History VideoGame / BioShockInfinite

Multiple {{DLC}}s have been released, the most notable one being the two-parter arc, titled ''"Burial at Sea"''. Acting as a WhatIf scenario, the plot follows an alternate Booker and Elizabeth who meet under different circumstances to the core game: instead of Columbia, the duo meets in the underwater city of Rapture from ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock 2}}''. The arc was first released in November 2013, with the conclusion following in March 2014. The trailer for ''Part One'' can be found [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M5Tbos3M1g here]]. Note that the ''Part Two'' trailer is built on [[LateArrivalSpoiler spoilers]] if you haven't finished the main game and the first part; nevertheless, it can be viewed [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUQsbEO0bGw here]] at your own risk.

Multiple {{DLC}}s have been released, the most notable one being the later, two-parter ''Burial at Sea'' arc. Acting as a WhatIf scenario, the events of the main plot follow an alternate Booker and Elizabeth, who meet under different circumstances; instead of being set in Columbia, it instead takes place in the underwater city of Rapture from ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock 2}}''. Released in November 2013 and March 2014 respectively, the trailer for ''Part One'' can be found [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M5Tbos3M1g here]]. Note that the ''Part Two'' trailer is built on [[LateArrivalSpoiler spoilers]] if you haven't finished the main game and the first part; nevertheless, it can be viewed [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUQsbEO0bGw here]] at your own risk.

Multiple {{DLC}}s have been released. The first is ''Clash in the Clouds'', which is not a story continuation, instead taking the form of four arena maps where Booker and Elizabeth square off against fifteen waves of enemies and face optional challenges. It also allows the unlocking of concept art, music and other supplementary material. This DLC costs $4.99.

The second DLC pack is ''Burial at Sea'', a two-part story DLC which takes place in Rapture with alternate versions of Booker and Elizabeth as main characters. Part One was released on November 12, 2013, for $14.99. The trailer for the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M5Tbos3M1g&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D-M5Tbos3M1g&has_verified=1 second part]] has been released, along with a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RL4BOXGJzI&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D6RL4BOXGJzI&has_verified=1 Behind the Scenes]] video. Part Two was released on March 26, 2014, for $15.00.
The Season Pass includes all {{DLC}} packs and costs $19.99 and includes some bonus content, including reskinned guns and [[BribingYourWayToVictory five free Infusions]]. A good deal for those who intend on getting both ''Burial at Sea'' episodes.

But all is not well in the city of Columbia, once heralded as an embodiment of the AmericanDream. Tension is bubbling under the surface between two opposing factions: The Founders, an [[{{Eagleland}} ultra-nationalist, xenophobic and fundamentalist ruling class]] led by "Father" Zachary Hale Comstock; and the Vox Populi (led by the radical Daisy Fitzroy), a movement who once sought fair and just working conditions for the underclass of Columbia, but has [[HeWhoFightsMonsters since degenerated]] into [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized a terrorist group]] fuelled by [[BombThrowingAnarchist blind hatred]].

But all is not well in the city of Columbia, once heralded as an embodiment of the AmericanDream. Tension is bubbling under the surface between two opposing factions: The Founders, an [[{{Eagleland}} ultra-nationalist, xenophobic and fundamentalist ruling class]] led by "Father" Zachary Hale Comstock; and the Vox Populi (led by the radical Daisy Fitzroy), a movement who once sought fair and just working conditions for the underclass of Columbia, but has [[HeWhoFightsMonsters since degenerated]] into [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized a terrorist group]], powered by [[BombThrowingAnarchist brutal anarchists only in it to smash and steal everything in sight]] - and executing ''anyone'' who gets in their way.

Booker [=DeWitt=] (voiced by TroyBaker) is a washed-up ex-PinkertonDetective whose gambling debts catch up to him and force him to accept [[OneLastJob one final chance]] to wipe the slate clean. He finds himself sent to Columbia, [[FloatingContinent a floating city]] that was once the pride of the United States before it went rogue and became a sovereign city. There, he must extract a young woman named Elizabeth and bring her unharmed to his {{Mysterious Employer}}s in New York.

The second DLC pack is ''Burial at Sea'', a two-part story DLC which takes place in Rapture with alternate versions of Booker and Elizabeth as main characters [[spoiler: and is a direct prequel to the original game]]. Part One was released on November 12, 2013, for $14.99. The trailer for the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M5Tbos3M1g&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D-M5Tbos3M1g&has_verified=1 second part]] has been released, along with a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RL4BOXGJzI&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D6RL4BOXGJzI&has_verified=1 Behind the Scenes]] video. Part Two was released on March 26, 2014, for $15.00.

The second DLC pack is ''Burial at Sea'', a two-part story DLC which takes place in Rapture with alternate versions of Booker and Elizabeth as main characters [[spoiler: and is a direct prequel to the original game]]. Part One was released on November 12, 2013, for $14.99. The trailer for the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M5Tbos3M1g&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D-M5Tbos3M1g&has_verified=1 second part]] has been released, along with a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RL4BOXGJzI&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D6RL4BOXGJzI&has_verified=1 Behind the Scenes]] video.

The second DLC pack is ''Burial at Sea'', a two-part story DLC which takes place in Rapture with alternate versions of Booker and Elizabeth as main characters. Part One was released on November 12, 2013, for $14.99. The trailer for the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M5Tbos3M1g&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D-M5Tbos3M1g&has_verified=1 second part]] has been released, along with a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RL4BOXGJzI&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D6RL4BOXGJzI&has_verified=1 Behind the Scenes]] video.

The second DLC pack is ''Burial at Sea'', a two-part story DLC which takes place in Rapture with alternate versions of Booker and Elizabeth as main characters. Part One was released on November 12, 2013, for $14.99. The trailer for the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M5Tbos3M1g&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D-M5Tbos3M1g&has_verified=1 second part]] has been released.

But all is not well in the city of Columbia, once heralded as an embodiment of the AmericanDream. Tension is bubbling under the surface between two opposing factions: The Founders, an [[{{Eagleland}} ultra-nationalist, xenophobic and fundamentalist ruling class]] led by "Father" Zachary Hale Comstock; and the Vox Populi (led by the radical Daisy Fitzroy), a movement who once sought fair and just working conditions for the underclass of Columbia, but has [[HeWhoFightsMonsters since degenerated]] into [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized a terrorist group fuelled by blind hatred]].

But all is not well in the city of Columbia, once heralded as an embodiment of the AmericanDream. Tension is bubbling under the surface between two opposing factions: The Founders, an [[{{Eagleland}} ultra-nationalist, xenophobic and fundamentalist ruling class]] led by "Father" Zachary Hale Comstock; and the Vox Populi (led by the radical Daisy Fitzroy), a movement who once sought fair and just working conditions for the underclass of Columbia, but has [[HeWhoFightsMonsters since degenerated]] into [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized a terrorist group fueled on blind hatred]] and powered by [[BombThrowingAnarchist brutal anarchists only in it to smash and steal everything in sight]] - and executing ''anyone'' who gets in their way.

The second DLC pack is ''Burial at Sea'', a two-part story DLC which takes place in Rapture with alternate versions of Booker and Elizabeth as main characters. Part One was released on November 12, 2013, for $14.99.

Multiple {{DLC}}s have been released. The first is ''Clash in the Clouds'', which is not a story continuation, instead taking the form of four arena maps where Booker and Elizabeth square off against fifteen waves of enemies and face optional challenges. It also allows the unlocking of concept art, music and other supplementary material. This DLC costs $4.99.

Multiple {{DLC}}s have been released: ''Clash in the Clouds'', which is not a story continuation, instead taking the form of four arena maps where Booker and Elizabeth square off against fifteen waves of enemies and face optional challenges. It also allows the unlocking of concept art, music and other supplementary material. This DLC costs $4.99.

Another DLC has been announced: ''Burial at Sea'', a two-part story DLC which takes place in Rapture with alternate versions of Booker and Elizabeth as main characters. Part One was released on November 12, 2013, for $14.99.

