The Bioshock Infinite Ending: There is a lot more than what really meets our eyes!!

Bioshock Infinite is one of that few games in which I was shaken to the core on completing. I loved this mind-boggling game made by Irrational games, there are really very few such kinds of games present currently in the market. It has the capability to invoke a chain of thought process and I liked how the developers left the story to be thought and woven by the players itself. The core concept of the game, the multiple parallel universes itself is so baffling that so many thoughts keep gushing our mind even after hours of game completion.

The core notion of the game solely plays around the decisions we make. Now imagine we took a decision “A” for a situation. So there is another universe created where we may have taken the decision “B”. The artwork in the game completely takes it to a different level. Though it was created by the villain, the city of skies, Columbia is damn beautiful.

While playing half of the game, the player will have no idea what is happening and where is he going through tiers etc. One thing here must be accepted is that in the last part, especially in the last 20 minutes game blitzes players with a lot of information. This bombardment is okay, but it is really hard to process all in one go. This is because so many things are dynamically happening around us. Hell, I played the game twice to properly understand it. If you haven’t played the game it, I strongly recommend playing it. Needless to say, big spoilers coming ahead.

Today I will attempt to explain all this complex ending of the game in the simplest possible way. So, grab your coffee, set back and relax. Let’s have this ride!!

Main theory in the game:

The basic approach of this game is based on millions of universe created and collapsing with every decision you make. To understand it better, let’s take a real life example here.

Say you got a date in the evening with this lucky person. Now there are two primary decisions here. Either you go for a date, or you don’t. When you decide to “Go” in this universe, there another universe is created where you “Don’t Go” to the date. All the further consequences will be based on what decision you make at that moment.

Now further these universes may have branches where you say “prepone” or “postpone” your date or say “postpone and cancel” or “prepone and cancel” etc. There will be innumerable possibilities and I guess now you get the gist of the concept is. So for each decision, there exists a universe and also there exist a universe for, where you don’t take it, or the opposite of it.

These lighthouses represent millions of universes and possibilities in the game!!

Now let’s understand how the game kick starts.

One very important event in the game: The Baptism of Booker Dewitt.

Booker is plagued with some sins from the past, which he wants to get rid of. He decides to undergo Baptism. Thus the scene of Baptism plays. But as we see, at the very end, Booker denies this Baptism, and somehow decides to continue with his life.

Exactly, at this moment, two different worlds are created, one where Booker accepts Baptism and one where he rejects. Right here two “Bookers” are created. The one which accepts the Baptism calls himself as Zachary Comstock, probably to distance himself from sinful past. However, the original Booker decides to go on by accepting his past.

The biggest irony of this game which I feel is, the Baptized Booker, goes on to become one of the biggest villains of all the time and the non-Baptized “sinful” Booker is the savior after all.

A little background check: Booker, Comstock, Anna and Elizabeth

Let’s get to know Mr. Booker Dewitt a little better:

Booker Dewitt is a normal man living his life in the simple world. He has no Idea what is he about to go through in near future. Booker has a wife, and they have a baby which is named Anna. My speculation about wife is that she dies while giving birth to Anna or maybe some other complex reason. But now she is not there.

Now Booker is left with Anna to be taken care of. Booker tries to get over this sour grief with drinking. With a lot of drinking follows the gambling.  In gambling, Booker now owns a lot of debt to very dangerous people.

Say hello to Mr. Zachary Comstock the bad guy of the game:

Zachary Comstock is the creator of the city Columbia in which later we play the whole game. He builds up this empire with the help of the brilliant physicist the Lutece Twins. Lutece twins also invent of tier technology to which Comstock has early access. This tier tearing is nothing but an invention which allows traveling to another universe (made by other decision) without disturbing time-space units. Long time exposure to this makes Comstock infertile and unable to conceive a baby in his world. Due to his age factor, he must find the heir to rule the nation which is of his own bloodline.

So there must be some universe existing, where he has a baby which is, of course, that of Booker’s!! He then decides to use this tier technology, and use it to get his baby from another world. He then interferes into Booker’s world and brings his baby to his own world with help of Lutece’s help.

