" in the fabric of space-time. Being the result of past scientific experiments, these Tears reveal alternate universes, and allow for interaction with them. While most Columbian citizens regard these Tears as mere curiosity, some individuals have exploited the insight offered by them to create radically new weapons and technologies, while several others have replicated futuristic music and songs heard from the Tears, bringing anachronistic elements into the Columbia of 1912.
As with BioShock and BioShock 2, the player is able to locate audio logs—Voxophones—and film projectors—Kinetoscopes—that will expand on the history and nature of Columbia beyond those events occurring within the game. Though the game takes place before the events of the previous two BioShock games (occurring in 1960 for BioShock and in 1968 for BioShock 2), the question of whether Infinite occurs within this same timeline remains unanswered.
=== Characters ===
The player controls protagonist Booker DeWitt (Troy Baker), a disgraced member of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency emotionally scarred from the acts of violence he committed at the Battle of Wounded Knee. Faced with mounting gambling debts, he is sent to Columbia to rescue Elizabeth (Courtnee Draper), a young woman imprisoned there since childhood, who has the ability to open Tears. Her confinement has been maintained by Songbird, a large, robotic bird-like creature who has been both her friend and her warden, and which has been programmed to feel betrayal should Elizabeth attempt to escape.
"Father" Zachary Hale Comstock (Kiff VandenHeuvel), the main antagonist, is the founder of Columbia and the leader of the elite Founders who rule the city. Revered as "the Prophet" in Columbia, Comstock has maintained his power in the city through a powerful cult of personality based on Christianity and the Founding Fathers of the United States. The Founders are opposed by the Vox Populi, led by Daisy Fitzroy (Kimberly Brooks). Initially the servant housemaid for Comstock's house, Fitzroy fled after she was framed by Comstock for the murder of his wife. Shortly after her escape, she formed the Vox Populi and became its leader due to her hatred of the Founders' ways.
Robert (Oliver Vaquer) and Rosalind Lutece (Jennifer Hale) are two mysterious individuals that direct Booker to Columbia and appear throughout his travels. Though they appear as twins, they are revealed to be the same person but from two different realities, having managed to figure out how to communicate and subsequently cross through realities. Rosalind is shown to be the one behind the technological wonders that keep Columbia afloat.
=== Plot ===
In July 1912, Booker DeWitt is taken by Robert and Rosalind Lutece to an island lighthouse off the coast of Maine. Told to "bring us the girl and wipe away the debt," Booker enters the lighthouse, which doubles as a rocket silo and transports him to Columbia.
Booker is soon pursued by the city authority when he is found bearing a scar of the letters "AD," matching the description of the foretold "False Shepherd" who will corrupt Elizabeth and overthrow Columbia. Freeing Elizabeth from her tower, Booker narrowly evades her captor, Songbird. Reaching an airship, Booker promises to take Elizabeth to Paris; when she realizes they are going to New York City to wipe away Booker's debt, a tearful Elizabeth knocks him out. Booker awakens to find the airship under the control of Daisy Fitzroy, who offers to return the ship if Booker helps her arm the Vox Populi.
Booker and Elizabeth join forces to secure weapons from a local gunsmith. However, several twists of fate result in Elizabeth having to overlay the contents of various Tears onto the present reality. Ultimately, they land in a world where Booker is a martyr of the Vox Populi whose "sacrifice" sparked open warfare between the two factions. Fitzroy, convinced that the non-dead Booker is "either an impostor, or a ghost," turns her forces against him. With Booker's help, Elizabeth kills Fitzroy to prevent her from executing a Founder boy.
As they attempt to leave by airship, Songbird attacks the duo and they crash back to Columbia. Continuing onwards, they unravel a conspiracy behind the city's founding: Zachary Hale Comstock had the Lutece twins construct a "Siphon" device to inhibit Elizabeth's powers; Elizabeth is Comstock's adopted daughter, whom he plans to groom into taking over after his death; and Comstock plotted to kill his wife and the Luteces to hide the truth. After Elizabeth is captured by Songbird, Booker pursues her, but ends up in an abandoned facility with snow on the ground despite the month being July; it transpires that he is in 1984, and has been brought there by the Elizabeth of that time. Booker did not stop Songbird, the elderly Elizabeth suffered decades of torture and brainwashing, becoming Comstock's tool and waging war on the world. Old Elizabeth tells Booker how to control Songbird and returns him to 1912.
Back in his timeline, Booker rescues Elizabeth, and the pair pursue Comstock to his airship. Comstock demands that Booker explain Elizabeth's past to her and the two begin to argue; an enraged Booker smashes the back of Comstock's skull in on a baptismal font before drowning him. Booker denies knowledge about Elizabeth's missing little finger, but she asserts that he has simply forgotten. Controlling Songbird, the pair fend off a Vox Populi attack, before ordering Songbird to destroy the Siphon. As Songbird turns on Booker again, Elizabeth's powers fully awaken, allowing her to open a Tear and transport them to the underwater city of Rapture. Booker and Elizabeth materialize inside the city, from where they see Songbird crushed outside by the water pressure.
Elizabeth takes Booker to the surface lighthouse, explaining there are countless alternate lighthouses and versions of Booker and Elizabeth; they are within one of infinite possible realities dependent on their choices. She shows that on October 8, 1893, Robert Lutece approached Booker on behalf of Comstock, requesting that he "give us the girl and wipe away the debt," referring to Booker's infant daughter, Anna DeWitt – Booker's "AD" branding. Booker reluctantly agreed, but soon gave chase; Comstock barely escaped through a Tear, and its closing severed Anna's finger. Comstock then raised Anna as his own daughter, Elizabeth; her severed finger, which caused her to exist in two realities simultaneously, is the source of her ability to create Tears. Robert Lutece, angry at Comstock's actions, convinced Rosalind to help him bring Booker to the reality where Columbia exists to rescue Elizabeth. It is also revealed that Booker in fact willingly agreed to come to Columbia to save his daughter, but the mental strain of crossing dimensions caused him to rewrite his own memories such that he combined giving Anna away with his attempt to secure Elizabeth.
Elizabeth explains that Comstock will always remain alive in alternate universes, as the Luteces have enlisted the Bookers of numerous different universes to try to end the cycle. As stopping Comstock requires intervening in his birth, Elizabeth takes Booker back in time to a baptism he attended, in the hope of atoning for the sins he committed at Wounded Knee; she explains that, while Booker changed his mind, some Bookers accepted the baptism and were reborn as "Zachary Comstock." Comstock, later aware of his connection to Booker and sterility from overusing the Lutece Tear machine, abducted Anna to provide a biological heir for Columbia. Booker, by now joined by other universe Elizabeths at the baptism, allows them to drown him at the moment of his baptismal choice, thus preventing Comstock's existence. One by one, the Elizabeths begin to disappear, the screen cutting to black on the last.
In a post-credits scene, a Booker awakens in his apartment on October 8, 1893. He calls out for Anna and opens the door to her room before the screen cuts to black.
alternate history, sci-fi