* BioShockInfinite/BurialAtSea

!!This game contains examples of the following tropes:
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:A-H]]
* [[ActionFilmQuietDramaScene Action Game, Quiet Drama Scene]]: Between the various fire fights are optional contemplative scenes between Elizabeth and Booker, often during gondola or elevator rides. One unique instance has Booker silently pick up a guitar and accompany Elizabeth as she sings ''Will the Circle be Un-Broken'' and tries to give food to a starving child in the basement of the Graveyard Shift pub.
* ActionizedSequel: ''[=BioShock=] Infinite'' noticeably simplifies the inventory system (you no longer carry first aid kits or EVE hypos) and does away with minigames entirely. "Hacking" vending machines, turrets, and even Motorized Patriots is still possible, but only requires a cast of the Possession Vigor.
* AddedAlliterativeAppeal The Rolston Reciprocating Repeater, or more widely referred to as the "Triple R" Machine Gun
* AdjectiveAnimalAlehouse: One area in the game is a bar called the Salty Oyster.
* AirJousting: You can use sky rails to rocket through the air at similarly airborne opponents while firing at each other. If you and an enemy are riding directly towards each other, you can make Booker hop off the rail, sideswipe the enemy, and reattach to the same rail.
* AlasPoorVillain:
** [[spoiler:Captain Slate, whether or not you execute him, and the Songbird]].
** There's also the citizens of Columbia in general. It sure is a lot easier to hate them when they're not being executed in the streets and forced to abandon their homes and everything they own to escape the [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized uprising]].
* AllJustADream: [[spoiler:One interpretation of TheStinger is that the whole game was just a dream from Booker's depressed mind to teach him to appreciate what he has]].
* AllohistoricalAllusion:
** The game has multiple references to the real-life [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Peking Battle of Peking]], which in this AlternateHistory was fought entirely by the forces of Columbia, instead of by the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight-Nation_Alliance Eight-Nation Alliance]]. Notably, Slate mentions that the Columbian forces lost thirty men, which is over three times the number of American casualties in the real-life battle.
* AllTheMyriadWays: Averted, as Booker and Elizabeth abandon multiple {{Alternate Universe}}s for ones that better suit their needs at the moment, with little concern about the "old" realities that still exist, including their own home reality. [[spoiler: Though as it turns out, technically the reality at the beginning of the game wasn't their home reality anyway.]]
* AlternateHistory:
** ''Infinite'''s history diverged from the real world's when Comstock created the floating city of Columbia, leading to Columbia personally ending the Boxer Rebellion and eventually [[spoiler:destroying New York City in 1984]].
** Elizabeth opens a tear to the Regent Theatre in Paris showing an AlternateHistory version of the 1983 ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', ''Revenge of the Jedi''.[[note]]''Revenge'' was the WorkingTitle of episode VI before Lucas decided to change it to ''Return''.[[/note]]
* AlternateUniverse: Columbia is full of "tears" Elizabeth uses multiple times as doorways to different versions of reality. A convenient, spoiler-heavy chart can be found [[http://imgur.com/r/BioShock/MaHNjLo here]].
** The universe you start in has Comstock slowly wiping out an underground rebellion of minority citizens, the Vox Populi. Booker and Elizabeth are tasked with finding a gunsmith to provide weapons to the Vox, only to find the smith is already dead.
** Elizabeth then transports herself and Booker into a second universe where the gunsmith is alive, thanks to the fact he married a white woman with ties to Comstock, but his machines have been confiscated, and most of the Vox Populi's members have already been arrested or killed. Elizabeth and Booker quickly realize they have no way to bring the machines back to the gunsmith, leading to a second jump.
** The third universe where Elizabeth was moved to Comstock House and Booker became [[spoiler:a martyr]] for the Vox trying to save her, leading to a [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized bloody revolution]] in which the gunsmith and his wife are killed.
** Booker then gets pulled into a fourth universe [[spoiler:where he failed to save Elizabeth, resulting in her taking Comstock's place and eventually [[BadFuture destroying New York]]. This Elizabeth gives him the code to override Songbird's programming, so Booker and Elizabeth can survive the FinalBattle]].
** Then there's a fifth after the FinalBattle: [[spoiler:Rapture from the original ''VideoGame/BioShock1'']].
** And then there's the sixth, where Elizabeth has [[spoiler:destroyed all realities where Comstock existed by drowning Booker at his baptism, effectively killing her, Booker, AND Comstock, and ensuring none of the deaths caused by Columbia and its people happen]].
** [[spoiler:There's a hint of a seventh, where Booker isn't dead, is back in his office, and goes to check on Anna. This may or may not be real, as the vision is gray, like in a tear]].
** It's hinted that there are also at least 110 other universes you've been through prior to the start of the game, based on the coin flip board at the carnival.
** The ''Burial at Sea'' {{DLC}} takes place in an alternate version of Rapture, complete with alternate(?) versions of Booker and Elizabeth. The first five minutes hint that [[spoiler: Booker is an alternate who doesn't know about the adventure in Columbia, while Elizabeth is the same one from that adventure.]]
* AltumVidetur: The Vox Populi (Voice of the People). Also, when first entering Columbia, there are three stained glass windows displaying the Latin names of the three symbols (Sword = Gladium; Key = Clavem; Scroll = Volumen).
* AmericanDream: Columbia as a whole is a dark mirror of everything America represents to the world.
* AnachronismStew: Columbia has taken numerous pieces of technology and culture from after 1912 using "tears" in space-time, including:
** A phonograph playing a ragtime-waltz version of Music/TearsForFears' 1985 song, ''Everybody Wants to Rule the World''.
** A barbershop quartet singing the 1966 Music/TheBeachBoys song ''God Only Knows'' and the 1928 ''Makin' Whoopee''.
** At Battleship Bay, you can hear a carnival version of Cyndi Lauper's 1983 ''Girls Just Want to Have Fun'' being played. And you hear the original version of a song through a rift at one point.
** You can hear Ed Cobb's 1965 ''Tainted Love'' in the Graveyard Shift Pub.
** A girl in the slums singing CreedenceClearwaterRevival's 1969 ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsQuTCycrwI Fortunate Son]]'' as a spiritual/gospel song. Earlier, this is heard through a tear.
** A swing version of {{REM}}'s 1991 ''Shiny Happy People'' at the Emporia gondola station.
** Sub-machine guns were post-1914 technology, and multi-chamber grenade launchers post-1983.
** An ice cream shop selling Soft Serve, which wasn't invented until the 1950s.
** Elizabeth using the term "flak cannon" to point out soldiers with volley guns. The German word "flak" did not enter the English vocabulary until the late 1930s.
** An explicit forgery of [[http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_meec96xzLW1qigaa4o1_1280.png a classic WWI-era poster]] has been [[http://images.wikia.com/bioshock/images/f/fe/DaddyPrint-001.jpg recycled as Founder propaganda]].
** A host of typefaces that didn’t exist in 1912 are on all sorts of signage and advertisements.
** The song "After You've Gone" was not written until 1918.
** A Voxophone made by Fink implies that Big Daddies were the inspiration for the Songbird (to drive the point home, it's titled "A Child Needs A Protector"). Most likely they were the inspiration for Handymen as well. Not only were Big Daddies not invented until some time in the [=1950s=], but Rapture doesn't even exist in the same universe as Columbia.
** You can hear "Goodnight, Irene" being sung at the raffle, a song that was not written until the 30s.
* AntiFrustrationFeatures:
** A minor one at the start of the game, when Booker brings out the card that tells him how to ring the bells.
** If you fall into one of Columbia's many BottomlessPits, you'll simply be put right back where you fell with only a minor drop in health.
** Vigors can be purchased from vending machines on the off-chance you missed picking them up initially. This [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything includes]] Vigors like Possession that you can only circumvent through SequenceBreaking.
** A sharp noise is played to let you know when the last enemy in the immediate area has been killed, so you don't have to wonder if there's still someone waiting to ambush you. Note, however, that if the space is large enough, there could still be some lurking out of range.
** Containers never hold alcohol (which lowers salts) or cigarettes (which lower health). Thus, you can quickly search a group of dead bodies, lockboxes, steamer trunks, etc, without worrying about losing either. There are, however, containers in Shantytown that contain rotten fruit, which lowers health. This makes sense considering you're in the slums.
** Collectable items that go towards achievements (voxophones, weapon kills, etc) are cumulative across playthroughs. Even if you only find half of the voxophones during your first playthrough, when you start a new game the voxophones you previously found still count, so you don't have to find all 80 of them in one game.
** Even though Booker takes falling damage above certain heights, he can jump from any height off a skyline and land safely.
* AntiVillain: [[spoiler:BadFuture Elizabeth, who after setting in motion TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, realizes [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone what she has done]] and pulls 1912 Booker into the future to give her past self a message that she hopes will SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong]].
* AppliedPhlebotinum: Columbia is held up in defiance of classical physics through exploitation of quantum suspension of particles, developed by Rosalind Lutece.
* ArbitrarySkepticism: PlayedForLaughs in the ending.
-->'''Booker:''' [[spoiler:[[VideoGame/BioShock1 City at the bottom of the ocean]]? [[SelfDeprecation Ridiculous]]]].
* ArcWords: "Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt."
** "The seed of the Prophet shall sit the throne, and drown in flame the mountains of man."
* TheArk: Comstock envisioned Columbia as one, seeing it as a refuge from the corruption of "The Sodom Below". [[spoiler: He eventually plans to ensure that it is the only thing which survives "the flood" as he plans for it to "drown in flame the mountains of man"]].
-->'''Comstock''': Even the Lord is entitled to [[TheGreatFlood a do-over]], and what is Columbia but another Ark for another time?
* TheArtifact:
** Vigors are out-of-place and don't seem to factor into the plot except at one point to act as a broken bridge. This is odd given that Plasmids in previous games were an important part of the history of Rapture.
** Similarly, the weapon and vigors vending machines are a relic of Rapture's obsessively open market. Columbia's overly controlling government would want to put a check on weapons being sold, given the looming threat of the Vox Populi.
** Burial at Sea Part 1 references this via audio log: [[spoiler:Fink used a tear to obtain the Plasmid blueprints from Dr. Suchong's lab and ended up modifying them so that they could be absorbed through the digestive system rather than the bloodstream.]]
* ArtifactTitle: ''[=ChronoShock=]'' would probably be more appropriate.
* ArtisticLicenseHistory: An in-universe example. The citizens of Columbia tend to either idealize or omit portions of both American history and culture to support their own views.
** The values of forgiveness and racial tolerance that the Protestant Church promoted in the 1900s are conveniently ignored by the Columbians.
** The Columbians religiously worship ThomasJefferson, the guy who coined the phrase "The Separation of Church and State".
** Creator/BenjaminFranklin was a radical supporter of Egalitarianism: that all humans are equal in fundamental worth or social status. In Columbia, social status is rigidly, and sometimes brutally, enforced.
** GeorgeWashington was appalled at the notion of a "King Washington", and yet the people of Columbia made Comstock a PermanentElectedOfficial.
** AbrahamLincoln despised the American Civil War, and was overjoyed when it ended. The Vox Populi treats him as a role model for ''glorifying'' violence and conflict. The Founders, on the other hand, have vilified him for his role in the Civil War. This belief would lead to the formation of the Fraternal Order of the Raven, a cult that depicts Lincoln as a devil and venerates his assassin as a martyr. In the original game, Abraham was still venerated by Columbia... while completely ignoring his attempt to give equal rights to blacks and attempts at peace.
** Columbia regards itself as the true representation of the United States of America, in spite of the fact that the very name refers to a collection of states united under a common federal government. Columbia on the other hand, is more like a unitary state, where everything is under the control of a central government.
* TheAtoner:
** Booker murdered [[spoiler: women and children in his youth as a soldier at the massacre of Wounded Knee]], and later became a Pinkerton who violently put down strike efforts, actions he's privately ashamed of.
** Robert Lutece helped Comstock [[spoiler:steal Booker's daughter]]. His insistence himself and his sister aid Booker over the course of the game is his way of trying to set this right.
** [[spoiler:Future Elizabeth has shades of this too, going as far as to make sure the Elizabeth we know doesn't become like her]].
* AttackReflector: Maintaining "Return to Sender" allows Booker to catch enemy bullets, crush them into a lump of metal, and then violently throw it back. This can be seen as the spiritual successor to the ''Telekinesis'' plasmid of previous [=BioShock=] games. This is also a call back to Suchong's audio recording that stated the Telekinesis plasmid couldn't catch bullets not because the plasmid was imperfect but because human reflexes were imperfect. Columbian scientists fixed the problem by making it a continuous shield.
* AwardBaitSong: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e4Crth_Hb8 Will The Circle Be Unbroken]].
* AwesomeButImpractical: The Crank Gun. It's a hand-powered [[GatlingGood gatling gun]] that does considerable damage per shot, has good accuracy, and has a higher rate of fire than any other firearm in the game. The latter however, is something of a double-edged sword: the Crank Gun will eat through an entire magazine of 100 rounds in less than 10 second and has only another 100 in reserve. Moreover, you can only find the gun (and ammunition) on Motorized Patriots or in tears, and it also requires about three seconds to spin up before it can fire, which makes it very impractical to carry around between major battles.
* AwesomeYetPractical: The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Hand Cannon]] (which has the inside of a [[RevolversAreJustBetter revolver]]) can be upgraded to have nine shots per clip, a reload speed of a ''second'', and one-shot kill most low-level enemies without a critical and do serious damage to many enemies. Late-game, ammo becomes plentiful for it.
** The general consensus on using the skyrails (From both [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]] and [[CynicalBrit TotalBiscuit]]) is that blasting enemies while zooming around at high speeds grappled onto a skyrail is FREAKING AWESOME.
** The China Broom is pretty powerful, too. When you first get it, it has decent ammo storage and packs a punch. Slap some upgrades on it and you get a faster reload, bigger spread, more ammo and even more damage than what it initially had. Hell, it can even kill some enemies with one shot if you get up close and personal.
** Once you master the use of each and every single one, Vigours become the most effective weapons in your arsenal, by far. But special mention goes out to Shock Jockey, which costs very few Salts to cast, has unlimited range, can cover a wide area in both trap and attack mode, and can effectively combo with just about anything (except Return to Sender).
** The SniperRifle. First received right before the [[spoiler: confrontation with Slate at the House of Heroes]], you'll want to keep track of this gun for a while as it packs a serious punch early in the game and allows you to hide more in combat, reducing the risk of death as enemies get stronger.
* AwfulTruth: The truth Comstock believes is so horrible it will turn Elizabeth against you? [[spoiler:''You'' sold her, your own daughter, to Comstock to wipe away your debts. Oh, and "Comstock" is just an AlternateTimeline version of ''you'', with only one decision 20 years ago separating you from being the same monster he is]].
* BackFromTheDead: Sometimes, when Elizabeth uses the Tears to change something significant ([[spoiler:like Chen Lin's death]]), she can accidentally end up bringing back enemies you killed, but they often get stuck in a state of confusion between which version of themselves they are. The result is... [[NightmareFuel disconcerting]], to say the least.
** [[spoiler:Happens to Preston E. Downs only for Booker to kill him again. He comes back a second time, working with the Vox Populi]].
** [[spoiler:Lady Comstock plays this completely straight, however. And [[MookMaker one of her abilities is to raise the dead]]]].
* BadFuture: Booker's vision of a [[TheEighties 1980s]] New York being destroyed by Columbia. (A billboard [[ShoutOut suggests it's]] NineteenEightyFour!) [[spoiler:Booker eventually learns this is a future where Comstock stripped away Elizabeth's free will, essentially turning her into a female version of him. Thankfully, future Elizabeth retained enough willpower to bring Booker to her and show him how to prevent it]].
* BaitAndSwitch: The reveal trailer begins with an underwater shot and a Big Daddy...which turns out to be the inside of a fish tank. Cue the sky.
* BattleshipRaid: Several points in the game require Booker to board and make a mess of an airship that is raining down fire or otherwise being an obstacle. [[spoiler: The penultimate section of the game involves boarding the flagship of the Columbian air fleet, then defending its deck against a different attack]].
* BedlamHouse: Comstock House has been turned into one [[spoiler: in the BadFuture. Residents of Columbia that defy the Founders' teachings are exposed to [[TemporalSickness their alternate selves]] through tears until they [[MindRape go insane]] or [[EmptyShell lose their free will]]. An older Elizabeth devised this method of "reconditioning" after she was recaptured and [[BeingTorturedMakesYouEvil tortured for months on end]] because her Booker failed to rescue her. Aside from being ruler of Columbia, she acts as the house's "warden"]].
* BigBad: Zachary Hale Comstock, resident EvilOverlord and [[DarkMessiah "Prophet"]] of Columbia.
** BigBadEnsemble: He shares the mantle with RebelLeader Daisy Fitzroy. [[spoiler:However, she leaves the picture about half way through and then Comstock takes the mantle of BigBad again]].
* BilingualBonus: Fink is both the name of The Songbirds inventor and the German name for - a type of songbird.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Booker has Elizabeth drown him in the river, before he can accept his baptism to prevent Comstock's existence. The Elizabeth you know is thus similarly {{Ret Gone}}d -- as a HeroicSacrifice to save all the people Comstock and the BadFuture version of Elizabeth would have gone on to kill.]]
* BlackMesaCommute: You start off on a boat, followed by a rocket ride in the same vein as the bathysphere from the original, then a waterlogged church where you're baptized, ''then'' the city streets - and even then, it's a while until your first real battle. [[spoiler: The very real confusion both Booker and ''the player'' feel from this is entirely intentional.]]
* BlingBlingBang: The Early Bird DLC turns the Pistol and Machine Gun gold.
* BodyHorror: Aside from the Handymen and related individuals, we have the physical side effects of Vigors. For instance, Bucking Bronco causes the skin on the hand to crack apart and bleed, and [[MakingASplash Undertow]] gives the arm barnacles and octopus-like suction cups. Picking up the [[KillItWithFire Devil's Kiss]] vigor gives you a vision of your fingers being burned to the bone, then the bones crumbling. After that, every so often your hands ignite, small areas blackening then glowing and spreading. [[DeflectorShields Return to Sender]] strips the skin off Booker's fingers and seemingly causes the bones to become metallic.
* BookEnds:
** [[spoiler:Booker returns to the lighthouse where his journey began (''[[ItMakesSenseInContext twice]]!'') and has a baptism that gets him drowned]].
** In a more meta-example, [[spoiler:''[=BioShock Infinite=]'' ends where ''[=BioShock=]'' begins - taking the Rapture bathysphere and your character drowning]].
** Even further, [[spoiler: when you first arrive in Columbia, you're nearly drowned during a mandatory baptism. At the end, you're drowned in baptism to stop Comstock from existing]].
** And let's not forget that [[spoiler: literally the first thing we see of Booker (in 2010 reveal trailer) is him being drowned in an aquarium]].
** The piano solos in the music when Booker breaches the cloud layer to enter Columbia and [[spoiler: when Booker is drowned and the multiple Elizabeths start disappearing]] are very similar.
** Booker's journey begins and ends with him [[spoiler:opening a door to a lighthouse]].
* BoringButPractical: The Pistol is kind of bog-standard average when compared to other weapons in-game. However, it is highly accurate, can be fired as fast as its trigger can be pulled, has a high critical damage multiplier, is very cheap to upgrade, and has a near-instantaneous draw speed. With the right gear and upgrades, the pistol can be upgraded to have over 31 rounds by the time you get to Soldiers Field and provide solid performance at all ranges.
** The Carbine has shades of this as well, functioning well-but-not-spectacularly in engagements at nearly any range (outclassed only by the Sniper Rifle and Crank Gun at long and close range, respectively) but not being particularly flashy. But then, [[TruthInTelevision this is what carbines were built for]] and [[RuleOfCool it does look cool]]. Once you have headshots down, the Carbine can be just about the only weapon you'll ever need.
** The Undertow Vigor is one of few non-offensive Vigors and is relatively simple (use to push enemies away, hold to draw them close). However, pushing enemies away is tremdously effective at killing mooks given you're in a Flying City, and holding enemies in place is excellent at taking out the [[EliteMook Heavy-hitters]] as it draws in Snipers or enemies with rocket-propelled grenades, and stuns bigger Mooks.
* BorrowedBiometricBypass: Booker and Elizabeth take a detour to Memorial Gardens to acquire late Lady Comstock's hand in order to proceed to the Comstock House. Booker is actually a lot more put off by the fact than Elizabeth is, and tries to dissuade her from it several times before ultimately insisting on doing it himself. Things get a lot more complicated after that.
* BossBattle: The three-part battle with the "Siren" MookMaker FlunkyBoss, [[spoiler:aka the resurrected Lady Comstock]].
* BreadMilkEggsSquick: In Elizabeth's tower, there are a number of artifacts on display from her childhood and adolescence. Among them are a journal, an old teddy bear, and a small bloody sheet labeled [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menarche menarche]].
* BribingYourWayToVictory: The season pass and Columbia's Finest pack (representing the combined rewards from the Premium edition, Industrial Revolution pack, and store-exclusive preorders) grant the player a fair number of in-game bonuses not long after the action starts (most are granted in the area with the first Shield infusion). They don't offer too much of an advantage in the long-tern, but they definitely help in the early stages before you reach Elizabeth. Of particular note is the five infusion upgrades, a gold bar worth 500 Silver Eagles, several pieces of Gear that augment melee attacks (70% chance stun for four seconds and knockback with each hit), and a single upgrade for four different weapons (along with a reskin).
* BrickJoke: Everything in the box you get in the beginning. It's also a ChekhovsArmory.
** The card with the symbols of Columbian worship, the key, the scroll, and the sword (and the numbers on how many times you ring the bells to enter).
** The postcard for Monument Island is used for the location of Elizabeth [[spoiler:and the ending when the Siphon is destroyed]]. The reason why it's a postcard is because people used to be funneled through there first upon arriving at Colombia.
** A large and elaborate key, one side printed with a bird, the other a cage. Not only it is [[spoiler:the key to Elizabeth's tower]], the two brooches the Luteces offer Elizabeth later in the game ("The bird?" "Or the cage?") have identical symbols.
** There is a handful of Silver Eagles, which tells you Columbia has its own currency.
** The box itself is labeled as "Booker [=DeWitt=], Seventh Cavalry, Wounded Knee", [[spoiler:which is significant ''three times'' for completely separate reasons due to the timelines being messed up]].
** A photo of Elizabeth when she was younger, taken without her knowledge. Obvious practical use, but the same photo turns up later [[spoiler:among other photographs of Elizabeth in her tower - also taken without her knowledge. The Luteces are more deeply involved with the job than Booker originally suspects]].
** [[RedHerring The one thing]] that ''doesn't'' have any later significance is the gun, because Booker almost immediately loses it. Unless you count it as a ContinuityNod to the original Bioshock, [[spoiler: where Jack begins the game by opening a box that contains a note and a gun, for hijacking the plane]].
* BrokenPedestal: Columbia as a whole to America and the world. What was initially hailed as a symbol of American ingenuity and progress turned out to be much, ''much'' worse.
** Elizabeth has to deal with one of these [[spoiler:when Daisy Fitzroy, whom Elizabeth hoped would lead the oppressed people of Columbia to freedom and equality, proves to be an extremist dedicated solely to destruction and egoism]].
* BuildingSwing: The Skyhook often serves this purpose for Booker. It has a user-activated magnet which can yank him boldly up to an equally magnetic tram rail, or pull him to a hanging cargo hook. Using this, he can ReversePolarity to launch himself off and then activate the magnet again to pull himself to another one, often leaping from hook to hook to traverse areas.