Anna equals Elizabeth:

So by now, you must have got clear idea that the character we play with the game is actually Booker’s daughter from his universe. Anna is actually confiscated from Booker by Comstock. So Elizabeth is a grownup or elder version of Anna. During her forcing through the tier, she gets a clean cut and loses her pinky finger. I guess this gives her superpower of opening the tiers to another world just as Lutece Twins.

Comstock has special plans for Elizabeth. He plans to implant a control device in her head, and use this power as and when he pleases. He clearly has the full idea of what Elizabeth is capable of and therefore orders to make a “siphon” tower in Columbia so that he can limit, utilize and even drain her powers. He also orders to make a huge mechanical bird, called as “songbird” in the game to protect her.

What happens to Comstock’s plans then:

Lutece twins look into this future in which they find that Comstock uses her to bring Armageddon on New York and all over the world. Hence decided to make it all right by returning Elizabeth to her original timeline. They then bring Booker to this world of Comstock with one goal, save the girl.

The actual game starts here when Booker is bought to Comstock’s world by the Lutece twins through the tier. Booker comes to this world only with one goal, that is, to save the girl. Here, in Comstock’s world, Booker suffers two memories existing in same space and time in his head, which I feel is the reason for the nosebleeds.

Now fasten your seat belt as we take a tour through the different universe.

I will now brief only the main events in the game, as we are not here to discuss the complete game. I will enlist all the important events as and when they happen in the game.

In the game, we travel mainly through 4 different timelines or let’s just say 4 different universes. The events in each universe unfold as chalked below.

Universe 1:

1. You enter Comstock’s universe and start your journey.
2. Travel to the tower of Monument Island and free Elizabeth
3. Fight Slate
4. Enlisted by Daisy to go and arm Vox populi
5. Find Chen Li is dead
6. Exit this timeline with help of Elizabeth.

Universe 2:

1. No Elizabeth as she is moved to Comstock’s house
2. Booker teams up with Slate and Burns down the hall of heroes
3. Chen Li lives in this universe
4. This is where you enter the universe
5. But tools are confiscated by police
6. Exit from this timeline at this point

Universe 3:

1. Booker is killed and becomes the martyr for Vox populi
2. Chen Li’s tools haven’t been confiscated.
3. Vox revolt
4. You enter here the timeline in this universe here.
5. Elizabeth is captured by songbird and taken back to Comstock
6. Because Booker was dead, he never came to rescue Elizabeth
7. Booker pulled in future by older Elizabeth
8. The control device is implanted in her by Comstock, nothing under her control
9. Gives Booker a note to give to young Elizabeth in order to save the world

Universe 4:

1. You enter universe here
2. Booker rescues Elizabeth so the control device was never implanted
3. Comstock gets killed
4. Siphon destroyed by songbird.

The story in the game starts playing exactly where you enter that particular map. So like a hero, Booker either takes entry in every universe when the things are about to get screwed up or after they get screwed up. Elizabeth takes them through these different universes as story unfolds.

The Infinite Loop:

The ride we just had in different universes is what happens always, rather keeps happening always. The main goal of Booker is to break this loop which goes on playing so many times. The whole game we keep hearing about the constants and variables. Now we will get the clear idea of what exactly are those constants and the variables.

When siphon tower was destroyed, Elizabeth gained her full capacity and became omniscient and omnipotent. She saw a million possibilities (the universe), all the dimensions where Comstock is still alive, knew where it all starts and finally converges.

To end this never-ending loop of always losing Anna, always getting to Columbia, always getting a head on coin flipped, always getting ball number 77 and failure to finally save his daughter has to end at some point. To end this very loop, Elizabeth has to put an end to where it all started.

This is where I saw many people actually lose it. What we think is that at the end Elizabeth kills Booker and the whole loop ends. NO, it doesn’t happen that way!!

Knowledge and Wisdom:

Booker and Elizabeth have to eliminate the “constant”, where it all started. This loop will not be over when Comstock is killed but ends only when he never existed. This means they have to make sure he was never created at first place. We must observer one point very carefully here. In a loop, we always kill Comstock only in the universe you experienced. Actually, there are millions of other universes, where he still exists and still tortures his daughter.

Look at the bigger picture here, you only experience ONE of the infinite number of possible endings all happening constantly and simultaneously until this loop breaks. Luteces make it work, always bring Booker to Columbia. But in the end, it is Booker who needs to act.

