No, BioShock Infinite's Ending Doesn't Suck

[Diddy_Mao]

I rather enjoyed Bioshock Infinite's ending but then again I'm an easy mark for alternate reality stories, specifically ones that explore the idea of one universe inadvertently influencing the other.

The only real problem I had with this game is that because of it's reliance on alternate realities, the twists becomes entirely too easy to predict.

Spoiler

Once it's introduced that an alternate reality can be brought into this one then the puzzle pieces start falling into place almost before there is a puzzle to be solved.

Within the first 45 minutes of game play I was operating under the assumption that
Elizabeth was an alternate version of Anna, and with that assumption made it wasn't too far to assume that the man in New York and Comstock were both alternate reality versions of Dewitt who were essentially using him as a third party to play tug of war with the girl.

I also operated on the assumption that at some point it would be revealed that the inspiration for Columbia would end up being the result of a glimpse at Rapture through a tear...or vice versa.

Were my assumptions 100% correct? Of course not, but close enough that when the reality of the situation came to light I wasn't nearly as surprised as I should have been.

That's not to say I hated the ending, quite the opposite really. It raises a lot of questions that may or may not have been intentional.

If there is always a lighthouse and always a man and always a city... is there then always a girl? Is there always a sympathetic scientist to take care of her (them?) is there always a corruptible working class hero?
If there is always a man, is there always a mirror image working against him and how do they relate to each other across realities? (Why can DeWitt use the Bathysphere?)

As for the argument that Bioshock isn't a horror game, I would say that's a matter of perspective.

Living in Utah the idea of a religious zealot leading his people to a promised land of delusional glory is...well it's an interesting parallel and one that I know some of my LDS friends have raised an eyebrow at.

Being an American Indian myself the entire wounded knee museum segment was hard to sit through and the idea that DeWitt was seen as a hero of that conflict precisely because of his savagery was hard to swallow.

As for the Racism. That's a hard argument to counter. I suppose to me it's only cartoonish and outlandish because it's also very out dated...that's not to say they are that far removed from reality. Good taste and the general message board rules forbid providing examples but a quick GIS for racism in advertising provides more than enough examples that mirror the presentation in Bioshock: Infinite too closely for the latter to be considered inaccurate.

So I guess my argument would be that it's not "scary" in that there's no big monsters or mutants coming after me but it's still horrifying in the subject matter being presented.

 

[Silk_Sk]

I got the impression that the vigors/plasmids were very new to Columbia, which is why they weren't so widespread among the populace. They hadn't had time to decay society yet. Notice how everything seemed kind of...Bioshock one-ish when Booker got teleported to the future? No real explanation is given for why or how everything got so screwed up. But given their track record, the vigors seem like a good suspect.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

That's it. I'm calling it. Yahtzee is Spoony's long lost British twin.

Seriously.

This article is basically identical to what Noah said in his review.

I'm not calling ripoff, it's just interesting.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

I think I'd have objected more to the violence if there hadn't been an in-game reaction to it. It didn't do what Tomb Raider did and have the protagonist murder by the dozens yet not get treated any differently by the other characters. The first time Booker is forced to defend himself in front of Elizabeth she runs away in terror and is wary of his history through the rest of the game. Hell even Booker himself is disgusted by some of the things he does

 

[CityofTreez]

I felt the use of violence was appropriate because Booker is supposed to be a monster. Even in 'good' Booker we're supposed to see the sort of monster that could

Spoiler

manifest itself in Comstock

.

Also, the grim, bloody insane violence juxtaposed against the bright blue skies and whitewashed veneer well enough that it was affecting. This was a beautiful place that you were bringing ugliness into.

I also object that the enemies are 'cartoons'. I think it would be rather easy to find places in this day and age on this real world we inhabit where people are unapologetically racist and destructive. Going back a hundred years or so would not shrink the pool of candidates.

I thought that if the violence wouldn't have been so high it would have felt weird.

The entire "Hall of Heroes" section was a story of how bad Booker was. Him killing everyone in the city was no different than his past and it really highlighted it. If he would have gone from Wounded Knee to "oh, violence is icky" in Columbia would have been weird.

 

[Daveman]

Firstly, the ending was awesome and I totally agree that saying it was the worst ending ever when glaring right in our faces is Bioshock's ending is pants on head yadayada.

Spoiler: The real reason I felt bad about the ending of infinite and a lot of people did is because

The real reason I felt bad about the ending of infinite and a lot of people did is because you die.

You suddenly feel like your actions were worthless because you play games to feel like a badass and to suddenly die with no control of it or choice in the matter feels wrong to any gamer.