* ButThouMust: ''Infinite'' makes a point of stating that even though there can be millions upon millions of alternate universes depending on the decisions we make, there are some events that cannot be changed. For example, [[spoiler:the coin flip during the fair will always be Heads, and Booker will always pick ball #77 ''even after explicitly being told not to''. The game also communicates this by offering several multiple choice decisions (like whether to throw your ball at the announcer or the captive couple) that may change subsequent events a ''little'', but ultimately have no effect on Booker's eventual fate]].
** As in the earlier ''VideoGame/BioShock1'', But Thou Must is heavily deconstructed. When Booker is forced to re[[PensieveFlashback commit]] the most horrible decision of his life ([[spoiler:selling his daughter]]) he's outright told [[spoiler:"You don't leave this room until you do."]]
* [[spoiler:CameBackWrong: Lady Comstock after Comstock siphons energy from Elizabeth to revive her; she doesn't really seem to appreciate the thought]].
* CallBack: ''VideoGame/BioShock1'' opened with a man in a plane descending to the sea, and going down stairs in a lighthouse to a vehicle which brings him to a city under the sea. ''Infinite'' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60zmVrtIBzw opens]] with a man in a boat being rowed to a lighthouse, then climbing up stairs to a vehicle which takes him to a city in the sky. [[spoiler:[[TheConstant Turns out this is actually a plot point]]]].
** Tons of other callbacks as well: the final part of your elevator ride has words printed on the wall for you to read through the viewport, Booker starts off by opening up a box given to him by somebody, and one of the first things someone says to him when he arrives is, "Is it someone new?"
** Shortly after arriving in Battleship Bay, Booker comes across an abandoned baby stroller, with a box of pistol bullets inside, referencing how the player character from ''VideoGame/BioShock1'' first came across a firearm.
** At one point, Elizabeth gets her hands on a solid wrench [[spoiler: which she uses to knock out Booker]]. It is the exact same model of wrench (geometry and textures) that Jack picks up as his first weapon in ''VideoGame/BioShock1''.
** The Boy of Silence that gives the player a JumpScare in Comstock House is very similar to a Doctor Splicer giving a similar JumpScare to the player in the first Bioshock.
* CallForward: [[spoiler:You can hear the Songbird's cries in the background of the original [=BioShock=] just around the time you [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpmvkZ6TIMk witness Sander Cohen's student play the piano]]. Either [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything Irrational thought so far ahead as to plant his death in that game]], or their sound team just really liked that sound and ended up re-using it for ''Infinite'']].
* TheCameo: [[spoiler:While in Rapture, you can glance upon a destroyed Bouncer-type Big Daddy and a Little Sister crying over him right after Songbird dies. Coincidence? YOU DECIDE!]]
** After you have completed all the levels in ''Clash in the Clouds'', a new tear appears in the museum that you can use [[spoiler:to summon a Thuggish Splicer from Rapture]].
* [[spoiler:CanonWelding: It turns out that ''Infinite'' is actually part of the same multiverse as VideoGame/BioShock and VideoGame/BioShock2; not only do Booker and Elizabeth visit Rapture at the end of the game, but it's connected to hundreds of other universes in which a story begins with a man, a lighthouse, and a city]].
* TheCastShowoff: There's an optional scene in Graveyard Shift pub where Elizabeth and Booker do a rendition of ''Will the Circle be Un-Broken'' to show off Courtnee Draper's singing and Creator/TroyBaker's background as a guitar player. A video of them rehearsing is even included at the end of the closing credits.
* CasualDangerDialog: Between Elizabeth and Booker sometimes, and especially evident during the Siren fight.
* ChaosArchitecture: Many of the buildings in the city can detach and float independently, allowing the city to reconfigure if need be. One of the nameless citizens Booker passes by shortly after arriving even mentions that he hates it when buildings dock behind schedule, and he has to rely on the rail tram more often than he would prefer.
* CharacterFocus[=/=]DemotedToExtra: For all the hype and assumed importance about Columbia, the game isn't really ''about'' the flying city. It's about Elizabeth, following her relish in new found freedom, charting her growth and maturity, [[spoiler: and her relationship with her father]]. It helps that she's a wonderfully three dimensional character from the outset, far from the doormat damsel in distress who hangs off the arm of her rescuer and exists purely to be saved from yet another castle; there are a few wonderful moments where she flat out '''refuses''' to put up with Booker's crap, and [[YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre even forces him to develop in his own ways as well]]. She's strongly characterised with real depth and a measurable arc that truly marks her as the main character of the game, above the petty politics of Columbia and even the internal narrative of redemption that Booker follows. This is emphasized [[spoiler: at the very end of the game; the credits begin to roll the precise moment Elizabeth ceases to exist]]. Also in [[http://www.halolz.com/2013/05/10/video-elizabeths-escort-mission/ this]] spoiler-free video on Halolz.
* ChekhovsGun:
** [[spoiler:The {{Psychic Nosebleed}}s, the C-A-G-E jingle used on the Motorized Patriots and Elizabeth's missing pinkie]].
** Songbird's averse reaction to water pressure on the beach [[spoiler:is used when Elizabeth drowns it outside Rapture]].
* TheChosenOne: Elizabeth is revered by Columbia as "The Lamb of Columbia".
* ClarkesThirdLaw: The Lutece Twins had invented interdimensional travel initially, but it is never explained in-game how Elizabeth can manipulate tears without needing a huge machine. Also Vigours produced by Fink Industries.
* ClimaxBoss: [[spoiler: The Siren[=/=]Lady Comstock is fought just prior to the final act of the game, has the most health out of any enemy, and is the only proper unique "boss fight" in the entire game]].
* ClothingDamage: Elizabeth's outfit grows more disheveled, dirty and torn as the story goes on, to the point she eventually changes into a new one...which then gets disheveled, dirty and torn.
* CigaretteOfAnxiety: Esther's voxophone mentions she's gone through half a pack waiting for her ambush targets to show up.
* CoolVersusAwesome: You can summon a Founders' Motorized Patriot to fight a Vox Populi one, resulting in robot minigun GeorgeWashington vs robot minigun AbrahamLincoln.
* CompanyTown: Finkton is clearly one, and a very [[WretchedHive wretched]] example at that. The population who live there are kept on strict company schedules which are enforced by giant clocks and whistle alarms in every public and residence area, residents are only paid in company scrip which is only redeemable at the company store and [[AdamSmithHatesYourGuts at prices fixed to their wages]], and the place booms with frequent {{Canned Orders Over Loudspeaker}}s, usually delivering [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Fink]]'s lines about how grateful they should all be to be exploited by him. You even get to see an auction where, instead of buyers bidding on an item, workers are bidding on a job, using the time they can finish it as bidding ammo.
* ContemptibleCover: A [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] example. The cover of the game was blasted by the fandom for "dumbing down" the presentation of the game, and not including any of its expected complex themes and moral questions. However, [[http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/the-art-of-commerce-why-bioshock-infinites-cover-doesnt-matter Ken Levine has been quite open]] about the cover being targeted at the LowestCommonDenominator.[[note]]Yes, it looks like a generic new action game, but paradoxically the market wants to buy things which are [[FollowTheLeader novel but not innovative]], at least so goes the wisdom of a lot of marketing departments which were [[EnforcedTrope the masters Irrational had to please]] to get the time and funding they needed.[[/note]] The rationalization is that most people who are interested in ''[=BioShock=] Infinite'' for the setting, story, and themes have probably already made up their minds to buy it, and the cover art was calculated to reach as wide an audience as possible and pull in players less invested in checking gaming news. This in turn made publishing executives more willing to accept delays and additional budget needed to ensure the game is released in the best quality possible.
** That said, they published the game with a double-sided cover so that fans could turn the cover around to give the game a more 1912 look.
* ContestWinnerCameo: Irrational Games held a contest to get a fan's name in the game. [[http://irrationalgames.com/insider/bioshock-infinite-name-in-the-game-winner-announced/ The winner]] was [[AwesomeMcCoolname Payton Lane Easter]], who got the honor of becoming the owner of a MechanicalHorse [[http://irrationalgames.com/files/2011/05/paytonlaneeaster_finalasset.jpg company]].
** Irrational also held a contest at PAX East to get [[http://www.bioshockinfinite.com/news/bioshock-infinite-casting-at-pax-east-2012-the-results people in the game as NPCs]].
* ContinuingIsPainful: More so than the previous ''[=BioShock=]'' games. If you run out of health in this game, you lose some money and the enemies will regain some health. On 1999 Mode the amount you lose is ''100'' Silver Eagles, so dying there is really discouraged.
* ContinuityNod:
** Right away you start off the game being dropped off at a Lighthouse in the middle of the ocean, which leads to how Booker is transported to Columbia. Just like in ''[=BioShock=]'' when Jack was [[IncrediblyLamePun "dropped off"]] at a lighthouse in the middle of the ocean and leads to transport to Rapture. [[spoiler: This become much, much more significant then it initially seems on first playthrough]].
** The mysterious circumstances of the arrival InMediasRes could be considered a [[ContinuityNod continuity nod]]. [[spoiler: Both Booker and Jack are arranged to be brought to [[TheConstant the Lighthouse]] in order to dismantle the established dystopia by their AnonymousBenefactor; The Lucetes Twins and Atlas, respectively]].
** Even when you touch down on Columbia in a chapel flooded with about two feet of water that is very obviously meant to evoke Rapture's waterlogged environs. Turns out they baptize all new arrivals into their religion.
** [[spoiler:Through voxophones, one learns that Fink's concept of the Songbird (and possibly Handymen as well) came from observing Big Daddies through a tear]].
** [[spoiler:As soon as the Siphon is destroyed, Elizabeth transports herself, Booker, and Songbird to the bathysphere station within Rapture, straight out of the first game. Songbird is killed by the water pressure, while Elizabeth takes Booker to the bathysphere, back to the surface to the lighthouse, as to show him that there are an infinite number of worlds]].
*** Speaking of [[spoiler:Songbird's death - the horrifying scream it makes as it dies can also be heard in the background of the original ''[=BioShock=]'', as Sander Cohen forces Kyle Fitzpatrick to play the piano perfectly.]]
** One of Fink's elevators plays a recording of him where he shares his personal views, a la Ryan.
** Finkton in general is an alternate version of Fontaine's Home for the Poor. Unlike Frank Fontaine however, who used his personal fief as a recruiting ground for his Atlas persona, Fink is content with just slave-driving his corner of Columbia for profit.
** [[spoiler:The priest at the start of the game is the same one that baptised Comstock-Booker. (Except he's now blind, so he can't recognize Booker, and might not be able to anyway.)]]
** In Battleship Bay, a baby carriage can be found containing a box of pistol ammo, likely a reference to the location of the pistol in the first game.
** When you first come to Columbia, the priest who baptizes you asks "Is it someone new?" - just like the spider splicer did when Jack first arrived in Rapture.
* CoolAirship: Several, including technically Columbia itself.
* CoolGuns: The weapons in general all have a considerable weight to them, from the Mauser pistol to the [[GatlingGood Pepper Mill]],
* CorruptChurch: The Founders' religion, which has built a North Korean-style cult of personality around Comstock to the point where men and women ignore everything and bow in his presence and [[spoiler:civilians are willing to kill themselves on his orders]], and takes a 50% tithe of everything (or at least everything at the bank... [[{{Egopolis}} which is named after him]]).
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Jeremiah Fink, with all the nastiness of every single Gilded Age robber baron distilled down into one convenient package.
* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer:
** Whoever wrote [[http://www.explosion.com/27625/bioshock-infinite-5-points-that-prove-its-another-sexist-game/?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_52949 this article]] clearly has not played the game. As it states that there are no female enemies, despite the fact there is pretty much an even amount of gender ratio on both sides and one of the main bosses in the game is a woman. Even funnier when some of the EnemyChatter consists of them spouting their disgust at sexism. It also uses the evidences that Elizabeth "Is not allowed to fight in combat", which isn't a sexist thing, it was a gamer thing. This was to prevent the game from feel like one long EscortMission which the [[WordOfGod creators]] have fully stated was the reason as to why. Not to mention the fact Elizabeth has been locked in a tower all her life and has zero combat or gun use experience, though one of the trailers does show her performing a GroinAttack on someone grabbing her arm.
** [[http://designislaw.tumblr.com/post/54407385762/murderduders-the-men-without-souls-and-the-women-made There's also this]], which claims you can comfort Elizabeth at any time in the game, by using a screenshot from where [[spoiler: she just killed for the first time and is obviously suffering a very traumatic experience,]] but treat it as this was an anytime event [[spoiler: as well as suggest it was you who was the one that killed with those scissors she is holding]]. [[spoiler: They also seem to not realize that Elizabeth is the main character's daughter.]]
** [[http://designislaw.tumblr.com/post/56908254260/bioshock-infinitely-trampling-over-minorities-in-the This]] is a similar article from the same author, by claiming the game promotes racism. This by stating how [[spoiler: a white woman (Elizabeth) kills a colored woman (Daisy)]], completely ignoring the fact that [[spoiler: Elizabeth]], looked up to [[spoiler: Daisy]] as a hero to the people up till that point and she is obviously very traumatized in doing so as [[spoiler: Daisy]] was about to kill a boy simply because he was white - which isn't the case, either - she was going to kill him because he was part of the bourgeois, something that many detractors, the reviewer included, overlook. Not to mention many of the gamers found TheLottery at the beginning very cringe worthy with a majority throwing the ball at the announcer rather than the mix raced couple. In a way showing that racism on either side is clearly a [[CaptainObvious bad thing]].
* CrapsaccharineWorld: Columbia. Beautiful sky-high city... under ultra-nationalist, imperialist rule with angry robots, gun-toting xenophobes and bloodthirsty anarchists trying to kill you. It's possibly ''worse'' than Rapture, considering that everyone who tried to kill you in Rapture at least had the excuse of being completely insane, and the enemies in Columbia are either punch clock mooks, or blood thirsty terrorists.
** [[WretchedHive Fink]][[CompanyTown ton]] ''tries'' being this, enticing would-be employees and workers with promises of a bright future for their families. Once Booker actually steps into the place however, it doesn't take much to see the sordid underbelly lying beneath.
* CriticalHit: Like ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'', the "critical" term is used to denote attacks to an enemy's weak point. Headshots, shots to a Handyman's heart, and shots to the gears on the back of the Patriot get you them.
* CriticalResearchFailure: InUniverse. At one point Elizabeth comments that helping the Vox Populi [[spoiler:obtain weapons]] would enable it to stage a revolution akin to ''Literature/LesMiserables''. Given how naive she is, she's forgetting that the attempt at revolution that took place in that book was snuffed out easily. [[spoiler:And the Vox's attempt at revolution that players get to see over the course of the story actually ''is'' much more successful... and far more brutal]].
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Execution kills with the Skyhook are brutal, the ''least brutal'' being a gruesome neck snap and going up from there. Counts as an in-universe example, as well, as performing an execution in front of Elizabeth upsets her.
* CultOfPersonality: The Founders' religion is one. Those personalities are, nominally, GeorgeWashington, ThomasJefferson, and BenjaminFranklin. However, those individuals are deceased and no longer there to be venerated in person. (Rather convenient for the Founders, since those three men would ''not'' have appreciated the worship.) Comstock on the other hand, is still present, and he is adored by the masses as a MessianicArchetype as an all-knowing Prophet of the Lord. He has [[OurFounder statues of himself placed everywhere]], museums dedicated to exaggerating his accomplishments, and people in Columbia invoke him in prayers in front of shrines dedicated to him.
** Overheard dialogue near a 50 ft statue of Comstock from a Columbia citizen: "I'm not sure this statue truly...captures Comstock's divinity."
** While touring a bank late in the game, you can discover from Elizabeth's dialogue that Comstock receives a whopping ''fifty percent tithe'' from the people who work there, and there is no indication that they had any qualms.
* {{Cutscene}}: Surprisingly plentiful for this game, in a series not known to have a lot. For comparison, the original ''[=BioShock=]'' was popularly known to have exactly ''one'', while this one might have at least ''five'', two or three of which are {{Mythology Gag}}s.
** When being dropped into Finkton, there's a cutscene performed where Booker falls and manages to hang onto the side of a blimp created by Elizabeth, similar to the first trailer. This time, he actually hangs on by the ropes, but he states that he's slipping to an angry Elizabeth.
** [[spoiler:Comstock's death is performed in a cutscene. You start it by interrupting Comstock, but Booker proceeds to attack him and drown him in a baptismal font. Comstock is also Elizabeth's father, which gives rise to how Andrew Ryan is directly related to the protagonist of ''[=BioShock=]'']].
* {{Cyborg}}: The Handymen are probably the best example, but some of the other Heavy Hitters may also qualify.
* DamnYouMuscleMemory: Using/selecting weapons/vigors are swapped from [=BioShocks=] 1 and 2. Jump and crouch are also moved.
* DarkMessiah: Comstock and Fitzroy come in their own flavors: Comstock sees himself a messianic figure who will bring judgement on "The Sodom Below", while Firzroy wishes to stop oppression against those of different races in Columbia [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized by any means necessary.]]
* DarkActionGirl: Daisy Fitzroy shows traits of this.
* DarkReprise: The first time you hear "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7ogV49WGco God Only Knows]]", it is a mere goofy moment where a barbershop quartet is singing it on a flying barge. However, [[spoiler: it plays over the end credits, by which time the lyrics echo Booker and Elizabeth's story]]. They are, however, still the same song[[AnachronismStew -ish]].
** When Booker first arrives at the welcome center/chapel parishioners are singing ''Will the Circle Be Unbroken'' with the usual Christian confidence. Later in the game Elizabeth sings a stanza as well, but is much more solemn and sings the original, more questioning version.
* TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget: Fitzroy ends up thinking she has to kill ''children'' of upper class parents ''on the chance'' they become {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s. [[spoiler:The Tears that Elizabeth and Booker pass through in order to make that part of Daisy's history doesn't seem to help]].
* DaylightHorror: In contrast to the dank and gloomy Rapture. [[spoiler:It does get noticeably darker in the latter half of the game]].
* DeadAlternateCounterpart: [[spoiler:The second time Booker and Elizabeth enter a new Columbia through a tear, it is one where Booker and Slate, together as members of [[LaResistance the Vox Populi]], helped to get them much more power over Columbia, but that Booker had a HeroicSacrifice. Unfortunately, this version of Daisy Fitzroy, unlike earlier ones, is much more AxCrazy, and, upon learning that Booker is alive suddenly, [[MistakenForAnImpostor immediately believes that Booker is either an imposter]] or [[MistakenForAfterlife a ghost]], and tries to have him killed anyway, turning the group who had been following him against him]].
* DeadManWriting: Three of the recordings are from [[spoiler: an alternate Booker who died]], funnily enough. It's... pretty jarring.
* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: The slap stings a little more than in the original [=BioShock=] (the player loses a little money and enemies gain back some health, while in "1999 Mode" death costs you $100 every time), but dying is still nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
* DeathIsTheOnlyOption: [[spoiler:At the end, Booker must allow Elizabeth - [[AllTheMyriadWays and all the other Elizabeths from all the other timelines]] - to drown him before he can make the choice that would, in an alternate timeline, lead to him becoming [[BigBad Comstock]] and setting the events of the story in motion]].
* DeathSeeker: Slate and his men, who want to die fighting instead of retreating from Columbia, like any sane soldier would.
* DecapitatedArmy: [[spoiler:Averted. Killing Fitzroy does ''nothing'' to stop the Vox Populi]].
* {{Deconstruction}}:
** The game seems to be a deconstruction of American Exceptionalism, as well as the nationalism and imperialism that come along with it. Also falling under Levine's deconstructive eye is the concept of LaResistance, as seen with Vox Populi.
** There also seems to be a deconstruction of the whole {{Steampunk}} aesthetic going on -- or at least of the nifty, flashy, LighterAndSofter [[TheThemeParkVersion Theme Park Version]] aspects of steampunk that have come into vogue. It all looks very promising and optimistic from the start with a flying city made from late-nineteenth / early-twentieth century technology, but add in the less-savory aspects of the era (such as contemporary political extremism, imperialism and Exceptionalism as mentioned above) and a generous heaping of Steampunk BodyHorror and it starts to look rather more sinister...
** On a more meta-level near the end game: [[spoiler: it functions as a deconstruction of story-telling itself, specifically within the Franchise/BioShock franchise but also generally in any series of stories which shares themes internally but have ostensibly separate canon. Everything is an AlternateUniverse, every choice the story-teller makes literally creates a new universe and a new story to tell. Sometimes they are connected by a few common starting points, other times they are less obvious, but each one is just another facet of the creator's imagination and choices]]. This is itself deconstructed [[spoiler:and [[DeconReconSwitch reconstructed]] by the ending undoing each and every one of those realities and the player's own]].
** Another take on that plot point is that it is deconstructing sequels that rehash plot points from the original, like MetalGearSolid2 did. Why are the writers simply giving us the same basic plot, with all the names changed and a superficially different setting? [[spoiler:Because you're stuck in a gaggle of parallel universes spawned from your own flaws and mistakes, and in the end, each and every story has its similarities.]]
* DeflectorShields:
** The Lutece twins give Booker an Infusion which causes his body to generate an intrinsic magnetic field that can absorb damage for short periods of time.
--> '''Rosalind:''' Interesting...\
'''Robert:''' That he took it?\
'''Rosalind:''' That it didn't kill him.
** The "Return to Sender" vigor [=DeWitt=] picks up late in the game. It functions in one of two flavours, the first of which simply generates a magnetic bubble to swat bullets and projectiles away. The other function catches incoming projectiles and crushes them into a lump of semi-molten metal which Booker can then throw back.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: For a start, it's 1912; you either get this or PoliticallyCorrectHistory. The most striking part is the militant xenophobia of Columbia's inhabitants.
** Levine claims that the game was partially inspired by [[http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5575/ this]] speech supposedly given by WilliamMcKinley regarding the annexation of the Philippines, which is definitely ValuesDissonance at its finest.
** Another noticeable example is children smoking fairly openly -- they're kind of trying to stay out of the way of adults, but not too hard since back then it would have been treated like sneaking a sip of dad's beer. Then you find an ad that proudly touts a brand of cigarettes ''developed'' for children.
** As mentioned above, Columbia is an in-verse example of this trope to the time period itself. On the one hand, its norms, beliefs and standards are what many Americans in 1912 would have found quite unexceptional. On the other hand, its oddly modern progressiveness in gender (there's the whole thing with Elizabeth, you fight and kill women soldiers on both sides, Fitzroy is the leader of the Vox Populi and Columbia's top scientist is a woman) equality stands in contrast to a wider society where women still did not even have the right to vote.
* {{Demonization}}: Done to AbrahamLincoln in Columbian propaganda.
* TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything:
