The COMPLETE Bioshock Series Story Retrospective

bioshock is a fantastic series and it's due to  how much these games affected me that i wanted   to talk about them all with you this video is  actually three separate parts turned into a   much larger project with each video being made  with the sole intention of not only retelling   the story of these games but to also allow me to  give my thoughts on their stories along the way   if you're new here then this is the perfect place  to watch all three videos but even if you've seen   them already there is an added section at the end  where we discuss the two novels released during   the game's life cycle with all of that out of the  way though welcome to the bioshock series story   retrospective let's get started bioshock 1 has  one of the most genius stories i have ever seen   its central plot is brilliant and the attention  to detail when it came to its setting in world   building is arguably a masterpiece just on its own  today i want to look back on bioshock's story and   uncover what really made this one of the best  games of all time despite it being 14 years   old as always spoiler warning ahead for the whole  story of bioshock and with that let's get started   as always we need to start at the prologue but  for bioshock we need to go back even further   that title bioshock it's such a bizarre word when  you think about it many games have a very distinct   title with weird meanings but at least i could  tell you what the words mean cyberpunk 2077 is   a game with a cyberpunk art style that's set in  the year 2077. a game like dragon age is a bit   tricky is i've never played dragon age before so  while its title as a whole makes no sense to me i   can at least understand what the individual words  mean dragon age and origins and maybe draw some   conclusions about the game but what is a bioshock  i like many might think it's a homage to system   shock 2 which was irrational games first project  but furthermore it could also be a shortened   version of biological shock which in the context  of the game makes sense given how ADAM ruined this   society and how our protagonist acts throughout  the game but we haven't gotten there yet so i'll   return to this in a moment as we start the game  the player needs certain questions answered in   order to feel invested in the story who are we  how did we get here and does the story make sense   bioshock creates a sort of meta narrative based  around these answers but once again more on that   at the end of the video our first interaction  with the game is a cutscene and bioshock wastes   no time getting right into the action as the plane  were traveling on crashes in the middle of the   atlantic ocean we awake amongst the wreckage and  need to find land the only place within eyesight   is a giant lighthouse next to us i've always  seen this lighthouse as a beacon of light in a   dark time although it's a bit more literal in this  case as the only light we can see is the moon the   burning plane and this lighthouse as we enter the  door shuts behind us and we see a giant statue of   a man with the phrase no gods or kings only man  written on a banner while it's confusing as is   this confusion should actually start earlier  why is there a lighthouse in the middle of   the atlantic ocean even if we were to ignore  that why isn't there people in the lighthouse   there's so much wrong with all of this and while  it does sound like a criticism i actually find it   to be a wonderful decision as it's making the  player question everything they see it's also   the start of many mysteries this game will tease  to the player which causes them to become more   invested in the world around them in an attempt  to find out more as we head down the stairs we   see three plaques with the words art industry and  science written on them while a violin cover of   bobby darin's beyond the sea accompanies us in the  bathysphere what's important to remember is why   we're going in this submarine we're in the middle  of the ocean and it's the 60s even if others had   survived that plane crash who will be going to  call for help our only option is this bathysphere   as it's either this or swimming at night in  the atlantic ocean and i'll take my chances   we presumably descend deeper into the lighthouse  while a message plays from andrew ryan someone   who looks oddly similar to the statue upstairs  bioshock has many memorable moments and this   will be one of three key moments throughout  the entire game i have rejected those answers   instead i chose something different i  chose the impossible i chose rapture rapture might be my favorite setting in any video  game ever made not just the idea but the reasoning   behind it is brilliant the fact that a city not  only exists at the bottom of the sea but also   functions at the bottom of the sea is something  that has never been done before andrew ryan also   says that rapture was made for those who do not  fear censors or morality it's a judgment free   place but not in the sense of people getting along  and being happy together but a place that allowed   those who wanted more to get more injured ryan  says that the surface was constrained by laws and   ethics but rapture was no such place and it's  because of this ideology that allowed rapture   to blossom into what we see now a bustling city  under the sea completely shut away from society   at least that's what it seems like until we  actually enter rapture our first encounter   with the city is a very grim one as we're going  to be introduced to a man named johnny until we   get to see him sliced open right in front of us  we then meet with johnny's killer who screams   at us before attempting to open the bathysphere  it's possible that her anger is the same as the   people who used to be here as there are signs  everywhere saying things like ryan doesn't own   us let us leave and the rapture is dead earlier i  talked about a light that shines in the darkness   when i brought up the lighthouse atlas is like  the lighthouse but in a more metaphorical sense   as atlas saves us from this person who is trying  to kill us his charming demeanor and attitude   makes him instantly likable and that is further  reinforced by his own actions as once again he's   trying to save us we push further and are able to  arm ourselves with a wrench we can take a couple   practice swings to test out our new weapon but we  can also get a look at these splicers atlas was   talking about as they aren't alien creatures but  they don't look human anymore everything seems to   be going smoothly so far given the circumstances  until we see the gatherers guarded vending machine I can't explain to  you how genuinely terrifying this was when i first   played the game currently we don't understand  what a big daddy or a little sister is just yet   so seeing a tiny child with a syringe as big  as she is walking with a moving scuba suit is   probably the most terrifying thing you'll ever see  we also discover that we can now cast electricity   through our hands which is just another bizarre  and crazy thing that rapture has we also get a   look at a concept that is shown throughout rapture  and it's how the world continues to reinforce that   you're under water it's not enough just to have  a few windows that show the sea but the effects   that the outside environment can have on rapture  such as the plane wing crashing into the tunnel   causing all the water to flood inside there are  even smaller instances of this such as the water   falling from the ceiling or just puddles of water  in places where it shouldn't be bioshock also   shows other problems that rapture can have like  a lack of electricity or when this elevator falls   and instead of just being a cool scene to ramp up  the destruction we can actually see someone walk   out of it while on fire it makes rapture seem real  as it showcases how a place like this can have   problems but also what problems a place like this  may face like water damage and poor infrastructure   if you want to go even further than this this  is also the first showcase of how the splicers   interact inside the game as this female spicer was  trying to sing a lullaby to her baby despite it   being quite the frightening tale she's talking  about how her baby is going to be sold by the   pound once her dad is gone and how she'll be alone  when her parents are both dead except it seems   like she's losing her mind as she's struggling  to figure out why her baby doesn't feel the same   anymore until we realize her baby's actually a  pistol atlas was also listening in on this lullaby   as he says that it was the plasmids that caused  all the chaos there's even an audio log not even   a couple minutes later that captures one of the  moments of rapture's downfall here's a toast to   Diane McClintock silliest girl in rapture silly  enough to fall in love with Andrew Ryan oh god what's happening it seems that an  explosion went off during the new year's   eve party presumably right where we're standing  which killed numerous people we don't know why   but if we're to believe atlas plasmids caused it  in some way later we get to see the little sister   and big daddy again and are able to observe them  without the fear of being stabbed and it's quite   the brutal scene it shows the dynamic relationship  between the two and also the importance of the   little sister and the strength of the big daddies  we learn that the little sisters gather ADAM while the big daddies protect them from people who  want to harm them it's also assumed that people   might want to harm the little sister because of  the ADAM that she carries after some fighting we   make it to the end of the intro where andrew ryan  appears and notices that we've invaded his city   he asks for a part of the cia or kgb as  he probably assumes that the only people   capable of finding and infiltrating his great city  would be the government and he also thinks that   the government either wants to put an end to his  city or nationalize it, two things he'll never let   happen despite being just a voice for a majority  of the game it's his personality and the power   in his voice that makes him feel like a threat  and i've always liked how impressive the voice   acting was for him of course we have to escape his  ambush and arrive at the medical pavilion ending the tutorial bioshock's intro is pretty much  perfect we get a cohesive set of circumstances   that show how our character made it to rapture  and then get introduced to what rapture looks   like how its inhabitants interact with the city  and a few pieces of information for the player to   think about like plasmids adam big daddies little  sisters and the downfall of rapture there is even   a ton of things we still don't know yet like who  we are who atlas is and how the plane crashed and   while i do wish more backstory was given on this  once you beat the game you realize it's impossible   to talk about right now there was so much mystery  with bioshock from its setting to its characters   to even the actual plot that it makes you want to  learn more and while this information and mystery   can be considered overwhelming when shown all at  once these mechanics characters and locations are   everywhere so it's hard not to remember them  and it also gives the player something to go   off of instead of being left in the dark all game  it's also been like 15 minutes since we started   the game so it's not like it's been four hours of  game time without any answers we're just getting   started so having a bit of mystery is perfectly  fine this early in the game and the way this   is pulled off in bioshock is expertly done from  here things start to become harder to talk about   as bioshock's main world building device is the  audio logs we find scattered around the map there   is a common critique amongst gamers that it's  unimersive when there are audio logs or recordings   scattered throughout the world as it makes no  sense that this many people would be using them   when talking about the most mundane of topics and  while i definitely agree with this sentiment i've   always just chalked it up to a limitation of game  design especially in the case of bioshock where   there are no npcs the player can talk to to learn  about rapture so all their information has to be   from the audio logs thankfully there is a ton of  them in this game and are extremely easy to find   as they glow and are more often than not found  in areas you'll be traveling through anyway these   provide lots of context to rapture's downfall and  explain a lot of what's going on around the city   except they are everywhere throughout the game and  not placed in the most linear fashion for example   we see these ghostly apparitions throughout the  game but it isn't until we get to arcadia roughly   three or so hours into the game where we finally  learn why we can see ghosts i have no problem with   the way these audio logs are structured it just  becomes a little harder to explain when making a   video about it so for now we'll just be going in  the order the game intended and occasionally go   off the beaten path to discuss some other aspects  of the game like right now as it's a perfect time   to talk about rapture itself as i said before it  wasn't just the scenery of the city that made me   love rapture but it's what it represents that  intrigued me just like the title of the game we   need to address the main name of the city rapture  by definition is a feeling of intense pleasure or   joy but it's also a theological belief within  christianity assuming my research is correct   it's an event that would be the end of times  where those who are faithful christians whether   alive or dead will be taken above the clouds to  meet the lord all those who are not faithful will   not be taken up thus are condemned to whatever  destruction the rapture brings rapture the city   relates to this as you can infer that this place  above the clouds would be considered a paradise   for all christians so rapture is a place for  those who want to experience a paradise away   from the mainland as ryan said it's for the artist  who doesn't fear censorship or the scientist who   isn't bound by a petty morality rapture allows the  creativity of the mind to be the only limit within   its walls and this is why the city of rapture had  so many scientific breakthroughs the residents of   rapture never needed to worry about whether or not  what they were doing was unethical dangerous or   controversial as they were given complete freedom  rapture essentially went through a never-ending   golden age of technological advancement people  were able to conjure elements through their   hands and were able to have not just their facial  features reconstructed but their entire gender and   even their race changed as well even though it  all went to [ __ ] eventually just the concept   of rapture is genius it's incredibly thorough and  really highlights the stellar writing of this game   as the biggest question that comes to mind is why  build a city in the ocean and yet the devs managed   to not only give an answer to this question but  actually make it quite believable continuing where   we left off we had just escaped andrew ryan's  ambush and have made it to the medical pavilion   according to atlas this is the direction we have  to head in if we're to save his family i said   earlier how bioshock's intro showcases how some of  the splicers interact with the city and while in   that case it was just a small example this concept  gets brought up again but with more depth added to   it from the moment we enter the pavilion we  see signs and posters of a dr steinman he's   the overseer of the medical pavilion and is also a  very accomplished surgeon one thing you'll notice   about bioshock is how all the name characters have  a story about them each character has a backstory   and a reason for coming to rapture and all their  stories tie into the overarching story of rapture   each area also has a distinct look to them and a  reason for being in the city and both the levels   and characters within them all tie into rapture  in some way which we uncover from the audio logs   dr steinman performed cosmetic surgery on the  people of rapture but due to the circumstances   of the city he too became corrupt due to rapture  being a place where people can show their truest   forms and are able to push the boundaries of  their studies dr steinman would use this time   to perfect his craft everything was going well  until the discovery of adam as this sparked an   idea in steinman's head as he thought this was a  perfect opportunity to revolutionize the industry   hoping that with this new technology surgeons  could sculpt any kind of flesh with ease but this   of course led him down a darker path see steinman  was a perfectionist and of course when you're   a perfectionist your standards are incredibly  high but adam managed to push these even further   adam presents new problems for the professional  as your tools improve so do your standards   there was a time i was happy enough to take off  a wart or two or turn a real circus freak into   something you can show in the daylight but that  was then when we took what we got but with adam   the flesh becomes clay what excuse do we have not  to sculpt and sculpt and sculpt until the job is   done dr steinman didn't go crazy just because of  adam it was a combination of adam rapture and his   inability to let the smallest problem go he would  change things that patients didn't want and given   that he's a professional in his line of work he  used this to reinforce his actions why argue with   the professional after all they know all there is  to know steinman lost control and began working   on anyone he wanted even if they weren't a patient  of his his final decline is how we see him in game   he moved away from the faces of his patients to  their whole physique claiming that this one was   too fat or this one's too tall or that this one  is too symmetrical he ended up losing his mind   when he was introduced to adam he wasn't an  addict to the drug but an addict to his work   he saw the potential of adam and his first thought  was how far can he go without thinking how far   should he go this shows that adam and even the  policies of rapture affected so many of its city's   residents and due to their different fields of  study and different levels of wealth and social   status we're able to see how it affects everyone  differently this style of storytelling is flat   out genius it makes you want to go to the next  area and uncover what the level is about what it   provides the city of rapture and how its unique  setting caused its unique downfall no game has   ever gotten me to care this much about one small  level and i find that in itself very impressive   after we have dealt with dr steinman we enter the  second key moment of bioshock as we approach this   hallway we see a big daddy get thrown through the  wall this is the first time we have not only seen   a big daddy up close besides the cutscene from  earlier but we actually see one defeated so it   must be a really tough opponent who brought him  down except it's just another splicer even though   i've always found this almost impossible to happen  that's not the point of this scene as now that the   big daddy is dead the little sister is alone the  splicer takes this opportunity to grab the little   sister so he can take her at him but a mysterious  woman shoots him before he can do that i'll bring   her up in a moment but right now she and atlas  give us a choice these little sisters contain adam   the core foundation of rapture and if we can get  more we can buy more plasmids and tonics to get   stronger but we're also doing so at the cost of  potentially killing her rescuing a little sister   will net us 80 adam but she lives harvesting  her will give us 160 but she dies it's a case of   morality are you willing to sacrifice the life  of a little girl for the benefit of your own   especially when you uncover their origins it makes  the choice even more important the little sisters   were a creation of tenenbaum the woman from  earlier after discovering a sea slug that was   able to cure the wounds of a smuggler when it bit  him after some research on the slug she discovered   what caused this anomaly and dubbed the substance  adam she also discovered that had the ability to   splice people's dna giving them the opportunity  to essentially have superpowers leading to the   creation of plasmids the problem with adam is that  on its own there wasn't enough to change anything   but tenenbaum found a way to create adam inside  people's bodies but once again this also failed   as it wasn't enough the only test that worked was  with young girls which was the start of the little   sisters another problem arose is there wasn't  enough girls to go around as who would willingly   subject their daughters to this experiment so  fontaine can spread with tenenbaum to create an   orphanage that would be used as a front to exploit  the children and specifically take the girls to   use them as hosts for adam despite how creepy  they may look when you rescue them you discover   that they are just in fact little girls not some  mutant creature but a living breathing human she   with the assistance of a dr suchong who we'll  get to in a moment subjected the little girls to   mental conditioning so they can become valuable  hosts so she cares enough about the little   sisters that when someone else hurts them she'll  defend them but when she hurts them it's okay   her logic is clearly flawed and there is a reason  for that that she feels awful about what she did   but the majority of the audio logs we find say  the opposite this makes tenenbaum a hard person to   trust which not only reinforces the game's concept  of morality when it comes to the little sisters   but also strengthens the relationship between you  and atlas it's a great idea on paper but horribly   executed in game sadly according to tenenbaum  if we save enough of her little one she'll give   us a reward this is in the form of a present  near the plasmid vending machines that has atom   a plasmid and some other items like ammo and eve  the number of atom is consistent every time so if   we're to compare the two we find out that every  three little sisters rescued gives us 440 adam   assuming you collect the present and 480 if we  harvest all of them if the player were to rescue   harvest all 21 little sisters they will get either  3080 adam or 3360 adam respectively this is   already a problem on its own but they continue  to add more items for the player easily making   rescuing the best option without even thinking  about the morality of the situation a 280 adam   difference in the grand scheme of things is really  not that big of a deal especially when you get   to the end of the game when you can upgrade  your plasmids that run as high as 180 adam   now maybe i play the game differently than  others but i never needed many plasmids during my   playthrough i wasn't constantly starved of adam i  just needed a few important tonics and some go-to   plasmids and that was it you really don't need an  entire arsenal of tonics and plasmids to complete   this game unless you're doing a sort of challenge  run or something what they should have done was   kept the rewards from the present but cut the  adam we get from the gifts and rescuing in half   going from a total of 3360 adam if you harvest  them to 1680 if you choose to rescue all of them   this also cuts your survivability in half all  health and eve upgrades are 80 adam each buying   all of them throughout the game will set you back  1280 adam leaving you only 400 to use on upgrades   and plasmids so it creates the situation about  whether or not you should dabble in more health   or eve or use the adam to upgrade your plasmids  this would make saving the little sisters a lot   harder to do and force the player to actually  choose between rescuing or harvesting them   are you still willing to stick to your morals  and never harvest one no matter how hard it   gets or are you going to cave in furthermore are  you going to justify your actions or live with   the fact that what you did is wrong if you plan  on justifying it aren't you no better than the   people who live here like steinman who used his  work as justification for his ruthless actions   although loads of other people will meet soon who  also did evil things because they were furthering   their field of study i'm also not the only one  that thinks these rewards should have been handled   better as the creative director for the game even  agrees yeah and we went back and forth a lot about   what the rewards for harvesting versus saving  would be and actually i think we should have   really pushed further that the rewards for saving  were much more much more should have been much   more meager than the rewards for harvesting you  probably have noticed by now that we've spent   a lot of time talking about dr steinman and the  little sisters but not about the actual medical   pavilion itself and this is where bioshock tends  to suffer a bit the medical pavilion level has 17   audio logs the player can find and only eight  of them aren't made by dr steinman while this   sounds like a great opportunity for the other  logs to introduce more lore on the other doctors   and patients bioshock doesn't do this the  other eight audio logs are random logs like   andrew ryan talking about the vandalism of vending  machines or dr suchong testing out a new plasmid   you could have put these anywhere else in the game  and you wouldn't bat an eye as they fit anywhere   since their story isn't related to a specific  area it's not a bad decision to make these kind of   audio logs but it's clear that it makes it harder  to fill the others with more content about the   actual level it makes the medical pavilion seem  only about dr steinman and not the other people   in the pavilion thankfully the environment does  attempt to assist them in some ways but the rest   of the level lacks in any sort of story outside  of steinman this also isn't a level issue but more   of a whole game issue sometimes it always feels  like the world revolves around specific key people   and never anyone else our next level is a great  example of the opposite as neptune's bounty has no   end boss well sort of we'll get to that regardless  there are 19 audio logs in here and there's a very   diverse cast of characters within them as most of  them have between three to five logs each on top   of this majority of the logs add to the level's  ecosystem neptune's bounty was used as a cover-up   for a man named frank fontaine and his smuggling  