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[Mrhappyface]

Volley Gun and RPG only. Devil's Kiss and Crows. DO IT FRIGATE

[timferius]

Volley Gun and RPG only. Devil's Kiss and Crows. DO IT FRIGATE

God I hate the volley gun, it takes about half a clip of direct hits to kill most guys (from memory at least, haven't used it in a bit).

[umiman]

Just finished the game.

The ending doesn't make much sense to me given the logic that the game operates on. So here's my thoughts:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Essentially, in the world Bioshock inhabits there exists a supreme tree diagram that showcases every single possible outcome of everything ever in the history of everything. There is an actual term for this... "Tree of" something but I can't quite recall what it's called. In any case, only three things are demonstrated to be able to understand the complete infinity of choices and results of this, Elizabeth and the two (one?) scientists. I have no idea how they can possibly comprehend infinity without their heads exploding but whatever, I can roll with that.

Now, what we know that Elizabeth wants to rid all worlds of the possibility of Comstock ever existing. I don't really know why this is so important to her but maybe it has something to do with the fact that she sees the infinite number of worlds in which he exists and hates it or something. People need to be satisfied just looking at the events of their own dimension, I say. But anyway, to do this, they drown DeWitt before he can choose to either convert himself to Comstock or abandon that plan.

Now, colour me a skeptic but given that we know there are an infinite number of outcomes for every single point of time for every single thing in the entirety of the universe. Even this text I'm writing right now (if it operated within Bioshock rules) has an infinite number of outcomes. I could have deleted one letter, or deleted two letters. I could have put an "an" here or I could have deleted a paragraph. Every single one of these possibilities has been accounted for. Therefore, there has to be many, many, many times in which DeWitt dies before he goes to that conversion. Hell, there had to be an infinite number of times in which he was never born in the first place. Similarly, there will be an infinite number of dimensions in which there will be a world where DeWitt is DeWitt and lastly, there will be an infinite number of worlds in which DeWitt becomes Comstock. This is just the beginning too, since there also has to be an infinite number of dimensions in which DeWitt becomes a girl or DeWitt has 17 children or he meets an alien and every single thing in between.

So what exactly does Elizabeth accomplish by drowing the DeWitt of the world she knew? As far as I understand it, she is merely traversing yet another path in the tree diagram that she has to be aware of. The path in which she drowns DeWitt for no reason at all, and all the other dimensions will exist as normal. There is no reason for all the future paths to delete themselves simply because she "opened another door" in the great tree diagram. She merely walks that other path. A path out of an infinity of paths.

However, if the "doors" she opens aren't actually able to account for every single possibility to ever possibly exist, which I think is the far more likely scenario... then it's possible that she's doing what she thought she was doing early in the game. She's not walking all paths of possibility, but she merely creates as many worlds as she can imagine. Or it could be something like how possible worlds can only exist when a third party observes them. Either way, she imagines (or observes) that everything came down to that one point at the baptism. So therefore, for her killing DeWitt there will erase all possible future points. It also explains why she doesn't vanish with the others, since that's the original one that creates everything. It's equivalent to a child starting over her imagination.

So there you have my thoughts on it. TL;DR: I think Elizabeth does something very silly.

[Digital Hellhound]

Spoiler: Just one theory (click to show/hide)

From what I'm going with is - Infinite's world isn't truly that infinite. It has certain constants that are always true (man, lighthouse, city, the result of the coin flip). Booker choosing to accept or refuse the baptism is a variable, but in the end, Elizabeth drowns the Bookers that accept the baptism. There's plenty of theories for Booker being drowned before he makes either choice, but the preacher finishes baptising you in the background while the Elizabeths appear, so I'm going with drowning the Bookers that do accept.

How does she accomplish this? Godlike dimensional magics. Anyway, she makes a new constant; the Bookers that accept the baptism are drowned afterwards, preventing them from becoming Comstock.

I know I'm not fully addressing your point here, though I'm not sure why Bookers that died before the baptism, were girls etc. figure into it. She just wants to get rid of the Comstocks, as evidenced by the post-credits scene where refusal-Booker survives. But yeah, Infinite's world is not actually infinite.

I really suggest digging around for various explanations floating around. Really, I just like talking about this game.