** It's possible, through SequenceBreaking, to intentionally miss Possession, which you'd normally have to use to open a gate at the beginning of the game. If you do somehow to get past the gate without Possession, you can find it for sale in a vending machine later.
** When you first get the Shield Upgrade from Rosalind and Robert, you have the option of shooting at them. Not only do you miss, Rosalind makes several quick remarks about missing again and again as Robert points out that they have all the time in the world while you don't. Starts at :30 [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=dbum3sgdtOc#t=30s]].
** Staying too long in a place near where the Luteces are found would have them quip lines at how Booker (and the ''player'') ought to get moving. Even better, when you meet them outside of Port Prosperity, Robert offers you a card. If you don't take it, Rosalind asks if he'd like to hear a waltz on the piano ''and then plays one and hums along''.
** Following your encounter with Cornelius Slate, [[spoiler: if you let him live, you'll run into him again in the prison level on your way to find Chen Lin. If you shoot him, Elizabeth comments on it]].
** Towards the end of the Asylum Level, when you get access to the warden's office you turn around to see [[spoiler: a Boy of Silence as he alerts the guards to your presence]]. On a second playthrough, or having knowledge of what will happen, you can try to avoid it. Only your controls are locked until [[spoiler: you look him in the face]].
* DevelopmentGag: The original raven-haired design of Elizabeth shows up [[spoiler:during the ending, as one of the many alternates spawned by AllTheMyriadWays]].
** In a short exchange between Booker and Elizabeth about what keeps Columbia afloat, Booker flatly says he thought it was "giant balloons." [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WDQ4FhslSk According to the 2010 debut trailer]], [[WhatCouldHaveBeen this did make the city fly in an earlier version of the game]].
** Elizabeth finds the new Dimwit and Duke adventure:
-->'''Elizabeth'':[[SelfDeprecation I've heard it was delayed three times]]!
* DialogueDuringGameplay
* DifferentWorldDifferentMovies: The theater showing ''La Revanche du Jedi'' (''Revenge of the Jedi''). Currently the page image.
* DifficultButAwesome: The Return to Sender vigor, which projects a shield that absorbs damage, which can be released back at the enemy as a projectile. However, the shield's activation window (when the casting button is pressed) is very brief and only takes effect when Booker is taking hits from the front. It's also very tricky to use offensively, especially as the projectile is very short-ranged and has a smaller area of effect than most vigors. However, with enough practice and the right timing, Return to Sender can be a life-saver on higher difficulty levels, especially against Snipers. It's also a godsend against Handymen and the Siren, as their powerful attacks are completely negated by the Return to Sender shield and can quickly charge the projectile up to its maximum damage cap. With the right gear, it also has the potential to be by far the most damaging and efficient vigor of all.
* DigYourOwnGrave: The Lutece twins are seen digging their own graves while calmly giving a bit of exposition to what's going on after [[spoiler:Lady Comstock has been "resurrected" as the Siren]].
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The relationship between Elizabeth and Songbird mirrors an abusive romantic relationship, which WordOfGod confirms is deliberate.
** In the backstory: A charismatic nineteenth-century man with an impressive beard takes control of a religion which was allegedly inspired by an angelic visitation and takes it to an uncharted territory, leading to tension with the US government. You figure it out.
** The Vox Populi meanwhile seem to take considerable influence from turn-of-the-century Anarchist movements, Communism and even the Occupy Wall Street movement to a degree.
--> '''Elizabeth:''' It seems the Vox Populi have adopted their favorite color.
--> '''Booker:''' Sounds about right.
** The whole premise of a man rescuing a girl from a tower that is guarded by a a nightmarish flying beast who functions both as a protector and a jailor is reminiscent of a common FairyTale setup.
** It goes way beyond that. Elizabeth bears more than a passing resemblance to Belle from Beauty and the Beast, and Lady Comstock's glass coffin brings to mind Snow White's coffin.
* TheDragon: Comstock has several Dragons, but the most literal example is Songbird - a clockwork cross between a Big Daddy and a [[Film/HowToTrainYourDragon Night Fury]] -- with '''''every bit''''' of the nastiness that implies. [[spoiler:You never actually fight him, however, when Old Elizabeth gives you his passcode - the musical notes C-A-G-E - he fights for ''you'' in the climactic battle with the Vox airfleet.]]
* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: Comstock's approach to baptism. [[spoiler: While being baptized would absolve him of his sins at Wounded Knee, it does so by removing his responsibility for his actions, ''not'' by making the sins themselves admirable, and ''definitely'' does not make them worthy of being enshrined in a museum]].
* DramaticIrony: Lots of it on a second playthrough, starting with the Beast trailer. [[spoiler: "Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt. That was the deal. The details elude me now, but the details wouldn't change a goddamn thing." Oh, how they would]].
* DummiedOut: A good number of things from scenes and characters to vigors and weapons, as well as some of Elizabeth's powers. In fact, virtually every scene from the initial gameplay demos got dummied out and only some of the assets were recycled; Ken Levine says that "five or six games worth of content" was scrapped during the long and often delayed development.
** Aside from all the things from the previews and demos, unused files have been found in the game, such as a texture for a [[http://www.reddit.com/r/Bioshock/comments/1i0dh9/abandoned_respawn_tomb_texture_found_in_the_game/ a "respawn tomb"]], which looks like it would have been similar to Bioshock 1's Vita-chambers, and [[http://tcrf.net/BioShock_Infinite subtitles]] for tailor vending machine dialogue.
* DynamicEntry: Booker has a gameplay maneuver for this, where he can let himself launch off of a hook or skyrail and GoombaStomp an enemy below, catching them by surprise if they were not aware of him already. Some varieties of Gear add fire, lightning or knockback to his landing.
* EagleLand: Columbia is what happens when a Type 2 gets worse. Once, the USA is referred to as the 'United States of Un-Merica' because it just wasn't psychotically racist and imperialistic ''enough'' for Columbia's elite.
* EarlyBirdCameo: Columbia stages was first featured in ''VideoGame/PlaystationAllStarsBattleRoyale'' before the main game debuted. It has two within the game, one on it's own where it's invaded by a [[VideoGame/TwistedMetal Dollface mech]] and another where the cargo plane from ''[[VideoGame/{{Uncharted}} Uncharted 3]]'' flies by the city with a blimp and Songbird flying alongside and occasionally attacking it.
* EarlyGameHell: Without Elizabeth's help, Booker is constantly outgunned during the first few levels of the game and needs to constantly move, flank, search corpses and hope he doesn't die.
** [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] if you bought the game with the included pre-order bonuses, which after the first few sparse combat encounters (shortly after defeating the first [[EliteMook Fireman]]) the game gives you several bonus [[HeartContainer Infusions]] in a row and some nice gear. These make Booker almost overpowered, until the enemy threat level gradually creeps back up.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: TheStinger suggests that [[spoiler:[[NegateYourOwnSacrifice only the versions that would have become Comstock were killed]], while the Booker that decided not to persists. With no Comstock, Booker would never be put in the position to give up his daughter to clear his debts, presumably allowing him to finally have a normal life with his daughter Anna]].
* EasterEgg: The note [[spoiler:old Elizabeth]] gives Booker decodes as [[http://www.reddit.com/r/Bioshock/comments/1bjc8y/spoilers_i_solved_a_ciphertext_handed_to_you_in/ "I AM A CODE: I SHOULD PROBABLY BE CHANGED OVER FOR SOMETHING MUCH MORE OFFICIAL IN THE FUTURE, BUT I'LL DO AS A STAND-IN FOR NOW I SUPPOSE."]] with the substitution cipher Elizabeth has on her [[http://i.imgur.com/jEtHZCa.jpg chalkboard]] earlier in the game.
** Booker comes across an incredibly disgusting toilet apparently filled with crap, buzzing with flies. If any player is brave enough to look in... it's actually full of ''[[BaitAndSwitch potatoes]].''
* EasyLevelTrick: In the Hall of Heroes both the Peeking and Wounded Knee fights, the doors lock upon entering, trapping you with little cover and a bunch of enemies. Since they lock behind you when you enter, however, there's nothing stopping you opening the door, throwing down several vigor traps, before backtracking for salt refills and ''then'' entering.
** You can plant a ton of Devil's Kiss traps in the spots where the Siren will spawn, killing her instantly each time. Fully upgraded Devil's Kiss mixed with Shock Jockey will wipe out her zombies instantly and deal a ton of damage and stunning to survivors.
** If you stick Return to Sender traps on the core during the last battle, they'll block most incoming bullets, making your job that much easier.
* {{Egopolis}}: Jeremiah Fink's Finkton. Interestingly, it's a hellhole, but he's quite proud of it.
* TheEighties: The setting of the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tMjyGJdzwk Truth From]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zin6aKnJM5Q Legend]] {{Mockumentary}} trailers.
** [[spoiler:Columbia attacks New York on December 31, 1983]].
** [[spoiler:Meanwhile, a songwriter is ripping off 80's tunes like "[[TearsForFears Everybody Wants to Rule the World]]" and "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and turning them into 1910's standards]].
** A recently released AlternateUniverse [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsJDrsKNYxI version]] of the Truth From Legend trailers focuses on [[spoiler:Rapture, as well as someone in Upstate New York who may have once been a Little Sister.]]
* EliteMooks:
** A series of videos previewed so-called "Heavy Hitters," but it turned out most of them played little role in the game. There's one "Siren," you see her in one level, encounter her three times and then she's done. The "Boys of Silence" also appear in only one level, and they're different than advertised, acting more like the cameras in the previous games. "Handymen," this game's equivalent of The Big Daddies, show up four times during the game to be fought. Only the Motorized Patriot is a frequent enemy.
** The armored enemies who tend to use the Hailfire, RPG, or Volleyguns, the Firemen, and the Zealots of the Lady fit this role much better.
* EmbeddedPrecursor: The [=PS3=] Blu-ray copy of the game will include the first ''VideoGame/BioShock1'' free of charge - but only if you're in North America.
* EmergencyTransformation: After contracting stomach cancer, a worker in one Voxophone recording was turned into a Handyman.
* EmpathicEnvironment: The weather reflects both Elizabeth's mood and the overall state of Columbia. The first half of the game, when Elizabeth is still a WideEyedIdealist, takes place in mostly sunny and warm environments. After she [[spoiler:kills Daisy Fitzroy]] and grows more shell-shocked and steely, the weather takes a turn for the worse. This is also the point when Columbia stops being such a civilized place, on the surface at least, and as [[spoiler:the Vox uprising]] gains more and more momentum, the weather becomes more hostile as well, ending in a thunderstorm for their final assault on [[spoiler:Comstock's zeppelin.]]
* TheEmpire: Columbia serves as a military powerhouse, likened to the [[StarWars Death Star]], to conquer other nations for an expansionist despot, in keeping with the theme of imperialism. Given that it's also "seceded" from the US, Columbia pretty much sees itself as an Empire-in-the-making.
* [[spoiler: TheEndingChangesEverything]]
* EqualOpportunityEvil: Both the Founders and the Vox have male and female troops trying to kill you.
* EscortMission:
** {{Averted}}, with Levine noting they made sure that working with Elizabeth was the farthest thing from an escort mission, after the criticism of the escort mission with a Little Sister in the original ''[=BioShock=]''. Elizabeth may not be in the midst of a battle, but she's not hiding either, helping to resupply Booker with ammo and vigors, or being there to use her own powers.
** Having spent the first twenty years of her life in near isolation, Elizabeth's picked up a number of other useful skills -- like cryptography and lock-picking.
** According to one internet wit, Elizabeth is actually escorting ''Booker''; he's the one who keeps running out of ammo, money, and salts, asking her to help, and having to be revived.
** Near the end, there's a mission that involves escorting an airship. This is another interesting {{Aversion}}; during that mission, [[spoiler: Songbird is the one escorting ''you''!]]
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Daisy Fitzroy gets one in her first interaction with Booker. Dangling him head-first from an airship - after one of her goons smashes him in the face [[ForTheEvulz for no reason]], she informs him there is a war beginning and he needs to choose a side, and then drops him to fall a very long way. Everything in her demeanour makes it clear Booker does not have the option of refusing to help. It's her character in a nutshell - forceful, charismatic, and deeply ruthless with no room in her mind for peaceful resolutions or abstaining from the conflict. She has a legitimate grievance, but her revolution won't be bloodless.
* [[spoiler:EternalRecurrence: An inter-dimensional example -- the Luteces have managed to kill Comstock before, but other parallel versions were found to exist in an infinite amount of other realities. Thus, in order to end the circle, they decide to cut it with utmost certainty; "smothering him in the crib" (so to speak) and preventing his existence.]]
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Preston E. Downs is a ruthless hunter who takes pride in killing non-whites (and whites who "mix in with the local color"). However, he has a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment when he sets up traps to bleed out one of Daisy Fitzroy's couriers for information and instead catches a Sioux child she sent, ''and'' finds out that Comstock was lying about his involvement in Wounded Knee.
* EverybodySmokes: Children get the 'Minor Victory' brand of cigarettes.
* EveryoneHasStandards: Columbia and Comstock's ideals are so excessive that even the very jingoistic President WilliamMcKinley considers them far beyond the pale.
** The US Government and America in general had a MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment upon realizing what happened in Peking and what Columbia really was.
* EverytownAmerica: As part of its CrapsaccharineWorld facade, Columbia deliberately evokes an idealized image of turn-of-the-century Americana that wouldn't look too out of place from ''HelloDolly'' or WaltDisney's "Main Street USA." This is soon shattered the more Booker delves into the city, and that's not even getting to [[WretchedHive Finkton]].
* TheEvilsOfFreeWill: [[spoiler:Elizabeth in an alternate timeline where she becomes the successor of]] Zachary Comstock declares in a Voxophone message that free will must be eradicated from true disciples. "For what is the value of will when the spirit is found wanting?"
* EvilVsEvil: Zachary Comstock's Founders (Bible-thumping, jingoistic bigots) against Daisy Fitzroy's Vox Populi (destructive, lawless thugs in it to destroy the Founders, whatever the cost - and that's if they're not just completely focused on raping, robbing, and murdering the local populace ForTheEvulz). This is also why neither Booker nor Elizabeth are all that eager to get involved in their civil war.
* ExactWords: Bring us the girl and wipe away the debt. [[spoiler:Booker's interpretation doesn't quite match the original intent of the order]].
* ExplodingBarrels: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in that they're barrels of fireworks for the celebration.
* {{Expy}}:
** Columbia is pretty much what would happen if [[CastleInTheSky Laputa]] was created by America. In fact, the description is effectively identical to the [[OlderThanYouThink original]] in ''GulliversTravels''.
** [[TheKlan The Order of the Raven]], with their [[TheFaceless face-concealing]] robes (blue robes in their case,) [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain pledge to safeguard the white race from "inferiors"]], and veneration of John Wilkes Booth as the man who shot the [[AbrahamLincoln Great Emancipator]], is one for the [[AcceptableTargets Ku Klux Klan]].
** Jeremiah Fink is a jovial but much more ruthless version of Daniel Plainview from ''ThereWillBeBlood''.
** The "official" story of Columbia's rise and subsequent succession from the USA is reminiscent of the Mormon experience. The truth turns out to be a tad different.
** Fink's assistant, Flambeau, bears an uncanny resemblance to [[OscarWilde Oscar Wilde]].
** Columbia's CrapsaccharineWorld facade also calls to mind Disneyland's "Main Street USA," which is based on WaltDisney's idealized memories of turn-of-the-century Americana.
** Speaking of Disney, a lot of people have described Elizabeth as "a Disney princess" pretty often. Not surprisingly, considering that at the beginning of the game her looks are very close to [[Disney/BeautyAndTheBeast Belle]] and her back story and personality have quite a lot of things in common with [[{{Tangled}} Rapunzel]]. WordOfGod is that animation principles were referenced to ensure she was expressive, appealing and distinctive - meaning large eyes, a rounded face, a fairly simple set of clothing making use of strong contrasts, and a distinctive silhouette. All of which are characteristics shared by the Disney princesses (the studio ''did'' spend several decades refining the formula).
** Much like in the classic film {{Film/Metropolis}}, all of Columbia's wealthy citizens reside comfortably on the surface, while the working class are forced to live underneath along the lower levels and operate the machinery that keeps the city running.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler: The Songbird's eyes switch to green just before dying, as Elizabeth comforts it as it drowns. Green indicates a peaceful state]].
** [[spoiler:Comstock does this also, having foreseen his death at [=DeWitt's=] hands. His last words are [[Literature/TheBible "It is finished."]]]]
** [[spoiler:Booker simply [[HeroicSacrifice allows his own daughter to drown him]] when he finds out that's exactly what needs to happen to save her]].
* FacialCompositeFailure: It pegs Booker as either a mulatto dwarf or a Frenchman with one eye; an eyewitness tells an actual sketch artist that he looks Irish, with red, curly hair. Not even close.
* FakeUltimateHero: The "Hall of Heroes" is a monument to Comstock's supposed great accomplishments in the field of battle. According to Cornelius Slate, however, Comstock was never there at all, unlike [=DeWitt=] (whom Slate remembers). [[spoiler: Since Comstock ''is'' [=DeWitt=], he really ''was'' there, but the heroics "documented" in the Hall of Heroes are still a total fiction]].
* FalseReassurance: As Elizabeth muses on how Daisy Fitzroy might be able to give the downtrodden lower classes a better life, Booker can only mutter variations on "Yeah" in a tone that clearly expresses [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized how things are really going to turn out]].
* FamilyUnfriendlyAesop: Intentionally invoked with Duke & Dimwit, a marionette show that instills in children the values that made Columbia what it is today, such as white supremacy, religious zealotry, copious weapons training, unquestioning loyalty to the government, and courage in the face of the YellowPeril.
* FateWorseThanDeath: According to Elizabeth, getting caught by Songbird and being dragged to Comstock House is either death, or something a ''lot'' like it. [[spoiler:In the glimpse of the future where that happened, it's hard to disagree with her, as she's {{mind rape}}d and lobotomized until she's a misanthropic shell of a woman]].
** If Booker spares Slate, he claims that Slate will suffer this when Elizabeth comments on it. [[spoiler: When Slate is seen again, Elizabeth agrees]].
* FauxAffablyEvil: Jeremiah Fink's sickeningly cheerful demeanor belies a ruthless sociopathic capitalist.
** Don't forget Comstock: one of the really frightening things about him is the fact that you could find him to be a kind and pious man if you didn't know he was a racist, megalomaniacal dictator who'd [[spoiler: torture his own "daughter"]]
* FictionalCurrency: Silver Eagles. There is a real life coin minted by the United States in 1986 called the Silver Eagle, but it's not the same thing.
* FinalDeath: In 1999 Mode, you lose a lot of cash when you die, at least a hundred dollars each time, and if you have less than that when you croak, it's back to the main menu for you!
* FireForgedFriends: Booker and Elizabeth.
* {{Fingore}}: Elizabeth wears a thimble on an obviously stumped pinky finger. Her finger has been that way for as long as she can remember. [[spoiler: The ending shows her losing it when an [[PortalCut interdimensional portal closes onto it]]. When she was a ''baby'']].
* FinishingEachOthersSentences: The Lutece twins are fond of this whenever they are not arguing. They do it even while they are lampshading it. [[spoiler: Turns out they're the same person from different realities, only separated "by a single chromosome."]]
** [[spoiler: May also be a result of them being implied to have been through the same basic scenario more than a hundred times before; presumably, they've gotten very familiar with whatever the other plans to say under the circumstances]].
* FinishingMove: The Skyhook lets you perform a murderous execution on any weakened enemy with a skull icon above their heads. There are sometimes advantages to this: it gives you some invincibility frames and some Gears let you gain health from executions.
* FiringOneHanded: Booker fires and reloads all weapons one-handed while on skylines by necessity. It's relatively plausible with some of the guns, but gets just plain silly when the Pepper Mill cranks itself.
* FirstNameBasis: Booker constantly tells Elizabeth to call him "Booker" instead of "Mr. [=DeWitt=]". She lapses back and forth between the names, usually depending on her trust and familiarity for him at a given moment. "Booker" is close; "Mr. [=DeWitt=]" is more distant and formal.
* FloatingContinent[=/=]WorldInTheSky: Columbia.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Beating the game and playing through again is startling; almost the ''entire game'' is filled to the utter brim with foreshadowing that makes sense on replays or analysis.
** When Booker first arrives at the tower, he sees a water tub with "Of Thy Sins Shall I Wash Thee" over it. Booker mutters under his breath "Good luck with that, pal." [[spoiler:This doesn't become symbolic until later when you learn about Booker's rejected baptism]]. And, of course, the baptism that shortly follows [[spoiler:sees Booker almost drown]]...
** [[spoiler: The blind preacher who baptizes Booker when he enters Columbia is the same one who tried to baptize Booker after Wounded Knee. The Booker we know refused the baptism; the one who accepted it took the name ''Comstock''. For extra irony points, the preacher's first words to the player are "Is it someone new?" Answer: No!]]
** Midway through the game when Booker is questioned by Elizabeth about Columbia, he says he never even knew about it before arriving. [[spoiler:This is because in his universe, Comstock (and therefore Columbia) didn't exist]].
** When Booker first enters the Monument and finds the room with the Syphon, Elizabeth is humming an anachronistic version of [[TearsForFears Everybody Wants to Rule the World]]. Hmmm...
** [[spoiler: Songbird's eye cracks from the pressure of being underwater when it seeks out Booker. Note it's a relatively ''shallow'' depth, so when Songbird ends up at the floor of the ocean]]...
** [[spoiler: Disputable, but when Booker washes up on Battleship Bay he calls Elizabeth "Anna", which she refutes. Towards the end its revealed that she actually is Anna, given up by Booker to pay a debt. Maybe he subconsciously recognizes her]]?
** The Columbia goon who [[spoiler:gets Elizabeth to confirm her identity, so the Columbian Police can ambush Booker]] asks Elizabeth if her name is "Annabelle". She refutes this, too.
** After being forced through a gauntlet of Slate's men, Booker denies the old soldier's claims that he's a hero, to which he responds "If you take away all the things that make Booker [=DeWitt=], what's left?" [[spoiler:The answer is: Comstock]].
** Throughout that entire area, Slate is constantly deriding Comstock because he believes that he was never the war hero he claimed to be. [[spoiler: Slate is RightForTheWrongReasons]].
** If Slate is [[spoiler:given a CruelMercy by being left alive, Booker and Elizabeth later find him in the bottom floor of Finkton's police station, catatonic from lobotmization. Elizabeth, in the BadFuture, suffers this fate, but unlike Slate, turns just like her father]].
** [[spoiler:Shortly before the nature of the Luteces is revealed, Rosalind can be seen posing for Robert, yet he's painting a self-portrait]].
** The true nature of the Luteces, [[spoiler:the same person from two different universes, foreshadows that Booker and Comstock are just like them, except they're separated not by a single chromosome, but by a single ''decision'']].
** In the bank, [[spoiler:Elizabeth says Comstock's tithe is a whopping 50% of everything that comes in. Booker quips that he needs to get a job in the prophet business. Comstock, as it happens, is an alternate Booker who did just that]].
** Early in Columbia, [[spoiler:the ''very first Voxophone'' Booker may find is Lady Comstock saying "Love the Prophet, for he loves the sinner. Love the sinner, for he is ''you''." Accurate in more respects than you'll likely realise the first time you hear it]].
** When you meet Elizabeth face-to-face for the first time, the huge book she was about to smash your face with is titled [[spoiler: ''The Principles of Quantum Mechanics'']].
** There's one particularly telling dialogue between the two as they go to deal with Comstock.
-->'''Booker:''' I won't just abandon you!\\
'''Elizabeth:''' You wouldn't. Would you?
** Everything Comstock says to Booker. [[spoiler:Comstock says Booker has a tendency toward self-destruction, and he's right in any reality - whether it's Booker drowning Comstock, Comstock abusing the Tears until he became sterile and sickly but absolutely at peace in the belief he would soon go to God, Booker gambling and drinking his life away, Booker allowing Elizabeth to drown him, and Comstock allowing himself to get beaten and drowned]].
** Everything Booker says to Comstock. [[spoiler:Blind with rage, howling at Comstock for all his crimes against Elizabeth? Nothing but a pretext for Booker to express his profound ''self''-loathing. Everything he says applies to him as much as Comstock. In that moment, Booker subconsciously wishes he could strangle and drown himself]].
** [[spoiler: Following the first jump through to an alternate reality and finding Chen Lin alive, but disoriented to the point that he's unaware of anything happening around him, Elizabeth comments]].
-->'''Elizabeth''': Maybe... he also remembers not being alive. What would you do if that happened to you?
