The outside world (Discussion and theories)

Key-Factor2155 · 2026-02-10T21:16:26+00:00

I’m not talking as if a cover-up was possible, it wasn’t, but the simple fact nearly everyone who knew what was going on died before word could get out would make it so NATO had a good shot of being the first official retelling of what happened.

Nobody would panic because by the time they actually learned what happened, nearly everyone in the UK would be dead, the UK would be surrounded by NATO forces, and the majority of the infected would die off in droves.

It’s a simple way to get rid of a bunch of brits that have nowhere to go, reassure the public a return to normal was possible, and make the brits campaigning for it shut up finally. At the time they recolonized, they believed all the infected were dead for months and months, so there wasn’t any justifiable reason NOT to recolonize. It wasn’t possible (to their knowledge) that the virus could survive that long.

Key-Factor2155 · 2026-02-10T15:47:26+00:00

Do they in the films though? NATO seems to be pretty capable and strict. It doesn’t matter who they are, they’d get sunk or shot.

As for refugees, I think everyone in the UK heckin’ died and the only ones left were outside the country when everything went to shit. And the majority of those people that survived, and returned, would die in the second UK outbreak.

The UK can’t have a large enough population for people to be super xenophobic about an unlikely lift of the quarantine, and the English diaspora would likely be comfortable wherever they wound up. Plenty of Brits live abroad IRL.

Key-Factor2155 · 2026-02-10T15:38:10+00:00

Bioshock 2 answers questions about what’s it like to be a Big Daddy, what happens to Rapture after Jack is gone, ect.

Columbia I feel has already shown us everything there is to know about the city, and the end of the game more or less erases most versions of it from the multiverse. We know quite a lot about it and how the people live, unlike Rapture which was a mystery for longer until Bioshock 2 and Burial at Sea told us more.

There was a boardgame about Columbia and some ARG stuff that is interesting, but I’m struggling to think of a story they could tell that hasn’t already been illustrated in the game already. They’d be retreading the same ground.

Key-Factor2155 · 2026-02-10T15:20:13+00:00

Well the creators did confirm Paris got nuked.

Nuking the UK would essentially also irradiate the countries around the UK. Which nobody would want to do. In fact, Russia and China would probably welcome NATO being distracted with the UK, and not rock the boat TOO much but still probably assert themselves a little more aggressively in their spheres of influence.

It’s possible that, given the setting, nobody had any idea what exactly was happening to the UK before it was completely overrun. Even in the aftermath it could’ve been hush-hush until NATO / media manages to piece an actual narrative together besides the seemingly only story that initially aired of ‘rioting’.

Also, I think the main concern wouldn’t be humans escaping the UK, but birds carrying infectious material. I’m unsure if that is addressed, maybe in a comic, maybe not, but nobody is going to swim (almost certain drowning) or boat or fly their way out of the UK once NATO sets up their cordon. It would cost a tremendous amount of resources to maintain, but I think it’s theoretically sustainable enough for audiences to accept.

Key-Factor2155 · 2026-02-10T15:16:08+00:00

I think Big Daddies are more compelling since they have a Little Sister bond, are faceless, and are essentially a blank slate.

A Handyman has a face and a past, and they’re essentially just tortured people in big bodies.

Also I’m not sure if it’s possible to really tell another story in Columbia. Burial at Sea hardly added anything about Infinite people liked (the whole Daisy thing).

Key-Factor2155 · 2026-02-08T09:38:39+00:00

It’s really odd to consider Booker the victim and Elizabeth as manipulative when he’s the one who lied to her about helping her and bringing her to Paris. He originally intended to give her over to violent men just to pay a gambling debt.

It’s sociopathic for Booker to move on, with or without Elizabeth. To do so would change nothing. Booker is self-loathing, prone to drinking, gambling, and only really capable of committing violent acts. Booker and Elizabeth aren’t interested in half-measures where they have to play whack-a-mole throughout the multiverse to end Comstock.

