Bioshock Infinite

I love how they are mixing politics and religion. The people on Columbia are basically a group of people that didn't agree with the Emancipation Proclamation and so decided to create their own country. The picture of Lincoln as the Devil is pretty great.

I feel like I was sold a bill of goods.

I was sold on a more thoughtful examination of the American mythology. Of how deeply religion (specifically Judeo-Christian tradition) has shaped our culture. Much the same as Bioshock was an examination of economic philosophies and how they inform the rest of society. I didn't follow the games development, but if I had I feel like I wouldn't have been as disappointed because I'm reading now that the game underwent some drastic changes along the way away from that original vision I was sold on (partly because of objections from development staff).

What I got instead was a game that focus on my goddamn least favorite vein of sci-fi; trans-dimensional/temporal travel. A narrative can't hold it's weight for me if so much of it is being erased as you go along. Every time you jump though a tear, that world no longer matters. The things you do no longer matter. The people in it no longer matter. And the quest in the end is ultimately futile. In a world of infinite universes, Comtock is still out there. But the thing I hated the most was one single line;

"There's always a lighthouse. There's always a man. There's always a city."

We live in a post Spec Ops: The Line world. If you want to make a commentary of games, you are going to have to try so much harder than that. It really comes off to me as a smug way of justifying ripping yourself off. That, or Levine's original vision was gutted and focus tested out and he was desperate to do something more with the game.

The 1984 billboard in the "Old Elizabeth" scene made me want to gag.