-->'''Booker''': I don't know.
-->[[spoiler: ''It already did.'']]
** Before that you encounter guards you had just killed in the previous dimension. They're disoriented, and all have nosebleeds. Chen Lin is shown to have one as well. After your second hop, Booker gets a nosebleed...
** Comstock's prominent biography display in the center of the Hall of Heroes gives his birth year as 1874. [[spoiler: Anyone who pauses to do the math on that will realize he's actually ''much'' younger than his appearance would indicate]].
** In the universe(s) where the Vox successfully rebel, you come across a sobbing, hysteric woman who is ''deathly'' afraid of leaping onto a barge, and possibly falling to her death below, while her husband tries to get her to take the risk, or she'll be left behind, which would be worse than falling to her doom. When the barge leaves, it's implied she did make it. [[spoiler:When Booker's forced to relieve his attempt to get back his daughter from the Luteces, Rosalind is desperately trying to convince Robert to hop the small and unstable hole into the universe, and Robert is frozen up in fear and saying he can't go through with it, what if the gap closes and he's stuck between universes, or chopped in half...]]?
** The song that Fink sings at the Raffle is "Goodnight, Irene". One of the lyrics contains [[spoiler:"Sometimes, I've got a great notion / To jump in the river, and drown..."]]
** When [[spoiler: Daisy Fitzroy is about to kill Fink's son, she says "You see the founders ain't nothing but weeds. Cut 'em down and they just grow back. If you wanna get rid of the weed you got to pull it up from the root. It's the only way to be sure--" right before Elizabeth kills her. In the end, this is exactly what Elizabeth and Booker do; they pull Comstock out by the roots to make sure he can never have existed.]]
** As can be seen on a film projector in their conference room, the Fraternal Order of the Raven have begun to theorize that [[spoiler:Comstock is hiding mixed Native American / white ancestry, just like Booker. [[RightForTheWrongReasons (This revelation also comes purely as dumb luck, given that they "proved" it using the quack science of racial phrenology.)]]]]
* ForegoneConclusion: A rare subverted example, as the Mockumentary made by Irrational Games talks about Columbia slowly decaying in the mid-80s, [[spoiler:but that is because the Mockumentary is an alternate universe before Comstock and Booker are killed to stop Columbia from existing in the first place]].
* ForWantOfANail: Thanks to the exploitation of tears, Elizabeth and Booker [[spoiler:visit different versions of Columbia; the one they meet in, a second one where the weapon dealer isn't killed, and a third one where Booker never found Elizabeth and died a martyr for the Vox cause and incited a revolution. Interestingly, they never seem to go back to the original universe they first existed in. Of course by that point the story officially doesn't care about the politics of Columbia and starts focusing on our protagonists exclusively, and the ending kinda makes that a moot point anyway]].
** The entire story [[spoiler: is the result of another nail that occurred when Booker went to a preacher to be baptised after the Massacre at Wounded Knee. The Booker we play as ran away from the preacher, while another Booker went through with the Baptism and changed his name to Comstock and spearheaded the construction of Columbia and the sale/kidnapping of Anna from the first Booker. At the end of the game, Booker and Elizabeth change the nail into the other Booker drowning during the Baptism and preventing Comstock from existing and committing the atrocities of Columbia]].
** [[spoiler:This, in itself, leads to a nail in that it also undoes Elizabeth (we see all Elizabeths except possibly ''"ours"'' vanish as their timelines collapse, and it's left in the air if she remains or not), the Grandfather Paradox invoking as a result. The [[TheStinger epilogue]] is the alternate where Anna is not taken. The story of ''Infinite'', for all its multiple possibilities, is in fact a temporal mobius strip -- [=BioShock=] Infinity]].
* FromACertainPointOfView: Both the Founders and Vox Populi aren't above twisting history, so long as it serves their respective beliefs and goals.
** [[spoiler:Anna [=DeWitt=]'s abduction could be seen as an effort to save her life if Comstock ever foresaw the Drowning. Just an unsuccessful effort]]...
* FromBadToWorse: The setting of Columbia gets more and more chaotic as you go through the game, until in the end it's virtually a ghost town from all the infighting. However, part of this is due to [[spoiler:entering two tears to go into different, worse versions of Columbia]], so the chaos can partly be attributed to that, and may not have been in place [[spoiler:in the first Columbia visited]].
* FromDressToDressing: If you fail to spot [[spoiler:the Founders' ambush in the airship station and end up [[ImpaledPalm stabbed with the letter-opener]]]], Elizabeth uses her scarf to dress the injury. The scarf remains in place for the remainder of the game.
* GameplayAndStorySegregation: The hidden rooms cannot be open until you find something that tells of its location (IE hearing a recording of where the button is or finding the secret code). This made pretty clear where the button for the door under the cash register won't even appear until you listen to the Voxophone telling of its existence.
* GatlingGood: The "pepper-mill" crank gun wielded by the [[MechaMooks Motorized Patriots]]. You can use it as well.
* TheGayNineties: The general atmosphere of Columbia, which was launched a good fifteen years before the events of the game. A number of scenes are also set around 1893. [[spoiler:Including Anna's capture and the PlayableEpilogue]].
* GenderIsNoObject: The Columbia police force employs several female officers alongside the male ones. One of the male officers even mentions his hatred of misogynists alongside his hatred of unions and the Vox. Given how [[DeliberateValuesDissonance regressive the Founders are in a lot of other areas]], this bit of extreme progressive gender views for the time (this was an era where in most of the western world women were still struggling to get the right to ''vote'') might count as a PetTheDog bit on their part. However, since Comstock wanted to install his daughter as his successor, squashing the misogynist views of the time was probably a deliberate attempt at paving the way for her.
* GenreShift: From what's currently known, the ''Burial at Sea'' DLC seems to be taking the game into a noir themed romp through Rapture, [[JustBeforeTheEnd the night that Rapture's civil war begins]].
* GiantMook: There's an entire range of these, dubbed 'Heavy Hitters.' They range from the previously-seen Handymen to Devil's Kiss flinging Fireman to heavily-armed robots such as the Motorized Patriot and others that are significantly weirder. They're all designed not only to give Booker a bigger challenge than the regular mooks of Columbia, but also to look as creepy as fuck.
* TheGildedAge: An undercurrent theme running through parts of the game. You have happy Columbian citizens, but they are supported by a vast underclass made up of "undesirable" immigrants kept in UrbanSegregation from the rest of the city. You have characters like Fink, who acts like a [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Robber Baron]] to an [[UpToEleven even more excessive degree]] (with Finkton being a glorified CompanyTown that ''literally'' has gold gilding in public avenues just to stress this), and a society which cracks down on this so hard that, absent any attempt at reforms, [[BombThrowingAnarchists uprising becomes inevitable]].
* GirlInTheTower: The plot apparently starts out like this, with Booker sent to find a girl imprisoned in a tower atop a city floating several thousand feet in the air. It gets [[{{Understatement}} a little more complicated than that]] when it's revealed the girl has RealityWarper powers[[spoiler:, and even more complicated when you figure out that that isn't where the plot actually started]].
* GoodNeedsEvil: One of the early audio logs asserts that without sin, Columbia would have no reason to exist.
* GoodScarsEvilScars: Booker has the initials "A.D." etched into his skin of his right hand, which he explains came from a past transgression and serve as a reminder to him. [[spoiler:It turns out to be the initials of his daughter's name: Anna [=DeWitt=], as penitence for giving her away as an infant to wipe away his gambling debt. Comstock knew of both Booker's brand and Booker's eventual arrival in Columbia through Elizabeth's rifts, which is why he knew how to warn the others of the "False Shepherd."]]
* GoryDiscretionShot: When you deliver the MercyKill to [[spoiler:Cornelius Slate]], the camera shows him guiding your gun to his forehead, but then moves upwards, instead focusing on Elizabeth's reaction, who was standing in the background.
* GraveRobbing: When you reach the cemetery, some Vox are digging up the graves in search of gold.
* GrenadeLauncher: The game has the Volley Gun and the Vox Hailfire; both have more ammo than most examples, and the Hailfire has the option to detonate its ammo manually. For these reasons, both weapons are recommended for taking down many of the game's Heavy Hitters.
* GreyAndGreyMorality: You play as a disgraced PinkertonDetective, and as noted above both of the enemy factions are {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s ''at best'' by the time you arrive. As the game progresses however, it soon becomes a case of BlackAndGreyMorality.
* GroinAttack: Elizabeth does this to an undercover police officer in an ambush early in the game.
* HandCannon: There's a revolver in game that is called the Hand Cannon.
* HandWave: The outrageous impossibility of the Sky Rails is handwaved by Booker mumbling something about magnets when he first uses them (or so he assumes, but it's never really explained).
** The city floats from "quantum mechanics". Elizabeth ''does'' state the principle that enables the city to fly, sort of, but it's still kind of ludicrous.
* HappinessInSlavery: The citizens of Columbia sincerely believed in this, which is why they see Lincoln as a traitor for freeing the slaves.
-->'''Zachary Comstock:''' What exactly was the Great Emancipator emancipating the Negro from? From his daily bread. From the nobility of honest work! From wealthy patrons who sponsored them from ''cradle'' to ''grave''! From ''clothing and shelter''!
* HarderThanHard: 1999 Mode. When you die, it costs 100 silver eagles to revive. If you don't have 100 silver eagles, then it's [[KilledOffForReal game over]]. Enemies also have a lot more health while Booker has a lot less. Also, Navigation Mode is disabled. Hopefully you went through the game on Hard first...
* HaveAGayOldTime: Very early on, you come across a barbershop quartet performing ''God Only Knows'' in front of a sign that, among other things, proclaims them to be "Columbia's Gayest Quartet".
** "Faggots was stacked in the courtyard..." He means the bundles of sticks used for building fires... meant for putting people to the torch.
* HelloSailor: Booker gets chatted up at the fair with this line, by a naval gentleman who then chuckles "any port in a storm, if you get my meaning".
* [[spoiler: TheHeroDies: At the end of the game Booker/Comstock is drowned by multiple versions of Elizabeth so Comstock will never exist. Fortunately, this causes the TemporalParadox to collapse to a state where he couldn't have possibly sold Anna and caused the entire story to happen, so he ends up having [[EarnYourHappyEnding earned his happy ending]]]].
* HeroicMime: Averted by Booker [=DeWitt=], who, in contrast to the previous two protagonists in [=BioShock=] games, speaks freely in gameplay, and not only cutscenes. FirstPersonGhost, is, curiously, not averted, however.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Aside from the ending, apparently in one reality, Booker became a Vox Populi and died, becoming a martyr that the faction rallied around]].
* HiddenElfVillage: {{Averted}} - ''everyone'' knows about Columbia. Subverted though in that the mysterious strangers actions seem to imply that ''getting'' there is a pain. It makes sense, since not only does the game takes place before the proliferation of airplanes and the invention of radar, but while everyone knows that Columbia exists, no one knows where it ''went''. Played straight though, because nobody knows about it even '''in TheEighties''', when those things ''are'' commonplace. But that can be explained away with the Tears.
* HoldTheLine: The last mission.
* HonestJohnsDealership: The vending machines have an element of this.
-->"A guarantee? Who has time for all that paperwork?"
--> "Who needs competition when you have ''quality?''"
* HopeSpot: Constantly whenever it seems Booker and Elizabeth are on the verge of leaving Columbia. [[spoiler: The first time, Elizabeth knocks out Booker when he reveals he's trying to deliver her to someone. She tries to commandeer the ship but is forced to flee when the Vox Populi invade, leaving Booker to deal with them. The second time is shortly after they kill Daisy and once more are on the verge of leaving, only for Songbird to crash their ship. The two then realize they won't be able to leave unless they deal with him and Comstock first]].
* [[spoiler: HotDad: Booker. The women early on comment on his looks (before he's revealed as the "False Shepherd"), and he's Elizabeth's father]].
* HugeGuyTinyGirl:
** Wanted posters for Elizabeth and Booker state their heights to be 5'1/2 and 6', respectively.
** Elizabeth and Songbird. (Assuming Songbird is/was a guy, it is referred to with masculine pronouns by Elizabeth.)
* HyperactiveMetabolism: As with the earlier games, eating restores health, and you're much more likely to rely on the food since you can't store medkits any more. Some drinks restore [[{{Mana}} Salt]], smoking restores some Salt at the cost of health, drinking alcohol has the opposite effect. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXv4vsbIMts And of course]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4sTH2SSlxk there's absolutely no limit]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3DHGGBCSdw to how much you can eat or drink.]]
* HyperspaceArsenal: Averted; unlike previous games, Booker can only carry two weapons at a time.
* {{Hypocrite}}: The Vox Populi. In the flash game they give you missions because they want you to get the weapons off the street, only for the next mission to show they actually want the weapons to use themselves.
** There's also Comstock, for a multitude of reasons. [[spoiler: The most readily apparent, in retrospect, is how he claims unbelievably egotistical glory for his service at the battle of Wounded Knee (as seen in the Hall of Heroes), despite getting baptized specifically because of unbearable guilt from taking part in the campaign. Compared to Booker, who refused baptism, and was very firm in refusing being called a hero for his actions there in his dealings with Slate]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:I-P]]
* IDieFree: [[spoiler: Captain Slate's unit of ex-military men, cornered in the Hall of Heroes, force Booker to kill them in battle rather than be captured by the Founders and tortured]].
* ImpaledPalm: Happens to ''Booker'' while at a ticket counter. Booker rests his hand on the counter top, impatient with the man on the other side talking on the phone instead of selling him a ticket. Unless you draw on him, the guy turns around and pins Booker's hand to the counter with a sharpened letter opener.
* [[ImportedAlienPhlebotinum Imported Interdimensional Phlebotinum]]: [[spoiler: Fink seems to have spent a lot of time exploring the Tears, which is implied to be the source of the technology behind the Vigors, Songbird, the advanced AI... and the music]].
* ImproperlyPlacedFirearms: Many of the guns were [[AnachronismStew created after 1912]] or are [[CoolGuns pure science fiction]], due to the citizens of Columbia [[spoiler: stealing future weapon technology from tears in space time]].
* ImportantHaircut: Elizabeth cuts off most of her long hair [[spoiler:after she commits her first direct murder]].
* ImprovisedWeapon: The skyhook doubles as a brutal face-wrenching, bone-shredding claw. It sees a lot of use this way before actually getting near a skyline.
* InfantImmortality: Civilians and children in Columbia will mysteriously disappear the second a gunfight starts. The one time the game shows a child in mortal peril, he gets rescued almost immediately, and then disappears just like the rest. Also, in those occasions the player can open fire on the civilians, adults can be killed but children are impervious to any amount of shooting and bombing.
* InMediasRes: Aside from the numerous flashbacks peppered throughout the game, the immediate events of the game begin[[spoiler: when the Luteces bring the Booker we play as into their reality; Booker doesn't immediately remember this despite this occurring mere minutes before the game's opening because his mind is struggling to construct new memories to comprehend a new reality. And this is to say nothing of the hints showing that this isn't the first time the twins have done this to a version of Booker]].
* InSpiteOfANail: A theme of the game. [[spoiler:You never row the boat, the coin is always heads, you always get ticket number 77, a baptized Booker always becomes Comstock. Not to mention "there's always a man, a lighthouse, a city."]]
* IntercourseWithYou: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb_YnL2q0KU Makin' Whoopee]].
* InvisibleWall: In many places. In Battleship Bay, you can't walk more than a few feet into the water. After the first little area, they aren't used to prevent you from plummeting to your doom, though falling generally just teleports you back to safety with a red flash and a small drop in health.
* IronicNurseryTune: According to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkMjLxMxR-A the faux documentary]]:
-->Songbird, Songbird, see him fly\\
Drop the children from the sky\\
When the young ones misbehave\\
Escorts children to their grave
* {{Irony}}: The founding fathers best-known for promoting the separation of Church and State and racial tolerance are, in Columbia, worshipped as religious figures promoting incredibly vicious and dogmatic state-enforced racism.
** At one point, you get a voxophone made by Comstock that asks that if a man in baptized then it's a sinner before the baptism and a saint after it. He then goes on to say that perhaps the man in the process of the baptism is both sinner and saint. [[spoiler: Comstock is the greater sinner even though HE'S the one that was baptized. Furthermore, Booker needs to be drowned during a "baptism" to stop the sinner from emerging]].
** Preston E. Downs murdered white people for mating Native Americans and scalped them. He has a HeelFaceTurn after wounding a Native American kid. To add to the irony, he made the full turn after a white man with Native American heritage taught him the kid's language. Additional irony comes from the fact, that he was going to have the kid scalp the white man, [[spoiler: who was an alternate reality version of Booker, the white man in question]], who brought suffering to Native Americans, the very group of people he himself used to prosecute.
* ItWillNeverCatchOn: Booker, upon seeing [[spoiler: Rapture]]:
-->[[spoiler: "A city at the bottom of the ocean? Ridiculous."]]
** A lady at the fair scoffs at the excessive number of ice cream flavors - four of them!
* JekyllAndHyde: In an intricate way. [[spoiler:Booker and Zachary Comstock are the same person, only Booker comes from a reality where he made a significantly different choice decades ago]]. In the beginning, it isn't technically a Jekyll and Hyde situation. They do not share a body, as they have not actually "merged" like the unfortunate dead/living soldiers, or [[spoiler:dead Chen Lin brought in from the first timeline we walk through, and living Chen Lin from the second timeline we enter]]. Metaphorically, though, [[spoiler:Comstock]] is a manifestation of the evil within [[spoiler:Booker - both are single-minded, cynical and have a high capacity for violence. Booker is willing to committ massive manslaughter and serve blatant lies to reach his goal (which in the beginning of the game is even quite morally corrupt)]]. Later on, the metaphor becomes physical reality. Firstly, [[spoiler:when Booker kills Comstock but is forced to take charge of the Hand of the Prophet and use the Songbird to destroy a Vox Populi attack. Temporarily, he is Comstock in both biology and social function]]. Secondly [[spoiler:when he is transferred back in time to actually merge with the earlier version of himself that is set on the path of becoming Comstock. When this past Booker "remembers" his future actions as the Hyde, observed from outside, he chooses to let himself be killed. The hero has, indeed, "caught himself"]].
* JesusTaboo: Despite the fact that the setting is drowning in the language, decor, and hymns of the Third Great Awakening, there is almost no mention of Jesus--largely because Comstock and the Founding Fathers have replaced Jesus and the Prophets in all but name. The only time Jesus actually receives a namedrop (other than Booker murmuring the name as a curse at one point) is from the preacher [[spoiler:attempting to baptize Booker after Wounded Knee. A marked contrast to the baptism in Columbia, where Booker is baptised in the name of Comstock, the Founding Fathers, and God. In that order]].
* JigsawPuzzlePlot: "Bring us the girl, wipe away the debt" seems pretty straightforward as a premise, doesn't it? Well, you'd be surprised.
* JumpScare:
** After finding the switch that opens the door to the Warden's office, you turn to find a Boy of Silence about an ''inch'' from your face. It promptly shrieks at you. It's just about the only jump scare in the game, making it all the more effective.
** In-story example: the Boxer Rebellion and Wounded Knee walk-through displays both contain a cheesy jump-scare figure pop-up that Elizabeth reacts to.
** Elizabeth also has the same reaction to a large Songbird toy, in the toy store in Soldier field, due to the noise it plays when she walks past it.
* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: Daisy arguably does this [[spoiler: when she decides that you have to die because you confuse her "narrative." She's ''definitely'' done it when she decides to shoot a young boy for being the child of a Founder]].
* JustBeforeTheEnd: The upcoming ''Burial at Sea'' DLC apparently takes place in Rapture right before it all goes to hell.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: [[spoiler: While the Vox Populi are equally ruthless and brutal in their own way towards the Founders and their supporters once they launch their revolution]], it's hard to feel too sorry for their victims, after having seen first hand just how vile the Founders are and can be. [[spoiler: Even more so when you learn and see exactly what Comstock and his followers do to Elizabeth, as well as what Comstock has planned for the rest of America. After everything the Founders do, it's hard not to feel the Vox are justified to some extent when they execute Columbian troops]].
** More specifically, when [[spoiler:Daisy kills Jeremiah Fink with a headshot after hearing him beg]], you'll probably have to resist smiling in that moment.
** [[spoiler: Dr. Powell pleading with Booker to turn the device back on while Elizabeth summons a deadly tornado is maliciously satisfying - moments ago, Elizabeth was screaming at him to stop what he was doing, and he refused. Now the tables are turned]].
** [[spoiler: You don't ''have'' to murder the doctors maintaining the equipment to shut off the device, since all they do is cower in fear when you approach, but damn if it isn't ''incredibly'' satisfying [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge to make them pay for what they're doing to Elizabeth]]. Besides, who's to say that they don't simply turn the machines back on in an alternate universe. It's not like the game gives you the option to force them out of their control rooms]].
* TheKlan: The Fraternal Order of the Raven is a Klan-type group wearing blue or black robes and hoods and revere John Wilkes Booth as a hero and patron saint, and consider Abraham Lincoln a traitor ("The Great Apostate"), blaming him for the American Civil War and hating him for freeing the slaves.
* KleptomaniacHero: You can grab everything not nailed down, including eating people's lunches and searching their purses right in front of them. It does kind of enhance the impression of how ''off'' the citizens are, though. Later in the game, people will attack [=DeWitt=] if he steals from them, though these items are clearly marked.
** Of course, you are able to shoot anyone and everyone in an area (except children) so after slaughtering everyone in the area there is no-one left to complain about your theft.
* KonamiCode: Unlocks the 1999 difficulty level early... though you probably need a run-through at a lower difficulty to not be completely frustrated.
* LaResistance: The Vox Populi started out as this, only to degenerate over time into a mindless mob bent on nothing but violence against anybody who might even be tangentially connected to the Founders (you can hear a Vox leader telling his underlings to kill anyone wearing glasses). Of course, they still believe themselves to be in the right.
** Incidentally, [[spoiler: it becomes difficult to pinpoint how violent the Vox's revolution will be after each timeline change. They are most violent in the version where Booker aided them and became a martyr for their cause. While undoubtedly readying for a violent uprising even in the original timeline, RetroactiveContinuity comes into effect and has certain effects on the Vox Populi]].
* LargeHam: Steve Blum as the Motorized Patriots. And the man announcing about them to children.
** Cornelius Slate is no slouch when it comes to hamming it up, either.
* LateToTheTragedy: Purposefully averted. Whereas in the original ''VideoGame/BioShock1'' you arrived in the aftermath of the conflict, this time you arrive in the middle of it.
** [[spoiler: Around halfway through the game, it's become clear that Booker has ''caused'' the conflict, and by the end of the game Columbia is in just as bad a state as Rapture was]].
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: Toward the end of the game, [[RealityIsOutToLunch excessive tears in reality]] begin to get a little... meta. Specifically, [[spoiler: when Elizabeth begins talking about (and demonstrating) the multiple {{Alternate Universe}}s that are created from each set of constants with different variables. She is not only talking about what can be done in the context of the game's canon, but how it relates to other canon like the first ''VideoGame/BioShock1'', or WhatCouldHaveBeen in this own story (demonstrated by the appearances of other Elizabeths which were changed or otherwise DummiedOut.) She is not talking about in-story possibilities, but also about the process of making a story for a game to begin with and all the different directions it could have gone]].