ring many items inside rapture were considered   contraband as that would disrupt everything  rapture was built for and a large majority of   these audio logs aren't about one person but the  area as a whole such as when tenenbaum discovered   that slug we talked about earlier this links to  the creation of adam but also adds to the level   itself as this discovery was found here there's  also an audio log about a man named sullivan who   is a detective for andrew ryan who's trying to  find evidence against fontaine his audio logs   show the steps during his case as he attempts  to interrogate a smuggler of fontaine's we   can actually find the location of where this  interrogation happened in the level and this   also relates to the level as a whole again as this  is where fontaine does his smuggling so it would   make sense that a detective would be here this is  the weird problem with bioshock's audio logs but i   do want to make one thing very clear i do not hate  the concept of these logs there are great ways of   providing lore and world building to the game even  if they really shouldn't exist as we discussed   earlier plus they're audio logs not notes meaning  the player can walk around and explore the level   while listening to it rather than sitting still  and reading text however it's very clear that   there is some favoritism and inconsistency with  these audio logs where one area will have most of   the logs be about one character another may have  it be about the actual level and sometimes it's   neither it can make the story harder to follow at  times as events may occur earlier than when they   get explained and can also be the opposite where  something gets explained but then is shown to the   player later with the hopes that they remember it  getting back to the actual story neptune's bounty   is the next level we come across then as i said  earlier there is technically no boss in the level   at least bioshock's version of a boss as peach  wilkins doesn't have that audio log treatment   that many others got like dr steinman he only  gets three audio logs throughout the game so   it's clear he wasn't intended to be a boss or  main character of an area just a roadblock for   the player to go around this is further reinforced  by him denying us access to smuggler's hideout and   subsequently atlas's family until we can get him  a research camera i'm not the only person to say   this but from a story and gameplay perspective  this camera is very video gamey the fact that a   camera is able to analyze genetic material from  a simple picture is a possible stretch that i'm   willing to just barely forgive but it is in no way  entertaining to start a fight with a camera so you   can snapshot a picture of your enemy then get back  to fighting at the end of the day it's a really   small part of the game so i tend not to dwell on  this too much the fight that follows though has   always been a blast to do as it forces you to  get creative with your plasmids incinerate can   be used to open up more doorways which double as  cover and sources of eve and ammo furthermore you   can make this encounter much more entertaining if  you picked up the security bullseye from earlier   and don't even get me started about new game  plus as this makes this encounter even better   peaches is a bullet sponge however and does take  numerous hits to die from pretty much anything   but it does add to the intensity of the fight so i  didn't really mind it after somehow making it out   alive we arrive at smuggler's hideout where the  core of fontaine smuggling ring is located despite   it being the shortest level in bioshock it does  an amazing job showing off its environment as all   these boxes we see throughout the level are the  contraband fontaine was smuggling in we also do get   to see a flashback appear on screen when we enter  the area this isn't the first time we've seen one   and it won't be the last but it's relevant later  so we'll leave it for now it's also here where we   finally meet up with atlas and help him rescue his  family we let atlas through the door and we watch   as he attempts to free his family ninja ryan comes  on the radio and mocks us saying maybe you could   warn him or if only you could do something except  just stand there and watch him die on its own it's   exactly as it sounds but i've always found this to  have a double meaning after knowing the ending of   the game but just like the flashbacks and the tons  of other things we've talked about before today   we'll talk about that later we run down the  stairs to help atlas but he is overwhelmed   by splicers and needs to fall back but as we  approach the sub to finish the job he started   it explodes in front of us this is a turning point  for the game atlas the man who saved us and who we   can consider to be a dear friend of ours had just  watched his family die in front of him atlas and   now the player will want revenge for this and  the only person to enact that on is andrew ryan   that's why our next objective is to find the  bathysphere in rolling hills as this will take   us right to andrew ryan himself our next level  arcadia is simultaneously where the middle of the   game starts and also where it starts to plummet in  regards to the story from a gameplay perspective   this is just like the previous levels but with new  plasmids new enemies more upgrades and different   environments i thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay  when going through these sections but it carries   the levels as there isn't much story to go off of  however i will admit that there is the occasional   audio log sprinkled in the next few levels that  is very important to understanding the backstory   of rapture and that there is a very unique sense  of style to these places as they all serve very   unique purposes arcadia is a literal forest of  trees which is how rapture is able to produce   oxygen despite being hundreds of feet under the  water however the majority of the audio logs in   arcadia are dedicated to one person julie langford  the creator of the arcadia forest except she's not   a main boss like steinman in fact she helps us  which is a nice change of pace but her audio logs   don't really add much substance one talks about  her tests regarding this lazarus device and how   she wants to test the rosa gallica flower to see  its results but she was unable to due to a recent   lockdown if the bright colors and presentation  weren't obvious it's clear from the audio log   that these flowers will be important later even  if you didn't piece that together she'll have you   go fetch one anyway so it doesn't matter if you  caught on or not another talks about this cult   with an arcadia called the saturnine except it's  just about how they steal her equipment and how   they believe they're touched by the gods we do get  to see this cult in the game as all the houdini   spoilers in arcadia are a part of the group but  nothing else is developed they're just a cult   with no motivation and no real reason to exist  as from what we gather from the audio logs they   just drink human blood and plasmids steal julie's  research materials and are avoided by many of the   people in rapture as they brutally kill anyone who  isn't a part of them the question is though why   well if the wiki has anything to go off of it was  discovered that this cult was put into the game   very late in development and thus the devs ran  out of time to add any proper backstory to them   while i will at least recognize that there was an  attempt to add backstory assuming that article is   true it wasn't present in the full release thus i  can only go off of what we have in game this same   sort of storytelling though occurs all the way up  until we meet andrew ryan where there is that lack   of substance in the audio log save for a few key  logs at specific points everything we have to do   was made by the devs to add length to the game and  extend its gameplay once again taking everything   into account i don't mind this as the gameplay was  fun and i'll gladly take another couple hours of   it but when only looking at the story it's clear  we're being dragged along and constantly stalled   for the sake of run time to get to andrew ryan  from here we need to get through arcadia except   andrew ryan shuts off some of the oxygen so we  need to turn it back online with the help of julie   to turn it on we need to create the lazarus vector  julie was working on so we need to go from arcadia   to the farmers market to grab the materials  then go back to arcadia to put it together we   then have to hold out from a never-ending wave of  splicers as they attempt to shut down the device   after this we travel to fort frolic to find that  bathysphere only for the artist and serial killer   sander cohen to interrupt us after dealing with  him we make it to hephaestus a large industrial   power plant where we can go to andrew ryan's  office only for it to be locked to turn off this   electrical lock and get into his office we need  to blow up the power plant using a literal bomb   this takes around 4 or so hours to complete  which doesn't seem like a long time until you   realize this campaign's run time is close to 10  hours that's also being extremely generous given   the quality of the bioshock remasters is awful and  continues to crash and this game doesn't have any   consistent auto saves as they only trigger when  you enter a new level so assuming you get wrapped   up in gameplay and forget to save like i did you  might be losing a couple minutes to a whole hour   of progress so if anything it's actually less than  10 hours but still it's clear that a large portion   of the game is within these levels technically you  could argue that the first few levels do the exact   same thing as it does take quite a bit of time to  get to smuggler's hideout but not only are these   levels short as that whole sequence takes around  half the time the levels themselves are covered in   numerous audio logs related to the area or the  main boss of said area we've already discussed   before how arcadia does attempt to do the same  but fails by not providing enough substance the   farmer's market suffers from the exact same fate  as arcadia and hephaestus has a couple important   logs that are helpful to understanding the  downfall of rapture but fort frolic and sandrer   cohen are probably the only exception as sander  cohn is actually a really entertaining villain   and there is one extremely important audio  log that has relevance to the end of the game   sander cohen is extremely creepy and also a bit  sad at the same time he's a poet composer sculptor   and playwright he's clearly talented in the  realm of art but he too was subjected to the same   problems many had thanks to adam where steinman  became more infatuated with his work thanks to   adam as he attempted to erase all the problems  he had sander cohen would use this opportunity   to also enhance his craft he created artwork  from his victims by covering them in plaster and   setting them up in various poses it's horrifying  especially when you discover that they're actual   people as they bleed when you hit them as i said  he's creepy and his mannerisms and speech reflect   this too but he's also quite the sad person as his  audio logs and even some dialogue from andrew ryan   point to him seeing us as a spark he needed to  keep going the reason sandra cohen keeps us here   is that he needed help completing his masterpiece  a full four-picture display of his colleagues who   betrayed him next to a ton of bodies it's our job  to kill his colleagues and take their pictures i   do like how the pictures we take with the camera  are the actual photos and not some preset photo   the devs had in place so nice touch when we put  the third photo in the picture frame he freaks out   claiming that we are doubting his work in his fit  of rage he has numerous spider splicers attack us   he calms down after a while and does apologize  for the unnecessary outburst but it's clear that   he does not like people who dislike his work  by us helping cohen and seeing his masterpiece   through to the end we can possibly give him the  strength he needed to keep going with his artwork   and convey to him that he is indeed an excellent  artist it also seems that he may have planned to   kill andrew ryan at some point as one audio log  says that he wants to create a requiem for him   it's also during this level where we uncover  a very important scene of jasmine jolene who   we find out is andrew ryan's mistress  who's talking about her recent pregnancy i'm sorry mr ryan i didn't know i didn't  know fontaine had something to do with it   what are you doing no no don't  play i love you no no wait no that creepy doctor tenenbaum promised me it wasn't  gonna be a real pregnancy they just take the egg   out once mr ryan and i had oh i needed the money  so bad but i know mr ryan's gonna suss it out   no i wasn't being careful i'm gonna know  i sold the mr ryan's gonna be so mad at me   from what we gather it seems that andrew ryan had  discovered what occurred and beat her to death   with a pipe this incident just like many we have  discovered today will be relevant later but not   too much later as after running through the power  plant crafting the bomb and destroying the power   we can finally come face to face with the man  himself    this is what makes bioshock so hard to speak  about as so much of this game revolves around   this key moment and summarizing the journey here  in just a few short sentences is a disservice to   the effort that went into creating this plot twist  right before this we actually get to see a room   that andrew ryan was working in trying to piece  together what was going on he was confused why   there was some random person who just happened to  survive a plane crash right next to the entrance   to rapture and who is capable of defeating all  that he throws at him by the time we arrive   ryan manages to uncover the truth we're a sleeper  agent for atlas we from birth were created to be   this way that child of jasmine's that tenenbaum  took from her was us she paid jasmine for the   baby and conditioned the child to respond to  the phrase would you kindly meaning not only   was atlas lying to us we the player never had any  freedom in our choices and to top it all off were   ryan's son in some ways it's almost poetic someone  who preaches about men choosing and slaves obeying   has a son who is the complete opposite of him ryan  a man and his son a slave as if this plot twist   wasn't already bad enough the game isn't done yet  is when we take ryan's genetic key and put it into   the override we stop rapture from self-destructing  but now give control of rapture to atlas who is   actually frank fontaine this wouldn't have been  as good if it was anyone but fontaine the one who   ran the smuggling ring in neptune's bounty and  the one who worked with tenenbaum to condition   us was the guy who saved us the whole time that  room from earlier also shows us some of the   experiments jack underwent before being sent out  of rapture such as when dr suchong forced us to snap   a dog's neck because he said the phrase bioshock  without a doubt has one of the best if not the   best plot twist in gaming history from the moment  we have started the game we had no free will the   present we were given sparked the plane crash  so even before we could play the game we were   being controlled video games as a whole give the  player a choice it could be small choices like   how to kill the enemy in front of you or it could  be a large choice like the ending of a game but   bioshock took this idea and twisted it completely  by tricking the player into thinking they had the   freedom of choice when in fact the only choice  they were given was when to turn the game off   this revelation also ties into four things i've  noticed over the years and i've always wondered   if they were intentional or not firstly jack  has a tattoo of chains on his wrist possibly   signifying that he's a slave to atlas next is when  atlas's family who we eventually discovered didn't   actually exist blows up in the bathysphere  andrew ryan says maybe you could warn him   if only you could do something except just stand  there and watch him die at this time in the game   ryan doesn't know who we are so this wasn't  intended to be a double meaning but i believe   the devs made him say this on purpose as this  line can be interpreted as us once again being   a slave to atlas with no way to do anything about  it thirdly when we meet the little sister at the   medical pavilion atlas never says the words would  you kindly it's possible that not even tenenbaum   knew of atlas's true identity and if he had said  that phrase over the radio she would have caught   on immediately this is something fontaine tries  to do throughout the story and that's to play   the long game by convincing us that his family  died in the bathysphere we made our bond with   him even stronger as we now have a common goal but  that's exactly what fontaine wanted the last thing   i noticed was some symbolism in the first location  minutes into the game as there's a statue holding   up a ball with the words welcome to rapture on  it this is easily a reference to atlas the greek   giant who was forced to hold up the world for all  eternity this could be seen as a foreshadowing of   atlas trying to hold up the world of rapture by  defeating ryan and being the leader of the city   but it's also a reference to atlas's demise as  in greek mythology this was atlas's punishment   so this could be foreshadowing atlas's punishment  in game as he just made us an enemy all of these   might be completely wrong but the fact that they  line up so well with the game's themes and story   make it impossible to see it as a coincidence from  its plot twist to its symbolism it's one of the   best writing i've ever seen however we're still  not done with the game yet fontaine has betrayed   us and without any real objective anymore it's  only fair that we enact the same revenge again   but on the man who actually deserves it during the  reveal of fontaine he says goodbye and launches an   army of security bots to chase us during our  escape a little sister appears and guides us   to safety before falling down the vent shaft we  awake and then discover that we are in a secret   room in rapture where the little sisters relax  and play together it's a really cute moment as   we can see all the little sisters interacting with  one another tenenbaum then informs us that she was   able to reduce some of the mental conditioning  that fontaine put on us but we aren't completely   cured to achieve this we need to head to dr ssuchong's  laboratory and find his cure for it fontaine now   the head of rapture notices that we're awake and  attempts to shut us down but only ends up being   able to lower our health a bit by making our heart  stop momentarily it's a lot better than being   completely manipulated but he can still control  us in some way so we definitely need that cure   the location where this cure is found is a place  called olympus heights where all the super rich   stayed in luxury apartments many characters we've  already talked about today like tennenbaum dr   suchong and even sander cohen lived in these  apartments i've always found it interesting how   these apartments are right next to apollo square  which is known for housing the poor and homeless   you can even tell from the railroad station next  to each area as the area near olympus heights   is quite pristine given the circumstances and  the one in apollo square is extremely run down   both the audio logs and the environment will tell  us that there was clearly a revolution starting   here and at the head of this was atlas in order to  avoid suspicion and hide under the radar fontaine   faked his own death and changed his name and face  to atlas we learned in arcadia that atlas was at   one point a politician but he claimed those days  were over it seemed that fontaine was using the   poor as his army and there is numerous audio  logs to back this theory up andrew ryan wanted   to create the perfect society but it fell victim  to social status and given his own policies within   rapture there wasn't much opportunity to crawl  back to the middle class those who were rich   succeeded and those who were poor suffer  just like every other society in existence   fontaine sees this opportunity to gather an army  of like-minded individuals and use them to do his   bidding going back to neptune's bounty we have a  couple audio logs from peaches that talk about how   he disliked ryan and preferred fontaine's way  of running things at least initially until he   realized that fontaine might actually be worse  than ryan this really shows that even rapture   was doomed to fail as a society the only way it  was possible to save this city was for ryan to   help the poor and make sure everyone was happy but  given his own beliefs and the beliefs of rapture   that was never going to happen the downfall  of rapture didn't happen overnight it was a   long string of events that progressively got worse  and worse the adam addiction the mistreatment of   the poor the manipulation of fontaine the actual  culture surrounding rapture all of it contributed   to its demise getting back to the story we end  up finding the cure for our mental conditioning   and allowed jack complete freedom for the first  time in his life one thing that's important to   note is his freedom because it's not like he was  completely controlled he still did things in his   life before coming to rapture but he was never  completely free as fontaine could easily change   that by saying one simple phrase while gathering  the cure we also found a dead body on the table   and discovered that it's dr suchong's quite  ironic that dr suchong died to his own creation   he was of course the original creator of the  big daddies and was the one who created that   defense mechanism in them that attacks anyone who  hurts the little sisters good to see that he's   dead given how much pain he caused people after  finding the cure we can now kill fontaine except   before we get a chance to heal locks the door of  the educational facility which is only unlocked   via a big daddy which means we need to become a  big daddy despite how bothersome this area can be   in regards to its confusing layout and plethora  of enemies from a lore perspective it's quite   intriguing as this is the facility where the big  daddies and little sisters were made one thing   that's been missing from this game so far is the  who the big daddies are and how they were made and   thankfully this area answers that question it  seems that the big daddies are people who had   their skin and organs grafted to the suits which  may explain why they can't take them off in jack's   case he didn't need to graft his skin and organs  to the suit as he just needed to trick the system   into thinking he was a big daddy which is why  he isn't injured during the process however he   does need a voice module so he can sound like one  and just by looking at the device it definitely   doesn't look safe after becoming a big daddy we  help out a little sister who gives us a syringe   and unlocks the final locked door to fontaine  where we can now finally start the boss fight and   both this and the endings of bioshock are honestly  quite bad fontaine is a giant creature now flowing   with adam and while i'm willing to just barely  believe something like this is possible the fight   overall is just bad all you do during the fight is  shoot him until his health is gone and then when   he returns to his machine to gather more adam you  stab him with the syringe and you do this 4 times   until he dies you would think after the second  time he would stop recharging his adam this way   but apparently not the boss fight does ramp up in  difficulty as the security bots and splicers come   to his aid but it's sort of hard to ignore the  giant naked man trying to kill you especially   when he functions just like a big daddy and stuns  you when you're hit after defeating him he'll   smack you one more time and all the little sisters  will come out and aid you by stabbing him which   admittedly is pretty cool afterward the game goes  into one of three endings and the conditions of   the ending depend on whether or not you harvested  or saved the little sisters one ending is when you   save all of them the other is when you harvest all  of them and a third is if you do a mix of both you   don't need to rescue every single little sister  but out of the ones you interacted with within   the game you do have to save them i do like the  happy ending where all the little sisters grow up   and live normal lives before all meeting again to  be with you on your deathbed but the other is just   bizarre as jack takes control of rapture for  himself and uses the splicers as an army to   overtake the surface and launch a nuke like the  ending started okay but ramped up in intensity   immediately why does jack need a nuke why bother  killing those on the surface what was even the   point of this ending this just like the morality  of harvesting and rescuing the little sisters was   something the developers wish they had improved  on for the final release regardless we have made   it to the end of the game and thus finish the  story of bioshock this game is without a doubt   one of the best of all time it truly has one of  the best stories in the gaming industry and is   one i wish i could experience again for the first  time bioshock has an incredible level of detail   put into its story from its world building to its  story of specific characters this couple with its   incredible plot twist makes this a very hard game  to beat when it comes to comparing its stories   it's one game i will always recommend without  hesitation and was the perfect start to a brand new series bioshock 2 is perfection it took  what was wrong with bioshock 1 and changed it   for the better but it also kept its strongest  narrative devices in the game making it feel   like how a bioshock game should this ultimately  created a perfect version of bioshock that i feel   doesn't get enough credit so today i want to  discuss why i think that without further ado   let's get started as always we need to start at  the beginning a cutscene showcases that we are   in 1958. if you recall from the lore that is only  a year before the new year's attacks in 1959. so   currently things should be quite civil and for the  most part they are we see a first person view of a   big daddy talking with a little sister to which he  follows her around the halls she ends up running   on ahead