[umiman]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

She drowns him before he makes any choice. She says so right there and then. Part of the reason why I thought the decision was pretty silly as like you mentioned... killing him prior to the choice is a really arbitrary point. If it was dimensions created by her or the constants or whatever the physics of the Bioshock world was, clearly she didn't do her homework properly. After all, we see that at least one of the DeWitts survives. Given that there are, in her words, "millions upon millions" of him... chances are he's not the only one that survived and as such, there's still Comstocks running around.

I think I'm more annoyed by the bizarro psuedo-magic physics lumped at us at the end than anything else. It's the same kind of nagging pain that I get when American games use Malay names and language badly or Japanese shows break out Christian symbols for no reason. Though not annoyed enough to care too much haha. After all it is a game. I don't really expect games to fully cover every single aspect of time travel in perfect detail. It'd bore people to death.

Still fun though.

[Digital Hellhound]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Hmh, she does? Wonder who that priest is talking to, then.

Then she kills all Bookers who come to the baptism, which makes the post-credits scene wonky, but I don't see the problem otherwise. Comstock is still stopped from existing. Without the baptism, there can be no person named Comstock. Other Bookers might still end up as total assholes, but not as Comstock specifically. Sure, Elizabeth could've handled it better, but I don't see how a Comstock could survive.

Anyway, I've seen a lot of talk that the game's over-the-top your-head-asplode violence was unnecessary/harmful and I agree to an extent. The first execution is incredibly jarring and the gory deaths seem really out of place (though I love that Elizabeth has various horrified reactions to them). Some people seem to think that the raffle kill is good because it contrasts with the bright and clean Columbia we've seen so far, but I think the reveal of the prize there does that already in a better way.

[umiman]

Oh my god. I only just realized why Bioshock Infinite had covers of God Only Knows and Tainted Love even though there was no way in hell they should have been there.

It's because there was no way in hell they should have been there and someone was manipulating tears to steal music from the future hahaha! That's pretty freaking clever.

[Shooer]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I believe the reason the Elizabeths drown Booker is because; not only is he her father, but he gives her up to Comstock who is her adopted father and a Booker of a changed personality.  So, remove the Bookers and she never has to go through the hell he puts her through.

Also on the whole him becoming Comstock; Remember when you first Columbia and the preacher baptizes you until you pass out, and the same preacher is in the flash back scene.  What's to say Comstock didn't drown then and have a tiny bit of brain damage leading to a change in personality?

Just my thoughts on stuff.  The reveal at the end makes the soldier field part just that much more... awesome.

[Ardas]

I can't help but be disappointed with the whole affair. After playing the game I'm just left... with a really bad aftertaste. Things feel rushed in the second part, plot is hijacked away from the supposed "social commentary" and the gameplay itself is painfully generic, with vigors being always either offensive or crowd control or both at higher upgrades.

Really, with the story as it is, the gameplay really feels as it doesn't connect with the plot or the world at all, unlike plasmids and the potential features like aerial/vertical combat are really underused in favor of setpieces that move you from story bit to story bit.The foreshadowings and other elements are no different, for they are setpieces too and much different form exposition you receive.
The gunplay is average and not as varied as in previous games - upgrades are plain and uninspiring, there are no visual cues that you upgraded your weapon and combat AI is really basic. In later levels fully upgraded vigors are basically overpowered "press to win" options that detract from already poor combat.

My greatest gripe with the game lies in its story however - its not as great and inspired as you would like to think. Moreover, its internally inconsistent and the only way the plot works is because some things are intentionally set to be in contradiction to the applied plot device.

Here are my thoughts on the story development - entirely subjective and based off my own speculation and research done on game development as it was. Feel free to tear me a new one or dispute my findings, I am looking forward to it.