-->'''Elizabeth:''' There is always a man, always a lighthouse, always a city.
* LiarRevealed: [[spoiler: Booker is told to tell Elizabeth whatever she wants to hear in order to convince her to go with him. Booker tells Elizabeth that they are heading to Paris, as it is a city she has dreamed of visiting. Elizabeth's knowledge of navigation allows her to deduce that Booker is not taking her to Paris, but instead to New York. Elizabeth runs away from Booker; however, they ultimately decide to stick together]].
* LimitedLoadout: Unlike [[VideoGame/BioShock1 Jack]] and [[VideoGame/BioShock2 Subject Delta]], Booker can't carry every gun in the game at once. The player gets any two at a time plus the Skyhook QuickMelee, but every vigor is available once found or bought with no slot system like the earlier games had for plasmids.
* {{Lobotomy}}: The fate of [[spoiler:Slate]] if his life is spared. Because TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything, you can opt to [[MercyKill put him out of his misery]] and Elizabeth will comment on it, saying, "I guess that's what he wanted."
* LonelyPianoPiece: Many instances in the game, but [[spoiler: in particular when each alternate Elizabeth disappears with a single piano note. The last note is struck right when the screen fades to black]].
* TheLostLenore: Lady Comstock, so so much. [[spoiler:And so, so played with]].
* LotteryOfDoom: In what is almost certainly a ShoutOut to ''Literature/TheLottery'', when you arrive everyone is quietly excited about a mysterious drawing. Booker wins, and it turns out to be for the "honor" of stoning of an interracial couple (with baseballs, because it's just more American that way.) You have the option of trying to throw at the couple, the announcer, or letting the time on the decision run out and [[TakeAThirdOption not throw at all]]. Though this does result in [[NoPointsForNeutrality not being able to receive gear from either the couple or Fink's assistant]].
** Levine noted with some amusement in a pre-release interview that, as of the time of the interview, none of the play testers or media members who were trying out the game had yet thrown the ball at the couple.
* LovecraftianSuperpower: The Vigors.
* [[spoiler: LukeIAmYourFather: Comstock is two things: Elizabeth's father]]...
** [[spoiler: LukeYouAreMyFather: ...and an AlternateUniverse version of Booker]].
* MacrossMissileMassacre: The Vox Populi zeppelin launches one of these at Booker and Elizabeth during the E3 trailer.
* MaddenIntoMisanthropy: [[spoiler:In the reality (or realities... or even the future of that reality) where Elizabeth was dragged to Comstock House and Booker was unable to save her from it, Elizabeth gets tortured, driven into despair by Booker's promise of finding and rescuing her never being fulfilled, and slowly {{mind rape}}d over the years until she's just like Comstock, and leads Columbia to lay waste to America]]. She has a change of heart far, far too late.
* MagicByAnyOtherName: Vigors, replacing Plasmids. Bonus: no more jabbing yourself with huge painful-looking syringes. Downside: quaffing them causes ''very'' disturbing visions of their effects on your body, such as flesh flaking away into ash, skin cracking and peeling like dried mud, or sharp crystals growing into your palms like broken bones.
* MagikarpPower: At first, the Charge Vigor might seem a little underwhelming. However, when fully upgraded and supplemented by the right gear, it can make melee one of the most effective play-styles in the game.
** This is trope is inverted and played straight with the Machine Gun. Although it is reasonably effective early on, it will quickly lose ground afterwards against tougher enemies. When fully upgraded and used in conjunction with the Bullet Boon or Ammo Advantage gear, the Machine Gun has a larger clip size than the Crank Gun, is about as deadly as the shotgun at close to medium range, and will almost never run out of ammunition as it is the single most common firearm in the game.
* MalevolentMaskedMen: So very many, but notably the [[FantasticRacism Fraternal Order]] [[TheKlan of the Raven]].
** The residents of [[BedlamHouse Comstock House]] also wear UncannyValley porcelain masks of old presidents.
** Female members of the Founders wear porcelain masks modeled after Lady Liberty.
* MalignedMixedMarriage: Booker [=DeWitt=] gets the dubious honor of being the first to throw a baseball at a Negro-Irish couple being paraded on stage through a backdrop set of monkeys while "Here Comes The Bride" plays in the background to mock the couple, basically to set an example about "proper marriages and race relations" within Columbia's society structure.
* ManifestDestiny: Something of a background theme in the game, Columbia itself being almost a monument to its success.
* MasterOfNone: The Burstgun. Unlike its Carbine counterpart, the Burstgun has a thirty-round clip, fires in three shot bursts and has a low-magnification optical sight. However, the Burstgun's recoil is so bad that the second and third shots will almost always miss at medium and long range. To top it all off, weapon upgrades for the Burstgun (which change it from a terrible weapon to decent workhorse) are extremely expensive.
* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: Immediately after Elizabeth [[spoiler: teleports to Rapture and drowns the Songbird, you can see through the window a Little Sister crying over a fallen Big Daddy.]] It's meant to symbolize the constant/variable theme that the following scene makes more explicit.
* MeaningfulName:
** Elizabeth's ability is the power to open "tears" in space-time into alternate realities, making the possibilities of what she can do truly "infinite". [[spoiler: This really comes into play in the ending]].
** The Vigor "Murder of Crows", both in its nature for summoning killer crows, and the fact the word "murder" is another way of saying "group of crows".
** "Vox Populi" is Latin for "Voice of the people". The expression is used to mean "the public opinion" or "the word on the street". There's a further connection here: the term is part of an old aphorism "Vox populi - Vox Dei", ''The voice of the people is the voice of God''. There is also the phrase "Vox populi - Vox Diaboli" expressing the opposite sentiment: ''The voice of the people is the voice of the Devil''. Indeed, one of the earliest written references to the phrase is in a 798 letter to Charlemagne, where the scholar Alcuin writes: "And those people should not be listened to who keep saying the voice of the people is the voice of God, since the riotousness of the crowd is always very close to madness." All of this is [[spoiler:quite apt considering the plot of the game]].
** Elizabeth's own name is a cognate of Biblical "Elisheva" -- "God's promise". Seeing how Comstock, who groomed her as his tool, gave it to her, it's probably intentional.
** Don't forget Booker [=DeWitt=], sharing a name with Bryce [=DeWitt=]. [[spoiler:Bryce is a renowned gravity and particle field theorist. Not exactly Booker's area of expertise, but remind me: How does Columbia stay afloat]]? The same Bryce [=DeWitt=] was also the creator of [[spoiler:the theory of multiple universes]].
** "Fink" started out as a slang term for a strike-breaker, which Jeremiah [[BadBoss would probably approve of]].
** Zachary Hale Comstock:
*** He is named after [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Comstock Anthony Comstock]], an extreme religious zealot who was the US Postal Inspector in the same timeline Columbia was built and launched, and was responsible for the Comstock Act, which forbade any "immoral" materials being sent via mail. He was racist, destroyed anything he found "immoral", and was a ''major'' hypocrite - just like Zachary.
*** In a game so chock full of meaningful names, let's take a look at "Hale". According to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hale_(surname) the other Wiki]] that surname can have three meanings: "healthy", "hero" or "person who lives in a hollow, or valley". All those three meanings would be pretty ironic when applied to [[spoiler:a deathly ill villain who lives in a city in the sky]].
*** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zechariah_(given_name) Zachary]] means "God has remembered". This name also appears a bit ironic: it is Booker who remembers his past sins and dwells on them, while Comstock believes that becoming cleansed through baptism allows him to forget them and start everything anew. Unfortunately, forgetting your sins apparently means repeating them - and replacing them with an even worse zealotry.
** The Lutece twins: "Lutece" is modern French for Lutetia, the name of Paris during Roman times. Paris is used as a symbol of the modern and the future in this story: Elizabeth, who represents possible futures, yearns to go to that city, which is in 1912 pretty much the antithesis to Comstock's Columbia. Her apartment is plastered with posters depicting Parisian life. The first time she opens a tear it is into precisely Paris in the future (the 1980s). The Lutece twins are literally called "the Paris twins", only with an anachronistic name for Paris. This hints at the nature of the plot, and particularly the role of the Lutece twins in it - [[spoiler:as the creators of tears through time and space]]. Their name is also used as an elaborate pun: [[spoiler:Booker promises Elizabeth to take her to Paris, while he is in fact secretly attempting to bring her to his employer in New York. But it is revealed in the ending of the game, that if he had really brought her to his employer, he would in fact be bringing her to Robert Lutece - bringing her to Paris, indeed]].
*** [[spoiler:Possibly also a reference to the Trojan War, where Paris steals away a girl which brings about the destruction of Troy. Here, Lutece takes away a girl which sets off a series of events that destroys Columbia. At the very least, it's a use of Lutece/Paris as an ill-advised kidnapper of women]].
* MechanicalHorse: They pull carts around the city, whether the driver is conscious or not.
* MechaMooks: The Patriots are robotic caricatures of the Founding Fathers that pack some [[MoreDakka serious heat]].
* MegaCorp: Jeremiah Fink's business ventures are pervasive throughout Columbia and even extends to ground-based connections. [[spoiler:In the 1984 scenes, there's even mention of a "Fink Enterprises" being listed in New York]].
* MenstrualMenace: A chart in the Columbia tower shows that Elizabeth's powers gained a massive spike after her first period.
* MickeyMousing: Slaves at Fink Industries are forced to perform their jobs to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAsM3GWW2Os a droning, discordant, thoroughly miserable waltz]] (A heavily-distorted, lo-fi version of Frederick Chopin's Nocturne in E-flat major, Op. 9, No. 2, to be precise), moving with a loud tick on every third beat.
* MindScrew: The various shots scattered around the [[http://youtu.be/hvX0D3j4gbE Lamb of Columbia]] trailer, which shows: [[spoiler:Elizabeth on display with various zoo-like factoids in a condemned Mounument Island, an audibly enraged Comstock refusing to "give up his Lamb", hints of some terrible plot by the Founders, Elizabeth holding her head in pain, and ending with Booker and Elizabeth in a cornfield with a tornado coming towards them]].
** [[spoiler: Every plot induced death where Booker wakes up in his office is one]].
** The ending is a 15 minute long MindScrew.
* MightyWhitey: [[http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2010/09/washington_final.jpg This mural]], featuring George Washington in an elegant and shining outfit holding the Liberty Bell in one hand and the Ten Commandments in the other, rising up above dreary, poor and pathetic racist caricatures of all races.
* {{Mockumentary}}: The videos of ''Columbia: A Modern Day Icarus?'' Which is a documentary of Columbia, based on evidence left by a segment of Columbia which crashed on the Alps.
* MoodWhiplash: Being [=BioShock=], the dark turn was expected, but still. When you arrive in Columbia, the place is beautiful and brimming with life in a cheerful fairground setting. While some things may feel a little off, there's no sense of particular danger just yet. Then you win the raffle, and what's your prize? [[spoiler: First throw at the public stoning/execution of an interracial couple]]. Immediately after that, you proceed to [[spoiler: smash a cop's face against his partner's skyhook, with the expected gore ensuing]]
** When exploring Comstock House [[spoiler:in a BadFuture where Elizabeth was never rescued, and where all victims driven insane by the tears are kept in asylum]], the tone is overall that of SurrealHorror and suspense... and then you come across a very darkly humorous film that ends the RunningGag of a cinematographer dating his films.
-->(Title Card 1) Battleship Falls - William R. Foreman 1909 No.99\\
(Movie shows the scenery, then the camera drops into the waterfall)\\
[[spoiler:(Title Card 2) William R. Foreman (Oct 13, 1867 - July 2, 1909)]]
* MooksButNoBosses: Unlike the first two ''Bioshock'' games, you never fight any of the major antagonists in a straight shootout, as each of them is either TheUnfought or dispatched in a cutscene. The Handymen and The Siren are the closest the game has to proper boss fights, but the former are not unique (there are about 4 total spaced throughout the game) and the latter isn't really a major character.
* MoralityPet: It's been stated that Elizabeth is this to Songbird. In fact, Songbird was specifically engineered to feel ''betrayed'' whenever Elizabeth escapes. She serves as one to Booker, too; for all his obvious flaws, he tries to avoid hurting her and is noticeably upset when he inevitably does.
* MotiveDecay: Part of the political extremes angle. By the time Booker sets foot on Columbia, both Vox Populi and the Founders' beliefs had devolved into blind hatred.
** [[spoiler:The motivations of Elizabeth's BadFuture self gradually devolve from fulfilling Comstock's apocalyptic dream to raze "the Sodom below" to just ''watching everything burn'']].
* MultipleEndings: [[spoiler:Subverted. Despite the previous ''[=BioShock=]'' games' multiple endings and the various choices you can make over the course of ''Infinite'', there's only one ending in this game]].
* TheMultiverse: The source of Elizabeth's power -- she can pluck anything from other multiverses through tears in the fabric of reality that only she (and Booker) can see and bring them to our universe.
** [[spoiler:This is also what causes the events of this game. The only way to stop it is to kill Booker/Comstock at the point of his baptism before any of it can happen]].
* MundaneUtility: Elizabeth can tear apart time and space, breaking open reality to reveal a different reality beneath. One of the first ways Booker sees her demonstrate this ability is when she's in an enclosed space with a ''bee'' and doesn't want to squish it in case it stings her. She opens a Tear the way a lot of us would open a window to gently shoo it away.
** Vigors are often put to more mundane purposes when they're not being used for attack and defence: Shock Jockey is often used as a power source- which forces Booker to go on a merry chase after the last bottle in the area when local machinery runs down. Devil's Kiss is advertised as being a handy torch, and in the Industrial Revolution game, it was originally marketed as a [[FingerSnapLighter solution]] to the problem of lighting a cigarette at high altitudes. Bucking Bronco can apparently be used to lift or move things in a more mundane fashion, according to fairground barkers. The Possession vendor suggests using it to avoid getting ripped off by vending machines or to ensure that phone connections run smoothly; Booker goes one step further and uses it to actually steal extra cash from vending machines. And finally, throughout the fair, Vigors are used for entertainment by both the performers and the audience.
* MysteriousEmployer: At first, you don't know ''who'' you're working for. The two people in the rowboat to the lighthouse, maybe? But they talk about you in a bizarrely aloof manner, [[ImStandingRightHere as if you aren't actually there to hear them]], and respond to everything you ask in a roundabout fashion that doesn't answer any of your questions. You get a telegram from a "Lutece," which seems to want to help, but did that person hire you? Is that the same "Lutece" who built the city of Columbia anyway? And how did [[spoiler: those two people from the rowboat ''[[MindScrew show up in Columbia itself]]'']]?
** MysteriousBenefactor: [[spoiler: R. Lutece and R. Lutece, repentant scientists, cross-timeline twins, deceased but still moving, and yes, the ones who hired you. You're their "hair-shirt," no less, because they remember paying you for your daughter. You don't, of course]]. Comstock also repeatly claims to have one, although whether he's just delusional (like Dr. Steinman was) or if he's actually managed to make contact with ''something'' is never addressed.
* MythologyGag:
** [[spoiler: One of the alternate realities? [[VideoGame/BioShock1 Rapture]]]]. In fact [[spoiler:you're taken on the same bathysphere journey from the start of [=BioShock=]... in reverse - as 1946 standard ''Beyond the Sea'' plays]].
--->[[spoiler: '''Booker:''' A city ''at the bottom of the ocean''?! Ridiculous]].
** The way the Boy of Silence [[spoiler:ambushes you in]] Comstock Tower, with you unable to move until you turn around, is exactly like how a Doctor attacks you in Bioshock 1.
** Songbird's eyes change color depending on his status (green=calm, yellow=alert, red=hostile), just like those of the Big Daddies.
** The searchlights on the Gun and Rocket Automatons act the same way. In this case, green indicates an automaton that is affected by Posession.
** A scene from the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gBVZj6ROV0&feature=plcp Beast Of America]] trailer has you rowing towards a lighthouse, opening a box and cradling a gun, which refers to Jack's arrival at Rapture in the original ''VideoGame/BioShock''. Adding further to it, the way to get to Columbia [[spoiler: is a one seated rocket ship which has a window which gives a nice view of the city once you arrive. Similar to the bathysphere which dove you down to Rapture in the first [=BioShock=]]].
** A down-on-his-luck man being hired to infiltrate an insane religious cult secluded from the rest of the world, possessing advanced technology, was the pitch of the original Bioshock.
** Elizabeth:
*** Being known as "The Lamb of Columbia" seems to be a CallBack to Sophia Lamb from ''VideoGame/BioShock2''.
*** Her role is extremely similar to Eleanor Lamb: both are held captive by ''terrible'' parents who wish to use them as a sacrifice/cult leader to lead the insane masses to destroy the surface, possess terrible power, have been locked up and isolated from the populace for years, are worshiped as Messiahs, both are referred to as "Lamb", serve in supporting combat roles (though Eleanor is much more direct in combat), are influenced by the player character's actions, are [[spoiler:eventually part of a HiveMind, can potentially turn evil, and are saved by their real fathers, who die after the fact. Bonus points for Eleanor potentially drowning her mother, while Elizabeth puts Booker to the drink]].
*** Ironically, Bioshock 2 was supposed to contain flashbacks of the player character in Rapture before its downfall that [[spoiler:might be parallel universes]]. Infinite has flashbacks to Booker's life before Columbia. Bioshock 2 was [[spoiler:also was supposed to have the twist that you actually ''are'' Eleanor's father, but it's just heavily implied in the final product]].
** You find an ex-employee of a [[BadBoss deranged, evil boss]] murdered and impaled to a wall, with a sign that reads "SACKED". In Bioshock 2, you'd find similar corpses, but the wording was "YOU'RE FIRED" or "FIRED". You also get shuffled into a deadly "demonstration" of their fine products to prove your worth, both of which include robotic enemies.
** An "amusement" park meant to inform that's really more to scare the kids and keep them in line, or indoctrinate them to the nation's cause. In Bioshock 2, it was Ryan Amusements, here, it's the Hall of Heroes.
** The code for an elevator is 0451, which is a reference to the title of ''{{Literature/Fahrenheit451}}'' as well as door codes in all of the following games: both ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' games, ''VideoGame/DeusEx'', the first ''[=BioShock=]'', and ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution''. Yeah, Ken Levine (and Ion Storm) really likes that number.
** When you first arrive in Columbia, upon [[ItMakesSenseInContext entering the circle]], the first words from the priest who tries to [[HollywoodDrowning baptize]] Booker are "Is it someone new?", echoing the first words you hear from [[VideoGame/BioShock a female Splicer once you enter Rapture]].
** Comstock, like Andrew Ryan and Sophia Lamb, first contracts Booker through a video device which of course ends in threatening you.
** You find some pistol ammo sitting on a baby carriage, a callback to receiving your first weapon in the original [=BioShock=].
** A broken vending machine looks much like the tonic vendors from [=BioShock=], and laying on the ground nearby is the wrench. You can also 'hack' the vending machines with your first vigor, Possession. They dump out a number of coins.
** The Dollar Bill vending machines are all voiced by Ken Levine, in the same voice as the Circus of Values machines from the first game. They even have modified versions of the original vending machine scripts. "Come back when you've got some money, buddy!" becomes "Return when you have the currency, fella!" If you don't notice it right away, you will when you hear the Dollar Bill machine say "I appreciate a lady who appreciates value!" "A carnival of thrift at your disposal!" -- "carnival of thrift" being a rough synonym for "circus of value".
** At one point, Elizabeth knocks Booker out with a [[VideoGame/BioShock very familiar wrench]].
** At another point, Booker comes across an police illustration of what an eyewitness ''thinks'' he looks like...which very closely resembles Sander Cohen.
** Eating food or using a medical kit plays the familiar med hypo/med pack sound from System Shock 2 and [=BioShock=], respectively.
** The sound played when a new objective displays is also the same as in [=BioShock=].
** Towards the end of the game, there's a [[spoiler:JumpScare where an enemy spawns right behind you]], just like in the previous games.
** Fink puts people into categories like Andrew Ryan did. Ryan divided people into Men, Slaves, and Parasites, while Fink divides people into Lions, Oxen, and Hyenas.
** An easy one to miss but when you die, Elizabeth brings you back with a syringe filled with a green liquid. Said syringe looks just like how the original idea for said syringe was designed to look for injecting ADAM. Also ADAM itself was originally green.
** When you first enter Columbia, you end up in a church used for baptisms. The entire church is waterlogged, and you are up to your ankles in the stuff... just like you were in [=BioShock=].
* NeckLift: Booker can do this to human opponents with the Skyhook device. The game sometimes has him do a NeckSnap with the Skyhook to kill them.
* NeckSnap: Booker can do this to human opponents with the Skyhook device. The game has him do a NeckLift with the Skyhook on them first.
* {{Nerf}}: Melee attacks are significantly less useful in this game than [=BioShock=] 1 and 2. They do less damage and enemies recover from them a lot faster, and should generally only be used as a finishing blow.
** However, some pieces of gear really help melee attacks to make them even more useful than in previous games. Notably, Bull Rush gives melee attack the ability to send enemies flying 6 meters away from you, which is really helpful when surrounded by a mob.
* NeverTrustATrailer:
** All those early gameplay trailers are ''extremely'' different from the real thing. A few lines and scenes are retained but in different contexts or settings. [[spoiler: In fact the whole selling point, the civil war, is barely the focus. The whole game is more about [=DeWitt=] and Elizabeth than Columbia itself]].
** Even the TV spot for the game counts. It revolves around Booker saving Elizabeth from being hanged by the townspeople and features Booker {{one hit kill}}ing a Handyman. This doesn't happen in-game, and if it did, the Colombian military/police would be ''very'' upset with the local populace.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Repeatedly.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Comstock bears more than a passing resemblance to CharlesDarwin... or Brigham Young.
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Booker delivers a pretty brutal [[spoiler:and lethal]] one to [[spoiler:Comstock near the end.]]
* NoodleIncident: We are never directly told what horrible thing Booker did at the Battle of Wounded Knee. Those familiar with the incident can probably guess by it now being called the ''Massacre'' at Wounded Knee.
** The [[AudioDiary voxophone]] ''[[http://bioshock.wikia.com/wiki/A_Soldier%27s_Death A Soldier's Death]]'' in the Hall of Heroes plainly states that Booker received the nickname "White Injun" because he took so many scalp trophies at the Massacre.
** [[spoiler:There is an voxophone where Comstock says he was (rightly) accused of having Indian blood, so he attempted to prove it wrong by burning tepees down. With squaws inside. And we learn at the end of the game that Comstock ''is'' Booker]].
* NoOSHACompliance: The following could be considered ValuesDissonance and FridgeBrilliance, as modern public safety regulations didn't exist back then, and anyone who falls off the city might well be viewed as having been judged by God for some private sin.