before getting caught by some thugs  just like any big daddy would he decimates the   thugs with ease before being hypnotized afterwards  though a woman named sofia lamb enters the room we get a sneak peek at the big daddy guiding her  and it's a model we haven't seen yet in the series   on top of that the little girl has a name eleanor  throughout the series we aren't told little   sister's name so this was done intentionally to  paint her as an important character even further   we actually see the big daddy remove his helmet  this is also a first for the series as we know big   daddies were regular people who had modifications  done to their bodies so they could fit the role of   the big daddy such as voice modification mental  conditioning and the grafting of the skin to the   suit itself but this doesn't seem to be the case  the only character who's capable of doing this is   jack and bioshock 1 but as we know he only needed  to seem like a big daddy so he could bypass the   facility's lockdown if you want to see more of  this i did talk about bioshock 1 in a previous   video which will be linked at the end of this  one or in the i in the top right right now so   questions are already flooding the player's  mind and it's enough to either get them hooked   immediately or at least get their attention mind  you this is only three minutes into the game so   we're starting off quite strong bioshock 1 had  the element of surprise as the player wasn't   accustomed to rapture just yet that's why it's  sudden reveal landed so well but doing that again   wouldn't have the same effect so bioshock 2 needed  to ramp up the intensity and not only does the   intro start off incredibly strong it keeps going  as the character we play throughout the game is   a big daddy words can't describe how excited i was  when seeing this there is no doubt in my mind that   at least once throughout a playthrough of bioshock  1 you must have thought how cool it would have   been to play as one, well our prayers have been  answered as playing as the big daddy is arguably   the greatest feeling in the series from the actual  moment-to-moment gameplay to the interactions with   the little sisters the big daddy is such a great  character for the player to control as if all this   wasn't great already the game introduces the  newest character to the roster the big sister   these two represent a sort of dichotomy battling  over a common goal quite early in the game we take   our first plasmid and come across a little sister  since we're a big daddy our duty is to obviously   protect her except the big sister swipes her away  from us the problem is that the big sisters were   designed to also protect the little sisters so  firstly where did she even come from but secondly   why are they actively working against us despite  having a common goal bioshock as a series has   never shielded away from secrecy mystery and  confusion especially in its early moments   already within just a few minutes we're given  multiple breadcrumb trails and while not forced   to follow said trail why wouldn't you after  going through this intro who is the big sister   who are we why aren't we a normal big daddy who's  eleanor and who is sofia lamb these questions   are the driving force behind why the player  continues deeper into the game bioshock 2 had   a tough job of continuing the series after the  very satisfying conclusion of the previous game   it also had to get the player interested  despite giving all of its secrets away in   that previous game and somehow bioshock 2 nailed  it perfectly some games have been able to pull   this off before but only few have been truly able  to do this within a couple minutes of game time   and the fact that bioshock 2 can replicate the  same mysterious feeling of bioshock 1 with the   added penalty of having its vast world building  already known by the player deserves some praise   so now that i'm done rambling about the game's  mystery i think it's time to finally explain   that mystery i've always been a sucker for lore in  games if it wasn't evident by the videos on this   channel and bioshock 2's newly added concepts  in world building are moderately brilliant   just like bioshock 1 the majority of the story  will come from audio diaries random devices we can   find throughout the world however bioshock 1 ran  into an issue with these devices many of the audio   diaries focused on key characters whether that was  the main boss of an area like dr steinman or was   a part of rapture's high society like tenenbaum  and andrew ryan it felt like rapture only revolved   around a few people and that never sat right  with me bioshock 2 changes this completely as   while some notable characters will have numerous  appearances throughout the game like sofia lamb   andrew ryan and tenenbaum there's also a large  number of audio logs made by just random people   who had way more world building than bioshock 1  ever did we'll circle back to him in a moment but   a good example is mark meltzer his audio diaries  detail his investigation into rapture and his   daughter sydney as he believes his daughter was  kidnapped and brought here for an unknown reason   originally it seems like just a one-off diary  but not only does just this one diary explain   that people from the surface have found  an invaded rapture but he has more diaries   that show up throughout the game and it makes you  want to see the outcome of his investigation like   i said even if it was just a one-off diary the  fact that people like mark can even find rapture   is incredible to begin with rapture was built to  be away from society both far and deep enough that   only those who were invited would know yet somehow  random people are able to find it and that's a big   issue just this one diary finally provided an  astronomical amount of world building and makes   rapture feel like a living breathing city besides  the miscellaneous audio diaries a good portion   of them still deal with a lot of information  that is necessary to understanding what's going   on so the intro was in 1958 but the game actually  takes place 10 years later in 1968. we are subject   delta and alpha series big daddy not only are  we a part of the first line of big daddies but   we're the first ever big daddy to be bonded with a  little sister on top of this being an alpha series   is quite different than being a regular big daddy  firstly alpha series big daddies don't have the   skin grafted to their suit which explains why  delta could take off his helmet in the intro   furthermore the alpha series is only intended to  bond with one little sister during their creation   the person inside the suit was fitted with an  unbreakable psychological bond with one little   sister should this bond be broken by the death of  the little sister or the separation of the two for   an extended period of time the alpha series will  either collapse and enter a coma-like state or be   driven mad with rage one of the audio diaries even  talks about someone seeing one of the alpha series   big daddies crying at a gatherer's garden because  they couldn't find their little sister this idea   clearly had many drawbacks as the big daddies  would be completely useless should the little   sister die this is why they changed the typical  big daddies we see more frequently in bioshock 1.   ones who still protect the little sisters but  don't have a specific bond with a particular   one making them a bit more useful this unbreakable  bond we just discussed is why delta is so adamant   on finding eleanor when he awakes but clearly he  wasn't just a suit of armor all his life as we   know all big daddies were humans at some point in  delta's case he was just a deep-sea diver on the   surface who accidentally came across rapture he  actually had an article written in the paper about   him ryan didn't believe this story and thought  that he was a spy so he had him incarcerated his   old life would then come to an end when he was  selected to be a part of the big daddy program   leaving his old name and identity behind being  only known as delta after the cutscene in the   intro delta wakes up after the events of  bioshock 1 so andrew ryan and fontaine are   already dead the first words we hear upon waking  up are from a familiar voice tenenbaum it seems   that even though rapture is practically a barren  wasteland she decided to stay behind or at least   that's what it seems like tenenbaum actually  came back to rapture thanks to sofia lamb   rapture is an extremely captivating place not  just in ideals but in location substitute out   that objectivism that andrew ryan prodded into  the city and swapped that with literally anything   and you can get a ultimate utopia of that ideal  rapture is a secluded place away from the rest   of the world so literally anything involved with  rapture could have blossomed from such a location   like let's say a cult rapture in bioshock 2 is  now under new management with sofia lamb being   the leader who has rallied the people behind the  banner of the family you may actually recognize   sophia as throughout the first game there was a  poster showing rapture's best and brightest and   in the back resides sofia before and during her  time in rapture she was a clinical psychiatrist   anger ryan had invited her to rapture so that  she could provide counseling to the isolated   members of rapture overall it sounded like a great  deal for both parties involved but sophia quickly   realized that the cause of this problem was the  person who hired her to solve it andrew ryan see   rapture under ryan was built around objectivism  something i had completely neglected to bring   up in the previous video so thank you all the  comments for mentioning that to me objectivism   is defined as quote the concept of man as a heroic  being with his own happiness as the moral purpose   of his life with productive achievement as his  noblest activity and reason as his only absolute   but sophia had a more altruistic look on life  as she had hoped to enlighten the citizens of   rapture through a common good she would do  this by providing free therapy to the poor   and intentionally losing at poker so she could  spread her wealth to the less fortunate anger   ryan actively wanted the people to push themselves  and seek their true greatness on their own without   anyone hindering their progress but sofia was  actively going against that by helping others   this caused the two to clash heads on multiple  occasions even having live debates on specific   topics and it was also during this time that sofia  was actively helping the poor and fontaine was   also trying to undermine ryan using fontaine  futuristics so when it was discovered that   both fontaine and ryan were dead it made sense  that she became the newest owner her altruistic   outlook on life also helped her gain that favor  as the people of rapture saw her as a kind woman   willing to help those who were less fortunate but  she knew this wouldn't last she would either be   overtaken by some other force of nature or she  would die from natural causes so to continue   her goal she ended up teaching her daughter in  hopes of becoming her perfect vessel eleanor is   her daughter yes the little sister that delta had  bonded with is none other than the new queen of   rapture's daughter it's such a great twist and  it raises the stakes of our missions tenfold so   far this is the story of rapture in bioshock  2 but i've neglected to bring up tenenbaum   as i said tenenbaum did leave rapture and so  did all the little sisters but she discovered   that more girls were disappearing so she came back  to rapture to find out someone was making little   sisters again so she came down here to put an end  to it as you remember tenenbaum was the creator of   the little sisters but after she realized the pain  in suffering this cause she regretted her actions   and dedicated her time to stopping what she  created but now she has to do it all over again   this is the full complete backstory that sets the  foundation of bioshock 2. it's quite a lot and can   get complex at times but this is exactly what  i was looking for i wanted bioshock 2 to take   the already established story of bioshock 1 and  make that the foundation for the sequel and this   integration exceeded my expectations so far we've  been getting a little ahead of ourselves so let's   dial it back a bit and continue where we left off  in game currently we're still in the early minutes   of the game and already sofia and her cult like  following is starting to show itself as there   are paintings tributes and murals dedicated to her  there's no shortage of these in bioshock 2 truly   showing how far her influence goes in rapture  and alternatively how alone and outnumbered we   are again accompanying these tributes is a book  called unity and metamorphosis it's all about the   creation of a perfect paradise through unity and  the abandonment of the self this also coincides   with all the imagery and messages of butterflies  and being reborn just as a caterpillar is reborn   into a butterfly a butterfly is vastly different  compared to a caterpillar which is why it's   considered two different insects despite being  the same thing sophia planned on using eleanor as   a vessel for her ideologies by basically shutting  her away from the world while she teaches her she   would then show the family eleanor and how she is  the first utopian who is able to abandon herself   and become truly free the problem is that sophia  has to convince the rest of rapture to do the same   and while many are on her side aligning herself  with her is a lot different than changing your   way of thinking permanently thankfully depending  on how you look at it sofia did find a rather   interesting discovery sophia discovered the story  of jack and realized that this mental conditioning   could be used to make people uphold the common  good this proves that sofia is just as flawed as   everyone else she is literally following in the  footsteps of fontaine and is considering using   a type of conditioning that reprograms the brain  and forces people not to think for themselves just   like we talked about before this is another  example of bioshock 2 taking key parts from   the previous game and reworking it in the sequel  now the phrase would you kindly isn't seen as a   way to manipulate someone to do your bidding but  it's seen as a necessary step to be able to live   freely in a utopia it's these slight twists on  already familiar material that makes the story   very engaging again continuing through the level  we finally get to face off against the big sister   and it's here and a few other places later in the  game via audio diaries where we discover where   these big sisters came from these big sisters were  originally little sisters the adam in their body   became too problematic as they grew older and thus  the older sisters were moved into different roles   we also find out that it was the big sisters  who were abducting the new little sisters from   the surface which explains the vast population of  little sisters still in rapture again there isn't   any other lore besides this but it does answer a  fairly good question in regards to what happens   when the sisters get older irrational games could  have easily just said that because rapture is so   large we didn't rescue all the little sisters  thus why they're still populating the city but   this approach to its world building was a much  better choice so nice job as we approach the   end of the first area we encounter sophia for the  first time very similarly to how we encounter ryan   except instead of atlas trying to help us it's  tenenbaum she then explains that she can help us   get to eleanor or she can see through the camera  in our helmets except i'm not really even sure why   they brought this up as it's never used again  we meet tenenbaum one time in person and then   afterwards we never hear another word from her  we get more info on her whereabouts and time and   rapture from audio diaries again which is a shame  as these audio diaries tell us a lot of important   information that i would have loved for her to  elaborate on now to be fair these audio logs   are in the dlc which we'll talk about later  but still i wish that she would have had much   more of an appearance this game instead we're  going to be guided by augustus sinclair and i   100 blame bioshock 1 for this because i did not  trust him the entire game he feels the exact same   role as atlas a guy we don't know who just wants  to help us for seemingly no reason but the whole   time he was talking i was just waiting for him to  backstab us but it never came true upon entering   the second area we hear eleanor's voice and  discover that she can talk to us telepathically   and is actively trying to aid us by bringing us  gifts and plasmids it's not clear how she can do   this but it's explained later one thing you'll  notice from playing this game is the lack of   levels in bioshock 2. the game only has 9 areas  compared to its predecessor's 14 and while that's   not a large difference it's still a lesser amount  but what bioshock 2 lacks in quantity it makes   up for in quality each of these levels is 3 4 5  levels high filled with rubble objects enemies and   other gear for the player to look at these places  feel lived in and real which is always a nice   feeling you'll be spending much more time in these  levels individually than compared to bioshock 1.   both games did take me around the same time to  complete yet one game had less levels than the   other meaning i was spending more time in those  levels engaging with the environment and dealing   with puzzles and all the enemies it threw at me  bioshock 1 also did feel quite linear at times   places like the proving grounds and the medical  pavilion were great but some of the levels felt   way too linear for the genre all the levels in  bioshock 2 are completely non-linear you'll be   constantly backtracking to the same places and  not only does this add to the gameplay loop of   finding new enemies in the same locations but it  also plays into the story and how it's continually   trying to reinforce how large these areas within  rapture are and how expansive this city really is   my only complaint is the odd amount of similarity  between some of the levels as sometimes it's hard   to determine what level you're really on besides  a few specific areas bioshock 1 really nailed   the diversity of the level to level gameplay to  where no level really looked the same i will admit   though that this is quite the subjective stance  however something that is objectively better than   before is the way the game handles the little  sisters in our last video talking about bioshock   1 i mentioned that while on paper the choice of  saving and harvesting the little sisters was cool   in practice it was extremely one-sided as  it favored rescuing the little sisters thus   ruining the choice of morality bioshock 2 reduces  the number of little sisters from 21 down to 12.   on top of this rescuing the little sister requires  you to defeat the big daddy protecting her then   escort her to two bodies in the level to extract  adam from once that's done only then can you   rescue them this is made way more difficult thanks  to bioshock 2's amp difficulty the game isn't   impossible but you start out with a max of 5 eve  and health slots rather than your 9 in bioshock 1.   your weapons also don't feel nearly as powerful  sometimes and enemies do hit a lot harder   plus there's also more big daddies as you'll be  constantly fighting more alpha series versions as   we get closer to the game's epilogue furthermore  every 4 little sisters that you rescue or harvest   will spawn a big sister who while does drop 40  adam is without a doubt the hardest enemy in the   game after everything is all said and done upon  looking at the numbers the actual difference isn't   that far off it's actually less than the previous  game with a difference of 90 adam according to   the wiki but the tasks required to get that adam  makes harvesting seem like the much better option   as if all this wasn't bad enough already something  we discover from the audio logs later in the game   is that the little sisters despite being immortal  do experience some degree of pain as one fell over   a railing and broke her leg and when they tried  to snap it back into place it was clear from her   facial reactions that she was experiencing pain  makes you think about the next time you unload a   few rockets near her when you try to take down the  big daddy relating back to the story this is what   irrational games had intended for the first game  giving the player an easy but morally wrong option   and a hard but morally right option to see  if it's enough to break the player's values   is the struggle to hold off waves of splicers  enough to make you snap and just take the atom   for yourself by force this idea also makes the  ending much more important but we'll get to that   later the fourth area of the game is poppers drop  and is our first instance of a boss-like character   similar to dr steinman from bioshock 1 in  this area we have grace holloway who runs   this section of rapture and is eagerly waiting to  kill us according to the audio logs we find about   her grace was a singer here in rapture who caught  the eye of a james who was enjoying her singing he   seemed to enjoy when people were real when it came  to rapture and willing to talk about its flaws   this caused him to be noticed by ryan and then  taken away never to be heard of again she would   then hear of sofia lam and how she was giving  away a free counseling and then was swindled into   her family she joined her group of people and  because of how important she was to sophia when   ryan eventually came for sophia and locked her up  in prison she gave eleanor to grace so that she   may look after her however this didn't last long  as eleanor was kidnapped and sold to the little   sisters orphanage which explains how she became a  little sister in the first place once she became   a little sister she would then bond to us and  we would then become her current guardian this   explains why grace is extremely mad at our arrival  in pauper's drop claiming that we stole eleanor   from her the reason this is relevant is because  all this information is key to understanding her   character and thus determining her fate at the  end of the level bioshock 2 introduces the option   of killing or sparing three key people and our  first is grace holloway when you enter grace's   quarters you're given the choice of killing or  sparing her it's quite easy to just kill her and   leave since she started fighting you but given  her backstory i ultimately decided to spare her   she was just a poor and lost woman down in rapture  and when sofia was able to bring her out of her   own hell of course she was going to help her as  much as she could plus we can't blame her for not   understanding the bond between eleanor and delta  neither wanted to become little sisters or big   daddies even as an alpha series model yes your  skin isn't grafted to the suit but you're still   heavily spliced with adam and of course as we know  most if not all the big daddies were unwilling   participants we never chose this life but grace  doesn't know that so we can't blame her for trying   to kill us if you spare her she goes on to say  that she was wrong about you she still believes   that sophia isn't a liar but she knows that she is  at least wrong about delta our second character is   stanley poole at dionysus park still continuing  to be altruistic sofia also had a hand in the   creation of the park which served as a both an art  and cultural exhibit hosted by sofia herself she   created this as both a way for her to undermine  ryan's ideals and also a way to promote her own   ryan's main philosophy with rapture was a city  without morals or sensors so naturally all art   should be accepted in rapture until sofia  started using this against him and started   showcasing art opposite of ryan's ideology this  of course led to her art being censored by the   general public showing that rapture was a place  that accepted these qualities but as long as ryan   agreed to it to make matters worse for ryan his  own version of this was arcadia from bioshock 1   except ryan charged his visitors whereas sofia  made this exhibit free to the public due to   this attack on his character ryan had enough of  lamb and sent a spy to infiltrate her network   this spy was stanley poole stanley was quite  successful in feeding information to ryan but   so much so that it led to sofia being imprisoned  he would then during this time used the money   sophia had to throw parties at the park in an  attempt to eradicate her funds however during   this time eleanor caught wind of these parties  and confronted stanley about it fearing he would   be caught he was the one who kidnapped eleanor  and gave her up to the little sisters orphanage   in the present day stanley has flooded the exhibit  fearing that sophia and the other members in the   family would rat him out as ryan's spy he stays  held up in there for years until delta arrives at   the park while we're only here to just pass by and  get to fontaine futuristic stanley refuses to let   us pass until we deal with all the little sisters  despite all the witnesses being dead stanley fears   that when the little sisters drain the victims  adam they'll discover the truth and relay the   info back to sofia so he wants us to get rid of  them but by helping the little sisters we can also   uncover the full story for ourselves what is shown  is the info we just previously went over with him   kidnapping eleanor and throwing massive parties  at sofia's expense when we approach stanley sophia   hops on the microphone and says that he is the  reason we're a big daddy and that she knew for   years that he was a spy we are now once again  given the option of killing or sparing him this   decision was probably the hardest one for me to  do stanley is responsible for our new life but he   wasn't the only one at fault he wrote the article  about delta being the mysterious deep-sea diver   the article didn't seem like it was malicious  ryan was the only one who saw delta as a threat   so the blame now goes to ryan but ryan just simply  imprisoned us it was sinclair who would then offer   us a job at fontaine futuristics as a performer  who tested plasmids in front of a live audience   these performances made him a candidate for the  big daddy program so sinclair is now to blame but   dr suchong and gilbert alexander created the big  daddy program so they're to blame as well do you   see where this is going