Spoiler: Story Rant in detail (click to show/hide)

The game that we are playing right now is nothing what we were meant to play, but merely a thing that was chopped up and changed around scarcely 6 months before the release

There was two major revisions, in the earliest demos the game was going to be Elizabeth and Songbird. You'd get your powers using Elizabeth, which would harm her, (in later videos there were vigors too, and you could combo them sort of). Elizabeth was trying to escape Songbird, but had "Stockholm syndrome"-like relationship with him, so fighting him would ruin your relationship (this is sort of in the game still, Booker wonders if Elizabeth will let you take him down in the loading screens).
Elizabeth was nerfed compared to what she was supposed to be (having the ability to fight and the ending changed depending how you used her in combat)
She would also toss enemies into tears when prompted. If you used her powers to much her nose would bleed and she would get dizzy. (and die if you weren't careful)
Ask Elizabeth to kill also changed her demeanor as game progressed (if Elizabeth only kills and you don't she would call you weak and a coward... over time she wold kill on her own with your promoting signifying that she started to enjoy killing also effecting the ending)

In later ones (the 2011 footage, the one with the Lincoln hat) Elizabeth manipulates tears instead, but has trouble controlling them (she still does in the final game). The biggest difference is Comstock and the city. Comstock was just a politician (Liz and Booker were actually trying to reach him for help), and the city was more like Vox world to begin with. Also, the city was bigger and more open, along with enemies using the skylines to attack, not just when you're on them.
On Elizabeth herself -she was not meant to be Booker's daughter - her finger is there in all vids up until the most recent screenshots of her in different clothing and with Comstock being a third person who wasn't related either to Booker or her.

The name "Anna" may be a late reference added to the game that refers to the cosplayer who was noticed by the studio before release of the game for her stunning resemblance to Elizabeth, Anna "Ormeli" Moleva., which was also contacted to work with Irrational for promos around August 2012 - again the same time when Levine started doing the rewrites.

It was also in August 2012 when mo-cap work for Elizabeth begun and all previous work, voice acting was either cut or fused to make it to the deadline what was repeatedly pushed away further and further.

There is also a lot of stuff on multiplayer component that seemed to preoccupy people at Irrational for quite some time, and turned out to be a doomed piece of work before people started dropping away and that was yet again, in August 2012. 2K started pressuring Levine for results at around latter half of 2012 (what a coincidence!) and the combination of pressure and team loss might have prompted wholesale game change.
Julian Murdoch, who is friends with Levine and often runs podcasts which include him, tweeted that (@GWJ Rabbit) "Wow, you weren't kidding when you said you'd rebuilt the story from ground up in the last 6 months! Holy Cats!"

Sources
http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/01/22/bioshock-infinite-character-changed-religion/

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Ken-Levine-Explains-Comstock-Change-for-BioShock-Infinite-333690.shtml

http://kotaku.com/5933119/bioshock-infinite-update-multiplayer-modes-cut-gears-maestro-joining-should-fans-worry -----> http://pastebin.com/M2Qsiu1B

http://www.lazygamer.net/xbox-360/is-bioshock-infinite-in-development-hell/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaqACTgXpJM - Ken Levine talks about early game

Game demos (2010 and 2011):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8z6FOL0G1c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs41eOXhwPA

My verdict on the game as a whole - 6.5/10. Competent but really underwhelming and not really what it claims to be. The story keeps it up but its short of its true potential as it misses out on many valuable elements that are sidelined.

[Mullet Master]

It looks like I'm the absolute last person to finish this game. Bought on release day, finished today.
Anyway.

Played on normal. I really believe one or more patches has ratcheted up the difficulty, or somehow I've gotten worse at playing it since the release date. I've been playing FPS multiplayer and non multiplayer the majority of my life, so I'm not a complete noob. 
There were a few frustrating points (ghost battle; final battle) where it was a nonstop stream of deaths. Took me at least 5 tries for the final battle.

Spoiler: City of Columbia (click to show/hide)

At some point in the game, you learn about Columbia staying aloft by "quantum particles fixed in space". It is my interpretation of this that without this , you can not have a constant location between parallel universes. Without this, I don't think the Lutece/Comstock could have travelled to other universes since only Elizabeth was capable of making tears where she wanted. I think the tears that Comstock used to find the future were all created by Elizabeth, likely from using the Siphon as a focusing source or some other means.

The scene with Comstock/Rosalind Lutece on one side of the portal and Booker/Robert on the other - there was a great deal of uncertainty that the portal would stay open. And later on, you saw the city of Columbia having many tears, not only 'artifacts' in the background but people from other realities. 