This I think is why when you are playing the game and die, Elizabeth merely adopts another Booker where he didn’t die at that time from another universe.

What Elizabeth kills is the man who accepts Baptism. So rather changing variables of “He accepts Baptism” or “He does not accept baptism”, she turns it to a constant of “No, he doesn’t accept baptism”.  

In this case, Comstock was never created!! So all the other things on what Comstock had an effect on, also vanish with him. Columbia was never created, Luteces were never there in Columbia, no crazy inventions, songbirds, siphon tower and most strikingly, Elizabeth, never existed.

Yes, it is really a lot to take. Elizabeth, we came to know, played with her whole game and shared a bond of caring father-daughter relation, never existed!! So in a way in the end, when she was killing Booker, she was actually killing herself, making a greater sacrifice. If she does this sacrifice, the other timeline where Anna is with Booker will always remain safe, as there is no Comstock.

Now here arises a doubt that when a universe is created when Anna gets confiscated, there must even be a universe (possibility) where she doesn’t get confiscated, right? Well, the doubt is correct, however, whatever happens in the end, Comstock always manages to take, ask or confiscate Anna and make her Elizabeth, kind of a “constant” thing. You see where it all starts and where she will always end.

Here is a precis of what all we talked till now:

I will be honest, I have never seen a girl character so beautifully crafted, ever in any game. The animation, the voice over is just wow, perfect!!

Actually, I like the way game developers at Irrational games kept some things cloudy and foggy intentionally. This helps game build good hype and also, yes, million possible universes of what might have exactly happened. Everyone has their own version of the story.

Hope I was able to at least touch the line of the depth of what game wanted players to experience. Please let me know if you enjoyed the read. Also feel free to add your thoughts to it in case I miss anything. Until then, see you next time.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 Multiplayer Mode: Still Alive and Awesome

Battlefield bad company 2 is a marvelous package of true shear madness. The developers seem to have carefully devised the game to cater the fire of providing what we call a polished experience with a real warlike sense on the battlefield. I guess it is definitely safe to say, the game, especially the multiplayer mode is still kicking, going on strong. This version of the game is the best one till the date of its type. We can still see many players and populated servers even after 7 years of its release and that is intriguing.

The game has got a really cool campaign mode but was the game was crafted with a special focus on a multiplayer mode. Bad Company 2 for that time of FPS gamers was a leap of innovation of its kind. If you truly consider yourselves a Battlefield series fan, you cannot really claim so without playing this one. EA launched many battlefield titles after that, but every game till date, even the latest, Battlefield 1 is compared to this old beauty. It is still kind of milestone, a benchmark for all battlefield lovers.

I am really excited to talk about the game which I have been playing from a long time and honestly addicted to and I must admit I have not got tired even a bit of playing this game till date.

I want to specially discuss the multiplayer mode of bad company 2 and what it has to offer. It has got a huge amount of insanity jam-packed in it, and I am literally talking from shooting the opponent players with RPGs to blasting them off with C4 kind of madness. Ever heard of an anti-tank mine blasting and taking down the heli?? Sounds crazy right? Well not for the bad company 2 players, as this is what they can do to take the opponents down.

The game has got crisp mechanics which are real easy to learn but tough to master them. Being easy, there is huge competition and your real skills are put to test. Apt strategy and wise tactics are a must to win any mode in this game. I am saying this because it is not really a game where you just go on Rambo shooting anyone who crosses you. The ragdolls in the game are truly funny though. I don’t know are they made so intentionally or what, but they sure as hell are damn funny. You literally even knife someone and sometimes the body flies high in the sky. Occasionally when there is any kind of blast, a flying body or bodies can be seen from miles. Truly hilarious.

The game has got four modes major modes of the game in total: Squad Deathmatch, Rush, Squad Rush and Conquest. Although the game is more focused on Rush and conquest, still squad deathmatch is also great!!

I liked how the game properly balances the points, pins distribution and progression system is very well. Just a high kill to death ratio is not enough to top the charts in a round, but you have to be a team player and focus on the objective which yields a lot of points. You can have a really low number of kills and still top the chart by completing the objectives. I absolutely love the fact that the game is objective oriented and not just kill-oriented.