no one person is truly  responsible for delta's new life it was just   coincidence after coincidence and he was just at  the wrong places at the wrong time every time you   could however claim that because he heard eleanor  and turned her into a little sister he should be   punished but this argument is quite shallow all  of these decisions that happened between us and   eleanor led to us being bonded together but  if something changed then we could have been   bonded with someone else say we arrived later  or even earlier to rapture then eleanor would   have likely never bonded with us so there is no  argument in saying that we should harm stanley   for how we treated eleanor because not only did we  not know her even prior to our own transformation   you could technically even argue that we should be  grateful to him for bringing us together although   i don't really subscribe to that idea either  despite this there is a lot of reasons to not   spare him and that is because of his other actions  like killing the witnesses and clearly showing   that he'll do whatever it takes including murder  to get his way it's due to this confliction that i   ultimately decided to spare stanley he wasn't the  sole reason we're a big daddy and the idea that we   should harm him for what he did to eleanor makes  no sense either our third and final character is   gilbert alexander his introduction starts off  quite different than what we're used to as we   hear an audio recording tell us to kill him and  then we see him piloting a security bot all while   yelling at a group of splicers this is quite the  twist as we have a man who is telling us to kill   him because he's going to become clinically insane  but then also having that new insane self tell us   not to kill him it's also during this level where  we can meet mark meltzer the guy who investigated   rapture so he could find his daughter or at least  what was left of him anyway it seems that despite   all he went through he was caught by sofia and  turned into a big daddy on the plus side however   according to the audio log that was found in  his body the little sister he bonded with was   his daughter cindy so at least they got to be  together forever at least until we killed him   you don't discover that this is mark until after  his death which makes you feel quite sad as you   just tore his daughter from him so i made it up  to mark by restoring his daughter to her former   self in hopes that she can have a brighter future  it's incredible how bioshock makes you care about   mark and cindy despite them rarely ever showing  up you know what happens to the little girls in   rapture so that makes the situation even worse  as we now finally got to see the other side of   the coin we're not able to see how the parents  react to their daughter being taken bioshock   1 did this as well with another individual  but i felt it was much better handled here   going back to gilbert since we have to decide his  fate the question is then what's his story well   gilbert alexander was a researcher at rapture who  specialized in robotic and mechanical engineering   he was also the creator of the alpha series big  daddies and was responsible for the unbreakable   bond that they have built into them as we know  it worked too well making them not as efficient   and protecting all the little sisters as it  only made them care about one this idea was   inevitably thrown out but due to his knowledge of  the bonding process and the manufacturing of the   suits he assisted dr sung in creating the new line  of big daddies after some time though he began to   feel guilty about his actions sofia used the skill  to manipulate him into being her own test subject   dr alexander has agreed to accept both measures of  the new utopian project he will become a kind of   genetic chimera host to all the minds of rapture  accessing their talents and memories via the adam   we have gathered and deriving in part from project  wyk i have developed a new set of behavioral   constraints dr alexander will live to promote the  common good she wanted to use gilbert as a test   subject to see if she could create the first  utopian being capable of losing self-interest   and being extremely loving and loyal to the  human race this however did not go as planned   i was to be sofia lamb's greatest achievement  a living composite of all raptures genius in the   body of a single man unfettered by self-interest  now i am nothing more to her than a failed   experiment my scores on tests of intelligence  and moral reasoning are still noteworthy   but declining sharply she has abandoned me and i  do not have long before psychosis takes me this   is what led to gilbert making the audio logs we  hear about how to kill him once he becomes insane   after entering the core of fontaine futuristics  we can see him in his final form which is this   giant amalgamation inside of a water tank it looks  awful we then for the final time have to decide   another person's fate this is the only person  in the game i killed and i also killed without   hesitation i deemed it as a mercy killing more  than anything this does become quite the tough   argument when you consider that it's possible that  after being clinically insane he enjoyed his new   life and thus killing him would have been a bad  thing it's ultimately his words against his own   and personally i'd rather believe the version that  was able to think more rationally rather than the   one that was mutated beyond human recognition  that's why i felt that it was a good idea to   kill him so i could rid him of his suffering and  allow him to finally die as a whole these choices   were really well done and judging from some of  the community discussions i have seen and many   have chosen the alternate solutions that i didn't  choose i read many posts saying that they killed   grace holloway for trying to fight them that they  killed stanley for turning us into a big daddy   and some even spared gilbert because they believed  that his past self wants to die but his present   self doesn't want to and thus they spared him this  shows that these choices were well written enough   that it wasn't clear what the best choice was in  the moment they should think about your decision   and what led to things being like how they are now  and that's once again extremely impressive after   dealing with gilbert we make it to persephone  which is rapture's prison system and is also   where we find eleanor as we approach her sofia  stops us and locks us out she goes on to explain   that eleanor wanted a father and tried to make one  again an audio log clears this up but basically   eleanor has the power to control the little  sisters and through this power she managed to   find a gene sample of delta she planned on using  this sample to revive delta through a vita chamber   and sure enough it worked this explains how we  survived the gunshot wound we didn't actually   survive eleanor just revived us she also used the  little sisters to contact tenenbaum so that she   could help us get back up on our feet now things  are starting to make a bit more sense but just   as we're about to be let inside sofia smothers  eleanor with a pillow temporarily stopping us due   to our unbreakable bond however it was only for a  specific amount of time as sophia obviously wants   to keep eleanor alive as that's literally her  daughter so it wasn't enough time to kill her   but it was enough to break our bond with her when  we awake we're strapped down and can't move but   eleanor lets us take control of one of the little  sisters so that we can unlock our own restraints   as simple as this sequence was it was probably  one of my favorites in the entire game as we got   to see the world through the eyes of the little  sister for the very first time and it truly shows   how deep the mental conditioning went they don't  even see the same world that we do it's completely   different this was more than likely made so that  the girls didn't have to see the horrors of the   real world and thus can continue to do their jobs  without being scared this explains why everything   is so clean and new in their world and why the  big sister suit isn't a diving suit but a dress   and why there's petals instead of blood when we do  extract the blood from the splices though it does   come back to the real world and i don't think this  happens to the girls i think it's just more of a   game design decision to remind us that we're still  in rapture meaning the girls after becoming little   sisters never see the real world again until  we save them this was such a great section and   really shows how badly their minds were altered  after using the little sister to gather the big   sister suit we give it to eleanor who uses it to  break out of her containment and then release us   as well we also get a plasmid that can summon her  from any location which is really cool as it shows   sophia that despite the bond being physically  broken their love for one another knows no bounds   by talking with eleanor we discover that she has  a plan which is to take sinclair's lifeboat up to   the surface except sofia is trying to stop us  while trying to thwart her plans it's stopping   us we run into sinclair again except time this is  not on good terms it seems that he was captured   and made into a big daddy we can hear his voice  over the radio getting more and more desperate as   he tries to find a way out of the suit he then  tells us to unlock the door and finish him off   even though he desperately wanted to live and be  on the surface again dying is better than being a   controlled test subject after getting the device  from sinclair and also helping eleanor rescue the   little sisters that are in the nearby wing we use  the little sisters by having them boil the water   underneath the lifeboat so it can rise i'll be  honest i don't remember if this was ever explained   in the entire series ever but the only thing i can  assume is that they're expelling the atom in their   systems which heats the water somehow as we finish  heating the lifeboat the explosives that sofia   planted explode and cause us to get knocked back  thankfully we're just barely able to latch onto   the lifeboat as it floats up and it's here where  we discover the ending of the game but it's done   a bit differently this time there are six possible  endings but it's all because of the combination of   two choices the harvesting and rescuing from  bioshock 1 returns again but the sparing and   killing of the previous characters is also a  factor there's actually a neat little flowchart   someone made to help visualize them sparing lives  actually has different weight depending on your   choices with the little sisters if you spared all  the girls then saving one character will give you   the best ending but if you harvest a couple of  little sisters then you must spare all of them   to get that same ending this goes even further  with the bad ending is when you harvest all the   little sisters sparing the three characters is  still not enough and then you're stuck in the bad   ending now this is only for determining whether or  not sofia lives the other decision is eleanor and   delta's fate if you rescue all the little sisters  then eleanor will drain delta's adam and transfer   it into her so that his memories and consciousness  can live inside of her and the two can be together   forever if you harvest all the little sisters  eleanor shows no remorse and drains all of his   adam for herself killing delta as she says that we  taught her not to let things go to waste however   these endings are different from bioshock 1 and  not just in the actual cutscenes but it's how it's   determined remember eleanor can control and look  through the eyes of the little sisters because of   this she was able to witness all the rescuing and  harvesting we did to them as well as the decisions   we made regarding the three important people we  discussed before and it's these decisions that   play into the ending of the game whereas bioshock  1 had a similar structure which changed the ending   based on our decisions with the sisters it's not  outlandish to find this a bit odd as some could   have simply just used the sisters for extra adam  to survive rapture and had no intentions of taking   the girls for themselves or using them in the  splashes to rule rapture but with bioshock 2 your   decisions don't affect you but your own daughter  just as a parent can influence their child's   behavior we as the parent influenced eleanor's  outlook on life such as whether or not people   should be forgiven for their past mistakes and a  bit more directly eleanor got to see how caring   and ruthless delta was like i said earlier when we  get the bad ending she explains how we taught her   not to let things go to waste and that bad people  should be punished for their actions no matter how   small or insignificant they were this adds another  layer to the endings overall as these aren't just   decisions that affect the ending of the game but  decisions that affect eleanor which then affect   the ending of the game this was mind-blowing when  i had looked into the endings and how they were   determined and it's just outright incredible while  the ending of bioshock 2 marks the end of the game   it's not really the end of the game as bioshock  2 came with a couple dlcs one of which was a side   story called minerva's den as opposed to the  main game minerva's then takes a bit longer to   set up the story instead of our main character  being subject delta we now play a subject sigma   another alpha series big daddy as we approach a  tunnel it gets blown up and we're sent into the   sea floor we hear a man on the radio named charles  milton porter who instructs us to find the thinker   we then eventually get introduced to reed wall  both him and porter were the founders of this   device called the thinker which is great except  we don't know what it is of course in typical   bioshock fashion an audio log explains it instead  the thinker is a giant computer that uses atom to   process data at the speed of thought it's the sole  reason that rapture can even operate it's quite a   neat device but both reid and porter discovered it  could do so much more this is what caused a split   between the two founders reid wanted to use the  thinker as a prediction machine so it can bet on   the ball games and see the changes in the stock  market but porter wanted to create artificial   intelligence but more specifically he just wanted  to replicate the mind of his dead wife pearl who   died during a german bombing during our travels  through minerva's den we can also find some   audio logs of tenenbaum which explains why she  disappeared during the main story she was trying   to find a cure for adam, adam and the sickness  that comes with repeated use is the main reason   rapture turned out this way in the first place  and if tenenbaum can find a cure she can not only   help those who are still alive within rapture but  also be able to take this and the plasmids to the   surface with the safety of knowing that whatever  happened in rapture won't happen again she sadly   hasn't gotten very far in her research as there is  still a ton of variables that require calculation   which is why she wants the thinker as she believes  it could solve her problem instantly this is why   she works with porter as they both want the  thinker to survive so they can use it for good   on the surface this is a much better introduction  and now provides the reason as to why we're tasked   with finding the device in the first place is we  can now change the world with the thinker the only   problem is we don't know who we are however that  will be explained a bit later sadly though after   this there isn't much in terms of a present day  story the main game suffers the same problem where   it's really just one objective that you need  to complete like finding eleanor which takes   the entire game however bioshock 2 splits up  this objective by forcing you to interact with   new people and even make some decisions except  minervas then doesn't do that from the start to   the end the main objective is to stop reid and  find the thinker there are no other characters   present in this dlc besides reid porter tenenbaum  and sigma you don't make any choices and there is   only one ending so it's really just a long string  of tedious objectives that are broken up by more   combat i said the same thing in bioshock 1 when  talking about the arcadia and market levels taking   into account the gameplay the exploration and the  story these levels flow really well and are fun to   have combat encounters in but when just looking  at the story itself it suffers there just really   isn't anything going on it's like the dlc has  a heavy focus of story in the beginning and the   end of the playthrough while the combat takes up  the middle thankfully the audio logs do break up   some of the pace and allow for more story to creep  in but all this is story from the past i'm talking   about things that are happening in the here and  now like once again how we learn about the three   characters in the main story then choose to spare  or kill them or when we finally meet eleanor but   then sofia stops us by breaking our bond together  these are things that are happening in the present   and are shaping the story the dlc does not have  any of that the first level of the game is about   going from one area to the next grabbing items  so you can open up new areas until you finally   complete the whole level this continues all the  way up to the final few minutes of the game as all   we're really trying to do is just make it to the  core of the central computing wing so we can find   the thinker throughout the whole time in this dlc  most of our interactions with these people is just   porter giving us instructions and reid projecting  a very cocky attitude because he believes that the   thinker can stop us since it can predict any  outcome except later we discover that isn't   entirely true it is calculating what we'll do but  according to the equation once we reach the core   it just stops this worries him as the outcome is  undetermined something pretty much impossible to   happen to the thinker this problem of his happens  around the time we enter his office and it's where   we discover that because of this beef reid took  it upon himself to frame porter for a crime he   didn't commit and have him thrown in jail since  he was in jail the thinker would be his to control   and now he could use it for whatever he wants but  the thinker never chose reid as much as he thinks   this to be the case in fact i don't think it  really chose anyone however it did assist porter   well thinker ryan secret police are on their way  they cooked up some kind of evidence against me   treason they say i've heard what happens to  folks who get disappeared come back as one   of those metal daddies so i'm leaving you  with something to cogitate on in my absence   inputting rapture departure protocol figure a  way to get yourself out of this city thinker   you've got to live on no matter what happens to  me so before being shipped off to prison porter   created a program so that the thinker could escape  reed's grasp this makes sense as when we enter the   last few minutes of the game reed discovers  that the thinker wasn't working with him but   against him it's also around this time where reid  expresses his confusion as to how porter walked   out of persephone unscathed and an idea came into  my head and for the very first time in this series   i finally predicted something because we discover  that subject sigma is charles milton porter going   back to that rapture departure protocol the  thinker determined that the best possible way   for him to escape was to enlist the help of porter  himself to get sigma to follow the thinker he used   the personality duplication program which is what  porter designed when he tried to replicate his   wife but the thinker instead replicated porter's  own mind besides being a bit of an obvious twist i   was happy that i did manage to guess this and the  plot twisted in general was really nice as it does   solve the question of why sigma is even following  orders to begin with i'm just really glad that   they cleared up that question by still continuing  to use the bioshock formula of a weird plot twist   that ties the whole story together after this  revelation we get to explore porter's office   and find an audio recording of his time with ai  pearl i believe i'm done feeding audio recordings   and personal anecdotes to the thinker i am set  to test the personality duplication function   target personality pearl porter thinker are  you ready, yes milton starting test hello pearl how have you been just wonderful milton i've  missed you though it's been so long pearl i no   no this isn't right it isn't her thinker  stop the test but what's the matter milton   don't you still love me oh god oh god i said  i said end function thinker now it's over i'll admit i've seen this exact situation tons  of time in other media and this usually ends   with the person dedicated to the machine  and desperately wanting their significant   other back porter though immediately recognized  the problems with doing something like this so   good job on porter for breaking the mold a  bit and not succumbing to your own creation   on a more serious note this technology while  impressive does have some adverse effects on   the user as we heard with porter as great as this  technology is the duplication program should not   be used ever again and i think porter agrees as  we go further down the lower halls of the office   we can see a memorial for pearl meaning he still  hasn't been able to move on from the incident and   honestly who can really blame him at the very  bottom though is a bathysphere and inside is   tenenbaum with the thinker in good hands and the  two safe from harm tenenbaum plans to find the   cure for adam so she could change porter back to  who he once was after that is finished she'll then   look into all the others back in rapture but we  don't know what exactly happens we do see parts   of the suit on the ground and someone standing by  a grave which we can assume is porter meaning that   he was able to become a human again overall we get  a very happy ending the cure for adam is complete   meaning the residents of rapture can eventually  return to being normal again adam and plasmids   can now be used by the general public in a safe  and secure manner and porter was able to move on   and say goodbye to his wife is a nice conclusion  to the game and also a nice conclusion to the  rapture story bioshock infinite is a pretty  good game there's a lot that it does well but   there's also a lot that it does wrong it's got a  fantastic story with a wonderful dynamic between   its two main characters but it also has a severe  lack of interesting world building and an awful   dlc that was ultimately unnecessary so without  further ado let's get started so where else   would we start then at the intro this is the most  important part of a game's story but this is taken   to the extreme with bioshock as these intros are  made to intrigue the player enough to keep going   you may find this confusing as i literally just  described an intro was meant to do but think back   on the previous games for a moment bioshock 1  story was a bit confusing as all of a sudden we   arrive at rapture and are helping the first guy we  meet without even a chance to question why we're   doing this in the first place bioshock 1 obviously  clears this up at the end of the game in one of   the best ways i've ever seen but i can almost  guarantee that the setting and combat of bioshock 1  carried you throughout the game rather than  the story of just killing the big bad guy well   bioshock infinite does the same thing its story  is hidden and never mentioned until the very end   because the devs know this they need to intrigue  the player enough in other ways to keep them going   like the aforementioned setting and gameplay  this is why it builds off the original game's   unique introduction bioshock infinite starts in  1912 with the player on a boat being taken to a   lighthouse for context since this game is in 1912  that means we are 48 years before bioshock 1 even   occurs that means all the previous games and their  events had never happened yet rapture wasn't built   hell i don't even think ryan was born yet we also  get to see our character's face hear their voice   and know their name all within about two minutes  which is a lot faster than the previous games our   protagonist name is booker dewitt who was brought  here to do a job booker is then given a box with a   few items such as a pistol a code a picture of our  target among other items the picture of the girl   has a note on the back that says bring the girl  to new york unharmed so we can assume that we're   here to find this person on the card the people  taking us to the location are unknown as they're   only referred to as man and lady however the way  they talk is odd almost as if they're watching   us from a distance they don't talk to booker and  if he doesn't climb the ladder they'll say this he's not moving he will eventually i suppose he  does it's like they think they're invisible or   analyzing some experiment like some scientists  would do it just feels off as we approach the   lighthouse we get more information on the task  at hand as the note reads bring us the girl and   wipe away the debt once again we can assume that  booker has some debts that need to be paid and   it's because of these threats that he took this  job in the first place everything initially looks   pretty normal until we see someone dead and tied  up with a sign that reads don't disappoint us   it continues to get even weirder as when we  finally get to the top of the lighthouse we   input the code and the sky turns red momentarily  as a horn blares every time the color changes   a chair appears and seeing as we're at the  top without anywhere else to go we take a seat words cannot describe the beauty of columbia it's  truly a magnificent place but after we arrive we   see a lot of religious symbolism and are told that  to enter columbia we have to be reborn anew via   baptism we accept and are able to explore columbia  to our hearts content but we have to remember that   we're in uncharted territory and have to blend in  except that may not be as easy as it sounds as we   discover that the false shepard is prophesied to  enter columbia with a defining mark of an a.d on   their hand the same one that booker has we enter  the city's raffle win and are given the reward   of pelting a