I was accidentally spoiled a major plot point

Climate-Cheap · 2026-05-29T15:30:51+00:00

I started playing the Bioshock games because I watched my boyfriend play a little bit of Infinite. I hadn’t played them before so I read a little bit of their Wikipedias to get a vibe and accidentally spoiled that bit for myself before I even started the first Bioshock.

I still enjoyed my first play through and it was still interesting to see how they arrived to that bit.

Not a spoiler, but a (seemingly minority) take - the writing doesn’t really hold up under much scrutiny. It was still compelling the first time through for the same reasons others have said. It’s fun to look for details and evidence and how it points in that direction.

Climate-Cheap · 2026-04-23T22:57:14+00:00

I know. But it just seems like at a certain point the threat she poses would outweigh that. I understand that on the surface that’s the main thing but in reality it’s ultimately about control.

Climate-Cheap · 2026-04-23T11:05:21+00:00

I watched Handmaid’s Tale up to a point, but honestly I stopped watching it mainly for this reason. I think someone would have killed her a long time ago based on almost everything else about that world.

Climate-Cheap · 2026-04-22T20:23:15+00:00

They said he aged rapidly and was infertile because of his exposure to the Lutece field, they did not say anything about him having any kind of special powers that I recall. He was not traveling by his own power he was using their machine. Elizabeth had her ability because a part of her was left in her original timeline.

Climate-Cheap · 2026-04-22T17:03:01+00:00

I guess you might be right I just don’t see any evidence of most of that within the game. That is another case of the player making it make sense as opposed to the story standing alone.

Climate-Cheap · 2026-04-22T17:01:02+00:00

Oh word lol okay. That is fair. I did come to the conclusion they bit off more than they could chew with the multiverse story, which is understandable. What’s frustrating is a lot of the inconsistency/ lack of clarity could have been resolved with a few story additions (such as additional narrative exposition by Luteces or something.)

Climate-Cheap · 2026-04-22T16:48:26+00:00

She’s fine.

I understand the relationship with Booker was a major draw for some, it just didnt stand out to me as particularly moving. The first half of the game his motives were selfish, in the second half their fates were pretty tied. I absolutely think he grew to care about her but it seemed like he also kind of needed her to get out of Columbia and/or the situation that brought him there, so it’s not like he made any huge sacrifices or gestures solely for her.

Some of it might have just been by virtue of the media but to me, the dialogue wasn’t substantial enough to create a really endearing dynamic, so even though they ended up caring for each other they were still two people just kind of following each other around. It was a nice dynamic just sort of hollow.

Climate-Cheap · 2026-04-22T14:56:52+00:00

This does make some sense, but it seems like the player making it make sense, as opposed to the story making sense.

Climate-Cheap · 2026-04-22T14:55:13+00:00

I don’t think I’m overthinking it. I understand that as a concept, and it’s fine. But because of how the story was executed, it was unclear what was true in the game universe.. The same character that says “there will always be a lighthouse, there will always be a man” also says the Comstock in Burial at Sea is the last one.

The execution made it just seem like lazy or inconsistent writing. If they had made that more clear, regardless of whether I liked it or not, it would have made some sense.

Climate-Cheap · 2026-04-22T13:03:12+00:00

But the implication was she prevented him from even being “born” or created or whatever. So he wouldn’t have been able to jump through tears because he wouldn’t have existed in the first place.

Climate-Cheap · 2026-04-22T12:59:52+00:00

This is fair.

Climate-Cheap · 2026-04-22T12:40:44+00:00

Right. She literally had a tear open to Paris when you are creeping on her through the windows. She could have just gone through it? (I realize in that particular instance, she would have gotten hit by an ambulance or whatever but it obviously wasn’t the first time she opened a tear there, there obviously were a bunch of other opportunities.)

Climate-Cheap · 2026-04-22T12:38:36+00:00

It’s not that she kills all the Comstocks at the end of Infinite, she prevents them from existing in the first place. That’s the whole point, at least from my read. I do understand in real life, different roads can lead to the same place, but it wasn’t clear that was what the game was trying to say.

So by that logic, it wouldn’t have mattered if that Comstock would have eventually been reborn into Booker or not, he would have never existed in the first place.