I was sort of able to reconcile this with myself because it's really realising you were the baddy all along and so killing yourself is defeating the main boss. This is why the huge amounts of violence that Booker himself causes makes so much sense. Because you're just like Comstock in the end. A wave of destruction, hell bent on his goal with little care for anyone else (at first at least). And that will always be in you.

As for the populace being too easily racist and clearly inherently evil and the weirdness of the vigors being unused etc, I disagree.

My mum often brings up the story of how she used to go over to the states when she was young in the 70s and stayed in a few of the southern states and couldn't understand how the perfectly lovely friend she had made didn't understand that parading with the KKK was a terrible terrible thing to do. People can easily be seemingly lovely whilst hiding incredible bigotry. It's not cartoonish, it's if anything more real. The suggestion that people have to be on some sort of horrific substance to do heinous things is just silly, I would cite basically the entire history of the human race as evidence. I would argue suggesting that they're drug addled lunatics, so THAT's why they spontaneously decide it's ok to eat babies is much more "easy" rather than realising that societies can easily get incredibly fucked up without any of that. Love and belief are plenty addictive and more useful in motivating people.

The vigors themselves are primarily designed as a tool for self-defense, as shown in the fair at the start. They're not addictive and terrible like plasmids, but they don't need them. This is a society predominantly at peace and they may as well just buy a gun so they don't have to experience all the flesh being burned away when they initially take it.

As for the giant statue of John Wilkes Booth being preposterous, surely the fact that Thatcher's funeral is tomorrow in St Paul's Cathedral is enough to show how plausible it really is.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

Several posters have already pointed out the main contention with Yahtzee's Point here so I'll just re-state it briefly:
The racism, devout religiousness and xenophobia in Columbia only strike us as over the top and odd because we live in a completely different society. I have a few old Swedish school books from the 1880's at home and they don't mince the words about calling black people for the "Negro man-ape" or telling us that all "yellow people" are thieves, liars and completely lack morals and ethics. It strikes us as completely silly, yet this is exactly what the people of most of the USA and Europe thought was true around the turn of the Century.

As for Booker and his brutality it is an in-game statement (a blend of narrative and gameplay if you like) meant to tie the first ending reveal together. Booker is brutal and uncaring and that's something that doesn't change, no matter which identity he assumes. The only thing that changes is who he percieves as his enemies.

 

[burningdragoon]

As far as the vigors not leading to mutations and insanity like the plasmids, I'd say the two (only) reoccuring vigor-using enemies (the flame guys and the crow guys) seem at least pushing into the realm of insanity. Doesn't really explain why none of the other vigors other than Shock Jockey and to a small extent Possession got any narrative focus despite how readily available most of them were.

 

[Aardvaarkman]

It's funny that Yahtzee's friend said that conservatives would view Bioshock infinite as a smear on them, because the Arch-Rightist, ultra-libertarian Glenn Beck (who would probably be right at home in rapture) did a review [http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/03/29/bioshock-infinite-the-video-game-that-lets-you-shoot-robo-george-washington-should-you-be-worried/] on Bioshock infinite, and he seemed somewhat mollified by the fact that it points out that the anarchists in Bioshock infinite are excessively violent too.

I don't think Glenn Beck can really be described as rigidly following any particular ideology. It's more that he's just an insane person with a very limited grasp on reality.

 

[cricket chirps]

:/ I liked the ending and hated it. I would still give the game glaringly good reviews but i really don't like how everyone is talking about the ending as if it was sheer brilliance.

It was nice but it was FAR from original and magnificent: "YOU'RE THE BAD GUY THE WHOLE TIME!!!" :/ I mean really.

 

[1337mokro]

Now Elizabeth can life happily ever after with her dad who thanks to how this multiverse apparently works retains no memory of his experiences in Columbia, meaning he is still a drunken gambler who will sell his daughter first chance he gets.

Yay for happy parenting ending!!!

 

[Ham Blitz]

It was nice but it was FAR from original and magnificent: "YOU'RE THE BAD GUY THE WHOLE TIME!!!" :/ I mean really.

The only problem is that most plot twists or endings can be summarized to single generic sounding sentences. Bioshock's twists could be defined as "YOU WERE HYPNOTIZED/MIND CONTROLLED ALL ALONG!!!", "THE MAIN ANTAGONIST WAS YOU FATHER ALL ALONG!!!", "YOU'RE ONLY TRUSTED FRIEND WAS ACTUALLY A BAD GUY WHO BETRAYS YOU!!!". I don't mean offense with these, I am just saying many game plot twists can be easily summarized to sound generic.