couple with a baseball until our  identity is revealed and are forced to fight i   know i sped through that so allow me to explain  why bioshock infident on its own has a pretty   fantastic intro arguably the best in the series  but it reaches unprecedented levels of quality   when you take into account bioshock 1. columbia  and even bioshock infinite are the antithesis   of rapture and bioshock 1. not just in the setting  of the two games but the values of each setting   and the actual sequence of events that occur  in the game's intros it's clear from the first   moment of the game that the developers took heavy  inspiration from the original the reason being   that irrational games the devs behind bioshock  1 also made infinite whereas 2k games irrational   games publisher made bioshock 2. that's not only  why bioshock 2 feels so different from the other   games but why these two feel so similar bioshock 1  starts on a plane that crashes in the ocean we're   then taken to a lighthouse which then leads to  rapture we start in the sky and end in the sea   with the lighthouse being the mediator between  these two parts of the world whereas bioshock   impedance starts in the sea and ends in the sky  with the lighthouse being the mediator again   one game's start is the other game's end our  first encounter with rapture is quite dark as   the first person we see gets his guts spilled on  the floor by a splicer from the moment we enter   rapture we are thrown into the deep end however  as you play you start to appreciate rapture more   and it's almost like a home away from home minus  the splicers of course raptor's a really relaxing   place and the thought of what this looked like  in its prime gives you that sort of warm and   welcoming feeling whereas columbia does not our  first interaction with columbia is the opposite   of dark we're welcomed by many religious people  before walking the streets of the city where the   citizens of columbia will be having wonderful  conversations about the city and will even   greet and compliment booker you get that warm  feeling that rapture provides later in the game   at the very start but that warm feeling goes  away eventually as you uncover columbia's true   backstory furthermore each city's ideologies  couldn't be farther from one another rapture's   tagline is no gods or kings only men on top of  this religion while accepted is not publicly   shown as andrew ryan didn't want any public  institutions related to religion within rapture   this is why we see the bible amongst the cargo  and smugglers hideout in colombia religion is the   basis for its creation where the people of the  city worship father comstock who is the leader   of the founders a group and religion based on  many traditional religious and patriotic values   we're also immediately greeted by religious quotes  and bible verses while descending into columbia   upon stepping out we see a stained glass painting  depicting father comstock bringing the people to   columbia and there's also tons of other statues  showing the city and father comstock's glory i'm   not a religious person so i can't say with  complete certainty but i'm convinced that   majority of these depictions of father comstock  are literally ripped from famous artwork related   to jesus and the bible because while i can't  put my finger on what exactly it's referencing   these paintings feel oddly familiar to me as  if i'd seen them before in a different context   we are then shown this massive room filled with  candles and water that is used for prayer and   baptisms once we awaken columbia we can see the  statues of the founding fathers who are also   revered as religious or at least prominent figures  within colombia so we have a king in the form of   father comstock who worships a higher being quite  different than what andrew ryan believed in ryan   believed in objectivism a belief based on the  individual and due to rapture's location and   values it allowed those involved to succeed  on an individual level this even extends to   the gameplay as while some splicers work together  not everyone is aligned with one another everyone   seems to be acting out of pure self-interest  in colombia its citizens work together for   the benefit of the city and the father they're  acting as a group rather than individuals sort of   like the family from bioshock too but by far its  most staggering difference is in its inclusivity   ryan and rapture didn't really care about the  inner workings of a person as long as that   person had the drive to seek something greater  in their life in rapture there is a prominent   picture called the rapture's best and brightest  and within this picture are both men and women   those women also being tenenbaum and sofia lamb  arguably the two most important women in rapture   there's also dr suchong who is of asian ethnicity  and while not in the picture there's also charles   milton porter owner of the thinker and he's  african-american rapture is also very accepting in   regards to sexual orientation as sander cohen one  of rapture's best and brightest is gay given the   time frame of the game it's possible people have  their own opinions on someone's sex and race but   at the very least they're welcomed into rapture  and not rejected for their differences this is   in stark contrast to colombia where most of its  regular residents are white in fact the first   black person we see is tied to a post because  this couple is in an interracial relationship   since columbia is ruled by one man and not ruled  by the city's basis of creation that person's   ideologies are the golden rule of the city and  father comstock is a white supremacist who is   extremely racist against anyone who isn't  white and refuses to condemn organizations   that believe in this ideology a good example is  the order of the ravens in colombia who believe   in racial purity this is reinforced by the fact  that they are not only dressed as kkk members but   have paintings and statues that depict abraham  lincoln as the devil and john wilkes booth his   assassin as a hero within the organization we  can also see a chinese prisoner being tortured   and killed via ravens and to top it all off  we see a statue outside of the building of   comstock defeating a multi-headed serpent  however this serpent has the heads of three   men who are black chinese and jewish all with  exaggerated features like big noses and lips   as for things such as gender or sexual orientation  it's not outright said but there is definitely   some hints that columbia's values fit with ones  from the current time period there's a severe   lack of lgbt representation in this game with the  only ones i could find being the rare case a guy   hits on booker furthermore women at least those  within authority or power seem to be tolerated   rather than celebrated there's a kinetoscope  of rosalind lutes who is a quantum physicist   and the sole reason columbia can even float to  begin with but in this film at the end there's a   question that says how does that darn thing fly to  which she responds it's quantum mechanics but at   the bottom it reads we say it's more like women's  intuition however there is clearly women in power   like daisy fitzroy so while this doesn't outright  prove that all women aren't viewed the same as men   at the very least it shows how much people  downplayed lutes's creation of columbia and   her intelligence and seeing if she's easily one of  the most important women and the most intelligent   person in columbia i can't imagine how a regular  woman would be seen within the eyes of men besides   all the symbolism and ideologies regarding  colombia the actual interactions within the   intro are extremely fun before taking part in the  raffle we can explore the carnival area where we   can take part in carnival games involving weapons  and vigors which acts as a sort of hidden tutorial   we also see these weird interactions most notably  the statue of rosalind lutes changing to who we'll   discover is robert lutes this telegram being given  to booker that says not to pick number 77 which   happens to be the ball we choose at the raffle and  then the final one where the lieutenants make us   play heads and tails and not only does heads  win every time but it's won a lot all of them   are nice touches and subtle hints regarding the  game's actual plot bioshock 1 and infinite are the   complete opposite of one another and it's by far  the best dichotomy i've seen in the game to date   bioshock 2 build off the world of the first game  but decided to change the ideology of rapture   to show how the other end of the spectrum could  operate in the same city but infinite took this   idea and ran with it by not only creating a city  completely opposite to rapture in just about every   way but also took specific moments and cutscenes  from the first game and made those opposite when   compared together it's genius game design genius  storytelling and overall gives bioshock impedance   the best intro in the series getting back  on track we just turned a guard's brains to   mush and are now fighting the columbian police  while trying to find the girl we came here for   within this section is the aforementioned  order of ravens but there also seems to be   a secret home a little farther down for people  who actually praise abraham lincoln there isn't   much here but it is nice to see that some of  the residents don't all share the same values   after multiple battles with the city's police were  briefly stopped by comstock himself who claims to   not only know who booker is but all of his past  sins including wounded knee the pinkertons his   gambling and alcohol addiction and someone named  anna this made the situation a bit more tense as   now we aren't operating away from the watchful  eye of comstock as he not only knows who booker   is but why he is here it makes the player question  who this comstock really is and how he's related   to booker furthermore it also forces the player  to question what booker did we then make it to   monument island the place where this girl should  be located and it's clear here that the game is   trying to set up the typical girl trapped in the  tower trope but the way this was presented in   the game is really well done as once again these  chilling feelings of the story continue to grow   all throughout the area are caution signs and a  plethora of equipment and wires that make it feel   like a laboratory rather than a home it's a lot  different than what one would expect as you would   think this girl is either relaxing in some random  house or at a very top of a luxurious tower and   while the latter is technically true large rich  towers don't usually come equipped with caution   signs and chalkboards full of data it continues  to get even weirder as we see photography rooms   filled with pictures of her and rooms that seem  to be made for testing an experiment most likely   involving her there's even a projector that has  some film of this girl doing specific tasks like   dancing painting and lock picking we then get  to see how the operation was created as there   is two-way mirrors in these rooms allowing them to  spy on her without her knowing we also get to see   her open a portal to another world before closing  it momentarily it's given just the right amount of   time to confuse the player on what the hell just  happened without it being overly long and also   calls back to the rest of the tower now it makes  sense why they were testing and observing her she   clearly has these superpowers booker tries to find  his way around the rooms but falls through the   ceiling which rightfully startles her this girl  is elizabeth and she is one of the most intricate   characters in the entire series she is shocked  by booker's arrival in the tower and attacks   him until she realizes this is the moment she's  been waiting for she can now finally escape this   tower that she has been stuck in since she was a  child so elizabeth and booker escaped the tower   together until elizabeth's mechanical bodyguard  songbird shows up and attempts to stop booker the   bird almost succeeds but booker despite falling an  incredibly far distance is able to live thanks to   falling into one of columbia's beaches so what's  really going on here well elizabeth has the unique   ability to open tears these tears are essentially  ripples in time that allow the person viewing the   terror to see into an alternate dimension this is  why we can hear the song fortunate sun through one   of the tears later in the game despite that  song not being created for another 40 years   these tears aren't unique to the individual as we  see more kinetoscopes of people talking about the   tares so everyone can view them but not everyone  can create them the two most notable characters   that can create these terrors is elizabeth and  luteces rosalind before columbia was experimenting   with adams and found a way to indefinitely suspend  atoms in mid-air this led to the aptly named blue   test field discovery comstock would eventually  meet with luteces through some way and through   their collaboration would create columbia using  her lutece field as thanks for helping create the   floating city comstock promised that she could  continue her experimentation and it was during   these experiments that she met robert despite what  the game will initially tell you robert is not the   twin of rosalind he is rosalind in an alternate  world rosalind was born a man named robert   these two are the same person just in different  timelines as for elizabeth she was able to create   terrors from a very early age it's not explained  why just yet but it will be towards the end of the   game whereas luteces is able to create one through  science and experimentation elizabeth can just   create one when she wants she also mentions that  when she was younger she was able to create new   worlds with these tears but now she isn't able  to as often this is most likely due to the siphon   equipment in the tower as it's literally siphoning  her powers away i don't think it's necessarily   removing it altogether but more like storing it as  when we get to the end of the game she is way more   powerful implying that we were able to give them  back to her speaking of elizabeth after we regain   our footing on the beach we go to find her and  try to get her out of the city but it seems that   comstock and his forces have already caught on to  our location this is also elizabeth's first time   experiencing combat and i really like how they  didn't just have her deal with it as right at   the moment the shooting starts she runs away and  we have to chase her down the reason she ran is   because elizabeth thinks booker is a killer and  given how many people we just killed she's not   entirely wrong i like that irrational games took  into consideration how elizabeth would feel after   seeing someone die as it's not something you can  simply brush off this also extends to the numerous   other things elizabeth does like cover her ears  during this scene when the noise gets too loud or   just interacting with the environment like when  she asks for cotton candy it's incredibly small   but it heightens the experience of the game i find  myself always looking at elizabeth waiting to see   where she'll go next or what she'll say since her  input was always interesting to hear this also   extends to her relationship with booker bioshock  2 had this father-daughter style dynamic as well   with delta and eleanor but what i really think  makes infinite better in this regard is because   we actually get to spend time with elizabeth  obviously the reason why we can't see eleanor is   due to the plot but still elizabeth acts like this  little girl who has seen the world for the first   time and booker becomes this father figure making  sure she doesn't run off and get into danger and   i really love the dynamic they have after some  time booker and elizabeth will come across lady   comstock's airship as they plan to use that as  their means of escape but it's blocked and can   only be accessed by using the shock jockey vigor  this then leads to duo to cornelius slate who has   a really interesting section as it forces booker  to confront his past slate and booker knew each   other before the events of the game as they were  at wounded knee together after this booker would   reflect on his life and his actions while slate  would meet and join father comstock who would then   lead them to the boxer rebellion both of these  events were gruesome and tragic times for booker   so having him relive his past while also having  elizabeth discover his past was an intense moment   we the player figured this out alongside elizabeth  and after this encounter you start to view booker   as a completely different person for better or for  worse both wounded knee and the boxer rebellion   were also real world events that happened which  made learning about these all the more interesting   wounded knee was an awful massacre that saw an  army of united states soldiers kill over 300   native americans during this massacre booker  was accused by a sergeant that he had native   american blood in him to avoid the backlash and  repercussions that would come from this booker   decided to prove to his fellow men that he was  indeed a true soldier of america by scalping   many native americans and then burning dozens of  teepees wounded knee is not only an incredible   part of the story as it defines booker's character  but it's more important for us the player as we   get to see who booker really is and are given the  option to form her own opinion about him that will   continue to stay throughout the whole game for  the bioshock series this was a nice twist as we   went from having two samaritans who got caught  up in terrible circumstances to a protagonist   who was a mass murderer it's a unique idea for  the series and one that i welcomed as for the   other tragic event in history the boxer rebellion  was a war that started because a group of chinese   anti-christians called the boxers were killing  and massacring christian missionaries churches   and parishioners throughout all of northern china  in real life this led to the creation of the eight   nation alliance which included countries like  the british empire the united states russia   japan and many others all of whom were against  the boxers as for bioshock infinite it's unclear   whether columbia fought them alone or joined the  eight nation alliance but given why this rebellion   started it's obvious columbia wanted some  revenge even if it didn't directly involve them   these events were a part of comstock's history  which means it was also part of columbia's history   which is why there's an exhibit of the events  in the hall of heroes however slate doesn't like   the exhibit as it claims that comstock was not  only at the battle of wounded knee but was the   hero of the boxer rebellion he's technically  wrong but he's technically right but we'll get   to that later after the exhibit we can make it  to the main attraction which is another exhibit   related to lady comstock here is where we also  get to learn about the vox populi since entering   colombia we have heard a few rumors about them and  this is no different according to the exhibit we   learned that not only is elizabeth the daughter  of comstock but lady comstock was also murdered   by her servant daisy fitzroy who would eventually  become the leader of the vox populi a rebellious   organization looking to put an end to the current  rule of columbia and take it for their own many of   its members are irish and african-american two  groups of people who are notably discriminated   against within columbia once again this is another  great moment for the story as we not only got some   key information but elizabeth is now learning  her own backstory alongside us and the revelation   that the man who had locked her up in the tower  was her father is a terrifying feeling for her   the seed of the prophet shall sit the throne  and drown in flame the mountains of man   you're comstock's daughter no i can't be i i can't  he wants you to follow his footsteps well i want a   puppy but that doesn't mean i'm gonna get one the  beginning of that speech is also pretty important   as comstock says the seat of the prophet shall sit  the throne and drown in flame the mountains of man   remember this for later once all the exhibits are  done we can confront slate so we can get our shock   jockey and it's here where it's probably a good  time to mention this game's combat infinite's   combat bothers me quite a lot bioshock 1 and 2  had the uniqueness of the splicers who not only   had some decent personality via combat dialogue  but also looked unique and were just overall a   blast to fight against i don't feel the same way  when i play infinite maybe it's because i like the   older game's health system or that those games had  different ammo types with actual unique weapons or   the beauty of the plasmids but something always  feels off every time i play one other issue is   that theme of morality there is none of that in  this game and for a series that is stuck with   it for two straight games it's a shame to see it  disappear in this title this may have something to   do with how the narrative is structured and how  we're given the illusion of choice but bioshock   1 and 2 did the same thing and managed to give us  multiple endings to this story and also feel like   our choices had some amount of weight to it this  also extends to the larger enemies in the game   whereas in bioshock 1 deciding to fight the big  daddies was an impossible feat you were supposed   to view this as a difficult battle but assuming  you were skilled enough to prevail you were given   an immense amount of gear and atom to use infinite  doesn't have this as there's no decisions that   hold any weight you just simply go from objective  to objective fighting people along the way without   a care in the world and while the game isn't that  long it does get quite boring when you just want   to learn the story but are stuck fighting a bunch  of enemies because elizabeth can't pick the lock   needed to progress even the original games fell  into this trap sometimes but they still managed   to add something to the combat like sander cohen's  art exhibit which is really just a ton of combat   back to back but with the added distinctiveness  of the enemies themselves and the fact that we   had to take pictures of their corpses so that  we can display them it added a bit of variety it   wasn't much variety but at least made the combat  a bit more engaging the combat in infinite is very   actiony and streamlined you aren't really fighting  for resources or upgrades as elizabeth more often   than not will keep you stocked when needed there's  no health kits the player can have in stock and   the shield also regenerates given these additions  and literally just how the combat arenas work in   this game it's clear that irrational games went  for a more action-adventure title rather than   one that had immersive sim or survival elements  it's practically a railroaded shooter without   any variety this lack of variety also extends to  the levels themselves if i'm being honest infinite   may have some of the worst levels in the series  columbia itself is gorgeous just like rapture   but throughout the game we were able to see  different areas all with different backstories   i can name quite a few of the levels in the past  games but i can barely remember the names of a   couple locations in columbia and the only ones  i do remember were only because of one scene in   the level that either i hated or i loved other  than the actual beauty creativity and the lore   that the level brings into the world bioshock 1  had levels like hephaestus medical pavilion ford   frolic arcadia and so many more that serve some  purpose ford frolic was the entertainment center   run by sander cohen and arcadia was a botanical  garden that also helps supply rapture's oxygen   infinite levels don't take from what bioshock  once started there is rarely any levels that   actually attempt to show that colombia is more  than just a few areas made by some developers   there's no levels that showcase how the quantum  particles can suspend the city in the air   how the people of the city can even breed this  high up considering at the very least oxygen would   not be plentiful at 15 000 feet or even where the  energy comes from to even power this city emporia   a late-game area which is known to be a place in  columbia for the ultra rich looks no different   than the welcoming center in the beginning of the  game thankfully it's not all bad as shantytown is   a really good level that does highlight a lot  of differences between the others but that's   only a couple levels out of the total of 16.  