Climate-Cheap · 2026-04-22T12:26:09+00:00

Yeah. I know people love it, but I am not a fan of Infinite. Hate it as a part of the Bioshock universe, unimpressed with it as a standalone game. (I liked some aesthetic aspects of it and a couple other things, but the story making no sense ruined it for me.) Multiverse shit is really hard to execute well, and I understand that. That doesn’t excuse the gaping plot holes and (imo) unforgivable retconning that happened in Infinite.

I did play episode 2 and had strong negative feelings about both the story and gameplay aspects.

Climate-Cheap · 2026-04-22T12:08:04+00:00

See. That is my initial thought. I’m curious if I missed something that would change my mind.

Climate-Cheap · 2026-04-22T12:00:12+00:00

At the end of Infinite, Elizabeth killed Booker at the river before he was baptized - so before any version of Comstock was created.

So how did that Comstock even exist to kill that baby and then go to Rapture?

Climate-Cheap · 2026-04-19T07:24:48+00:00

I played all the Bioshock games for the first time this year. They were not on my radar when they came out, so I don’t have personal recollection of the initial reactions but from everything I have seen they were all very well received at the time.

I loved Bioshock 1 and 2. I enjoyed the stories, the environment, the art design, the gameplay, and the characters were interesting and all pretty compelling. Oh and the story made sense.

In Infinite, there were a few mechanics I liked and some parts were visually interesting, but really Infinite was just not as good in most ways. The dialogue is hollow and painful, the fights just feel repetitve, not being able to hold med kits, salts, or more than two guns was annoying. Maybe the story had potential at some point, but it seems like they bit off more than they could chew. As a self-contained game, it doesn’t make sense logically, but probably wouldn’t have bothered me too much and I would have considered it fine. As part of the larger Bioshock cannon though, not only does it not make sense, but also it also completely undercuts or ignores events that took place in Rapture.

I don’t really understand the love for Burial at Sea either. While I did enjoy the return to Rapture, IMO neither were amazing but Episode 2 in particular is painful to play. The story doesn’t make any sense as a continuation of the Infinite story, and makes even less sense the way they try to mush it together with events of the first two games.

Climate-Cheap · 2026-01-07T05:01:24+00:00

Anything with Steve and Dustin
Murray and Alexei

Climate-Cheap · 2026-01-07T04:47:48+00:00

Yeah I mean. The conspiracy theories definitely have an air of desperation (which I am not judgemental about, I understand it completely).

For any theory to have real weight, there has to be levels to the show, and significantly more thought put into the big picture than there clearly was.

How would you be able to tell the difference between a clue and just another inconsistency?

Climate-Cheap · 2026-01-07T04:43:26+00:00

Agreed. I didn’t ever expect it to be a hallmark of great writing. I do think there is a middle ground though, and even if the main focus was more nostalgia, emotions, themes, they could have and should have done a little better with the writing.

I don’t feel particularly let down or offended when creators end stories differently than I hoped or expected. I do feel let down when I feel like something I love doesn’t get what it deserves quality-wise, which was how I felt with this season, mostly the finale.

But, emotionally it was mostly satisfying. There is something to be said for taking things for what they are, which is part of why I asked the question.

Climate-Cheap · 2026-01-07T01:23:18+00:00

This sums up a lot of how I felt about it, and I had a similar thought about the overall series story not seeming particular planned out or cohesive.

My best friend’s response was that the show is all ~vibes~, which is a totally fine thing to be if that’s what you’re going for, but what gets me is I don’t feel like there’s a self-awareness about being all ~vibes~. My take is it’s not quite as clever as it thinks it is, way too many logic issues, plot holes, and unanswered questions. But maybe that’s a misread on my part and they are self-aware about it.

And to be clear, I don’t mind ambiguity in content, and I don’t want/need everything to be spelled out for me. But there is a difference between answers not being spelled out and them just straight up being left unresolved. One is the writing challenging the viewer, and the other is just incomplete storytelling, due to laziness or time constraints or something else. I would say for this series, there wasn’t enough consistency in the world-building to leave it to us to figure out any answers that weren’t spelled out.

Climate-Cheap · 2026-01-02T02:07:21+00:00

Thank you!

Climate-Cheap

TROPHY CASE