One more momentous element in the game is the near-perfect audio design for which, the game even won the BAFTA award, which it truly deserves. Someone lurking behind you or approaching from front hence becomes easy to foretell. The audio cues players get when whole building is about to collapse on you or say grenade warnings and even opponent and friendly soldier’s outcry makes the experience more breathtaking.

The game has got fascinating visuals with a variety of war terrain right from dense jungles, chilly snow-clad areas to big deserts. The developers made sure while making the game that they cover the maximum type of regions and give a premium quality warlike sense to the players. The map design of the game is prudently done which never overpowers either side of offense or defense. Map designing is a crucial aspect in any FPS multiplayer to maintain proper flow of offense and the defense and balance both the sides.

The game gained this huge popularity is due to the amount of demolition packed in it. There were not many games at that time which had that kind of dynamic environment set. Like, just blast a couple of C4 on the building and watch it will crumble down to ground. It is human tendency to enjoy the destruction, especially when you have such adrenaline pumped in you. Everything being destructible in the game, which even canvassed the covers while in the fight, dramatically changed the face of the game. Each and every structure standing on the field can be flattened and that is really intriguing.

Another plus point of the game is its polished set of arsenals. There are total four kits for a player and each kit has its own perks which can be used in the game.  Not only just kits but also the combat vehicles like tanks and helicopters have their own perks and upgrades. With different kits, the change in the play style is literally felt. It is this variety of weapons and contrasting performance of different kits that made this title a big hit.

About the technicality, this game definitely uses a good net code. Pings make a huge difference in individual performance though, but it also kind of depends on, how far you are from the servers. Sometimes hit registration problem also occurs due to ping difference. So overall it is a pretty good experience and surely enjoyable.

Though the game is really good, it has its own imperfections in my opinion which could have been better to enhance the experience. Whenever the game elements are introduced in the game, like weapons per se, the quantity and their purpose should be definitely kept in mind. What I exactly want to say here is Quality and the Quantity of these game elements and their exact intention in the game. Simply keeping a huge amount of weapons and gadgets with little damage and/or accuracy difference just seems a cover up to word “variety” where quality lacks. Sure, it gives us many options of how we want to play the game, but this also makes it very difficult to maintain the equilibrium of all the gadgets, weapons and gameplay. Due to this, even redundancy of weapons increases as anyhow, players use only some popular weapons & gadgets. Also, less redundancy means being less random and uncertainty in way player dies, which won’t make a huge difference but surely will give feel of the good and balanced experience.

The game has four primary kits and those are Assault, Engineer, Medic and Recon. When a new player starts with any of the kits, all popular or a bit powerful weapons of that kit, along with customizable upgrades are locked for you. So if you are a new player to this FPS arena of games, with no added perks, you are sure to die like million time unless you get the upgrades unlocked and use it for your advantage. Till then, players may get frustrated as the experienced players already are pro in playing and also with all the upgrades, which gives them the extra edge. Until the time you unlock them game really tests your patience and consistency. This causes lot of frustration in players which makes them rage quit the game pretty quickly. If we see through a designer’s perspective, you will surely have to rethink on it. As a designer, we have to attract and retain almost all types of players.

For this, we can simply have one simple solution. The primary, at least 3 weapons should be kept unlocked (one of them being a good or popular weapon). Now surely some will say it will kill progression part, where you actually have to unlock and “earn” it. Now c’mon, this isn’t RPG you are playing where you have to see the track of your progression. I certainly don’t mean it is not at all important here, it is, but not really that much. Let’s say even the weapons are unlocked according to the current scenario, but still, there is no huge difference between their accuracy, damage point etc. If players are retained in game, there will progression. I guess you get where I am going with that. Moreover, the ranking system and different achievement pins really do the job of giving progression feel very well.

Pins and Awards in Multiplayer Mode

Speaking of progression, the game misses the feature of dynamic ranking system. Ones the player in the game reaches rank #50 and there is nothing really left in the game to unlock, you have no choice but simply play the game, that’s about it. So say, if a player is playing from really long time, still is not much skilled, the player is sure to reach rank #50 one day, but really lacks the skills as per the rank number.