all of these problems make it quite difficult   to play again and yes this is more of a critique  of the gameplay rather than the story which is the   opposite of the intended purpose for this video  but we have discussed in the previous games how   its gameplay was intertwined with the narrative  thanks to the themes of morality with the little   sisters and how we're in this unknown location  so by making the game more survival focused it   tied the game's combat to its story infinite just  feels like a playground adventure where we go on   zip lines and mow down dozens of enemies without  at all considering that we're literally in the   same situation as delta and jack we are lost in an  unknown city and have to struggle to survive but   infinite fails to convey this early we talked about  the vox populi and it's after the fight with slate   where we get to learn more about them elizabeth  during our journey says how she wants to escape   and go to paris but as we remember booker has a  job to do and that means we go to new york so when   he takes control of the first lady's airship he  sets the destination to new york elizabeth catches   onto this and gets a bit emotional honestly i  was going to mention how awful her crying is but   it does make sense as she is faking it so that  booker drops his guard so she can knock him out   elizabeth disappears right after this as she  was about to depart but the vox populi show up   booker then meets with daisy and they come to an  agreement if booker gets daisy the guns needed   for the army then she'll give him the airship  back where they drop us off though is finton a   place owned by jeremiah fink the one we saw in  the intro even though this is the first time we   are without elizabeth it doesn't last that long as  we'll eventually catch up to her and while we do   repair the relationship it's not back to what it  was before as elizabeth is a bit more cynical and   only joins him because he's the only way she'll  get to paris she sees booker as a means to an end   similar to how booker viewed elizabeth in the  beginning we're only halfway through the game   and already the relationship has taken so many  different turns and it's only going to continue   as we progress and i must say it's really well  done as i said we're now in finkon and this is   one of those locations where i only remember it  because of one scene    i don't really have much to add here i think the  scene speaks for itself people are so desperate   enough for jobs that they're willing to fight  others to get it what they're auctioning here by   the way is their time saying that they can get  the job done faster than anyone else the first   auction that occurred was for someone to haul  a half a ton of coal from fink manufacturing   to shantytown and the guy who won believed  he could do it in 5 minutes and 50 seconds   it's unclear what happens but i can only assume  if they fail they probably don't get paid for the   job or unable to work other jobs due to the lack  of work ethic in the eyes of the company besides   being the location of some of the worst conditions  in columbia it's also here where the story goes   off the rails i briefly talked about the tears  and how they are portals to other dimensions   and all of that is shown here we make it to the  gunsmith location and discover that he's gone   however his wife is still here and says that they  took him and locked him up we end up finding where   he's located and also find out that he was being  tortured for information but when we arrive in his   cell we discover that he's dead the luteces  show up again and in a cryptic way explain   that while we see mr lin as dead he can also be  seen as alive it's just a matter of perspective   that's when a tear appears and shows that mr lin  was never killed in another universe meaning we   can still get the guns to daisy of course in this  version of colombia mr lin is alive but that's not   the only thing that's changed the police we killed  earlier are now alive again but something's wrong   they're alive but they're dead they are alive but  they remember being dead so they're going insane   this sort of situation happens a few times with  booker where he starts bleeding out of nowhere   the reason he's bleeding is because his mind is  taking his current memories and combining it with   new memories and it's causing this nauseous  effect in his mind and causing him to bleed   they are alive in this world but they remember  their other selves in a previous timeline dying   thanks to these new memories suddenly appearing  in their minds when booker enters this new   columbia adding on to more changes we see that  mr lin is alive but is going a bit insane but   more importantly his wife is white now and now a  devoted follower of father comstock as opposed to   the original version who was asian and praying to  buddha we learned from his wife that the weapons   he made are in shantytown which is our next stop  shantytown is a pretty good level as we get to   see how the lower class of columbia live there  are signs everywhere asking people for food or   for a doctor and the bar down the street even  has a corpse in it and judging from the knife   and the blood on the table i think we know why as  usual we're going to need to push through lots of   guards to make it to our objective but once we  arrive we hit another roadblock while in this   columbia mr lin is alive the tools are chained  up and extremely heavy however there's another   tear showing that these tools aren't there meaning  they're already back at the shop so we go through   another tear into another columbia but once  again this isn't the only thing that has changed bring us the girl and wipe away the debt as plans  go i'd seen worse except this girl was already   gone monument island's a damn ghost town it seems  like they evacuated her when they heard i was here   an old friend told me comstock spirited her off  to that fortress of his as a one-man job this   just went from betting on the river to drawing  dead so it seems that elizabeth has been taken   from monument island and since booker couldn't  find her it seemed like he joined the vox as a   way to take down comstock however judging from the  posters it seems like he died and has now become a   martyr for the vox i also realized that we're  30 minutes into this video and i haven't even   mentioned the box of phones yet bioshock infinite  like its predecessors has audio logs in the form   of voxophones but unlike the other games i think  infident really lacks in this department as well   some of the audio logs are quite nice as they do  provide a decent amount of story like some of the   ones from booker's past or most of daisy fitzroy's  but many of them just seem to exist without real   substance i think 60% of them is just speeches from  lady comstock and father comstock about some stuff   that really doesn't matter there is a nice set of  logs from a hattie gerst very reminiscent of mark   meltzer that talks about her husband and how he  came down with an illness but since there wasn't   much that could be done he decided to become one  of the handymen in hopes of having a chance at   life but ultimately it would eventually perish  at the hands of the vox when he went to work   for the founders as i said there's some pretty  decent story within these logs i just feel like   the previous games did it a whole lot better  getting back on track we're still in shantytown   in this new columbia but booker starts bleeding  again since the memories of his current self and   his other cell from this universe are blending  together in this columbia the vox not only have   a foothold in shantytown but also in finton as  there are vox forces everywhere but every action   has its consequences in this world while the  weapons and tools were brought to the vox mr   lin and his wife are dead elizabeth is upset at  this revelation as while there probably wasn't   much they could have done to prevent this outcome  it's still something she hadn't considered that   across multiple timelines and universes people can  be dead and alive at any time on a more positive   note though we did get daisy her gun so we can  get the airship back at least that's what booker   believes because that deal was made with the first  columbia's daisy fitzroy there's no way to be sure   that this daisy made the same deal i'm not sure  if this is to showcase how confused booker has   gotten after jumping through two different worlds  or a lack of polish when it comes to this game's   writing after joining the vox and pushing back the  founders daisy calls us and our cover's been blown   daisy believes that we're an imposter of the real  book or dewitt so she has the vox attack us once   we battle through some of the vox we meet daisy in  just at the perfect time to see her kill think and   while cool i gotta ask what was with this blood  wiping thing i'm not even going to talk about   the risk of infection that could happen from this  but what was the point was it to show that she's   somehow crazy or that she's badass that she'll  kill someone and wipe their blood on her face   i don't know it just felt really unnecessary once  again after more fighting we can finally confront   her but she has a child held hostage and the only  way to stop her is to have elizabeth sneak in and   kill her just like the many interactions  we've seen before this makes total sense   anyone would be in a state of disarray after  taking someone's life especially someone like   her who's a very caring person this decision  however changes elizabeth she becomes a woman   now instead of just a girl this is symbolized  in her cutting her hair and also changing her   outfit and demeanor you may be confused as to how  this is supposed to make her a woman but the dlc   will explain this but we have the airship and can  now escape to colombia except nothing's ever easy   this highlights a glaring issue with this game and  that's the constant backtracking and cliffhanging   when it comes to completing objectives the other  two games did this as well but they weren't as   bad as infinite to give you a refresher we got  the objective to reach the first lady's airship   when we landed on the beach but we were then  blocked by the rail system and needed some shock   jockey so we started backtracking after getting  the shock jockey elizabeth knocks us out since   booker was going to take her to new york instead  so now we have to join daisy and get the vox their   guns for their war once again more backtracking  that's also not even getting into the multiple   times we have to go through finkton because mr  lin is dead in one world then alive in another   but the tools aren't here but they're in another  so we go back and forth between the same area at   least three different times and then finally after  all these objectives are completed totaling about   four hours of playtime songbird comes back and  wrecks the airship i can't decide whether or   not i'd actually be more upset if we just simply  lost the airship again and had to find it a third   time rather than seeing four hours of work get  destroyed in a matter of seconds but either option   would definitely not be preferable you literally  spend a third of this game probably more than that   doing this one objective but the game attempts to  disguise it by giving you small tasks along the   way i would argue this is just as bad as rescuing  atlas's family which took just as long all for   that to fail as well but not only was this faked  and shows the depths that fontaine was going to   go to succeed but there was actual emotion behind  this scene it goes from an action-packed race as   we try to save the family before they're killed  by splicers to immediately shifting into a somber   more emotional track of music with this calming  aftermath we were too late and atlas couldn't save   his family and he pours his heart out during this  scene and emotionally resonates with the player   as not only does atlas want to kill ryan we do  as well booker and elizabeth just move right   along completely ignoring the fact that the one  thing they've spent hours trying to find is gone   no emotion no break in the action just another  scene with the luteces it's utterly surreal how i   was the only one who was emotionally torn because  of this yet none of the characters seem to agree   this probably wouldn't be half as bad if this  tragedy wasn't followed up by probably one of   the worst levels in the entire game emporia  is awful and literally because of one enemy   lady comstock admittedly from a story perspective  it's pretty good as we learned that father   comstock was sterile due to the multiple tests he  had done with the tares meaning elizabeth isn't   related to father comstock and then we also  discovered that lady comstock never actually   liked elizabeth and saw her as an illegitimate  child to which she would eventually attempt to   blackmail father comstock by claiming to tell all  of columbia that elizabeth isn't his daughter he   would then take it upon himself to kill her for  saying this but her servant daisy had walked in   during the killing forcing comstock to pin the  blame on her which of course explains how daisy   became the leader of the vox on top of this we  also learned that the lutesis were killed by fink   who was ordered by father comstock to carry out  the hit it is some genuinely incredible backstory   and it's story i've been waiting to hear it's just  a shame it's surrounded by this level i can't be   100 certain on this claim but i do hope that many  can agree that lady comstock's boss fight is just   bad both narratively and mechanically the series  has always struggled with boss fights and this   is no exception the whole reason we even fight her  is because elizabeth and booker are once again hit   with another roadblock which is a door that will  only open for lady comstock and even though she   has been dead for some time she's been locked in  an airtight coffin to preserve her body but when   we open it she becomes a ghost and raises the  dead to fight us this is truly where the game   went off the rails it felt so far-fetched to me  that i was genuinely confused on how this was even   possible the real reason the ghost is even  an entity to begin with is because it's a   combination of both elizabeth's feeling towards  her and lady comstock's body that's why she   acts angrily towards us just as elizabeth felt  angry at lady comstock for not being her mother   the two end up forgiving each other though for  the pain they cause one another which ultimately   allows us to get into comstock's house and  lady comstock herself gets to rest in peace   i understand bioshock is a series where we have  magic and cities that are located in uninhabitable   environments but i don't recall the series ever  going this far with its science fiction elements   the only other time we saw ghosts in this game  was back in rapture but these were cleared up by   the story in a fairly believable way which was  due to adam not only altering people's genetic   code but by also constantly being recycled thanks  to the little sisters it caused certain memories   of other people to be shown in the form of ghostly  apparitions was it a bit much maybe a little but   there was at least a valiant attempt to try to  explain the phenomenon and also ground it into   the world this game's version of ghosts is just  the complete opposite she's also an absolute bullet   sponge and while i didn't mind it the first time  my mood got progressively worse after the second   and third time we fight her the same exact way  after finally being led inside we're stopped   once again by resident roadblock but this time  songbird actually succeeds and manages to take   elizabeth away from us booker manages to just  barely survive but as he attempts to chase her   down he stops momentarily as he notices that  snow is on the ground despite it being july   booker has been pulled into yet another version  of columbia these screams of elizabeth that we   hear in game are not actually happening in the  current columbia as he discovers that they're   from a tear this tear is the previous columbia  we are just in implying he's now somewhere else   this columbia is what would happen  if comstock fulfilled his prophecy   i told you earlier to remember that quote  the drowning flames the mountain of man   this is why this world of columbia is one where  comstock passes away and elizabeth has become his   successor at the end of his prophecy is columbia  fighting against the united states we see a much   older elizabeth as well in this world and it's  discovered that she brought us here into this   world to show us what could happen if comstock  wins she then gives us a note for elizabeth but   doesn't tell us what it means as is for her eyes  only old lady elizabeth then sends us back into   columbia and we're just in time as we can see that  they are in the process of extracting elizabeth's   power knowing what can happen if they succeed we  put a stop to it and rescue elizabeth we're now   just a few steps away from reaching comstock  all we have to do is just get aboard his ship   and if you weren't convinced that infinite was a  playground adventure game with cool explosions and   high octane combat then this surely should have  convinced you booker as a one-man army charges   towards the airship killing dozens of soldiers  along the way he also has to defend the airship   by himself with the occasional help of songbird as  an ending battle it's heroic tough and really cool   as an ending for bioshock it's absurd i've already  explained in detail my issues about this game's   new combat style as it doesn't fit with the themes  of bioshock and this fight was a big reason why   seeing as we finally made it to the ending we can  now understand the story except we aren't there   just yet bioshock infinite really likes to hold  the plot twist until the very last minute in the   airship is the prophet himself comstock doesn't  tell us anything and instead wants dewitt to tell   elizabeth the real truth even though he has no  idea what's going on due to his ignorance he   takes this opportunity to drown comstock and put  an end to his reign honestly i've been waiting for   booker to be completely honest about his feelings  towards elizabeth and i'm so glad he was finally   able to do that it's clear that he cares about her  he may not have been before when he first met her   but over time this became more than just a job  for him further solidifying that the way their   relationship was written over the course of the  game was stellar and by far one of the best parts   of this game fast forwarding a bit we defend the  airship and are able to use songbird to destroy   the tower which houses the siphons that took  elizabeth's powers once those were destroyed she   regains all of them back immediately after this we  take songbird down to rapture which kills him due   to the water pressure we then take a bathysphere  to a weird world with dozens of lighthouses these   doors are like physical doors to other worlds  and with all her powers back she can see into   all of them regardless if that door is in the past  present or future she can not only see the doors   but also what's inside of them she's practically  all-knowing at this point which explains why the   ending of the game happens the way that it  does at the very end booker is taken back to   the baptism he had before the events of the game  but he refuses just like before however booker is   told by elizabeth that he didn't refuse in some  worlds and that altered things in that world it's   also revealed that because of this event booker is  also father comstock after the events of wounded   knee booker was regretful of his actions and saw  clarity through religion but that was in his world   in some worlds he also refused but in others  he agreed to the baptism those who agreed would   become father comstock if booker refused he stays  the depressed and regretful booker dewitt but if   he agreed he's reborn a new man one who is cleared  of all sins and is reborn again in the face of god   this leads him down a new holier path and a new  man needs a new name so he would then change it to   zachary hale comstock that is the true plot twist  of bioshock infinite booker has been fighting   himself the whole game but we're still not done  yet once again this game is about constants and   variables everything in booker's life was a  constant up until the baptism every single   version of booker whether they stayed booker or  became comstock all took a part in wounded knee   that's why slate was mad at comstock for claiming  to be a wounded knee when he knew he wasn't there   he was but not as comstock as this was before  the baptism once booker goes to the baptism the   world splits if booker rejects he then stays the  booker dewitt during this time booker would then   join the pinkerton detective agency where he would  garner a reputation for ending worker strikes with   severe violence it was also here where he would  meet annabelle the woman who would eventually   become his wife they would then end up having a  child anna yes i know how confusing that sounds   but this birth would end up causing more problems  for booker not only did annabelle die during the   pregnancy but due to her death he acquired a  massive gambling and drinking problem leaving   him in massive debt however robert lutes arrived  at his office one day and offered to take anna   from him which would absolve his debt that phrase  bring us the girl and wipe away the debt was not   about rescuing elizabeth it was about selling anna  to Robert so that he could be debt free right after   this happened though booker regretted his actions  and chased robert down an alley where he also   meets comstock and rosalind just as he's about to  pull her through her pinky is caught and taken off   anna is gone and it's due to this decision that  booker decided to get the ad on his hand for his   daughter anna dewitt but while he may know her  as anna we know her by a different name because   we know someone else whose pinky is gone elizabeth  she is booker's daughter let me dial things back a   bit and talk about comstock because then this  will tie things together should booker accept   the baptism he would then become comstock he  would then eventually meet rosalind and create   columbia during this time as leader and as prophet  he gained a very large following of devotees one   of whom was called annabelle the alternate version  of annabelle dewitt but now annabelle comstock or   as we know her lady comstock but we know the pair  couldn't have a kid due to comstock being sterile   thanks to those tear tests so he sought out an  heir and the three of them comstock rosalind and   robert determined that an heir from another  world could work this is what caused robert   to meet with booker take anna then jump back into  their world the only question is what is what the   luteces is trying to help us and encourage booker to  find elizabeth well the pair ended up discovering   what we did that the destruction of new york would  happen if things went to plan so they attempted   to fix their mistake but as we talked about  earlier they were killed before they could try   however for some reason they were able to move  across space and time whenever and wherever   they wanted allowing them both to exist and not  exist remember it's all a matter of perspective   seeing as they were still technically alive they  continued with their plan and found booker they   then took booker from his world into one where  comstock was in hopes of redoing their mistake   but it didn't work if the coin flip is to be taken  literally then this isn't the first time they've   tried to get booker to kill comstock and if i'm  not mistaken then we are the 123rd attempt at   this experiment this would explain why rosalind  in the intro was very annoyed at the experiments   as they keep failing elizabeth had learned all  of this and both booker and her agreed that the   only way to prevent comstock from ever doing all  of this was to smother him in his crib when he   was a baby booker meant this literally elizabeth  meant this metaphorically technically comstock's   first day on earth was after the baptism so by  killing booker before the baptism takes place   she would end up killing comstock before he was  even born the only reason this works is because   the baptism is the constant the outcome is the  variable but by killing him before the baptism   we change the constant and thus change the entire  timeline since booker was never given a choice at   the baptism the variables couldn't exist thus  removing all the comstocks and columbia's from   the timeline it's a bit confusing but i've always  understood this ending as all the bookers that   would accept the baptism meaning they would become  comstock would all die and those who don't accept   the baptism don't die since they never become  comstock you may notice during the scene that   none of them are wearing the necklace we gave  her meaning that our elizabeth is still alive   basically our elizabeth the one we've been with  since the beginning of the game is kind of like   the luteses whereas the letessas received their  trans-dimensional powers after death elizabeth   seems to just have them because she can open and  create tears after this bombshell of information   we get an after credits cutscene that shows  booker waking up to anna crying it's unclear how   to interpret this but some have claimed that this  is simply just another booker before he sold anna   or that because the timelines got reset so  to speak that everything is back to normal   but then there's been even more discussion about  whether or not anna is even truly in the crib   because we never see her personally i think they  just added this because they wanted the game to   have a mysterious cliffhanger as it's really hard  to care about when there isn't any substance to   go off of but it's not a huge problem since the  answer doesn't matter anyway this though is the   full and transparent story of bioshock infinite  what an absolute wild story this has become   so firstly i didn't mind the homage they paid  to rapture although it does feel a bit like   nostalgia bait more than anything to remind us  that we're still playing a bioshock game it was   cool but it felt a little forced however the  ending overall was fantastic admittedly it's   very confusing and definitely something i didn't  understand but as time went on things started to   click more and more there is a growing debate  though amongst the community about this ending   it's probably the only bioshock game that is as  heavily split some saying that this is the best   in the series and claiming that if you don't like  it it's because you don't understand it but some   argue back and say that they do understand it  and still dislike it or that this complexity is   reason enough for them to dislike it as for me  though i think this ending is really good would   have I preferred infinite not go as far as it  did with its sci-fi elements absolutely i think   the introduction of tears multiple universes and  quantum mechanics was a bit unnecessary as this   made the story a bit of a chore to sift through  so i could finally understand the meaning behind   everything but despite that infinite story wraps  up quite nicely and as a whole it's pretty great   once again infinite manages to completely fool  the player despite the expected plot twist and   the relationship between booker and elizabeth was  easily the best part of the game it also seemed to   do exactly what it set out to do provide the fans  a bioshock game that doesn't have many callbacks   to the other games allowing it to live on its  own that's what i would have said if they didn't   release the dlc bioshock infinite would eventually  add a two-part episodic dlc called burial at sea   and when i heard that the dlc was heading back  to our favorite underwater city i was all ears   Burial At Sea starts with elizabeth entering a  detective's office this detective is booker dewitt   it's a different booker but the same elizabeth we  can piece this together for multiple conversations   between the two the reason elizabeth shows up  here is because she's hiring this booker to find   a missing girl named sally considering how strong  elizabeth is thanks to her powers and how much   knowledge she has from those powers we can assume  that there's an underlying meaning to all of this   after