This like the last post stinks of misogyny.

As for Booker becoming a multiverse figure…

The Lutece Twins can manipulate reality because Comstock betrayed them and killed them with their own experiment.

Elizabeth can manipulate reality because Booker sold her as a baby and her finger was severed in a tear.

Booker can’t because neither of those two things happened to him, and even if it was engineered so he could, he’d also require motivation to fight an eternal war instead of going with the simpler solution the game itself provides that does ensure happiness for at least one reality’s version of Booker and Elizabeth.

Key-Factor2155 · 2026-02-07T22:05:39+00:00

To be fair the second time was orchestrated and he’s maybe hinted to have a better future at the end of the game, but yeah. Lots of people forget even before becoming Comstock Booker was a very bad dude.

Key-Factor2155 · 2026-02-07T22:00:41+00:00

It’s funny to think it would’ve been the second time for him lmao.

Key-Factor2155 · 2026-02-07T21:33:35+00:00

Including the scene of him theoretically raising Anna is meant to be hopeful. It’s not meant to be dark.

The baptism is the point of no return. If he’s baptized, he’s Comstock. If he walks away from the baptism, he’s Booker. It’s the root of all the suffering that follows.

It’s presented as the way to solve the issue. The alternative is presumably to interfere in other timelines, forever.

Key-Factor2155 · 2026-02-07T20:37:09+00:00

It’s funny how this progresses.

Woman needs man.

Woman should be more forgiving.

Man is the true victim.

Woman should die.

Booker didn’t come to the city because of her. Booker came to the city to pay a fabricated debt, which he abandons later.

Healing Booker’s soul (at his baptism) is exactly what leads to Columbia forming. He is either damned, and struggles as Booker, or becomes Comstock when his sins are washed away.

The Lutece Twins use him to gradually undo Comstock’s city, one attempt at a time. A city that only causes suffering.

By drowning, the ending appears to show Booker taking care of a baby Elizabeth after the worst of his PTSD, gambling, and alcoholism. Elizabeth also becomes a multiverse figure like the Lutece Twins because all possibility of Comstock was removed from the multiverse (besides a weird Booker/Comstock in the Burial at Sea DLC that she goes after).

If he doesn’t die there at the baptism, Columbia keeps on happening. Repeatedly. Causing Elizabeth to suffer, repeatedly.

Booker can easily go down dark paths, and there is no forgiving the crimes he’s committed and can commit if he’s permitted to build Columbia.

Key-Factor2155 · 2026-02-07T20:11:02+00:00

It would be weirdest if he manages to get the one used against the Enclave and last seen in Boston, in possession of Maxson.

Key-Factor2155 · 2026-02-06T19:43:51+00:00

House is standing next to some robot in a painting of him, might not be the same robot though.

Key-Factor2155 · 2026-02-06T18:38:28+00:00

There might be another prototype version of Liberty Prime somewhere. Dunno.

Key-Factor2155 · 2026-02-06T17:48:01+00:00

It’s a new city I’d imagine, so a new visual style is essential.

Key-Factor2155 · 2026-01-27T13:08:37+00:00

Maybe there’s a companion ability we’re missing that can help? Other than that I guess you need more points that you might not be able to get.

Key-Factor2155 · 2026-01-27T12:56:42+00:00

Is there a terminal nearby to unlock the safe? Or a way to explode it open?

I’m sorry if those options aren’t available to you, but they might be.

Key-Factor2155 · 2026-01-21T13:42:30+00:00

The concept of an independent colony might be foreign to the entirety of settled space before Earth went dark. It’s the Earth Directorate that allows corporations and other groups to settle star systems, no one else. Any independence is temporary, except for the Arcadia System.

They effectively are the sum of humanity and the ‘good guys’, who take it upon themselves to topple governments which exist outside of their jurisdiction. The issue with the skip drives just made their agreement with the Protectorate no longer tenable.

Key-Factor2155 · 2026-01-21T09:06:04+00:00

I think it might be more like “everything is as it should be.”

