Bioshock: Infinite in 2026

I played Bioshock: Infinite for the first time ever last week. I played it on my steamdeck and it was an awesome experience. The steamdeck continues to be the best purchase I’ve ever made for my gaming habit.

I loved playing this game!!! It’s left me with a lot of thoughts.

Unfortunately the game came off pretty centrist— not the best message in 2026. I’m not convinced that that was the intention but rather a product of an overcommitted plot. But also, maybe that was what the creators were going for, idk! Regardless, that was frustrating.

The first half of the game did an incredible job of painting a picture of Comstock and Columbia. You come to despise Comstock pretty quickly and thoroughly.

Once the Vox Populi revolution begins, the plot suddenly gets rushed through at 2x speed in order to make room for the multiverse plot. The Vox are, undoubtedly, the good guys by the time you get to the revolution. However, a series of horribly rushed events suddenly turns them into bad guys, described by Booker as just as bad as Comstock/Colombians.

I think the message here was supposed to be about the dangers of extremism, martyrdom, and worship of a singular leader. Unfortunately, the game really dropped the ball on exploring these otherwise important and interesting themes with the nuance and thoughtfulness that a story of extreme institutional racism requires.

My takeaway interpretation of the game is basically that Booker’s perspective that the Vox and Daisy Fitzroy are just as bad as Comstock and the Columbians is true to his character. (SPOILERS AHEAD) Booker, honestly, is racist. Not Comstock racist, but there is a kernel that lives inside of him that becomes Comstock in other universes. There is a deep guilt for the racist war crimes he committed at Wounded Knee that, in Comstocks universe, is externalized to an extreme in order to justify his past. That lives inside of Booker, and you can kind of feel it by the cold way that he moves through Columbia. He is unilaterally focused on his goal to retrieve Elizabeth, and for the most part, tends to not care much about insanity around him. There is a difference in magnitude between the horror you feel as a player learning about Columbia, vs the way Booker reacts to Columbia. TLDR my takeaway is that Booker is Comstock, unexpressed. Without this explanation, I can only conclude that the game’s message was intended to villainize the revolution which….I’m not a fan of.

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Overall, I enjoyed playing this game. Columbia was a ton of fun to explore, I loved the twisty multiverse stuff. I loved all the characters and learning about the world through voxphones. I did not love the narrative fumbling and the aversion to taking any kind of real stance for or against….anything really. I regret not playing the original bioshock beforehand, but I’m planning to play it next!