For this, simple solution is the introduction of dynamic ranking system. That is, your rank will be decided on last 4 games you played and your performance in it. This would definitely increase the attachment level and there will be always something to boost of in the game other than skills! This varying ranking will always keep the players adhered to the game until they reach a respectable rank. It will also ask for consistent performance, so skilled players will be rewarded accordingly.

There are basically a million different ways in which you can die in the game due to its randomness and unpredictability, which are maybe enjoyable for some but really frustrating for others. What I am exactly talking about is, say you are in the middle of completely open ground, and there is a mortar strike on you. You can’t really escape the situation. Death is certain for you and can do nothing about. Other worse cases are, say you face a UAV right in front of your face, bam, there is no way to escape it and it will rode kill you or say a million varieties of RPGs flying at you and you have no idea where are they coming from. For experienced players, who know the basics of the FPS game, it keeps them focused and alert, but if say you are new to the game and when you get erratic and random deaths, it just it doesn’t makes the best gameplay experience!!   From my perspective, it cannot be completely counted as an imperfection. But then unless the player gains the proper experience this game can be bit tough to handle. To avoid the frustration, the player needs to be a fast learner with patience, to have smooth experience and enjoy it to fullest. I thought of adding this point in my analysis, just because, in my experience, I see many new players,  joining servers every day, after hardly first five minutes, if they don’t have proper know-how of how to play, they start feeling this game is just not really for them and end up rage quitting. Now you may say that those players are losers or bunch of newbie, but thinking from a designer’s perspective, you would want really anyone and everyone to play and enjoy your game. I have seen many players jump directly into the multiplayer mode not even touching the campaign mode for even single time.  So assuming player knows all will be erroneous.

Another big issue of game, in my opinion, is its squad chat option. It is not really smooth with lots of voice drops observed. Also when game SFX is loud, say for example you are in combat with lots of destruction and blasts happening around you, your squadmate may not be clearly audible to you at that moment. The voice and audio volumes are set to default and you cannot adjust that. Mostly, third-party software is used by many players for in-game voice chat. As I already mentioned, this is a team game and you cannot win it without proper strategy and tactics, ingame chat kind of becomes an important part of the experience. A squad occupies only four players. This means, if you are playing with a big team, the squad chat is limited for your squad only and not the whole team.

What I would like to tweak here is, we will give a proximity area for every player, a range. Now say if that player talks in game, the squad mates will listen him irrespective of the distance, but also all other players who are in the range will be able to listen him. Yes, this means enemy players too, if they are in range!! Doesn’t it give a more realistic experience? So say if one of your teammates is a chatterbox, the enemy will know your position if he/she talks a lot, better watch out for these kinds.

Also, the main thing I missed in the game is the variety of combat vehicles in flying category. No jets are seen in game in flying vehicle class. Though the helicopters are enough to get around in the maps, but still, flying a jet will give a real epic feeling. Bad Company 2 do gives you lot of options to navigate around in big maps, but it makes a difference when there are simple vehicles and combat vehicles. Point which I like about the game though is, the upgradeable perks you can add to your combat vehicles which in my opinion is a really good touch. While on foot, the players can crouch, that’s fine but I missed the prone position. This pose in the game will add a lot of fun as players will also have to thoroughly check the grounds as well. Then sometimes there is no difference between fresh dead body and a prone posed player. This will make the gameplay in dense jungle really exciting!!

I honestly feel the Recon kit, which is my favorite kit, in the game is little over-powered compared to other kits. Yes I admit it. If you are skilled and use this kit, you can easily dominate the field. One shot kills, no scope kills in close quarter combats, C4 to blast tanks and buildings, motion sensors, ranged attacks by mortars, ability to take down helicopter just by sniping the pilot etc. makes this kit really powerful than other kits. For me it is fine. Even though it is over-powered, you need to be skilled enough to properly use it. After all, every kit has its own role to play on the war field.

When there is proper team work, coordination and you win a round, trust me, it really gives an epic feeling of victory. With small tweaking and balancing, this already one of the best multiplayer games is sure to raise the bars of excellence to new heights and that too with an awesome experience!

Thank you very much for reading my insight and opinion on the game. Hope you had a good read. I would love to hear from you your thoughts on the game, feel free to discuss. Until next time then!! (: