BioShock Infinite Download PC

Set in 1912, the game has the protagonist, former Pinkerton agent Booker DeWitt, sent to the floating air city of Columbia to find a young woman, Elizabeth, who has been held captive there for most of her life. Though Booker rescues Elizabeth, the two become involved with the city's warring factions: the nativist and elite Founders that rule Columbia and strive to keep its privileges for White Americans, and the Vox Populi, underground rebels representing the underclass of the city. During this conflict, Booker learns that Elizabeth possesses strange powers to manipulate «Tears» in the space-time continuum that ravage Columbia, and soon discovers her to be central to the city's dark secrets.

The player controls Booker Dewitt throughout the game, eventually working with the AI-controlled Elizabeth. Like previous BioShock games, the player uses a combination of weapons, clothing called Gears that offer unique attributes, and psychokinetic powers granted through Vigors. Elizabeth's powers can also be used to help fight hostile forces. In contrast to the limited spaces of the underwater city of Rapture, the openness of Columbia provides for more dynamic combat, including combat that takes place aboard the city's Sky-Line rollercoaster-like rail system. Downloadable content for the game includes a story-based mission, Burial at Sea, that links Infinite 's story to that of the original BioShock game.

The game won over 85 pre-release awards for its display at E3 2011, including Best of Show from the Game Critics Awards. At release, BioShock Infinite received critical acclaim, with praise particularly directed at its story, setting, and visual art design. According to review aggregator Metacritic, it was the third-highest rated video game of 2013. Within two months of release, it sold over 3.7 million retail copies, and has since sold more than 6 million copies overall. It won year-end accolades, including Game of the Year from several gaming publications.

Synopsis

Setting

BioShock Infinite, set in 1912, takes place in Columbia, a fictional city suspended in the air through a combination of giant blimps, balloons, reactors, propellers, and mainly "quantum levitation.[4]" Named in homage to the female personification of the United States,[5] the city of Columbia was founded by self-proclaimed prophet Zachary Hale Comstock who used his connections in Congress to have the American government build it.[6][7] The government intended Columbia to serve as a floating world's fair and as a display to the rest of the world of the success of American exceptionalism.[8] The city was launched to much fanfare and publicity at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893,[9] and was later dispatched to distant shores, travelling from continent to continent. BioShock Infinite Download free Full Version.

Initially seen as the pride of the United States, tensions eventually rose between Columbia and the American government. In 1901, against the government's wishes, Columbia brutally and violently put an end to the Boxer Rebellion in Peking.[9] This event revealed the floating city as a heavily armed aerial battleship, capable of unleashing devastation across the world.[8] The American government subsequently demanded Columbia's return to sovereign soil, and, in response, Columbia seceded from the United States and disappeared into the clouds, its location soon lost to everyone else.[9] Free from outside influence, Comstock now had complete control over the city, transforming it from a floating world's fair to a theocratic police state.

Under Comstock's rule, Columbia became a militant pseudo-Christian utopian society that worshiped him as a divine prophetic figure and the Founding Fathers of the United States as religious icons.[10] Despite Columbia's apparent utopia exteriors, it is soon revealed to be a hidden dystopia.[11] Institutional racism and elitism are widespread in the city, with White supremacy of the upper and middle classes heavily enforced by the government as law.[12] Despite the drive for racial purity in Columbia, people of minority races are brought in to the city as a source for cheap labor. They are the underclass of Columbia, and are subjugated to serve mainly as slaves or indentured servants. As a result of this subjugation, minorities are largely relegated to menial and hard labor with no obvious opportunity for upward mobility.[13] Racial segregation is also heavily enforced within the city, to the point where interracial couples face the risk of a public stoning.[14]

By the time of the game's events, racial tensions have risen to the point where Columbia is on the verge of civil war, waged between the ruling «Founders» and the insurgent «Vox Populi,» two factions with strongly opposing ideologies.[15] The Founders, led by Comstock, are the prevailing political faction in the city, and are the rulers of Columbia. The city's ruling class, they are the racist ultra-nationalists who seek to keep Columbia's privileges purely for White American citizens while denying the same right to foreigners.[16] The Vox Populi (Latin for «Voice of the People»), led by Daisy Fitzroy, are a rag-tag resistance group who fight to restore the rights of Columbian citizenship to people of all races and religions. However, years of bitter struggle have driven them to fight opposition more out of blind hatred, resulting in more violent and brutal methods. BioShock Infinite Game free Download Full Version.