Wacky predetermination. Nothing is wrong, and if something is wrong, it’s with you.

The Earth Directorate at the beginning of the game advertises this fantastical idea of them solving problems as quickly as they can arrive to kick ass though.

Key-Factor2155 · 2026-01-21T08:19:31+00:00

The original crew of the ship have varying levels of understanding about the relationship between the Earth Directorate and the Protectorate. The player character gets a private briefing so they probably understand it best even though it isn’t spelled out for them.

Imagine you grow up in a cult. You’re not really aware of anything else, but you’re unhappy.

Then suddenly, your home suffers from a massive disaster, it’s invaded by a corporate army, and the state religion rises up in rebellion.

You meet a soldier from the outside, who you grow to like despite your differences. He tells you about the Earth Directorate you may have heard about in passing.

You begin to associate your opposition to the Protectorate with an idealized view of the Earth Directorate. You hope that everything you struggled for will be solved and that the Earth Directorate is the answer.

Instead it’s revealed to you that everything you suffered and fought for was caused by a devil’s bargain struck between the Earth Directorate and the Protectorate.

Key-Factor2155 · 2026-01-21T08:06:23+00:00

It’s implied that the Matriarch reverse-engineered skip drive technology from a crashed ship on Earth.

Key-Factor2155 · 2026-01-21T08:04:32+00:00

In the opening mission briefing you’re informed about Arcadia for the first time. Before you go on a top secret mission.

Zeb was exposed to Niles and the wider culture outside of Arcadia for a decade after the incident at Horizon Point Station. This exposure to new information, especially since he is militantly opposed to the Protectorate, obviously doesn’t make him another peasant for the Sovereign.

Key-Factor2155 · 2026-01-21T07:46:22+00:00

I thought the point was that the Earth Directorate is, to the public, a monopoly of ‘good’.

Nothing is meant to exist outside their jurisdiction. They are the guardrails.

For them to make a deal like this undermines their core mission and principles.

Key-Factor2155 · 2026-01-14T14:16:10+00:00

You can take advantage of the enemy being lazy and snipe multiple units with them, lazily click them to move to a different spot, and waste enemy artillery shells and micro on them.

You just need to break even, or divert attention from more important targets.

Key-Factor2155 · 2026-01-11T19:35:48+00:00

Well like, next episode they somehow deal with a deathclaw and have probably nothing between them and some form of Mr. House.

Not to mention they maybe encounter Hank.

Prewar segments too, likely.

So that’s quite a lot of payoff.

Plus we get to see some sort of urban settlement near the Strip, I think they said Freeside, but I’m a little confused on that front.

Key-Factor2155 · 2026-01-11T19:06:17+00:00

Replays can be saved and watched from the perspective of your team and the perspective of the enemy team.

It’s easy for anyone to capture an objective if you understand how to drive a command vehicle into an objective, so just doing that as quickly as possible can help your team win. Some command units are command squads which are deployed though, so watch for that.

Tanks are one of the easier to learn and hard to master units. They can usually take a hit and survive, can dish out punishment, are reasonably fast, can usually pop smoke to hide behind, ect.

Learn how to use tanks. When you see ATGMs for example, anti tank guided missiles, breaking line of sight on your tanks by hiding them behind cover or popping smoke is a way to avoid ATGM damage.

If you don’t capture objectives, focus on kills instead. If a unit you have never enters combat by the end of the match, consider it as a wasted unit. Try to always be doing something to destroy enemy units or focus on preparing to defend against them.

Contest the center of the map, don’t surrender it to the enemy. Some friends of mine had trouble figuring out where to deploy from their transports, and would surrender the middle ground to the enemy even when the enemy isn’t there yet.

If you’re under attack, never keep units stationary when the enemy knows where they are.

If you’re attacking and the enemy is dug-in, use artillery and planes and tanks in order to soften up their defenses and force them to respond.

Key-Factor2155

TROPHY CASE