There's been a noticeable turn in what we've been seeing from Bioshock Infinite. At first I thought we were in for overtly political overtones of American nationalism and extreme libertarianism, but now it's looking more and more that these themes will be wrapped, infused and inflected with a feverent Religiosity. It makes sense for nationalism to transcend into religion when taken to the extreme, and I'm glad that Bioshock: Infinite is going there.

Columbia is a radicalized city in the sky, one that's been shown to be darker and darker with each trailer realease. and now more than ever am I seeing what a frightening place it's going to be.

Comments

  • Avatar
    pioshfd
    11 years, 1 month ago

    Extreme politics married with fanatic religion? Yeah, sounds about right. Man, that asylum could turn out to be very creepy though.

  • millsy Avatar
    millsy
    11 years, 1 month ago

    The people behind bioshock infinite marketing campaign really hate me. my twitter is blown up about how good the latest trailer is but I mustn't look at it. for i must keep myself free of the bindings which ruin so many peoples skyrim experiences.This could potentially be the best game I've ever played so I must not Sour the true experience

  • TheBradMan Avatar
    TheBradMan
    11 years, 1 month ago

    I really like the setting the developers have made for this game; American Exceptionalism mixed with fervent religiosity. I also like the idea of the main villain (whom I believe it's safe to assume is Comstock) hailing himself as a prophet of God. It's a neat and refreshing contrast from Rapture wich was an Ayn Randian, godless "Utopia."

  • Avatar
    Golem100
    11 years, 1 month ago

    Interesting because there was that minor fuss when some took Ken Levine's earlier words out of context and wrongly assumed he was somehow censoring religious content in the game due to feedback from his staff.

    What he actually said was:

    "I had some very valuable conversations. One of the characters in the game was highly altered based upon some very interesting conversations I had with people on the team who came from a very religious background, and I was able to understand they were kind of upset about something".

    "What I said to them was, ‘I'm not going to change anything to get your approval, but I think I understand what you're saying and I think I can do something that's going to make the story better, based on what you said.' So I did that, and I'm grateful for them bringing in their perspective. The last thing I wanted to do was change something because it offends somebody, but the thing they pointed out was making it a lesser story".

    Which points to a more nuanced portrayal of the religious themes hinted at in the trailer. Which will make for a far better game than the somewhat clumsy way some tackle it. Much as I enjoyed Dead Space it and quite a few other games just use religious fervour/cults as an excuse for a set of ready made bad guys to drop in at various points in a game while using the religion to explain away all manner of strange plot twists.

  • TheCineaste Avatar
    TheCineaste
    11 years, 1 month ago

    Can't fucking wait.

  • Avatar
    TheGoddamBatman
    11 years, 1 month ago

    I assume you meant fervent instead of feverent.