More on topic, doesn't the ending technically remove the existence of vigors at least from that world? Since Booker dies before he can be the main character or bad guy, Columbia never get's founded and never makes the decision to take flight and cede from the union, the Letuce of that dimension (male for Booker, female for Combstock dimension) would never to Columbia and work on the dimensional travel stuff they mastered while in Columbia, and thus the dimension with vigors may never even collide with the one from Bioshock, so plasmids are the new thing there. Vigors could have even been brought from a dimension in the future.

 

[gorfias]

Got a good laugh out of this:

http://www.cracked.com/video_18568_why-explaining-new-bioshock-isnt-worth-it.html

Bioshock Infinite: Kill them all because they love America too much!!

Love that he finds a pineapple and shotgun shells in a woman's purse.

 

[Formica Archonis]

Have their endings really ever been any good? Even Yahtzee was complaining about Bioshock 1's angel-or-Hitler ending, and System Shock 2's ending was just insanely stupid. Hell, it even hit the divine-powers-out-of-thin-air notes I've heard people talking about in regards to Bioshock 2.

 

[Farther than stars]

What I love about Bioshock Infinite's ending is how you can think about it for ever and still come to interesting conclusions. For instance, as I handed over the baby, it struck me how the male Lucete "twin" was the one to rack up Booker's gambling debt in bid to force the deal on him. It was a nice echo back to the beginning of the game, when the Lucetes are testing their coin-flip theory, but it does beg the question why they didn't just open a tear in Lizzie's room and steal her that way. Or maybe buying children through cheating at gambling is less morally corrupt in their eyes than simply kidnapping?
If anyone else has any interesting conclusions about the game's ending, I'd be happy to hear them. I'll be sure to keep an eye out for them on my next play-through. Also, if you liked Bioshock Infinite's ending, watch Cloud Atlas, you'll love it.

 

[mjc0961]

I've heard some people call it the worst ending ever, but that's just being a big hyperbolic tosspot pretending to have edgy opinions.

Of course it is. Mass Effect 3 is the worst ending ever. The original one, before Extended Cut and Leviathan, that came completely out of left field with 0 foreshadowing and 0 explanation.

I'm going to get the fudge out of here now before I get the game spoiled for me byeeeee!

 

[freakonaleash]

I don't get the too violent argument, if the executions are the only thing that are making people question the use of violence than just don't do the executions. You don't have to do them, and in all actuality, you're pretty vulnerable when you go out of your way to do them.

 

[Voren]

I think a lot of people need to replay Bioshock 1 to remember exactly what a shitty ending is.
In all seriousness, the 2 bullshit endings were given a pass because of the awesome game play and good story, but dear god those were just a last minute job by the guy who wanted to go home early to do some more coke. At the very least, even if you aren't a sci-fi person (although, why you'd get a Cyberpunk punk game like System Shock or a Biopunk like bioshock is then beyond me) the ending does leave you thinking.

 

[Farther than stars]

Now Elizabeth can life happily ever after with her dad who thanks to how this multiverse apparently works retains no memory of his experiences in Columbia, meaning he is still a drunken gambler who will sell his daughter first chance he gets.

Yay for happy parenting ending!!!

Except that Lutece never racked up his gambling debt. Also, who is he going to sell his baby to?

That's it. I'm calling it. Yahtzee is Spoony's long lost British twin.

Seriously.

This article is basically identical to what Noah said in his review.

I'm not calling ripoff, it's just interesting.

Or maybe they're really just the same person from alternate universes who only differ one gene or something like that.

Calling people "edgy" for having a different opinon is pretty tactless. Granted, there do exist people like that and I'm pretty sure you will also find them within the Bioshock community. Still, I'm sure that there are people out there who genuinely find Bioshock Infinite's ending to be "the worst ending ever" and lumping them in with the "edgy" crowd isn't very nice.

Also, I havent't played Bioshock Infinite yet, so I have no real opinion on the matter (yet).

No, as someone who has played it, I would say that this claim is legitimate. It's less of being tactless and it's more like a hard truth. You see, as opposed to the first Bioshock, this ending doesn't stem from a gameplay issue. It's more of a story thing. And I think it's very hard to come up with legitimate arguments as to why the story has "the worst ending ever".
Basically it's a classic debate about art appreciation. There are both an intellectual and an emotional level to it. And while it's very admirable that you would want to protect those who dislike the game on an emotional level, even those people will have to admit that the ending isn't "bad" on an intellectual level. But it's the people who call it bad on an intellectual level who Yahtzee is calling disingenuous.

P.S. A thread about the ending of Bioshock is a pretty dangerous place to be, if you don't like massive spoilers and by massive I mean: spoilers of a galactic proportions.

P.P.S. Play the game. It's pretty much the best thing that will come out this year.