In addition to the internal strife, Columbia is ravaged by «Tears» in the fabric of space-time.[18] Being the result of past scientific experiments, these Tears reveal alternate universes, and allow for interaction with them.[19] While most Columbian citizens regard these Tears as mere curiosity, some individuals have exploited the insight offered by them to create radically new weapons and technologies,[20] while several others have replicated futuristic music and songs heard from the Tears,[21] bringing anachronistic elements into the Columbia of 1912.[22]

As with BioShock and BioShock 2, the player is able to locate audio logs – Voxophones – and film projectors – Kinetoscopes – that will expand on the history and nature of Columbia beyond those events occurring within the game.[23] Though the game takes place before the events of the previous two BioShock games (occurring in 1960 for BioShock and in 1968 for BioShock 2), the question of whether Infinite occurs within this same timeline remains unanswered.[24]

Characters

Main article: List of BioShock Infinite characters

The player controls protagonist Booker DeWitt (Troy Baker), a disgraced member of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency emotionally scarred from the acts of violence he committed at the Battle of Wounded Knee.[25] Faced with mounting gambling debts, he is sent to Columbia to rescue Elizabeth (Courtnee Draper), a young woman imprisoned there since childhood, who has the ability to open Tears.[8][26] Her confinement has been maintained by Songbird, a large, robotic bird-like creature who has been both her friend and her warden, and which has been programmed to feel betrayal should Elizabeth attempt to escape.[26]

«Father» Zachary Hale Comstock (Kiff VandenHeuvel), the main antagonist, is the founder of Columbia and the leader of the elite Founders who rule the city.[6] Revered as «the Prophet» in Columbia, Comstock has maintained his power in the city through a powerful cult of personality based on Christianity and the Founding Fathers of the United States.[10][27] The Founders are opposed by the Vox Populi, led by Daisy Fitzroy (Kimberly Brooks). Initially the servant housemaid for Comstock's house, Fitzroy fled after she was framed by Comstock for the murder of his wife.[28] Shortly after her escape, she formed the Vox Populi and became its leader due to her hatred of the Founder's ways.[29]

Robert (Oliver Vaquer) and Rosalind Lutece (Jennifer Hale) are two mysterious individuals that direct Booker to Columbia and appear throughout his travels. Though they appear as twins, they are revealed to be the same person but from two different realities, having managed to figure out how to communicate and subsequently cross through realities. Rosalind is shown to be the one behind the technological wonders that keep Columbia afloat.[30][31]

Plot

In 1912, Booker DeWitt is taken by Robert and Rosalind Lutece to an island lighthouse off the coast of Maine. Told to «bring us the girl and wipe away the debt,» Booker enters a lighthouse, doubled as a rocket silo, which transports him to Columbia.[32]

Booker is soon pursued by the city authority when he is found bearing a scar of the letters «AD,» matching the description of the foretold «False Shepherd» who will corrupt Elizabeth and overthrow Columbia.[33][34] Freeing Elizabeth from her tower, Booker narrowly evades her captor, «Songbird.» Reaching an airship, Booker promises to take Elizabeth to Paris; when she realizes they are going to New York City to wipe Booker's debt, a tearful Elizabeth knocks him out. Booker awakes to find the airship under the control of Daisy Fitzroy and the Vox Populi, who offer to return the ship if Booker recovers a weapon shipment.

After finding Elizabeth, Booker becomes her protector. Elizabeth demonstrates her ability to open Tears, but grows disturbed by the damage on Booker, Columbia, and the world in general created by her alterations of reality. An opened Tear leads them to a world where Booker is a martyr of the Vox Populi whose «sacrifice» sparked open warfare between the Founders and the Vox Populi. When confronted with an alternate reality of a «living Booker» Fitzroy, convinced that he is «either an impostor, or a ghost,» turns her forces against Booker in attempt to re-establish the preferred narrative. With Booker's help, Elizabeth kills Fitzroy to prevent her from executing a Founder boy. BioShock Infinite game free Download for PC Full Version.