** One of the means of travelling around Columbia is via a magnetic rail system known as the Skyline traversed via hand-held hooks. It's very fast, there's no safety nets, and landings appear to be rough and you'll probably feel horrible pain, but this wouldn't make gameplay fun so [[AcceptableBreaksFromReality it's an Acceptable Break for Your Shoulder...er, Reality]] as you use them. It's an (During the gameplay demo, Booker jumps from one rail to another and laughs with relief that he's not now plummeting to his death.) [[JustifiedTrope The Skylines weren't originally intended]] for people's use, according to [[WordOfGod Ken Levine]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XYPgH_HFCU&feature=relmfu in a video]], their purpose is to move bulk cargo containers about Columbia (though one [[NonPlayerCharacter NPC]] comments that reckless youths sometimes joyride on them with crude wheels.) However, the Vox have apparently been using them to smuggle themselves around the city and establish hideouts and safehouses along them in areas unreachable on foot. The hand-held hook Booker uses was one of several that were recently issued to the Columbia police to help them hunt down Vox operatives and flush them out.
** Columbia is very inconsistent about having railings and barriers at its edges. Some areas are well bounded, others have plenty of unguarded shear drops for, say, children playing tag to hurl themselves off of.
* NostalgiaFilter: Columbia pines for and embodies an America that never existed...and the city intends to impose that view by force on "the Sodom below."
* NostalgiaLevel: There isn't really any action there, but [[spoiler:part of the ending has you literally ''in'' the entrance to Rapture]].
* NotSoDifferent: Both the Founders and Vox Populi are shown to be two sides of the same extreme, ideological coin in practice, Booker noting wryly that the only real difference between Comstock and Fitzroy is spelling their names. There's also the realization [[spoiler:that Booker and Comstock, like the Luteces are two versions of the same person]].
* NothingButHits: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]. The game uses recognizable tunes from ''other'' eras to highlight [[AlienSpaceBats the effects of the Tears]].
* NoticeThis: One of the switchable options makes items you can pick up, operate or otherwise interact with glow and flash. Helpful in the darker areas.
** Elizabeth even functions as a walking, talking Notice This. She will examine the area she and Booker are in, and will point it out if she spots an important object like a lockpick or recorded message.
* NotInThisForYourRevolution: Booker feels this, especially given [[EvilVsEvil the two sides]].
* NotTheFallThatKillsYou: You can jump from one Skyline rail to another, and as long as you actually grab on to a rail, you'll be fine. Even if you fell two hundred feet. Likewise, dismounting from a skyline doesn't hurt you even if falling that same height would. Booker's vocal reaction indicates it ''hurts'', but no actual health is lost. Somewhat justified as the horizontal velocity causes him to fall forward and run a few steps when he lands from a skyline which decreases his speed over a longer period of time. It's the same reason why doing a tuck and roll after a fall is safer than stopping dead. It doesn't justify falling two hundred feet, grabbing a skyline, and NOT breaking your arm or the fact that everyone jumps down 20 feet and doesn't get hurt including Elizabeth who surely hasn't had much experience exercising or dealing with falls.
* NPCRoadblock: There are a few situations in which NPC characters (the Luteces more so than others) will block a path to force you into either making sure Elizabeth comes along or completing in a task. At one point, the Luteces do this with a piano, which Booker then has to push out of his way.
* NumberOfTheBeast: The second upgrade for the Devil's Kiss vigor costs 666 silver eagles.
* OfCorsetHurts: After Booker [=DeWitt=] frees Elizabeth from the electronic leash she was strapped to inside Comstock House, she winces in pain when Booker ties her corset while she looks at [[spoiler:the card that her future self gave Booker that contains the coded song for controlling Songbird]]. The [[spoiler:giant spike hole in her back]] probably contributed to the pain.
* OffscreenTeleportation:
** The Lutece "twins", Booker's employers, keep showing up ahead of Booker with no explanation, and disappear the second you stop watching them. Towards the end, it is revealed that [[spoiler:thanks to an "accident" with their quantum technology when Comstock wanted them bumped off, they exist throughout all of space-time, allowing them to appear and vanish at will, but usually [[StealthHiBye before DeWitt asks them something important]]]].
** Elizabeth will also occasionally pop up in places you might not expect, especially if she gets lost a ways back and needs to be brought forward. Not that she can't really hustle (she runs as fast as [=DeWitt=]), but it's a part of the game code that keeps her non-intrusive.
** Civilians will also do this if you start a ruckus in a normally peaceful area.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Elizabeth's age is hard to pin down just from looking at her; she's actually about 20 years old, but can easily be mistaken for being in her mid teens due to her short height, petite build, and the Little House On The Prarie outfit she wears for the first half of the game. To a lesser extent, Booker Dewitt is in great shape for a man who's actually pushing 40, especially someone who's lived as hard a life as he has.
** [[spoiler: The Luteces also seem remarkably young, looking more or less at their late 20's or early 30's at most. Which is a bit surprising given that their book on quantum physics was first published in ''1889.'']]
* OldTimeyBathingSuit: Sported by many visitors to beach at Battleship Bay. One of the female beach visitors will comment that she would like to see Booker in one, scandalizing her friends with how brazen she is.
* OminousFog: Happens sometimes in Columbia, sometimes obscuring visibility during a firefight, other times giving an ethereal quality to a location Booker is approaching. Of course, being a flying city, this is not ground fog, but ''clouds'' that Columbia is passing through. Some it also comes from steam vents or is just plain smoke given off by the city.
* OmnicidalManiac: [[spoiler:Bad Future Elizabeth, after she went off the deep end due to Comstock's tortures]].
-->[[spoiler: '''Elizabeth:''' There will be no salvation until the fire floods the cities and covers the plains! Once this world has been born again...a million others wait their turn]].
* OneBulletClips
* [[spoiler:OtherMeAnnoysMe[=/=]EvilMeScaresMe: Well, Booker isn't too fond of Comstock, and the feeling is damn well mutual. Subverted with the Luteces: they seem to have a very close relationship. [[SelfCest Perhaps a little too close in fact]]]].
* OutOfFocus: The first half or so of the game centers around the city of Columbia, its pristine shining display hiding the horrors rotting at the core, the extremism, the boiling political uncertainties, even the budding revolution hoping to make changes to the unfair way things are run. [[spoiler: Then Elizabeth kills Fitzroy and the story stops treating Columbia as anything but a wacky floating city the characters zip around on in favor of becoming more of a CharacterFocus on Elizabeth]].
* OurGhostsAreDifferent: In this case, they're quantum superpositions of a deceased person in both their alive and dead states, at least somewhat aware of both states simultaneously, and deeply unhappy about it. They glitch and vibrate in a manner reminiscent of demons from ''Film/JacobsLadder''.
* [[OurFounder Our Prophet]]: Statues and posters of Comstock are almost everywhere in the more affluent areas of Columbia, and he has an entire museum dedicated to his accomplishments ([[BlatantLies mostly exaggerating them]].)
* PathOfInspiration: Comstock and his cult are incredibly focused upon the notion of salvation and redemption, "washing away sins", nothing to worry about on paper. Unfortunately Comstock must have learned the wrong lesson about what redemption actually ''is'' because it seems he believes it's "proof you did nothing wrong and have no reason to change your behaviour." Hence why he's already snuffed out a bunch of people who would have called him on his misdeeds and plans on eventually blowing up the entire United States, "the Sodom Below," because it's so choked with "sin".
** Which ultimately makes perfect sense, since Comstock [[spoiler: is the version of Booker that accepted baptism believing that it completely absolved him, while Booker is the one that rejected baptism as a fantasy]].
* PassThePopcorn: You'll even find a bag of popcorn in one of the viewing rooms in the tower on Monument Island.
* ThePeepingTom: Outside Elizabeth's chambers are a bunch of one-way windows through which her captors have been monitoring her, including in her bedroom and bathroom. There are also voyeuristic photos of her (including one of her changing) hanging up to dry. She is ''upset'' when she finds all of this during the escape.
* PlatonicLifePartners: What Booker and Elizabeth develop into as the game goes on. They even refer to each other as "partner" and there's not a drip of anything remotely romantic between them at any point throughout the entire story, ever. [[spoiler: Then, of course, there's that ending, but it doesn't really factor into this trope as they were both ignorant of their relationship up until that moment]].
* [[spoiler:PlayableEpilogue]]
* PlayingWithFire: The Devil's Kiss Vigor. It behaves more like a grenade than the original game's Incinerate! plasmid.
* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: The massacre of Wounded Knee is upgraded by Comstock from an inglorious, panicked mistake (especially by the Seventh Cavalry) into a hard-fought victory against hordes of well-armed "savages". Featuring Comstock as the hero, naturally.
* PortalCut: Not an unexpected event when dealing with the opening and closing of interdimensional tears. [[spoiler: This is revealed to be how Elizabeth lost most of her pinky finger]].
* PowerIncontinence: Elizabeth doesn't exactly have complete control over manipulating the tears, as shown when she accidentally dumps Booker and herself in the 1980s before wrenching them back.
** [[spoiler: It is later revealed this is due to [[PowerLimiter the massive siphon draining her powers]]. Once it is destroyed she has complete control and understanding over it]].
* PreOrderBonus: The Industrial Revolution flash game, which gives you in-game currency and gear for completing it. Preordering over Steam got you copies of the original VideoGame/BioShock and VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown.
* PromotedToPlayable: Elizabeth is set to become the player character in Burial at Sea part 2.
* PropagandaMachine: The "Voice of the Prophet" Kinetoscopes are little more than glorified propaganda for Comstock and the Founders in general.
* ProphecyTwist: Comstock tries to engineer one: [[spoiler: His visions of the future tell him he needs an heir of his own bloodline, but he's become sterile by all that glancing into alternate worlds and futures. So he gets the child of Booker, an alternate universe version of himself.]]
* ProtectionMission: [[spoiler: There's only one instance of this, and it's the final fight of the game, where you have to defend The Hand of the Prophet from the Vox trying to destroy the core]].
** [[spoiler:Arguably, it's Songbird's job to protect ''you'' during this segment]].
* PsychicNosebleed: In the first gameplay trailer, Elizabeth gets one after doing several impressive psychic stunts in a row. This was removed along with her psychic powers in the final game. [[spoiler:Instead, ''everyone'' gets them - Booker included! - when their minds and pasts are altered by Elizabeth's manipulation of the tears]].
* PsychicPowers: Booker uses a telekinetic "[[StarWars force pull]]" and the old "[[VideoGame/BioShock1 fist fulla loitnin']]". Elizabeth has [[RealityWarper reality-warping]] powers to open tears in space-time and pull in objects from parallel universes.
* PsychoStrings: Played whenever Booker pulls off a Melee Finisher or a headshot kill. It can get a little wearing if you're pulling off a string of sniper rifle headshots...
* PublicDomainSoundtrack: The [[WolfgangAmadeusMozart Mozart]] that is the background music in the Lady Comstock memorial in the Hall of Heroes. Specifically, it is sections of Mozart's famous Requiem.
** Fink's factory features [[Music/FryderykChopin Chopin]]'s [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturnes,_Op._9_(Chopin)#Nocturne_in_E-flat_major.2C_Op._9.2C_No._2 second Nocturne]], where presumably he wants workers to work in time to this peaceful tune while he spews his drivel encouraging them to accept their awful lot in life.
** The boss fight in the Fraternal Order of the Raven features a phonograph playing [[Creator/JohannSebastianBach J.S. Bach]]'s Air on the G String for some major SoundtrackDissonance.
** A truly disturbing example occurs in Comstock House, in the room with the surreal film punctuated by accusatory glaring eyes: Pachelbel's Canon in D, so heavily distorted that even people who are [[StandardSnippet used to hearing it]] may not recognize it at first. Between the distorted classical music, the grainy black-and-white film, and the mental degradation of a major character, the whole sequence is horrifically reminiscent of Alex's undergoing the Ludovico Treatment in ''AClockworkOrange''.
* {{Pun}}: One of the vigors is the ability to sic a group of crows on your enemies. It's named ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_collective_nouns murder]]'' of crows, of course.
* PunkPunk: ''Infinite'' delves in Victorian[=/=]Edwardian steampunk, much like ''TabletopGame/{{Space 1889}}'', in addition to the Biopunk of the first two games.
* PuttingOnTheReich: For all the pretenses the Founders have of upholding "true" American values, their uniforms and gear all bear a whiff of authoritarianism mixed with influences from ImperialGermany. And given the Tears, it wouldn't be surprising if they've been copying UsefulNotes/NaziGermany's aesthetics as well. Also, Comstock has a clearly Confederate uniform in his closet (and worn by the Comstock-Mechs) and appears to want to emulate the Confederacy as much as possible.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Q-Z]]
* QuantumMechanicsCanDoAnything: All the superpowers, SchizoTech, MindScrew, and even the floating buildings in the game? It's all done with quantum mechanics... though the way the Lutece twins mention how it's done, it almost sounds like they don't believe it either - most of the technology, as well as most of ''pop culture'' is actually the result of using quantum mechanics to spy on other realities. It's still a well-researched and presented example, though;
-->'''Robert:''' Dead is dead. ''[holds a coin between him and Rosalind]'' \\
'''Rosalind''': ''I'' see heads.\\
'''Robert''': And ''I'' see tails.\\
'''Rosalind''': It's all a matter of perspective.
* RageAgainstTheHeavens: A metaphorical take on it, especially once the Vox takes center stage. Columbia is set up as being Heaven and Comstock as God of that Heaven. The members of the Vox start wearing devil costumes and covering their faces with blood or red paint when they start their revolution to bring Columbia to its knees. Even more appropriate, Booker is considered to be Satan/the Anti-christ by Comstock.
* RagnarokProofing: Played with. Columbia in general looks more or less more pristine than Rapture even with all the damage and accompanying wear-and-tear.[[spoiler:The whole multiple timeline shtick would also explain why it seems intact even in 1984]]. Over time however, the city does devolve to Rapture levels of decay. The only difference, of course, being that Rapture received more water damage than fire damage while Columbia received the opposite treatment.
* RandomDrop: The gear pickups Booker finds will be different on each playthrough, and even in different loads of the same file.
* RavensAndCrows: One of the Heavy Hitters is the Crow, who has a small flock of crows surrounding him and can transform into them to move small distances without damage. The "Murder Of Crows" vigor you get from the first one you kill lets you summon a flock, and they definitely play up the creepiness. The idle animation when the Vigor is equipped shows Booker's hand covered in feathers, his nails having turned into long black claws.
* RealityWarper: Elizabeth's powers. [[spoiler:And, through power siphoning, Comstock's visions and the Vigors and Infusions themselves]].
** [[spoiler:PoweredByAForsakenChild: [[MyGreatestFailure Literally]] with Vigors and related enhancements. It turns out that they are modified Plasmids, with the origin of the technology (Dr. Suchong's blueprints) being obtained through "[[RealityWarper tear-creating]]" powers siphoned from Elizabeth through her [[GirlInTheTower tower]]. Also, upon the destruction of the Siphon, we don't see any use of similar powers except by Elizabeth]].
** SuperEmpowering: The Boys of Silence are revealed to have tear-inducing abilities similar to Elizabeth's [[spoiler: in the BadFuture. These were likely introduced to them at a young age through the intervention of that reality's Elizabeth, for the purpose of controlling the inmates of [[BedlamHouse Comstock House]]]].
* RecycledInSpace: ''[=BioShock=] Infinite'' is ''[=BioShock=]'' [-IN THE SKY-]. Or, going further back, ''SystemShock'' [-NOT QUITE IN SPACE-].
* RedEyesTakeWarning: The Songbird. It has three settings, shown via its eyes: green for at ease, yellow for on guard, and red for hostile.
* RedHerring: [[spoiler:Elizabeth's powers. While they're a big deal, the game initially leads you to believe that they're the reason she's important and why everyone wants her. In fact, they're the result of a totally unrelated accident -- Rosalind Lutece was able to use the devices you see in her lab to open tears even without her (that was how she got her brother and Elizabeth in the first place), while Comstock wants her solely because he believes that he needs a daughter of his bloodline to rule Columbia after his death]].
** [[spoiler: The second point is at least partially subverted - it's strongly implied that Elizabeth's powers are precisely what let her "drown in flame the mountains of Man". Comstock's predictions must've somehow foreseen that]].
* RedRightHand: Inverted. Our ''heroes'' have identifying marks that give them away to anyone looking for them. Booker has the letters '''AD''' branded on the back of his right hand, and Elizabeth has lost most of her right pinky finger very early in her life.
* ReedRichardsIsUseless: Vigors are implied to be used for their MundaneUtility and commonplace (vigors can be found sitting in the street), however other than two of the Heavy Hitters no enemy mooks choose to use Vigors against Booker (despite the Vox explicitly capturing a facility that manufactures them).
* RegeneratingShieldStaticHealth: Played straight, though Booker does not begin with the shield part until a little way into the game. The shield in question is {{handwave}}d as some kind of Vigor which generates a [[BulletDodgesYou bullet-deflecting magnetic field]].
* RetGone: [[spoiler:In the end, [[EvilMeScaresMe Comstock]], Columbia and Elizabeth as we know her due to Booker's HeroicSacrifice destroying Comstock, who would go on to build the city in the first place. As this would also prevent Booker from ever selling his daughter, that would mean the entire plot doesn't happen either, which may be a plausible explanation for the after-credit scene. Unfortunately, TimeyWimeyBall may be required to explain why Comstock ceases to exist in all realities at once. See Headscratchers or Fridge pages for more]].
* [[spoiler: RescuedFromPurgatory]]: One interpretation of the ending.
* {{Retraux}}: To fit the theme, [=GameInformer=] drew [[http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/featured/irrational/bioshockinfinite/infinitespreadv2.jpg two]] [[http://gamerinvestments.com/video-game-stocks/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/bioshock-infinite-game-informer-cover.jpg covers]] in the style of ''The Saturday Evening Post'', popular in 1912.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tMjyGJdzwk Two of]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zin6aKnJM5Q the trailers]] went for the feel of a [[TheSeventies 1970's]] conspiracy television show in the style of ''InSearchOf'', with grainy visuals, crackling audio, and a VanityPlate at the beginning.
** In-game Kinetoscopes continue this trend, being short silent propaganda films with only piano music.
** The Vigor Kinetoscopes are done in the style of period film shorts and commercials.
* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: The Vox Populi winds up no better than the Founders.
** One Vox soldier is heard instructing his fellows to shoot anyone who "looks like they might be trouble. Anyone with a gun, anyone with glasses..." Pol Pot reference!
** This quote from a Vox Motorised Patriot, considering [[DirtyCommunists what it]] [[AnimalFarm alludes to]].
-->'''Motorised Patriot:''' ''The farm is now run by the pigs!''
* RevolversAreJustBetter: While you do get a [[CoolGuns Mauser]] as your first sidearm, this trope pops up with the Paddywhacker revolver-a gun so powerful it's actually referred to in-game as the Paddywhacker HandCannon.
* RoaringRampageOfRescue: Booker [[spoiler: busting Elizabeth out of Comstock House]].
** This part of the game even becomes one for the ''player'', as the game's writing and character development attempts to invoke such an emotional response.
** [[spoiler: The whole ''game'' turns out to have been one once you reach TheReveal]].
* [[RenegadeSplinterFaction Renegade Flying City]]: Columbia "seceded" from the US after what happened in China, although there are hints suggesting that relations between the government and Comstock's Founders were growing strained until that point. Despite splintering off, Columbia follows an extreme, idealized version of American Exceptionalism.
* RuleOfCool[=/=]RuleOfFun: Why don't Booker or Elizabeth or anyone dislocate their shoulders when leaping from rail to rail? Who cares!
* RuleOfSymbolism: It's not a Ken Levine game if it wasn't! Plenty is made of Christian symbolism (and perversions thereof), motifs of red represnting the Vox, the "lamb", et cetra.
* RuleOfThree: Booker is drowned three times. Once at the beginning when he's baptized, after getting Elizabeth when they splash in Battleship Bay, and at the end [[spoiler: when he's drowned by Elizabeth]].
** There are many other instances of this in the game. For example, [[spoiler:you must find three truths to bring Lady Comstock to peace, you visit three distinct versions of Columbia, three interconnected characters get drowned to death in the story, and so on]].
** There is also a recurring visual motif of three heads side by side, seen with Comstock House's Mount Rushmore-like entrance, and at the end of the game, when [[spoiler: Booker is drowned by three alternate reality Elizabeths]].
* TheSavageIndian: The Wounded Knee exhibit at Hall of Heroes portrays Native Americans as savages with glowing eyes.
* ScareChord: Since combat always has music, chords are used as both a dramatic effect and audio cue to let you know you made a kill, or your shield is lost.
* [[spoiler:SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong: The reason the Luteces brought Booker to the Columbia timeline in the first place, which he doesn't remember: to save his daughter from Comstock after having sold her away for his debts. The only way to to do this is to [[HeroicSacrifice break]] the StableTimeLoop leading to Comstock's existence]].
* SceneryPorn[=/=]SceneryGorn: When you first enter Columbia, it resembles Heaven, almost literally. It slowly becomes Hell, almost literally.
-->'''Booker''': Where am I?
-->'''Parishioner''': You're in Heaven, friend, or at least as close as we'll get 'til Judgement Day.
* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: Certain enemies do this when you use a skyline strike on them.
* ScenicTourLevel: Hoo boy. The game starts off with one of the longest in recent history, with not just the entrance into Columbia but also you spending a good deal of time walking round trying to get your bearings. Even if you're rushing it'll take about 20 minutes to get to the first combat. And in later levels this pops up ''again''.
* SchrodingersCat: Possibly the most true-to-the-original-experiment example in all of fiction. [[spoiler:In the post credits scene, Booker walks into his daughter's room, calling her name. Is she there in the crib? The game cuts to black before we find out for sure]]. Considering the whole theme of Quantum Mechanics oozing from the story, it holds extra significance.
** Foreshadowed and lampshaded by two voxophone recordings by Comstock [[spoiler: who also points out the point of divergence when Booker may become him]].
-->'''Comstock''': One man goes into the waters of baptism, a different man comes out, born again. But who is that man who lies submerged? Perhaps that swimmer is both sinner and saint, until he is revealed unto the eyes of man.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Related to OutOfFocus. Eventually, pretty much all Booker and Elizabeth care about is escaping Columbia and letting it implode before it can take them with it. Though not without trying to take out Comstock once and for all.
* SelfDeprecation:
** Elizabeth comments on the newest Duke and Dimwit cabinet.
---> '''Elizabeth''': Latest in the series. [[DevelopmentHell I heard it was delayed three times]].
** [[spoiler:In the ending when Elizabeth teleports the two to Rapture and they head topside]].
--->'''Booker''': [[spoiler:A city at the bottom of the ocean]], ridiculous.
* SelfFulfillingProphecy: [[spoiler:What all of Comstock's prophecies boil down to. He's using the Lutece's machine to see into alternate realities. He sees that his daughter will eventually lead Columbia, but using the machine has made him sterile, so he decides to buy his daughter from an alternate self who never became Comstock. It's [[MindScrew a little confusing to wrap your head around at first]] since it also qualifies as YouAlreadyChangedThePast and YouCantFightFate]].
* SelfImposedChallenge: The rare official variety, which was added to combat ComplacentGamingSyndrome. Veteran gamers who didn't like the instaspawn of ''VideoGame/BioShock1'' can play [[http://www.strategyinformer.com/news/16214/veteran-gamers-will-get-a-system-shock-with-1999-mode-in-bioshock-infinite 1999 Mode]]. Gotta pick specializations, and stick with them, for better or worse. If you don't have the resources when you're killed, it's GameOver (which is a homage to ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'', where same thing happened if you didn't have enough nanites).
** That's not all - You can get an achievement for completing 1999 Mode without buying anything from Dollar Bill machines. Given that they sell health packs, salts, and ammuntion (and are the only machines that do), it's fitting that the achievement's called "Scavenger Hunt." Because you'll be hard-pressed to get through without scrounging for every bag of chips, soda pop, and bullet you can find.
* SequelDifficultySpike: Definitely harder than the previous two games. Death is no longer a slap on the wrist since you lose money and enemies regenerate their health when you die, upgrades are ''much'' more expensive, game breakers are fewer and farther in between as well as less breaky, enemies are more aggressive and take longer to kill, and that's not getting into [[SelfImposedChallenge 1999 Mode]].
