LogFAQs > #965822020

Just finished the game. I figured out partway through that Elizabeth was your daughter and that you were Comstock from another timeline, but I don't remember how far into the game I was. I didn't figure out what the reason behind her missing finger would be or any of the details, though, I just sort of understood that this was where it was going.

Positives:

• The entire aesthetic of Columbia is good, the colors and atmosphere are great, and I assume they chose this time period because they wanted old-timey classic America, and the 1800s were too steampunky and anything post-Bioshock 1 would be too modern. The idea of a religion based on the Founding Fathers and George Washington mask guys fighting on behalf of racism is solid, and the setting itself really sells everything.
• The game is just more polished in general? BS1 and BS2 feel really rough a lot of the time, this game does not.
• Everything having to do with the alternate dimensions is good. Elizabeth coming to terms with what she is, all of the twists (besides the rebels being just as bad as their oppressors) are all good, the way it's handled at the ending, all of that is really solid.
• Elizabeth and Booker are very charismatic. The first two games obviously have silent protagonists, so this was a good change.
• In general, I really like the story itself.
• Religious themes are well-handled.
• I like how a lot of things are left unstated, but still make sense. Easiest example: Booker feels bad about murdering Native Americans during the Battle of Wounded Knee. The version of himself who's baptized and forgives himself turns into an insane racist, whereas the version who refuses the baptism and stews in his own misery is disgusted by the racism he sees in the game.

Negatives

• The themes of racism and class inequality are completely abandoned halfway through, whereas they were more integrated throughout the entirety of Bioshock 1 and 2. The second Fitzroy dies, that entire part of the game just evaporates, and all of her minions turn into generic enemies to shoot.
• The racism stuff works by itself, but it's totally disconnected from the alternate dimension plot. Like, it has nothing to do with anything. Comstock being a hyper racist has nothing to do with the alternate dimension plotline, and it almost feels like it was added to make you feel better about the basic enemies being normal humans this time.
• Speaking of which, in Bioshock 1 and 2, the basic enemies being (basically) drug addicts who were exploited by a system and an ideology that sort of makes sense but was taken to a ridiculous extreme makes them sympathetic even as they're just mindless thugs, whereas the basic enemies now are basically just racist genocidal zealots? Andrew Ryan and Sophia Lamb having ideologies that make sense by themselves but are blind to the practical and moral problems with them, and how they hurt normal people, make them at least somewhat sympathetic? Nothing about Comstock or his philosophy is even remotely sympathetic, and even the Vox Populi, who are an army of oppressed working class people who've been discriminated against their whole lives, are completely unsympathetic and behave like total monsters. No one in the game besides Booker and Elizabeth makes even an attempt to be anything except a bad guy.
• You know, I agree that Bioshock 1 and 2 shower you in abilities you'll never actually use, but this game's solution to that is to basically just be almost a normal FPS? Partway through the game, all I was using was the rocket launcher and the volley gun, because you basically never run low on ammo anyway. There's also zero exploration or even attempt at horror, unlike the other two games. The game was constantly flashing "MAKE SURE TO USE YOUR VIGORS" and I basically just didn't. I never came even remotely close to dying on normal mode; I didn't even realize there was a resurrection mechanic until I found a piece of equipment that alters how resurrection works.
• Like 80% of the plot twists are dropped on you in the last part of the game. It could have stood to be more spread out throughout the whole game instead.

Overall, I did enjoy this game, but I think its ideas don't really mesh together with its themes very well. It's trying to deal with topics like religion, forgiveness, racism, classism, alternate dimensions, and personal decisions, and I'm not absolutely certain what it's trying to say about them? Say what you want about the first two games, but their message is crystal clear: "believe what you want, but don't take your ideology to an extreme." This game is much messier in that regard. Religion turns Booker into a complete monster, but the post-credits scene implies that he does receive his redemption and forgiveness and another chance? What am I supposed to draw from that, exactly? The game seems at first to be about racism and class exploitation, until that's completely dropped and it's about Elizabeth's identity instead?

I'm honestly not sure how to even rank this game, its good and bad aspects make it complicated. I enjoyed it, though, so I'll just say that.