As they attempt to leave by airship, Songbird attacks the duo and they crash back to Columbia. Continuing onwards, they unravel a conspiracy behind the city's founding: Zachary Hale Comstock had the Lutece twins construct a «Siphon» device to inhibit Elizabeth's powers; Elizabeth is Comstock's adopted daughter, whom he plans to groom into taking over after his death; and Comstock plotted to kill his wife and the Luteces to hide the truth. After Elizabeth is captured by Songbird, Booker pursues but is brought into the future by an elderly Elizabeth; she explains that, since Booker did not stop Songbird, she suffered decades of torture and brainwashing, inheriting Comstock's cause and waging war on the world. Explaining that Songbird always prevented his previous rescue attempts, Elizabeth begs Booker to stop Songbird with his song and returns him to his present.[35]

Booker reaches present Elizabeth, and the pair pursue Comstock to his airship. Comstock demands that Booker explain Elizabeth's past to her; an enraged Booker drowns Comstock. Booker denies knowledge about Elizabeth's missing little finger, but she asserts that he has simply forgotten. Controlling Songbird, the pair fend off a Vox Populi attack, before ordering Songbird to destroy the Siphon. As Songbird turns on Booker again, Elizabeth's powers fully awaken, allowing her to open a Tear and transport them to the underwater city of Rapture.[b] Booker and Elizabeth materialize inside the city, from where they see Songbird crushed outside by the water pressure.[36]

Elizabeth takes Booker to the surface lighthouse, explaining there are countless alternate lighthouses and versions of Booker and Elizabeth; they are within one of infinite possible realities dependent on their choices.[37] She shows that on October 8, 1893, Robert Lutece approached Booker on behalf of Comstock, requesting that he «give us the girl and wipe away the debt,» referring to Booker's infant daughter, Anna DeWitt – Booker's «AD» branding. Booker reluctantly agreed, but soon gave chase; arriving as Comstock barely escaped through a Tear, its closing severed Anna's finger. Comstock then raised Anna as his own daughter, Elizabeth, and due to her severed finger, her existing over two realities simultaneously allows her to create Tears and move between them.[38] Robert Lutece, angry at Comstock's actions, convinced Rosalind to help him bring Booker to the reality where Columbia exists to rescue Elizabeth.[31][38]

Elizabeth explains that Comstock will always remain alive in alternate universes, as the Luteces have enlisted different universe Bookers numerous times to try to end the cycle.[35] As stopping Comstock requires intervening in his birth, Elizabeth takes Booker back in time to a baptism he attended, in the hope of atoning for the sins he committed at Wounded Knee; she explains that, while Booker changed his mind, some alternative Bookers accepted the baptism and were reborn as "Zachary Comstock.[35]" Comstock, later aware of his connection to Booker and sterility from overusing the Lutece Tear machine, abducted Anna to provide a biological heir for Columbia. Booker, then joined by other universe Elizabeths at the baptism, allows them to drown him, preventing his baptismal choice and thus preventing Comstock's existence. One by one, the Elizabeths begin to disappear, the screen cutting to black on the last.[38]

In a post-credits scene, a Booker[c] awakens in his apartment on October 8, 1893. He calls out for Anna and opens the door to her room before the screen cuts to black.[38]

Gameplay

Like BioShock and BioShock 2, BioShock Infinite is a first-person shooter with role-playing elements. In contrast to the limited spaces of Rapture in previous BioShock games, the expanded environment of Columbia provides for more dynamic combat challenges in Infinite.[39] As Booker, the player must fight their way through Columbia using weapons and a variety of tools in order to complete objectives. The player may carry only two weapons at a time,[40] and can collect other weapons and ammunition either from defeated enemies or from random locations around the city.[41] In addition to his health, Booker is also equipped with a shield. When damaged, the shield regenerates after a few seconds, while health can be replenished with medical kits or food.[42] Should Booker die, the player revives in a safe area but loses a slight amount of money; Booker regains partial health and is granted additional ammunition, while local enemies are also partially healed. Players can still recover from death should they lose all their money.[43]

Booker gains powers and abilities through Vigors, Gears, and Infusions, all scattered around Columbia. Vigors, the equivalent of BioShock 's Plasmids,[44] grant activated powers such as creating shockwaves, releasing bolts of electricity, and machine/human possession.[45] Vigors require Salt, the equivalent of magic points or BioShock 's EVE, for powering their abilities.[46] Salts can be found throughout Columbia,[41] and are also granted upon death.[43] Wearing Gears grant passive abilities that can improve the player's strength or damage resistance, similar in function to BioShock 's Tonics.[44] Each piece of Gear attaches to one of four specific slots: Hats, Shirts, Boots, and Pants. Only one piece of Gear can be affixed to a slot at a time; any extra Gear is stored in the player's inventory.[41] Infusions grant the ability to permanently boost the player's health, Salts or shield meter by one stat; they also fully restore whatever is being boosted.[41]