I do not believe that the Lutece twins could have ever went back and stopped Comstock/Elizabeth themselves because they were not able to move through any realities before the creation of Columbia, even after their deaths. And the whole counting of choices , multiple appearances - I assume there have been many failures by Booker to erase the Comstock timeline.

[shadenight123]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I've been writing a fanfic of Infinite since finishing the game and seeing the ending, and as always while writing I came up with some interesting side-ways concepts that I want to 'run over' with you folks.
We all know that Booker dies.
It is implied and understood that 'He never ROWS' making it a constant.
So Bookers before him have gone through the lighthouse many times, all of them not rowing.
So Booker DeWitt has already died. Multiple times.
He died so many times the Lutece are sure of quite a bit of constants, like head or tails, rowing or not, and so on.
Then the dreadful question I asked myself was this:
there are infinite amount of universes.
There are infinite amount of possibilities.
If Destroying A (and mind you the 'A' is important) Comstock-future possibility by drowning yields the destruction of many others, (Because we assume Tears-Travelling can affect not only space but also time in the end-game) then what of a future where Non-baptism Booker actually becomes a Comstock anyway? That future 'exists' because it has to: it's set in an infinite amount of worlds, so one like that one has to exist. Just like there is one in which Booker is female and Elizabeth is male, and so on.
Then, if go by that type of 'fridge horror' logic, there is no other possible explanation than the: Lutece Twins are using Booker as Lab-Rat for possible thought experiments, tests on whether 'multiverses' can be destroyed or not and so on.
It doesn't matter if Booker fights or not, because the Luteces are 'god'. They grab the Bookers from other places and pull them in that reality. They actually know what is going to happen, down to the 'Elizabeth traveling through tears' since they exist everywhere and anywhere...the Lutece know everything. So they are god. And God toys with Booker. He tells him he can choose when he can't.
He tells him he can make choices, but he cannot. He cannot keep Anna. He cannot change fate. Elizabeth has to tell Booker to drown. But that doesn't change things. It drowns some Bookers, it kills some Bookers, it destroys some future-Annas, but it does not change the inevitable 'infinite' problem that there exists a world where this still happen, with different names and consequences.
And the Lutece know of this. They know and yet they still go on with it.
Because they're scientists, and they experiment.
And Booker's a lab-rat.
One of the many, many lab-rats.
It is, over all, extremely depressing to come back to think to it and realize that Booker cannot make choices. Jack Ryan could choose, and end his life as the future-ruler of Rapture or as a benevolent man who lived a happy life. Subject Delta could choose to die a free and beloved father, a conscience of his daughter, or be renowned as a harvester as he set his 'progeny' on a path of world conquest.
Booker...
Booker has only one future.
One where the Lutece decides he can KEEP his memories of Columbia, go back to when he was still a private eye, and be with Anna.
And here comes the second bit of Fridge-Horror...
Who tells us the Anna we are saving is 'THIS' Booker's Anna? Why can't it be the Anna of Booker number one (who is dead) or Booker number five or twenty-seven?
Even if you save this Anna somehow, even if the game granted you that chance...
Who is to say she really is your daughter?
She is and she isn't.
Just like you are and are not Booker.
And that's terrifying.
'A man makes choices, but his choices make him.' Andrew Ryan.
Booker doesn't choose. Choices are made for him, by Anna, by the Luteces, but never by him.
He reacts.
He is not a man, but a slave.
Because a man chooses, but a slave obeys.
Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt!
He obeys.
I will kill Comstock!
And he obeys.
He doesn't choose to drown: he is drowned.
and so...
it's terrifying, and extremely sad.

