Bioshock Infinite

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Icthus

Active Member
Who is playing?

I am thinking I might stay up to midnight tonight to play.

I have not done that in a looooong time.
 
You go fish! Show that spawn of yours how it is done by a pro! Wine with redbull for you?

My copy doesn't arrive till Wed, not that I played the other 2 yet, but it comes with my new video card.
 
I played the first one and it was great. Never played the second one despite the fact that I always wanted the first to be multi-player.

I assume the third is also multi-player?
 
The multi player is sort of like half life multiplayer. ffa kill peoples. not very interesting. In bioshock 2.
 
Played some last night, getting ready to play some more in a few minutes! I love it!

Except for the checkpoint saves, carrying only 2 weapons and no health kits or EVE kits to carry with you.
 
There's no way I'm going to convince someone to trade a copy of Bioshock Infinite for my Assassin's Creed 3 code, is there?

Well, time to throw it on my Steam wish list and wait for it to go on a 75% off sale.
 
Holy. Cow. That ending was awesome. The whole game blew my mind. Time for a second playthrough! :D
 
This game. wow. That ending. I didn't think they'd ever really be able to top the first Bioshock in terms of a videogame being able to blow my mind and make me have to sit back and contemplate I just played. But did they ever top it. This is going to take a couple days to really sink in. Mad, mad props to the developers. I'm going to need a second playthrough just to really experience it, and to really pay attention to what's going on.
 
I finished it. Oh wow... It was so bad... but so good.... I mean the story was great. But, I did not want it to end that way... I was saying no no no the entire time....
 
Icthus said:
I finished it. Oh wow... It was so bad... but so good.... I mean the story was great. But, I did not want it to end that way... I was saying no no no the entire time....
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Sounds like me and almost every anime series I end up watching to the end.

I guess that's just the nature of holding to a Christian worldview when so few modern writers (especially Japanese writers) are not Christian.
 
Tek7 said:
Sounds like me and almost every anime series I end up watching to the end.

I guess that's just the nature of holding to a Christian worldview when so few modern writers (especially Japanese writers) are not Christian.
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Uhh, no. It had nothing to do with my Christian beliefs. I simply did not like the way they took the story and decisions they made about characters and the game realm.
 
Icthus said:
Uhh, no. It had nothing to do with my Christian beliefs. I simply did not like the way they took the story and decisions they made about characters and the game realm.
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Oh. Nevermind then.
 
I received BioShock Infinite as a gift a while back. It took me some time to play through--even longer since I shelved the game for a month to play WoW. But I beat the game last week and I have to admit, it's a very impressive piece of work. I had serious doubts about the game's content after playing the first hour of the PS3 version (thanks to a Redbox free game rental code), but I'm glad I played it through to the end.

I found myself moved by the ending, at once impressed with how the writing team dealt with complex subjects like sin and redemption and deeply saddened by the use of Christian expression--songs such as "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" and ceremonies such as baptism that point to the genuine and profound impact Christ has on a believer's life when he or she repents of sin and accepts salvation--without representing or even acknowledging Christ as real or able to redeem.

I have no doubt that if the writers were asked who they believe Jesus Christ was, they would likely have kind things to say. "He was a good moral teacher," "he was a good man," and other respectful but ultimately incorrect answers so common in modern American culture. As is so often the case, C.S. Lewis said it better than I ever could:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
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I felt sorrow (no other words seems to match what I experienced so closely) while watching the ending of the game for the same reason I feel sorrow when I watch a particularly excellent anime series: The writers, writing from an atheistic or agnostic worldview, get so close to the truth but ultimately fall short.

This scene in particular was very moving:

[video=youtube;HdwmogJe87w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdwmogJe87w[/video]

Preacher: Are you ready to be born again?

Booker: I am.

Preacher: Do you hate your sins?

Booker: I do.

Preacher: Do you hate your wickedness?

Booker: Yes.

Preacher: Do you want to clean the slate, leave behind all you were before, and be born again in the blood of the Lamb?

Booker: Yes.