At certain points throughout the story, the player will be forced to make a choice in order to continue, each choice making minor changes on the story. For example, at a raffle at the start of the game, Booker wins and the raffle is revealed to be a front for a public stoning of an interracial couple. As a reward for winning the raffle, Booker is given the very first throw, and the player is given a choice to throw at the couple or at the announcer. If the player chooses the latter option, the couple appears later to thank him for sparing them.[47]

Booker can traverse Columbia both on foot and by riding the «Sky-Line.» The Sky-Line is a roller coaster-like rail-based system — originally designed for moving cargo around Columbia but later used for personal transport — whereupon the player activates a wrist-mounted tool — called the Sky-Hook — that Booker and enemies wear to jump and hang onto the self-powered tracks. The player can jump onto, off of, and between Sky-Line tracks at any time, and may face enemies that use the system to attack; the player can use one-handed weapons in Booker's free hand while using the Sky-Line. Freedom of movement along the Sky-Line allows for several varieties of combat, including flanking, cover, and area-of-effect attacks through creative uses of the system.[48][49][50] Booker can also dive off from the Sky-Line to strike enemies with his Sky-Hook; while on the ground, he can melee and execute enemies with it.[51]

Once reunited with Elizabeth, the player must work with her to escape Columbia. The player does not directly control Elizabeth, but instead she reacts to the player and the current situation in a manner similar to the AI Director in Left 4 Dead.[48] Unlike BioShock, where the player is tasked with protecting a Little Sister while escorting her,[52] Elizabeth requires no protection and can take care of herself in combat.[49] While the player is in battle, Elizabeth scavenges the area for supplies such as ammunition, medical kits, Salts, and other items, and tosses them to Booker as needed. She can also use her Tear-opening powers to aid the player, bringing in weapons, health, Salts, environmental features such as cover or a ledge for higher ground, and automated defense units. Only one Tear can be opened at a time, making the player decide between the available options to suit the battle.[26][53] Elizabeth also has the ability to pick locks using her hairpin. However, she requires «one-use» lockpicks, found all over Columbia, to open doors or safes storing valuable or hidden items.[54]

While exploring Columbia, the player and Elizabeth can find various useful items such as cash, food, medical kits, ammunition and Salts.[55] Vending machines, present throughout Columbia, can be used to buy supplies, and powerful upgrades for weapons and Vigors.[56] Optional side-missions are also available, where the player must unlock safes or decode hidden ciphers; completing them rewards Booker with a handful of supplies, Voxophones and Infusion upgrades.[57]

As the player progresses through the city, he is opposed by various enemies, classified into three types: Standard Enemies, Heavy Hitters and Basic Security Automata. Standard Enemies are regular foes consisting of several different human forces representing the Founders and the Vox Populi.[58] Heavy Hitters are more formidable enemies, aligned with the Founders, who act as mini-bosses throughout the game, demanding new tactics from the player.[59] They consist of: the Vigor-powered Fireman and Zealot of the Lady, the heavily armored Beast, the powerful robotic-like monster Handyman, the crank gun-wielding automaton Motorized Patriot, and the enemy-detecting Boys of Silence. The Vox Populi also possess their own versions of the Fireman, Beast and Motorized Patriot. Basic Security Automata are armed machines scattered throughout Columbia that act as a security defense system for the city, consisting of the fixed Gun and Rocket Automatons, and the flying Mosquito.[58]

After completing the story mode on Easy, Normal, or Hard difficulties, a «1999 Mode» is unlocked, where the challenge of the game is significantly increased. Enemies are much tougher, the player's navigational aid and aim assist is removed, and resource management is much more crucial to survival; also, the difficulty of the game cannot be changed while playing. Additionally, in this mode, reviving after dying uses up more money; should Booker die with less than $100, the game ends, and the player is sent back to the main menu and has to resume from their last autosave prior to the section where they died.[60][61] Alternatively, 1999 Mode can simply be unlocked by inputting a secret code — the Konami Code — in the main menu.[62] The mode is a callback to System Shock 2, a video game developed by Irrational Games, released in 1999.[63]

Development

BioShock Infinite was developed by Irrational Games and published by 2K Games, with Ken Levine working on the game as the creative director and lead writer.[64] Irrational and Levine, who had previously developed the original BioShock, passed on the opportunity to work on the sequel BioShock 2 in favor of a new BioShock game with a different setting,[65] with Take-Two Interactive allowing them the freedom to develop it.[66] Work on Infinite began in February 2008,[67] with the game's concept being formed six months after the original BioShock 's release.[68] Under the moniker "Project Icarus,[69]" Irrational worked in secrecy on Infinite for two-and-a-half years prior to its announcement on August 12, 2010.[70] The game's development took about five years, with it finally announced as going gold on February 19, 2013.[71] Irrational's work on the game required a team of about 200 people,[72] while also receiving substantial assistance from developer company 2K Australia, which was formerly part of Irrational Games.[73]