accepting the job booker leaves the office  and we're finally able to see rapture in its   prime and it's magnificent i spent a good  hour in this area just taking everything in   even if it was something that was pretty much  insignificant it was still great to explore   we also get to see the little sisters up close  and this brings up something we should mention   the time and date for this dlc is december 31 1958  the same day that rapture would be under siege   by fontaine and his splicer army this obviously  caused a lot of tension within me while playing as   i knew at some point things were about to go off  furthermore that means that the little sisters at   this point were only bonded with one big daddy  because this is the same date that delta and   eleanor were patrolling the hallways of rapture so  elizabeth takes us to sander cohen as she believes   that cohen knows where sally went once again  i really like seeing sander cohen again and it   also further confirms that he was always a crazed  lunatic even before the riots on new year's eve   to get any information out of him we need to  dance for him just like his previous subjects   however just like that previous couple we upset  him and fitzpatrick shocks us by the way if that   name rings a bell here's a quick refresher  oh god you sick [ __ ] let me out of there afterwards booker and elizabeth wake up in a  bathysphere that is headed towards the fontaine   department store however we only get to explore  the warehouse section of it this department store   was sunk by andrew ryan during his feud with  fontaine he would eventually lock up any other   insane splicers down here so that rapture could  run smoothly this seems to operate like persephone   which was also a prison in rapture so i guess  this means persephone was for regular inmates and   people ryan believed were going to ruin his  city while the department stores seem to only   be related to fontaine and his army it's a little  weird but i'll go with it after tons of combat and   exploration we get some backstory on sally and  discover that after fontaine and the orphanage   went down lots of the little girls were roaming  the city sally came by and booker being nice opted   to give her a place to settle down but he assumed  it would only be temporary she enjoyed being   around booker quite a lot and ended up staying  permanently however this booker like the others   was also a gambler and an alcoholic one day he  was gambling and without noticing sally was taken   booker was then told shortly after that she was  confirmed dead but as we'll discover soon that   was a lie booker and elizabeth come across  sally meaning she's still in fact alive but   she's also inside of one of the little sister  vents and won't come out elizabeth has the   insane idea to heat up the vents and lock all the  entrances so that she only has one way to come out   after doing this booker runs to the event to  discover that she has become a little sister   clearly she is scared and agitated so that alerts  her big daddy and were forced to fight it also i   think this is a plot hole this should be an alpha  series big daddy not the bouncer type we see here   the bouncer and rosie big daddies of bioshock 1  existed at this point in time but were only used   for maintenance and underwater excavations the  alpha series were the only ones with a bond and   that bond was with one little sister after killing  the big daddy though we uncover the full truth of   episode 1, this booker is actually a comstock this  comstock however is unique to all the others as   instead of successfully taking anna from booker  he failed not only did booker have more control   of anna but their struggle left anna's head on  comstock's side decapitating her overcome with   guilt comstock asked the luteces to send him to  a place so that he may forget all he has done   this is what caused him to go to rapture and  re-adopt his booker name comstock is rightfully   shocked by this discovery and tries to apologize  but elizabeth isn't here for apologies and has him   killed by a big daddy, episode 1 minus the slight  mix-up with the big daddies was great and once   again makes sense elizabeth at the end of the game  wanted revenge for what comstock did to her we can   see that when booker attempts to stop her booker  of course clarifies that he wants to kill him for   her but this leaves a hole within her she won't be  allowed to take her anger out on the man who not   only imprisoned her but all the other elizabeths  that are connected to her she feels all their pain   which makes her want for revenge even greater  plus she also had to drown her own father so   not only could she not enact a revenge she had to  lose booker despite getting what she wanted which   was to eliminate comstock nothing felt complete so  when she discovered this comstock she decided to   torture him until she was satisfied obviously this  sort of ruins the ending of the main game since   this was supposed to eliminate all the comstocks  but i think the reason this occurred was because   since comstock left the columbia reality and  entered the rapture reality he was out of   bounds of the purge as i said though really great  episode but now things are going to start to dip   episode 2 starts with elizabeth in paris or at  least her version of paris we can tell because of   how dramatic everything is all the residents greet  her and treat her like royalty at times everyone's   also singing along together and there's even  a bird that sings as well when it lands on her   finger everything is absolutely exaggerated but  it's all taken away when sally arrives elizabeth   wakes up and not only is there a ghost version of  booker here but atlas shows up atlas decides to   shoot elizabeth but is stopped once she tells him  that she can get him back to rapture with the help   of dr su chong atlas is also now using sally as a  bargaining chip to get elizabeth to do his bidding   i'm starting to get flashbacks one thing i sort  of glossed over was booker as a ghost what seems   to be a figment of her imagination something she  made up she clearly cares about booker that is   her father after all so she's probably still  trying to deal with the guilt of killing him   back in the main game but we aren't done with the  bizarre twists as we find elizabeth's dead body   furthermore due to this she isn't able to see the  different realities and the tears in the doors   like she used to she's just a normal human girl  without any way to leave rapture when she's done   the luteces has warned that if she went to  rapture to enact revenge on this comstock   she would collapse so to speak i think collapse  in this context is the other elizabeth's merging   with her removing her powers and becoming a normal  human again i don't think it's explained why she   loses her powers but it's possible that entering  the different reality changed her powers a bit   but that's just speculation more importantly  though i have to ask how did she die this is   confirmed to be the same elizabeth from the main  game the same one who trapped songbird and rapture   immediately after getting her powers back but she  was somehow stopped by a big daddy it's possible   that she isn't on the same power level anymore due  to her being in a different reality as we can see   her struggling to open a very tiny tear early  in the episode so maybe what i say is true or   maybe i'm just making creative excuses for the  devs to get away with this either way elizabeth's   new objective is to rescue sally she feels guilt  over using her as bait and hurting her to torture   comstock she realizes that just as comstock used  her to get what he wants she used sally to get   what she wanted making her know better than the  man she despised she wants to make things right   and make sure sally has a future and to do this  she needs to work with atlas and this is where   i started to lose interest infinite tried  so hard to separate itself from the other   game and it succeeded whether or not you agree  with this decision is up to you but you can't   deny that it's its own experience so why are we  going back and using story from the first game   it seems like the studio just couldn't get away  from their pride and joy that is bioshock 1   and needed to come up with a story to sell the  dlc firstly elizabeth needs to find suchong   and while she doesn't find him she does find his  temporary lab in here is photos of columbia as   well as a terror it's explained that the terror  elizabeth used to get to rapture took her here so   suchong with the assistance of andrew ryan moved  his equipment here to study the terror eventually   he would come in contact with jeremiah fink and  the two would collaborate and steal each other's   ideas this led to the creation of the vigors  and songbird it also led to the creation of the   big daddies but only partially as suchong was  still trying to figure out how a songbird bonded   with elizabeth as this was the critical piece he  was missing when it came to the big daddies with   this discovery elizabeth realizes that she can use  the tear to get into colombia and grab the lutest   particle so that she can make the department store  flow just like colombia floats sadly though the   device was destroyed so she needs to repair it  once it's fixed we can take the tear to colombia   you may be confused as to how a columbia like this  exists and honestly so am i it seems like the main   game really tied things up so by adding a new  colombia it sort of invalidates all that progress   even if this is just a terror to the past it's  still a columbia this shouldn't really be here   furthermore we also see a behind-the-scenes  conversation between the luteces and daisy   we learned that the luteces were behind the  actions of daisy back in finkton explaining   that daisy will die and that she needs to play her  part in order for elizabeth to become a woman and   once again i'm left confused daisy has spent years  under the oppression of columbia and its residents   she's also been a leader of the vox for presumably  a few years as well and she's willing to throw all   this away because the luteces tell her what to  do but i remind you that the lutes has worked   for father comstock the person she's trying to  kill so how can she even trust them furthermore   if the lutes has even managed to convince her by  showing her other realities or by predicting the   future then this ruins part of the main game's  story as booker could have easily just told her   that he was from a different timeline and not an  imposter which could have stopped all the people   we killed that were a part of the box it's never  explained what ultimately convinced her so the   team is once again able to get away with this  vague scene changing the story by giving away   very little information that a was never hinted at  and b should have never even happened is not good   storytelling and also in an effort to clown  this scene again because i think it's funny   all they said was to take the boy hostage nothing  about the blood wiping so once again i have to ask   what the point was eventually elizabeth will grab  the blue test particle but suchong won't let her   leave until she gets him hair of the test subject  that was bonded to songbird which is quite funny   as he is literally talking to that test subject  the hair sample is located in fink's office and   is a really nice location as we get to see all  the tests that he ran trying to get songbird to   connect with elizabeth it's also pretty horrifying  the depths he was willing to go to to do something   like this like hooking up an animal to a mask that  would constantly pump oxytocin into their lungs   as well as the other failed test subjects still  in the laboratory elizabeth then grabs the hair   sample and delivers it to suchong via pneumo tube  and i don't think it's ever explained in this   game but shouldn't the numo tubes be connected i  can't imagine that the two packages the item and   floats it across the water so how does this get  from point a to point b when fontaine died ryan   forced suchong to work for him and that's why his  new lab was at the artemis suites far away from   this department store plus the store is thousands  of meters below rapture since ryan sunken   so is the pneumo tube still connected to the other  tube or was there never a tube in the first place   it's not a huge concern just something i noticed  after delivering the hair ryan appears on the   intercom and attempts to kill us we escape his  thugs make it to the desired location use the lutece   test particle to float the department store back  up to rapture and then get knocked out by atlas's   men after this the story goes back to the roots of  bioshock 1 as atlas wants us to look for the ace   in the hole who of course is jack and while i was  very excited to see jack in some fashion i don't   even really think this was necessary in the over  10 years since i played the first bioshock game   not once did i wonder how atlas got jack i think  it's more important that he got jacket all more   than how he got him there's also a myriad of  ways you could have explained that he got him   to rapture this is going to be a bit bold of me  but i'd like to rewrite this episode in a way   that would make more sense at least to me firstly  remove any mention of atlas up until this point   allow elizabeth to get up and question how she is  alive along with booker it'll draw more attention   to how elizabeth ended episode 1 standing and is  now starting this episode on the ground maybe even   add some blood as well to show that she didn't  pass out but was actually injured with atlas   in the picture all i could care about was him i  didn't even bother questioning how booker even got   here the way booker's written into this episode  is totally fine i'm actually okay with him just   being a figment of her imagination the rest of the  episode should be spent trying to find sally and   then this would be a good time to have sally also  be held by suchong since it'll force elizabeth   to go to colombia and get her hair in exchange  for sally this however though does involve the   lutece particle and columbia something i'd prefer  to avoid in this episode so maybe we can have some   joke scene where elizabeth reveals to suchong  that she is in fact the test subject and then   maybe have suchong freak out and get a little  angry at the fact the solution to his issue was   literally right in front of him and seeing as he's  in rapture and not the department store this could   make suchong be the sole reason the sword was  lifted as he needs her hair this not only connects   the following scene with andrew ryan where he says  that the deal between suchong and elizabeth was   not one he was authorized to make but this also  fits narratively with suchong as a character who   not only worked with fontaine before he died and  could maybe discover the real identity of atlas   but also show that he is still a person willing  to do anything to get what he wants once elizabeth   makes it to suchong she can then drop off her  hair and then right when she meets sally she gets   knocked out by some thugs which leads to the scene  right here once this starts have the bag stay on   elizabeth's head but have atlas talk to his crew  while we're here it sets up atlas but also lets   the veteran players get excited as his accent  is very recognizable they could even change the   name to man instead of atlas in the subtitles  momentarily so that the reveal isn't spoiled   then when the hype of his appearance is still  high rip the bag off and show him even keeping   this part where the light blocks his face but then  reveals him as he steps closer would have also   worked as well personally i would have preferred  this dlc just continue its own story and have   atlas be revealed in the last few moments since  atlas is now a main character in this episode   from the start it takes all focus off everyone  else as he's easily the most important character   in this episode doing this would also remove  the questionable decisions that elizabeth makes   throughout this dlc as from the moment she meets  with him she knows that she'll betray him and it   ruins all the build up when it's not only hammered  in multiple times that atlas will likely betray   her but also the fact that elizabeth keeps helping  him despite knowing she won't get the upper hand   on him as we discover at the end the reason she's  doing this is because within all the doors there   was a timeline that shows sally having a future  thanks to jack rescuing her but to do this she   needs to go along with the events of the story  in order to make this all happen which not only   undermines all the power and skill atlas has as a  leader but also makes the reveal of how atlas got   his hands on jack just really awkward furthermore  the only reason she was able to do any of this was   because of booker who reminds her that she used to  see all the doors meaning she has all the memories   of all the doors regardless of whether it was  the past present or future so booker tries to   get her to remember where the location of the  ace and the hole is this confirmed a suspicion   i had and that was that booker was placed in this  episode strictly to explain plots and discoveries   the writers couldn't explain on their own and this  makes everything feel so forced just have booker's   stay a memory her memory of booker the booker  who she grew to love and appreciate and have him   be the shoulder she can cry on they are father  and daughter after all don't add this current   booker that is helping discover the next step in  the story because elizabeth can't remember or is   incapable of making a decision it just feels like  such a waste to have the story the way it is now   and it goes back to what i said earlier as it  answers a question we didn't even really need   answered the best thing to come from this part  though was the interrogation scene which makes   me extremely uncomfortable where's me ace in the  hole i don't know what else rests in the lobe   creativity individuality personality in  short what makes you you, continuing with   the story though elizabeth needs to get to suchong's clinic in order to find info on jack   she then finds the paper that has the would you  kindly passphrase and then gives it to atlas   during this level we do get to see how suchong  died rather than hearing it and while cool the   story is doing that thing again where it's  trying to fit elizabeth into the plot by   having her be the sole reason behind all these  events she was the reason that the big daddies   could bond to any little sister she was then  responsible for suchong's death and is of course   responsible for the events of the whole series  since she gave atlas the passphrase for jack   it's completely unnecessary to do all of this  and i have no idea why they thought this was a   good idea also unless i'm mistaken i'm pretty sure  the bonding process was created using pheromones   of the big daddies combined with the mental  conditioning that the little sisters underwent   we use the pheromones ourselves in bioshock 1  and we get to see the little sisters minds in   bioshock too so this whole scene is confusing  as it implies that just a little bit of atom   was all that was needed even though it's known  that the big daddies were spliced beyond belief   to even get them to function in the suit so  they already have adam in them plus the adam  the little sisters have is probably recycled  you could claim that the little sisters have   unique atoms since their bodies do contain the sea  slug that produces it but we can see them drinking   adam on occasion in game thus it's recycled  anyway so this is just confusing for no reason   elizabeth has such a vital role in her own reality  but they needed to make her have the same role in   the rapture reality but it was just unnecessary  now instead of saying that the addiction of   adam the feud between fontaine and ryan and  the values of rapture were all contributing   factors to not only the downfall of rapture but  the events of the game it can now just be boiled   down to elizabeth did it to help sally it ruins  years of work and that is extremely upsetting   after elizabeth gets the passphrase she gives it  to atlas as she has to sensibly to sally being   rescued to which she receives a wrench to the  head for her assistance we then get a slideshow   of the events that took place in bioshock 1  and see that her vision became a reality as   sally is rescued by jack and given a future as she  comes back to reality we can see her holding sally   while elizabeth eventually succumbs to her wounds  and dies thus ending the dlc burial at sea wasn't   terrible but it definitely wasn't great either  it's a dlc that probably didn't need to exist but   i would have accepted its existence if it didn't  fumble so hard in the second episode the dlc not   only has a few retcons and plot holes but also  undermines all the story and world building the   original game set out to create by pinning all the  events on one character a character that shouldn't   have even had this vital of a role in the first  place and arguably shouldn't have even been here   anyway infinite was made to be different and a  separation from the series and while i didn't   appreciate it that much as i've said before i  will at least commend them for sticking to their   original vision and trying to create something  new despite that they still couldn't get away from   rapture and thus needed to go back was it great to  see rapture in its prime as well as the original   cast of characters absolutely but the rest of  the dlc soured any enjoyment that i had from it   bioshock infinite as a whole is a surreal  experience it's got a compelling story with   a wonderful twist and a great dynamic between  the two main characters and even a decent setup   to a dlc in episode 1 culminating in a good game  but it also has a lack of interesting audio logs   bland gameplay repetitive locations and an abysmal  second episode that ruins the great parts infinite   established tearing it down in the process head  infinite just ended at the main game i would have   called it great or even fantastic but burial at  sea went too far it said that the series had ended   on such a conflicting note like this where people  are more than likely to argue whether or not the   game was even good to begin with rather than just  appreciating how far the series has come infinite   leaves a permanent stain on this series fantastic  legacy and that's truly what upsets me the most   despite bioshock infinite being the final game  in the series we still have more bioshock to talk   about as throughout the game's lifecycle two books  were written bioshock rapture and bioshock mind   in revolt now both of these books are not comics  so this won't be the most visually entertaining   section but i will try to provide footage of the  characters and locations mentioned so if a book   happens to mention finkton for example then i'll  put some finkton gameplay on screen as well as   any characters that are mentioned as well also  because of some possible copyright concerns i   won't be talking about every detail and thus  will only be summarizing the important parts   hopefully though it will be enough to get you  a general understanding of the material so that   you can come to a decision on whether or not you  should read it yourself so firstly let's get the   easy one out of the way bioshock mind in revolt  is a 30 page ebook written by joe fielder mind   in revolt was actually written in house as joel  fielder was one of the writers for the game so   this story is separated into different parts as  the different chapters are various interviews   with daisy fitzroy which are being conducted by dr  francis pinchot these chapters aren't published in   a professional manner as they're just notes and  transcripts and we can see from the forward and   afterward of the book that the person putting all  these together is a doctor pettifog the reason he   has decided to publish these interviews is that  he believes this will lead to a better columbia   however dr pettifog is rightfully worried about  the outcome of this publication as dr francis was   meeting with the city's most notorious criminal  and from what we'll see in the notes he is   indifferent about her as he cares more about her  mind rather than her actions so some people may   see him as a traitor and refuse to see the results  of his work all of these interviews occurred over   six days as our first transcript is may 7 1909 and  our last is may 13 1909. that means the events of   bioshock infinite have yet to occur as that was  in 1912. the first question though is how did dr   francis meet with daisy well according to the  first transcript daisy fitzroy was captured by   some authorities down in finton after hearing this  news he immediately gathered all the paperwork   necessary that would allow him to interview  her dr francis believes that while the people   of colombia are objectively better than the people  down below referring to those in the united states   he thinks much can be learned from these lesser  people he wants to see what makes these people   tick and hopes that discovering this information  could lead to treatment his logic is definitely   there but it's a bit flawed as it seems like  he wants to see why people who don't conform   to columbia's ideals are the way that they are  in hopes of treating them to see the beauty that   columbia provides it's not perfect but in terms of  therapy he's kind of on the right track before the   interview begins dr francis reads off a list of  her crimes which were included but not limited to   murder transportation of firearms manufacturing  of explosive devices and the printing of material   that promoted unionization public assembly and the  general undermining of the columbian government   that last crime refers to her manifesto called  the people's voice which is a book we can find   in game although we aren't actually allowed to  read it even though we already know this mind in   revolt does confirm that all of this started after  the death of lady comstock as we know that father   comstock killed her and then blamed it on daisy as  you would expect she is very uncooperative in this   interview so dr francis takes the opportunity  to read some of the quotes in the manifesto   eventually daisy will speak out and the two will  get into an argument as daisy sees dr francis like   everyone else in columbia as she says when it  comes down to it one snake is the same as any   other dr francis attempts to reassure her that  he merely