Preacher: Jesus, wash this man clean. Father, make him born again. Lord--

Booker: Stop! Get off me!

Elizabeth: You didn't go through with it.

Booker: You think a dunk in the river is gonna change the things I've done?


When I heard the lines marked in bold above, I held my breath in anticipation. It's a very powerful scene and I don't think I'll ever forget it. Like many players, I genuinely wanted Booker to find redemption, all the while knowing that he's a character in a video game and having deduced by many previous hints that Booker and Comstock were the same person.

The most troubling part of the story isn't that Booker refuses salvation because he doesn't believe what the preacher offers can save him. It's that Booker-turned-Comstock does accept the baptism and experiences no genuine change.

One could argue that Booker-turned-Comstock is not intended to represent all Christians, nor are the writers saying that no "religious experience," that is, salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone, can save--perhaps because man can't be saved, perhaps because man does not need to be saved. One could argue that Comstock turned "evil" because he concluded that the preacher's promise of redemption was false and every horrible thing he did was merely a tortured attempt to chase after a salvation he didn't really believe in.

But one could argue that Booker's drowning at the hands of the Elizabeths is a sort of salvation. One could even say that the story suggests that redemption requires death and Christians would agree (though we understand only Christ's death as a sinless man--100% man, 100% God--could satisfy God's wrath and redeem us from the punishment we deserve). But even then, it is science that offers this salvation, in the form of Lutece tears and a child forced to undergo scientific experiment and given amazing--but scientifically explainable--powers.

It's also interesting to note that the name Elizabeth means, "God's grace" while the name Anna simply means, "grace."

Side note: The view of three Elizabeths standing over Booker as they drown him looks suspiciously similar to the perspective of the protagonist of BioShock looking up at the Little Sisters, full grown.

I'll admit it was a well-written and emotionally moving story. But I can't help but wish a story that came so close to the truth had at least suggested that redemption from sin is not only real but also available to all people who accept Christ as savior. I understand it's not feasible as writing such a story for a big-budget game would not only be career suicide for the writers but also financial and PR suicide for the studio. I don't even know how the story could have been altered to represent or at least acknowledge a Biblical world view. But it does make me appreciate writers like Tolkien and Lewis--who were able to craft masterful stories that reflected Biblical truth--and dream of a day when Christian game developers can craft a game narrative approaching the scale, complexity, and quality of BioShock Infinite while still representing Christ in their work.

EDIT: Also, BioShock 1 was a better game.
 
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The text contained in the spoiler in this post talks about the antagonists within Infinite. It may spoil your fun if you have not finished or played the game.

I don't think that the prophet was so much a religious figure as he was a political and ideological figure. He represented the ability to take people to a place where they could live their lives, that to them, would be the ideal way to live their lives. This is very much an extension of "The South Will Rise Again!" mentality, except it does, literally, rise again. Yes, the south was and still is a very religious place (Bible Belt, anyone?). But the mentality of slavery and the mentality of many older white southerners - the good ole days - aren't specifically religious matters.

Yes, there are a ton of religious allusions in Infinite, but I think they are there to give the player a better sense, a greater immersion, into the way the south works - extreme idealism mixed (and perhaps confused) with religion. The prophet was not meant to be just a religious figure.

Edit: As I played through the game, I did notice all of the allusions to religion. I never thought to myself that the prophet in the game was any way relatable to Jesus, nor did I think that any of the actions within the game (the baptisms, specifically) were relatable to Christian practices. I played the game knowing it was a game. And perhaps because I'm from the south, and because I grew up in a small southern town, I went into this game somewhat knowing what to expect, so I didn't look for anything beyond what I thought to expect.

/shrug
 
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Hm. I never thought of the whole "The South Will Rise Again" angle. I can definitely see how that would apply.

I still can't help but think giving a religious leader significant screen time indicates a criticism of religion (and rightly so; to paraphrase Paul, only follow men as they follow Christ) on some level, but I understand that the game addressed other subjects such as nationalism, racism, and the nature (or illusion) of choice.
 
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