Lets explore Bioshock Infinite a bit more :) (Destiny)

by breitzen , Kansas, Tuesday, October 17, 2017, 12:45 (2395 days ago) @ Robot Chickens

I think part of the problem lies in the genre (FPS video game) they're telling the story.

Yep. It is a huge challenge. One that some (Bungie for example) just discard and use a void-character (a decision which I dislike BTW).

You see, Booker has motivations ascribed by the game designers and world builders, but there's an element of him and his motivations that get filled in by the player (in this case me). Some games give more motivational control to the players than others, but I still felt like there was a part of me choosing to react to the world as Booker at play. He wasn't carte blanche, but they left it open enough for me to feel engaged as a protagonist. As Booker, I wanted to do more than just deal with the pain I caused Elizabeth. My daughter even helps me become better (when she's not helping me murder people). It just feels like that bit of development gets totally subverted the next time someone's head explodes. Again, perhaps that's the point but the genre of the delivery of the story felt (to me) like it allowed me to interpret Booker as something at odds with the gameplay.

The balancing act of gameplay and story. I would probably agree that the violence was "over the top," but if it's not "fun" they run the risk of it not being popular. And this was a Triple-A title, so it needed to sell. Maybe they could have done a better job with this.

Red Dead Redemption handles the themes this game was getting at better IMO- cyclical nature of violence and the futility of shooting your way to redemption. It just didn't have the cool alternate paths in the universe element in it. That was a really cool hook for me and the clever story path made me enjoy the game. Outside the video game genre, it wouldn't be too hard to have selective violence or even an absence of it and still have Booker come to the same conclusion that he needed to erase himself from the universe. Like Cody points out, the game kind of revels in the violence.

This is why I love Dishonored so much. It gives you the choice. That system in place for this game could have had some interesting implications. Maybe you could have had an ending where you were able to survive with your daughter.

I also think the game has something interesting to say about redemptive violence. We can't forget, even the baptized Booker becomes something terrible as Comstock. I don't think that's lost on Booker when he figures out who Comstock is.

I should add that I loved the art/music of the game. The haunting opening of the game with the relevant hymn/spiritual is beautiful. There are so many ways it succeeds and perhaps that's why I'm so hard on it.

It's definitely not a perfect game, and I think your critiques have been fair. :)