I've completed this game very recently and think I noticed another (gaping) hole in the plot.
When you first start the game you remain in a particular reality from when you rescue Lizzy all the way through to when you are tasked with finding the gunsmith, Mr Lin. Of course, when you find him, he's already dead, so we jump to another reality -- our first proper leap, mind you -- to where he isn't dead. Then we're tasked to find his tools, and on discovering them, decide (lord knows why!) to leap to a third reality where the tools were never taken, and the Vox are in full rebellion.
Good, fine -- I enjoyed that twist, but from there the plot kinda unravels. It is established that this reality has another Booker, who died for the Vox' cause. You also find voxphones of his telling that this reality's Elizabeth has been taken away from Monument Isle and allegedly locked away somewhere. That's all good, but if this is the case, why is this reality's Comstock still hunting after the player's Elizabeth? Why, in the Memorial Gardens, does he syphon the player's Lizzy's powers to resurrect Lady Comstock (an act which in itself does not serve Comstock whatsoever, and seems more like a lazy plot device to introduce some essential narrative). And when the player's Elizabeth is later recaptured, and the horrible, silent hill-esque 1984 is created, where is this reality's original Elizabeth? The writers of the game seem to forget that the player's team were visitors to the Vox rebellion reality, and that there were doubles for everyone, not just Booker.
If there was a voxphone in which martyr Booker said his Elizabeth was killed, or if that the player returned to the reality from the start of the game prior to Lady Comstock, this could have been avoided -- but of course that would mean fighting just Founders rather than Founders and Vox rebels.
Oh, and while I'm at it, why would the 1984 attack against New York be so horrific? You can see that Columbia hasn't advanced at all by then, what with the 1900 weaponry and continued use of voxphones, so 1980's America, with all their radar tech, missiles and jet fighters, should have blown the rougue state to kingdom-come before it even got within a hundred miles of the eastern seaboard!
Phew. I'm done.
When you first start the game you remain in a particular reality from when you rescue Lizzy all the way through to when you are tasked with finding the gunsmith, Mr Lin. Of course, when you find him, he's already dead, so we jump to another reality -- our first proper leap, mind you -- to where he isn't dead. Then we're tasked to find his tools, and on discovering them, decide (lord knows why!) to leap to a third reality where the tools were never taken, and the Vox are in full rebellion.
Good, fine -- I enjoyed that twist, but from there the plot kinda unravels. It is established that this reality has another Booker, who died for the Vox' cause. You also find voxphones of his telling that this reality's Elizabeth has been taken away from Monument Isle and allegedly locked away somewhere. That's all good, but if this is the case, why is this reality's Comstock still hunting after the player's Elizabeth? Why, in the Memorial Gardens, does he syphon the player's Lizzy's powers to resurrect Lady Comstock (an act which in itself does not serve Comstock whatsoever, and seems more like a lazy plot device to introduce some essential narrative). And when the player's Elizabeth is later recaptured, and the horrible, silent hill-esque 1984 is created, where is this reality's original Elizabeth? The writers of the game seem to forget that the player's team were visitors to the Vox rebellion reality, and that there were doubles for everyone, not just Booker.
If there was a voxphone in which martyr Booker said his Elizabeth was killed, or if that the player returned to the reality from the start of the game prior to Lady Comstock, this could have been avoided -- but of course that would mean fighting just Founders rather than Founders and Vox rebels.
Oh, and while I'm at it, why would the 1984 attack against New York be so horrific? You can see that Columbia hasn't advanced at all by then, what with the 1900 weaponry and continued use of voxphones, so 1980's America, with all their radar tech, missiles and jet fighters, should have blown the rougue state to kingdom-come before it even got within a hundred miles of the eastern seaboard!
Phew. I'm done.