just wants to understand her and not   harm her so the following day he lets daisy ask  the first question the two would then discuss how   each arrived in colombia and we learned that daisy  along with many other black mexican irish chinese   and jewish people were just brought in during the  dead of night many were either convinced to come   aboard due to columbia waving their past crimes  some needed money to feed their families and   others were just taken from their homes dr francis  is quite shocked at the revelation to hear that   fink would knowingly employ criminals and finds  it absurd this interview would be the first of   many times dr francis would hear about the truth  of colombia and will eventually get to see how   this affects him later on after days of interviews  dr france's supervisor is becoming quite unhappy   regarding his results and suggests that a change  in strategy be implemented he suggests that they   conduct a phranology test which was ultimately  discredited years later and has been the cause   of many racist and sexist claims such as certain  races being inferior to others due to the shape of   their brain and that women's brains have larger  sections for child care and religion while they   had smaller sections for arts and sciences his  supervisor also recommends a new study that   they're conducting which would eventually be  called lobotomy neither of these are something   dr francis wants as he claims that his style is  vital to colombia's growth more interviews will   continue and we can see dr francis getting more  and more annoyed at her calling her responses   blasphemous eventually daisy will make a remark  towards the doctor which causes him to slap her   she laughs a bit after this encounter as she's  finally able to see the real doctor as she claims   wednesday may 12th a few days before daisy will be  put under the supervisor's orders and forced to be   lobotomized was where the shortest interview took  place as dr francis is reading back the results   of her iq test and discovered that daisy scored a  149 which not only according to the scoring means   she is a genius in the eyes of columbia but is  also higher than dr francis himself who scored a   146 after seeing these results though he will end  the interview to think about how to proceed next   clearly he is running out of time and his  supervisor is getting very annoyed at his   lack of progress in his private journal we can  read a transcript between the two of them that   occurred once he shut the voxaphone off overall  i don't mind how this was handled but it did seem   a bit fast as one day there is no progress  then the next day she spills her entire plan   this is also the reason why writing in this format  can be very restrictive as it's meant to mimic a   compilation of journal and recording entries so  we obviously won't hear any of this since this was   discussed after the recording was turned off it  makes sense in regards to the format of the story   it just feels a bit out of nowhere and caused a  bit of whiplash while reading as for her plans   though she spoke about a plot to break her out  of jail and that if dr francis is involved in her   escape it will end in little to no bloodshed this  actually changes dr francis's thoughts regarding   his work as while he is an upstanding citizen of  colombia doubts have started to creep into his   mind this made him realize that sin exists in all  men regardless of their place in life as while he   thinks very highly of himself and is void of  such rebellious ideas to discover that these   thoughts were in his mind was a bit shattering to  him he attempted to quell these thoughts within   him but realized intense transformation would be  required to do so such as changing the current   comstock center from a research facility to a  re-education center but the thought of torturing   these patients with auditory and visual stimuli  that would ultimately force them to conform to   the proper ideals of columbia is terrifying  and something he once again wants to avoid   the final day approaches and during their final  interview we can see that daisy has the upper hand   she's the one controlling the interview while dr  francis is still consumed by the thoughts of what   he believes is right for colombia but also what is  right for himself eventually a break-in occurs and   dr francis decides that he will end up helping  daisy and gives her a set of keys that will not   only unlock some of the facilities doors but  also her cell she meets up with some of her men   and thanks the doctor for helping her escape but  before leaving gives him a pardon gift which is   a bullet through his head her final line before  killing dr francis is it ain't a matter of have   to it's a matter of want it seems that despite  how honest dr francis was with his intentions   regarding their interview daisy refused to  believe him and only saw him as a pawn in her game   honestly this was quite a sad story as dr francis  albeit still stuck in his ways was at least   willing to learn from daisy which is something  not many people in colombia would even try to do   to end the publication we have an afterword from  dr pettifog who explains that despite dr francis's   interest in daisy the blame is not entirely his  own as the betrayal of the mind can happen to   anyone even the great citizens of columbia and it  was thanks to his bravery and research that they   were able to come up with an array of treatment  methods which will be hosted at the all-new   comstock re-education center dr francis's worst  thoughts had come to life the facility turned   towards more forceful methods of change and we  can see this in game as the comstock house level   is the re-education center we could see the  numerous slideshows of phrenology and lobotomy as   well as the results they had on the patients it's  a truly horrific site mind revolt was a short but   sweet story it's not a necessary read as it only  discussed one instance than the colombian timeline   that ultimately wasn't too important but for  three dollars on amazon it was definitely worth   the price so if you're interested in a bit of the  thoughts on daisy fitzroy then i recommend you   pick this up our final book is bioshock rapture  an over 400 page novel that details some of the   events prior to the first bioshock game as opposed  to the previous book that was written in-house   this was written by a third-party author named  john shirley however the project was overseen   by game director ken levine and according to some  tweets and interviews regarding the book he also   got to write the epilogue and prologue while jon  surely handled the rest to some of you that name   may sound familiar as while he does produce some  books of his own he was also contracted to write   many books for other games such as halo watchdogs  and borderlands so before things begin we can read   a prologue that takes place before raptor's  creation and it gives us a look into why it   was created the two characters in the prologue are  andrew ryan and sullivan, sullivan was a security   officer for ryan which is how the two met he came  into ryan's office to give him the reports he   asked for and was displeased with both of them one  was about the ongoing union strikes and how many   companies workers were fighting for better rights  ryan believes these workers to be soviet agents   as russia was going under similar strikes at the  same time he finds it absurd that they want better   wages in working conditions as he claims that  this is the basis of socialism something ryan is   definitely not fond of the final report was the  nail in the coffin for ryan he received reports   of what occurred in japan during world war ii the  report not only had pictures of the bombings with   the effects they had on some of the citizens that  survived he realized that the world was spiraling   into chaos and with nuclear weapons being created  an all-out atomic war would be inevitable so ryan   set his plans in motion he plans to make a place  untouched by the government where people live away   from rules and regulations we of course know this  to be rapture before the prologue ends we get a   backstory of ryan's escape from russia we also get  to learn his full name which i don't recall ever   being stated in the games before but it is Andrei  Rianofski his backstory goes into grave detail   about the world that andrew ryan saw with his  eyes saying things like the dawn sky the colors   of a deep bruise and the cutting winds serrated  by sleet the problem with books is the lack of   a visual which is why they tend to go into detail  about the surroundings to give the reader an idea   of what to imagine and i'm glad this style wasn't  lost when making this book however there is a   minor inconsistency as the book states he fled  russia in 1918 when in fact in game it was 1919   not a huge deal but something i just wanted to  mention part one of the book covers chapters   one through five and it's all about the building  of rapture we also get to meet our protagonist   bill mcdonough bill was contracted to help fix  something at the building that ryan owned which   is how the two met we also learned that the  reason andrew ryan is so rich is that he owns   a significant amount of oil and coal on top of  owning the second biggest railroad in the country   details like this occur throughout the whole book  and it's definitely something i took a liking to   at the end of the day it's not important how ryan  got his money just that he had the money to build   rapture but the book wanted to add these details  to piece together the small holes left by the game   it's the details that'll make you say oh so that's  how that happened or that's why this occurred and   the book manages to excel at this something  else i noticed was the use of audio logs from   the games as on page 30 bill is currently fixing  ryan's toilet and when ryan sees his work he asks   about the type of fitting claiming that the other  guys are using tin while bill is using brass this   is taken directly from an audio log in game wait  says it what's with all the brass fittings general   contractor had me down for the tin well i says i  suppose it's the contractor then he'll be bailing   out your loo once a fortnight is it if it's price  you're worried about i'll be picking up the brass   so not to worry this small inclusion made me feel  a lot more comfortable when reading as the story   and its additional material were taken into  consideration it sounds like the bare minimum   when it comes to writing a book for a game but  i appreciated it nonetheless the rest of the   part switches between bill mcdonagh and a frank  gorlund frank gorland is a simple bartender that   likes to fudge games of boxing to make a quick  buck and also likes to use the bar as a way to   gain information some of this information he  received was on the project that andrew ryan   was working on and he figured that if he could  get involved in this project he could take it   from under his nose if that sounds like someone  specific then you would be right as by the end   of the part we discover that frank gorland  is actually frank fontaine his chapters were   excellent as they showed the lengths he's willing  to go to get what he wants and also displayed his   skill at creating different identities and  personalities as he switches quite a lot   throughout the park by the end of part one  he is close to finding out ryan's plan but   he hasn't found out where the project is as for  bill mcdonagh he's made quite the impression   on injurine and has been promoted to the lead  contractor for the building of rapture ryan took   bill on a trip to visit some of his friends these  friends of course being jasmine jolene and sander   cohen, sander cohen was used in this part as a way  for ryan to show bill how some of these people are   constrained by the world and hopes to create a  society that doesn't need to worry about these   constraints eventually ryan and bill will leave  and take a trip to iceland to which a boat will   be waiting to take them to the building site of  rapture ryan also shows bill a small model of   the city and what he plans to have it look like he  also explains how arcadia works which is something   i did not expect to read as according to ryan  arcadia has a system that brings in reflected   sunlight as well as electrical light then this  will be used by the trees which will eventually   lead to them producing oxygen once again a detail  that ties in some of the questions left untouched   by the game the final pages of the part are bill  ryan and many of the other contractors staring   at awe at the foundation of rapture knowing that  in time a new wonder of the world will be created   part 2 is chapters 6 through 15 and this chapter  tends to skip around a bit as we get to see many   different characters take center stage for a bit  all while jumping around in the timeline as we go   from 1949 to 1953 within just a couple dozen pages  these chapters are here to add more substance to   the story by giving context to future events  providing more backstory on the game via audio   logs or just small conversations that flesh out  the world for example there's a more detailed look   at julie langford's audio log where she's upset  that ryan's turning her arcadia guarded into a   paid attraction but then a few pages later there's  a quick scene between sofia lamb and a patient   furs that gets interrupted momentarily when  eleanor comes into the room since this part   spans many years in the rapture timeline lots  of progress has been made and many people are   flocking to the underwater city in hopes of  striking it big we also get to see lots of the   games cast in this part as many of the main and  side characters from both games are given center   stage think of it as an anthology of sorts as every  few pages the story pivots to another scene and   since they're so far apart from one another  most of the short stories don't contradict   or overlap i really liked being able to see all  the characters in these new situations as they   all have these unique reactions to everything  going on not just in rapture but in the moment   like this one part where tenenbaum and suchong  are trying to perform a pregnancy examination   and it's hilarious hearing them talk about this  child like it's a test subject and conversating   about their experiences in examinating children  a while completely ignoring the fact that this   woman they're testing on is crying out in  extreme pain but while most of this part   is broken up into small stories there is some  important developments happening within them as   we start to see the beginning of sofia lamb and  her family via the free therapy sessions as well   as the discovery and creation of adam we also get  to read about some of the more depressing events   that transpire in rapture like all the people who  feel trapped and alone as they can't leave rapture   due to ryan's orders or how someone screwed over  another man's business which eventually led to a   dispute and a shootout i like that this book was  able to convey to the reader that rapture wasn't   a complete utopia we already knew this from the  games but we only understood that things became   problematic after rapture was up and running  but things are going wrong and it's not even   finished yet towards the end of the part is where  we get to the real meat of the story as splicers   are introduced fontaine and ryan are attempting  to take each other down and people are irritated   about the living conditions things haven't fully  gone to [ __ ] yet as the bombing in 1958 is still   a couple years away but it's very clear that  rapture is starting to crack the book is slowly   but truly giving us all the different events of  rapture that would eventually lead to its downfall   part 2 is by far the longest part taking up around  half the book and is by far my favorite part as   there is tons of references to past locations and  characters that allow us to take what we already   know about them and apply to these pages i found  myself remembering all their backstories when all   the characters appeared and tried to take that  into consideration when they were relevant to   the scene while this part was initially all over  the place and sometimes a bit hard to organize   when taking into account the full timeline it  ultimately doesn't matter as once again most   of these stories aren't relevant to one another  and are spread far apart enough that they won't   contradict or overlap but as the part reached  the end it started injecting familiar material   that fans of the games would remember along with  a cohesive story that would set up the final part   part 3 is chapters 15-20 and is very similar to  the end of part 2 in the sense that there are   sporadic stories that may jump ahead a few months  or a year but they all connect on this very thin   timeline that make up the actual story this part  not only has a few pages dedicated to providing   background on events we already know of but also  allow us to see many events that were briefly   talked about in the games for example the raid  on fontaine futuristics that would eventually   lead to the fake death of fontaine and the  creation of atlas as well as the bombing on   new year's eve were all mentioned and we're not  only able to see the events happen but also the   aftermath of said events we were also able to  get an in-depth look on the conversation between   fontaine suchong and tenenbaum regarding the  mental conditioning of jack and how they were   going to steal ryan's child and even the doubts  that tenenbaum would have throughout the story   that would eventually lead to how we see her in  game as she has a change of heart about the little   sisters these were fantastic to read about and i  was so excited to see how all of this fit into the   story however not all of these events had the same  feeling there's a few inconsistencies in this part   as well we talked about one before regarding the  year ryan left russia but there's also a few more   in these later chapters the book never mentions  any discoveries of tares within rapture which we   know did exist at some point thanks to burial  at sea however this book was written in 2011 a   few years before burial at sea was even released  so i'm willing to overlook this simply because   the game was still in development however one i  won't forgive is jasmine's death as we know in   fort frolic sander cohen wants us to kill some of  his associates so we can display their picture on   his art project to kill one of them we need to go  into the room where jasmine was killed so that we   can get him to spawn in the bar behind us in this  room is jasmine's body along with a bloody weapon   implying she was beat to death we also hear some  of the conversation thanks to some of the ghostly   apparitions that occurred throughout the game  so it's clear that she was killed with a weapon   but according to the book ryan strangled her to  death now you could make the argument that he   strangled her then hit her with a blunt object  but the book never mentions anything about a   weapon so it leads me to believe that they had  incorrectly added this what bothers me the most   is that this is a required and integral part of  the story and was somehow missed despite this   being overlooked by game director ken levine as  well as all the other writers and designers that   shirley was in contact with i can see some small  detail being left out that was maybe mentioned   once in a random audio log but for something  such as this that is not only one of the most   important parts of bioshock's story but is also  required to watch if you want to complete the game   is baffling how this was incorrect as we go  through the final pages everything is turning   into the rapture we know from the games raids for  food are happening all the time ryan is losing   influence and the little sisters are patrolling  the hallways for adam at the end diane mcclintlock   who you'll remember from bioshock 1 as ryan's love  interest for a time and also the one who recorded   that bombing during new year's eve ends up joining  atlas and betraying ryan until she accidentally   discovers that atlas is fontaine and even though  she would have definitely kept his secret atlas   couldn't take the chance and stabs her letting  her bleed out on the floor this is just like the   other events we talked about before as this was  literally from an audio log in game but now we   get to see the full story behind it as for our  protagonist if we remember from an audio log in   the game we know that he was going to kill ryan  if he had to and when bill his wife eileen and   his daughter sophie attempt to escape rapture he  realizes what needs to be done he points his gun   at ryan but he couldn't do it ryan gave him this  job and allowed him to create his city and it's   because of his generosity that he couldn't pull  the trigger ryan takes the opportunity to fight   back smacking bill in the head with his cane and  while bill maintains the upper hand by bashing   him with his gun he once again couldn't finish the  job he wishes andrew ryan good luck and leaves his   office the family along with bill's friend roland  wallace make it to the bathyspheres and take it   all the way back up to the lighthouse but they're  caught by ryan's guards these guards are karlowski   redgrave and candavish names you won't be familiar  with but were quite frequent throughout the book   and are friends of bill everyone is arguing over  what to do as bill and his family want to leave   but the guards won't let him everyone is also  split in regards to bill's family as while the   order was just for roland and bill there was  nothing about his wife and child eventually   an argument would break out between the three  guards that left one dead redgrave and karlovsky   take bill and wallace back to rapture but allow  his wife and child to leave as for their fates   roland wallace became a test subject for sue  chong and was subjected to the enraged plasmid   which we can hear the results of from an audio log  in bioshock 1 and bill is executed for his crimes   we could see bill's body in game and it shows  that he was crucified but according to the book   since redgrave and karlovsky liked bill they opted  to kill him first as to not let him suffer even   though bill's capture was ryan's order andrew  ryan didn't come to the execution showing that   even though he was a traitor he was ultimately  losing a dear friend and couldn't see him die   i loved the relationship these two had throughout  the book as through bill's eyes were able to see   this different andrew ryan one that had a bit  more compassion and more drive the final pages are   about bill's family who are now on the surface his  daughter was diagnosed with agoraphobia thanks to   rapture and while a bit better off Eliane is still  suffering from everything that occurred the last   line is the two talking about how bill would have  loved to see the surface again bioshock rapture   was fantastic i've always been a visual learner  which is why i prefer manga over books like this   but i can't deny that for only ten dollars this  was a genuinely great read and that goes for mind   and revolt as well i highly recommend both books  if you have the time and money for them if you're   interested in a bit of the backstory regarding  daisy fitzroy then mind and revolt will be a   short but sweet read as for bioshock rapture i  think if you enjoy rapture even just a little bit   you will love this book the constant callbacks to  past events and characters as well as its ability   to fill in some of the gaps left by the story was  more than enough to give it my recommendation with   all the games and books discussed i could finally  say that we have reached the end of bioshock   despite the criticism that i gave i would  ultimately recommend everything discussed   in this video that goes for both the books and  games while some are better than others each one   has at least something that makes the game worth  playing whether that's the setting characters or   world building each game excels at something it  is without a doubt one of the best series ever   made and i can't thank you enough for allowing me  to talk about them one more time but even though   i said this was the end apparently it's not as  netflix has announced a bioshock movie and i   guess a fourth game is in production there is very  little information surrounding these additions to   the series but i will attempt to remain hopeful  video game movies and shows are either amazing   or terrible and while i'm always willing to give  it a try i'd be lying if i said i wasn't worried   i think a good setting for the movie would  definitely be pre-civil war rapture but that   would inevitably run into issues with the book  so continuity and canon discussion will probably   occur as for the game apparently on a podcast  called the sacred symbols the host claims that the   game will take place in a 1960 city in antarctica  called borealis admittedly that does sound quite   interesting but what's more worrying is the story  surrounding the game this is around the same time   as bioshock 1 and while it is far away from  rapture are they just going to move away from   it all together or will the team make reference to  it i feel like it could be possible if this could   work as long as they don't mention anyone from  the current trilogy it would suck but if they   start adding characters we're familiar with then  we'll have to take the other games into account   which will probably result in a really messy story  regardless if any of these projects are actually   released expect me to talk about them when they  do for the final time though thank you all for   joining me on this journey through the bioshock  series and i hope you enjoyed if you did be sure   to leave a like and subscribe if you're new we  have a ton more games i'd love to cover so if   this style of videos is interesting to you then i  hope you stick around for more as always thank you   to my returning viewers for coming back to another  video and with that take care everyone and goodbye

Channel: Gingy

Views: 3,123,191

Keywords: bioshock 1, bioshock 2, bioshock infinite, bioshock series, story explained, bioshock 2 story explained, bioshock infinite story explained, bioshock timeline, bioshock 1 story explained, bioshock series story explained, bioshock rapture, bioshock columbia, gingy, bioshock video essay, video essay, bioshock trilogy, bioshock trilogy explained

Id: pS4KcAvyGvU

Length: 171min 33sec (10293 seconds)

Published: Mon May 16 2022