During the initial stages of development, Irrational originally considered several settings for the game, including reusing Rapture or setting the story in the Renaissance period, before finally deciding on the floating city of Columbia.[74][75] The decision to set the game in Columbia originated after the developers and Levine read Erik Larson's 2003 non-fiction book The Devil in the White City, which prominently featured the World's Columbian Exposition set in Chicago during 1893.[76] The time period at the turn of the 20th century and the historical events surrounding it, such as the World's Columbian Exposition, inspired the game's setting as a city in the sky,[77] while the concept of American exceptionalism, which the World's Columbian Exposition was considered to have symbolized, later inspired the game's story and setup.[78] The game also incorporated influences from more recent events at the time such as the Occupy movement in 2011,[79] and several films such as David Lynch's Blue Velvet and Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.[80]

Central to the game was the relationship between the player character Booker and the AI companion Elizabeth.[81] Unlike BioShock 's Jack and BioShock 2 's Subject Delta, both of whom were silent protagonists, BioShock Infinite 's protagonist Booker was given his own voice and identity.[82] Elizabeth, a crucial element of the game, was designed as a character which could not only be a useful AI companion to the player but a real partner with a significant emotional bond as well.[83] Elizabeth's development was inspired by the character Alyx Vance, who was described by Levine as a central element and an «emotional driver» of Half-Life 2.[84] For the story, Levine took a novel approach by bringing the voice actors for Booker and Elizabeth, Troy Baker and Courtnee Draper, respectively, into the studio to develop their characters and help refine the story.[85] Levine, however, did not provide the actors with full knowledge of the story in order to help them develop their characters' relationship in a much more natural manner.[86]

BioShock Infinite runs on a heavily modified Unreal Engine 3, with additions and replacements on the core engine.[87] Irrational had initially considered using the heavily modified Unreal Engine 2.5 used for the original BioShock, but it was deemed inadequate for their vision.[88] According to Levine, Infinite was designed and developed from scratch, with none of its assets taken from previous BioShock games.[89] In terms of gameplay, Irrational designed the vertical and open-air spaces of Columbia to provide more opportunities to include various types of combat compared to the close-ranged limits of Rapture within the original BioShock.[39] As the game neared publication, numerous materials such as Vigors, Tear mechanics, weapons, locations, characters, and other enemies, were cut from it, with claims that enough material for five or six games had been scrapped during this process.[75] Several members of the Irrational staff also departed near the end of the game's development, with their roles filled by replacements.[90][91]

Levine stated that the performance issues faced by the Windows version of previous BioShock games had been addressed by Irrational in Infinite. He further added that the Windows version, enabled by Steamworks, would not use additional digital rights management software such as Games for Windows – Live or SecuRom.[92] The retail Windows version would ship on three DVD discs to accommodate higher-resolution textures beyond the consoles versions, and would support video cards capable of running DirectX 11 in addition to DirectX 10, allowing for further graphical improvements to the game.[93] Irrational also addressed another issue faced by the original BioShock, in that the PlayStation 3 version of Infinite would not be a port and was being developed in-house simultaneously with the Windows and Xbox 360 versions.[94] In addition, the PlayStation 3 version would support stereoscopic 3D and the PlayStation Move motion controller, and would also include a free copy of the original BioShock in North America.[95][96]

BioShock Infinite was released worldwide for the Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 platforms on March 26, 2013.[97] Aspyr later published and ported Infinite to the OS X platform which was released on August 29, 2013.[2][98] Two major pieces of downloadable content have since been released by Irrational for the game. The first piece is Clash in the Clouds, a non-story arena-based combat mode where the player is faced with increasingly difficult waves of enemies on various maps based on in-game settings. It was released on July 30, 2013.[99] The second piece is Burial at Sea, a story-based expansion set in Rapture that links Infinite 's story to that of the original BioShock game. It consists of two episodes, with the first one released on November 12, 2013, and the second one on March 25, 2014.[100][101] BioShock Infinite: The Complete Edition, bundling BioShock Infinite with Clash in the Clouds and Burial at Sea, was released on November 4, 2014. BioShock Infinite Free Download Torrent.