[Mrhappyface]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I've been writing a fanfic of Infinite since finishing the game and seeing the ending, and as always while writing I came up with some interesting side-ways concepts that I want to 'run over' with you folks.
We all know that Booker dies.
It is implied and understood that 'He never ROWS' making it a constant.
So Bookers before him have gone through the lighthouse many times, all of them not rowing.
So Booker DeWitt has already died. Multiple times.
He died so many times the Lutece are sure of quite a bit of constants, like head or tails, rowing or not, and so on.
Then the dreadful question I asked myself was this:
there are infinite amount of universes.
There are infinite amount of possibilities.
If Destroying A (and mind you the 'A' is important) Comstock-future possibility by drowning yields the destruction of many others, (Because we assume Tears-Travelling can affect not only space but also time in the end-game) then what of a future where Non-baptism Booker actually becomes a Comstock anyway? That future 'exists' because it has to: it's set in an infinite amount of worlds, so one like that one has to exist. Just like there is one in which Booker is female and Elizabeth is male, and so on.
Then, if go by that type of 'fridge horror' logic, there is no other possible explanation than the: Lutece Twins are using Booker as Lab-Rat for possible thought experiments, tests on whether 'multiverses' can be destroyed or not and so on.
It doesn't matter if Booker fights or not, because the Luteces are 'god'. They grab the Bookers from other places and pull them in that reality. They actually know what is going to happen, down to the 'Elizabeth traveling through tears' since they exist everywhere and anywhere...the Lutece know everything. So they are god. And God toys with Booker. He tells him he can choose when he can't.
He tells him he can make choices, but he cannot. He cannot keep Anna. He cannot change fate. Elizabeth has to tell Booker to drown. But that doesn't change things. It drowns some Bookers, it kills some Bookers, it destroys some future-Annas, but it does not change the inevitable 'infinite' problem that there exists a world where this still happen, with different names and consequences.
And the Lutece know of this. They know and yet they still go on with it.
Because they're scientists, and they experiment.
And Booker's a lab-rat.
One of the many, many lab-rats.
It is, over all, extremely depressing to come back to think to it and realize that Booker cannot make choices. Jack Ryan could choose, and end his life as the future-ruler of Rapture or as a benevolent man who lived a happy life. Subject Delta could choose to die a free and beloved father, a conscience of his daughter, or be renowned as a harvester as he set his 'progeny' on a path of world conquest.
Booker...
Booker has only one future.
One where the Lutece decides he can KEEP his memories of Columbia, go back to when he was still a private eye, and be with Anna.
And here comes the second bit of Fridge-Horror...
Who tells us the Anna we are saving is 'THIS' Booker's Anna? Why can't it be the Anna of Booker number one (who is dead) or Booker number five or twenty-seven?
Even if you save this Anna somehow, even if the game granted you that chance...
Who is to say she really is your daughter?
She is and she isn't.
Just like you are and are not Booker.
And that's terrifying.
'A man makes choices, but his choices make him.' Andrew Ryan.
Booker doesn't choose. Choices are made for him, by Anna, by the Luteces, but never by him.
He reacts.
He is not a man, but a slave.
Because a man chooses, but a slave obeys.
Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt!
He obeys.
I will kill Comstock!
And he obeys.
He doesn't choose to drown: he is drowned.
and so...
it's terrifying, and extremely sad.

Well I like to pretend that didn't happen to Booker,but instead another man and child stepped through the portal to stop them. But it wasn't a man and child, it was a space marine and a monkey. And not just one space marine and monkey, a whole lot of space marine and monkeys in different outfits.  And as they all came through carrying different weapons, they stopped briefly and posed. And in unison, they all cried "IT'S TIME TO SPLIT!"

Bioshock Infinite was  all just a ruse prologue for Timesplitters 4.

[Johuotar]

There's one small thing that I dont understand.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In the beginning there are notes on the lighthouse to booker and they mention his debt. If there is no debt then where did those notes come from? Who killed the lighthouse guy and left tge "Dont disappoint us" note on his corpse. They feel like remains from earlier time in deveplopment when the plot actually had the debt, which was later turned  into misremembered memory

[Digital Hellhound]

There's one small thing that I dont understand.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

In the beginning there are notes on the lighthouse to booker and they mention his debt. If there is no debt then where did those notes come from? Who killed the lighthouse guy and left tge "Dont disappoint us" note on his corpse. They feel like remains from earlier time in deveplopment when the plot actually had the debt, which was later turned  into misremembered memory

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Yeah, probably leftover from another plot direction. The theory I've seen is that the dead guy is actually a Columbian assassin - apparently there's a note from '-C.' nearby, so he could be one of Comstock's disciples ready at the lighthouse to ambush DeWitt (and presumably killed by the Luteces).

Do the notes talk about the debt specifically, though? I remember 'this is your last chance' and whatnot, but not anything about the debt per se.

[umiman]

At first I was like "Colombian Assassin"? What does Colombia have to do wi- ooooooh!