* SequelHook: Possibly. [[spoiler: TheStinger after the credits has Booker waking up in his office and running to check Anna's crib, but cuts off before we see her. However, as noted elsewhere on this page, there are several other ways to interpret this scene]].
* SequenceBreaking: The second half of the ScenicTourLevel[[note]]i.e. purchasing the Possession Vigour, the heads-or-tails dialog with the Luteces, participating in the LotteryOfDoom, acquiring the Skyhook and Devil's Kiss[[/note]] can be easily skipped by [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd9qFzCme-Q using the Possession billboard as a platform to jump out of bounds]], which drops you later in the game (where you'd normally fight the EliteMook who drops Devil's Kiss) with no enemies. Of course, this also means that the already frustrating EarlyGameHell becomes even moreso; since you don't have a pistol or Vigours, you have to do the Blue Ribbon level armed only with a low-ammo machine gun from the first mook you [[DeathFromAbove Skyline Strike]]. [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything Thankfully, the game gives you the skyhook during its tutorial, and the Possession and Devil's Kiss vigours can be purchased from Veni Vidi Vigour]].
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: Downplayed, though traces of it are present in texts and even dialogue. Justified in that the game (largely) takes place in 1912, when such Victorian-esque tendencies were still fairly common.
* ShortRangeShotgun: Averted. The shotgun is still pretty good at medium range.
* ShotgunsAreJustBetter: You are gonna get quite attached to the China Broom. There's also the Vox Heater, a blunderbuss that blasts napalm all over everything in a wide cone in front of you -- difficult to use with proper timing, but a real street-sweeper when you do.
* ShoutOut:
** At one point the Luteces can be heard discussing [[Literature/TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse the grammatical tense implications of time travel]].
** The part where Booker opens the door at the top of the lighthouse is arguably one to the end of Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind.
** The year [[spoiler: Columbia attacks New York]] is [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour 1984]].
** The Barbershop Quartet in the beginning of the game is named [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons The Bee-Sharps]].
** The code used to activate a locked elevator is [[VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution 0]][[VideoGame/DeusEx 4]][[VideoGame/BioShock1 5]][[VideoGame/SystemShock 1]].
** Two seemingly unimportant characters who wander in and out of the narrative, having disjointed philosophical conversations about the meaning of fate and flipping a coin which always turns up heads, and play a part in [[spoiler:an absolute MindScrew of the ending]]? [[{{Theatre/RosencrantzAndGuildensternAreDead}} You don't say]].
** At one point a sentient gate is unswervingly cheerful despite mistaking Elizabeth for [[spoiler:her mother]] Lady Comstock, who's been dead for years, and remarks that it's nice she took the trouble to come back. Makes you wonder if it has a [[Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy Genuine People Personality prototype]] installed.
** The government of Columbia, which encourages its people to remain content and keep their mind off any real problems, employs police enforcers known as [[Literature/{{Fahrenheit451}} "Firemen" whose job is to start fires rather than put them out]].
** [[http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130401100959/bioshock/images/8/86/Motorized_Patriot.jpg Motorized Patriot]] bear a similarity with the ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}''. Their [[MoreDakka gatling gun]] is a dead giveaway.
** The indoctrination video, with hideously distorted classical music, demoralizing voiceover, and subliminal messages, is one to Film/AClockworkOrange and Series/{{LOST}}.
** The ''Infinite'' title is one to ''{{VideoGame/Marathon}}: Infinity''. Both have a fair number of dimensional hopping, {{mind screw}}s, alternate timelines, events being repeated, [[spoiler:a MindScrew ending where a character who's been with you the entire time muses on all the multiverses and the main character's death, as their universe collapses]].
** The sandwich board Robert Lutece wears in one of the encounters [[spoiler:implies Booker has been slain 123 times, the same number of multiversal victims killed in Film/TheOne]].
** Daisy, at one point, says the only advantage colored children get is that they are "invisible" - ignored by society. This is the definition used in Literature/InvisibleMan - a minority completely ignored by society.
** It's [[VideoGame/Persona4Arena not the first time]] a guy voiced by Creator/TroyBaker has encountered a powerful girl in blue named Elizabeth. In Japanese, both Elizabeths are voiced by Creator/MiyukiSawashiro.
** Probably a coincidence, but Creator/TroyBaker just can't seem to get away from [[BatmanArkhamCity coin-flipping.]]
** Commstock and De Witt are two characters that can be found in a book in AloneInTheDark2.
* ShownTheirWork: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kkl6HrlP1zw The 2011 VGA trailer]] used a rendition of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" by the lead voice actors, which drew ire from [[MoralGuardians religious groups]] for removing a lyric with the word "lord." That's an error; the lyric was added in the Carter Family rendition "Can the Circle Be Unbroken (By and By)", [[NewerThanTheyThink recorded in 1935]]. The devs merely used the original hymn unaltered.... and it's also possible that they knew exactly what they were doing.
** The absence of the added lyric also becomes obvious when one discovers that it's being used by the Founders' religion, who worship "Father" Comstock and the Founding Fathers of America instead of Jesus Christ.
** Ken Levine actually [[http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/23/us-videogames-protest-idUSTRE7AM2M220111123 visited the Occupy Wall Street protests in Boston]] in order to make the atmosphere of the protests depicted in the game more authentic.
* SignatureStyle: Ken Levine's writing for ''[=BioShock=] Infinite'' echoes some of the things shown in his previous works. For example, the idea of taking a setting in a particular era and finding a way to [[RippedFromTheHeadlines tie it into something contemporary]] (stem-cell research in the original ''VideoGame/BioShock'' and political extremism in ''Infinite'') so as to better connect the audience with the story. His penchant for {{deconstruction}} shows up here to, deconstructing MissionControl in ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' and ''[=BioShock=]'', utopianism in ''[=BioShock=]'', and American Exceptionalism in ''Infinite''.
* SignificantMonogram: The initials 'AD' on Booker's right hand stand for [[spoiler:the name of Booker's daughter, Anna [=DeWitt=], whom he sold to pay off his debts]].
* SmokingIsCool: The "Minor Victory" brand of cigarettes use this. The citizens of Columbia still don't smoke as much as the citizens of Rapture did.
* SoiledCityOnAHill: Columbia. City of progress, of beauty, of....unbridled and unapologetic racism.
* SoloSequence: You play as just Booker, without Elizabeth, at two occasions: before you find her (obviously) and late in the game, when [[spoiler:she is finally recaptured by the Songbird and taken back to Comstock's labs]]. The latter section also doubles as a StealthBasedMission, since you are strapped for ammo without Elizabeth resupplying you and the enemies are numerous, yet easy to bypass with the right timing.
* SpySpeak: Only obvious in hindsight, but you'll see a few instances of this just before you walk into a trap, as some characters making small talk are trying to be inconspicuous about the fact they're watching you. One guy trying to order a hot dog casually but stumbling through it, for example.
* {{Squick}}: In-universe example, every time you brutally murder someone with the hook melee weapon, Elizabeth says things like, "Oh my God!" Kind of appropriate given you're tearing people's heads off.
* StableTimeLoop: Despite dimension hopping shenanigans, the major events and set pieces of the game do not change all that much, and Elizabeth says outright there's [[spoiler:"always a man, always a lighthouse, always a city."]] In the end, it's revealed [[spoiler:the entirety of the events are caused by Booker attending the baptism - which spawns countless iterations of the game's events. The only way to stop it is drown Booker at his baptism.]]
* [[spoiler:TheStationsOfTheCanon]]: An ''official'' example. Practically the Laconic of this game as a whole. It is even an ArcWords.
* StealthHiBye: The Luteces have a tendency to do this.
* StealthPun: One of the ambient NPC conversations at the fair says that before the Lamb was born, Monument Island had been the waystation for immigrants to the city. [[VisualPun It's an island]]... [[DontExplainTheJoke in the shape of an angel]].[[note]][[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Immigration_Station,_Angel_Island Angel Island]] was the immigration waystation for immigrants, primarily Asian, entering San Francisco at the turn of the century.[[/note]]
* TheStinger: Reviewers advise players to stick around after the credits. [[spoiler: We get a short scene set in Booker's office in 1893, in which he gets up and checks Anna's room. It's ''extremely'' open-ended, hence the numerous theories about it scattered across this page]].
* StockholmSyndrome: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen This was to have been Elizabeth's feelings toward Songbird]], which, during development, was described as being in love with a domestic abuser. It's mostly cut out of the final game.
** Near the end of the game, [[spoiler: despite the fact that her feelings towards Comstock are best described as "murderous rage", she seems visibly upset and conflicted as you drown the old man in his baptismal font. She even goes as far as to make a feeble attempt to stop you while you just keep laying into Comstock, out of your mind with fury]].
* StupidityIsTheOnlyOption: In the lighthouse, when the chair with the very obvious automatic manacles on its arms appears, Booker plops down and perfectly places his wrists to be trapped, despite probably every player yelling at the screen to keep his arms to himself. Granted, they're actually just safety restraints - if his hands ''weren't'' strapped in, he would have fallen into the engine - and the rocket may well be wired not to fly without wrists inside them, but you can't even attempt to avoid getting restrained.
* StylisticSuck: While it doesn't "suck" by any means, a behind-the-scenes clip shown during the game's credits of Troy Baker and Courtnee Draper practicing "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" ends with Levine asking them to sound less professional, more like the amateurs their characters would be. In the final version, Baker is casually strumming, Draper's voice cracks a couple times, and their rhythms don't always sync up.
** There's an amusing exchange in the clip where Levine tells them not to sound so much like "Eric Clapton and Sheryl Crow," and Draper makes a big show of being offended that Baker gets to be Eric Clapton while she's just Sheryl Crow.
* SurplusDamageBonus: The aptly named [[NoKillLikeOverkill Overkill]] gear allows Booker to shock several enemies when making a kill with more damage than necessary, thus making it even easier to score an Overkill on them.
* SuspiciouslyAproposMusic: A good deal of the soundtrack has some connection to the plot or what's happening on-screen in general. When Elizabeth pulls Booker though a dimensional tear and [[spoiler:into ''VideoGame/BioShock1'''s Rapture]], what should be playing on the old jukebox?: "Beyond the Sea."
* SuspiciousVideogameGenerosity: Wide open spaces filled with tears are a surefire indication that ''something'' is going to try to kill you, and will probably have significant backup.
** If you find a sniper rifle lying around, chances are you'll need it very soon.
** If you see a tear for a gun turret or a patriot, not only will you need it, but activating it will cause it to start the fight, which is good for early-jumping ambushes.
** Whenever you pick a new Vigor chances are that you'll need to use them very soon.
* TemporalSickness: "Reconciliation sickness", a condition that results from trying to reconcile memories of two different timelines. Symptoms can be as minimal as a simple nosebleed to more extreme cases of being torn being two existences while bleeding from every orifice.
* ThatSoundsFamiliar: The four notes Booker plays on the Whistler [[spoiler:to summon the Songbird to destroy the siphon tower]] are similar to the starting notes of the Christian hymn "The Holly And The Ivy".
* TheseHandsHaveKilled: Naturally part of [[spoiler:Elizabeth's first murder]], though the words aren't spoken aloud.
* TimeTravelTenseTrouble: Robert and Rosalind Lutece have this argument [[spoiler: once you realize they're pretty much UnstuckInTime]]. At one point they even say that they need a grammar professor as this is the kind of thing they would love explaining.
-->'''Robert:''' I told you they'd come.\\
'''Rosalind:''' No, you didn't.\\
'''Robert:''' Right. I was ''going'' to tell you they'd come.\\
'''Rosalind:''' But you didn't.\\
'''Robert:''' But I don't.\\
'''Rosalind:''' You sure that's right?\\
'''Robert:''' I was going to ''have'' told you they'd come?\\
'''Rosalind:''' No.\\
'''Robert:''' The subjunctive?\\
'''Rosalind:''' That's not the subjunctive.\\
'''Robert:''' I don't think the syntax has been invented yet.\\
'''Rosalind:''' It would have had to have had been.\\
'''Robert:''' "Have had to have..?" That can't be right.
** Then they say this:
--->'''Robert:''' If we could perceive time as it really was-\\
'''Rosalind:''' Then what reason would grammar professors have to get out of bed?
* ThisIsADrill: The Skyhook is a spinning three-hooked deal that attaches to your left arm; not a ''standard'' drill-arm but a conceptual cousin to it. It's seen being used as a melee weapon long before its intended actual use, riding around on the sky-rails. It can grind its way through people's faces or snap their necks with relative ease. [[MythologyGag The first kill even has the same animation used by Big Daddies, and the sound effect of the slooooow whirring is very close to a drill]].
* ThrowAwayGuns: Given how low the spare ammo count on weapons is and the [[AvertedTrope aversion]] of HyperspaceArsenal, this will likely be done by the player frequently, discarding spent weapons to pick up another fallen weapon. This can be somewhat mitigated by Elizabeth scavenging ammo for Booker or the use of vending machines, but these are not always an available option.
* ThrowTheBookAtThem: Elisabeth's first reaction when Booker comes crashing into her library? Pelt him with books! Well, they are her most immediately available weapon.
* TinyHeadedBehemoth: Although the procedure that turns people into Handymen seems to bloat their heads to an unnatural size, they still appear small atop their massive, ape-proportioned bodies.
* TownWithADarkSecret: Columbia gives off this vibe no sooner than you set foot in it. It's at first seems quaint and wholesome as you walk around and enjoy the scenery, as long as you take nothing from the odd religious imagery. Then you reach the fair and notice the games have an odd fixation with devil motifs. Then you finally reach the "raffle" and win it [[spoiler: where the prizes turns out to be a public stoning of a interracial couple with you throwing the first stone (or baseball in this case)]]. After this all pretense of Columbia being a nice place is dropped quickly and [[FromBadToWorse it goes downhill from there]]. As it is a [=BioShock=] game, it doesn't really come as a surprise.
* ToxicPhlebotinum: The Lutece Fields (aka Tears) allow its users to peek or to travel into other timelines. Prolonged exposure to them causes cancer, [[spoiler:sterility and rapid aging]].
* TragicMonster
** The Handymen, who are described this way in both the "Heavy Hitters" video focusing on them and the official artbooks. It turns out that they were physically crippled or disabled people whose heads/brains and hearts were involuntarily removed from their original bodies and implanted in massive, ape-like clockwork bodies, to create cyborg slaves. According to what they say while you're fighting them, it's also ''extremely painful''[[note]]"Every step feels like coals" indeed[[/note]]....
** You can pick up an audio dairy which belonged to a woman who was forced to turn her husband into one of these to save him from stomach cancer. She is very... conflicted on the matter. Later you can see her husband [[spoiler:killed in Shantytown by the Vox with two Vox members posing beside while another takes a picture]] and with him a voxophone from his wife telling him uplifting words and encouraging him to play it whenever he feels down.
** Vox-aligned Handymen may sometimes say that they ''weren't'' sick, and that Comstock had them abducted and turned into Handymen against their will. At least the ones who were sick seemed to have some choice in the matter.
* TrashcanBonfire: Several of these can be found in the Shantytown area.
* TrippyFinaleSyndrome: So much you'll be forgiven for believing it's a GainaxEnding... [[spoiler:After the Syphon is destroyed and Elizabeth gets full control and understanding of her powers, she and Booker spend the final minutes jumping trough time and space from an area with infinite lighthouses that lead to infinite universes]]. Of course, it's probably only trippy if you've been ignoring all the other weird stuff that's been hinted at throughout the game...
* TruthInTelevision: Sadly, several American towns and regions really were as racist and self-righteous as Columbia, and while most lynchings were done secretly and at night, some were very public affairs [[spoiler: like what you see at the raffle]], a-la Jesse Washington and Henry Smith. That said, most victims of lynching were those suspected (but never tried) for murder or rape, as opposed to [[spoiler: interracial couples who were minding their own business. (On the other hand, the Supreme Court didn't strike down all miscegenation laws until ''1967.'')]]
** Think the marble statues of the Founders in togas are ridiculous? [[http://eyelevel.si.edu/2010/07/george-washington-wearing-a-toga.html This sculptor in 1841 didn't]]. When the United States gained independence, neoclassicism was in full swing in the European art scene. There were actually lengthy discussions about whether the commissioned art from Europe should depict the Founding Fathers wearing ancient Greek robes or contemporary clothing.
* TheTwentiethCentury: The game takes place in the TheEdwardianEra of 1912.
* TwistEnding: [[spoiler:After the FinalBattle it is revealed: Rapture from ''[=BioShock=]'' is part of the same [[TheMultiverse multiverse]] as ''Infinite''. Elizabeth is actually Booker's daughter Anna, who Booker forgot he sold to Comstock 20 years ago due to getting his [[LaserGuidedAmnesia memories jumbled]] traveling through a rift to save her. "Comstock" is actually an alternate reality Booker who accepted a baptism in his youth that Booker rejected]].
-->There's always a man, a lighthouse, a city...
* UncleSamWantsYou: Jeremiah Fink wants you to attend the July 6th raffle, as seen on signs everywhere in the streets.
* TheUnfought: Several named antagonists are never actually fought by the player. [[spoiler: Specifically, all but Slate and Lady Comstock; Daisy Fitzroy kills Jeremiah Fink, Elizabeth kills Fitzroy, Comstock is taken out by [=DeWitt=] in a non-interactive scene and Songbird ends up assisting the player in the final battle before Elizabeth sends it to die at the bottom of the ocean. Also, Slate is a pre-scripted ZeroEffortBoss who summons a few mooks, then runs away and collapses from exhaustion offscreen. Lady Comstock is the only named character in the game who's fought in a proper battle]].
* UpToEleven: The gameplay preview shows that the powers in this game are much flashier, faster, and stronger. The civil war and the open setting (as opposed to Rapture's environment) means larger-scale combat with more 3-dimensional movement.
* UrbanSegregation: Present in Columbia, which thanks to its scattered nature necessitating rails and airships to get around, is easily enforced. Comstock assures the population that "[[ExactWords there are no menials in Columbia]]", which is why all the underclasses are forced to live in the industrial ghetto of Finkton. Most of the residents there are black or Irish, fitting with the DeliberateValuesDissonance of [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain Columbia's Founders]].
* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: Comstock House fits the description; it's huge, ominous (it looks like it's been built on top of a ''thundercloud''), it houses some of the creepiest, most resilient Mooks in the game... [[spoiler:In a way, it both fits and doesn't fit the 'Final Dungeon' bit, since Booker's initial trek through it is during a BadFuture timeline, then when Future Elizabeth sends him back to the present, the last leg and final battle of the game take place in the Hand of the Prophet]].
* VideogameCaringPotential: Elizabeth is considered to be a highly endearing character to a lot of players.
** A lot of players have said that once they noticed that Elizabeth didn't like seeing the melee executions (she would occasionally scream or whimper if she sees it), they stopped doing them altogether just because it apparently upsets Elizabeth.
** You can loot the bags of the people waiting to get into Finkton, but you'll feel so bad for them, you won't want to.
** Early on in the game there's a shop that goes by the honor system--you can take what you want but the owner expects you to leave the money behind to pay for it. Booker scoffs, but there's a button prompt that allows you to do just that if you should eat one of the items there.
* VideogameCrueltyPotential: Whenever you enter a populated area, it's possible to murder pretty much every civilian around, with the exception of children (who are invincible). Elizabeth or the game never even calls you out on it.
* VillainousDemotivator: Fink frequently quotes the slogan "Simplicity is Beauty." In this case, "simplicity" means being content with your lot and NOT complaining about the 16-hour work days or poor pay.
* VoiceOfTheLegion: Comstock often speaks to Booker through a microphone that creates a slowed-down, delayed echo of his voice, presumably for dramatic effect. The First Zealot, leader of the Fraternal Order of the Raven, also speaks (without any kind of mic!) in a bizarrely resonant, buzzy sort of voice that seems to have some kind of static-like noise behind it.
* WalkingShirtlessScene: Technically Elizabeth goes through the last half of the game without a shirt on, though she still has underwear, and the era's underwear was more modest than it is these days.
* WalkingSpoiler: Reading anything online about Booker, Elizabeth, Father Comstock, or the Twins is a good way to spoil a ''huge'' chunk of TheReveal and the ending, as the spoilers are a core part of each characters' background.
** In fact, merely starting to type "Booker [=DeWitt=]" into Google will unfortunately reveal a major storyline spoiler via Google's auto-complete search functionality.
* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler:When the player ends up in Rapture]].
** To a lesser extent, the point where [[spoiler: Songbird kidnaps Elizabeth away from Booker and he chases after them into the BedlamHouse marks when the story officially decides to go off the rails]]. And even before that when Booker and Elizabeth attempt to track down a gun smith and the [[spoiler: dimensional hopping/alternate universe kerfuffle]] aspects of the plot get introduced.
** [[spoiler:The raffle, when our initial perception of Columbia is violently turned on its head, followed by Booker being exposed as the False Shepherd and the game's transformation into a bloodbath. All in the space of about a minute]].
* WhamLine: [[spoiler:"He's Zachary Comstock." "He's Booker [=DeWitt=]." "No... I'm both."]]
** [[spoiler: "Bring us the girl, and wipe away the debt." Said throughout the game? Yeah, but only at the end do you hear the rest: "Thank you. Mr. Comstock washes you of all your sins."]]
* WhamShot: [[spoiler: Several. When you see Elizabeth in the BadFuture. When you see Anna [=DeWitt=] lose her pinky finger]].
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Bioshock Infinite changed significantly over the course of its development. Elizabeth, for instance, looked older in the first builds, and seemed to have extreme Vigor powers. The environments in the trailers and earlier gameplay demonstrations were much more dynamic, and there was a kind of environmental destruction not unlike that of the Battlefield games. Comstock possessed a much younger appearance, and seemed to be just a politician. There was no mention of him being a "prophet", and the propaganda seen in Colombia had much less to do with religion or the Founding Fathers. And perhaps most disappointingly, Songbird, who was sidelined to secondary character status in the final product, was a recurring boss that Booker would fight many times over the course of the game.
** Irrational Games revealed in an interview that very early in the game's developement, Elizabeth and Booker were originally going to be {{Silent Protagonist}}s - literally, in Elizabeth's case. She would have been either a deafmute or an actual mute.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Fink's son runs away and disappears after [[spoiler: Elizabeth kills Daisy Fitzroy]] and we never see him again. [[FridgeHorror Given that the area is crawling with Vox soliders, the implications aren't pretty]].
* WhenTheClockStrikesTwelve: At one point, if you can decrypt a coded message you are given a clue that mentions "midnight". If you turn a nearby clock's hands to 12:00, it opens a hidden compartment filled with goodies.
* WhiteMansBurden:
-->'''Zachary Comstock''': No animal is born free, except the white man. And it is our burden to care for the rest of creation.
* AWizardDidIt[=/=]HandWave: The "[[{{Memes/Touhou}} Forbidden Template]]" applies here.
** How does Columbia float? Luteces say it's "[[{{Technobabble}} quantum mechanics]]".
** Why does AnachronismStew exist here? Lore says that the tears gave an influence.
** Why do the Luteces show up randomly? [[spoiler:Because they are at a point where they can transcend reality, so they [[RealityWarper can bend reality to their will up to a point]]]].
* TheWonka: The Lutece twins, who like speaking in nonsensical riddles and like randomly hopping in and out to... play baseball and dance in the middle of Columbia getting torn apart.
* WretchedHive: Finkton, compared to the rest of Columbia, is very close to this: a grimy, run-down shell of industrial misery under Fink's watchful eye, overrun with the sick, the starving, and the bandits trying to hoard whatever they can.
* WrittenByTheWinners: The entire point of the confrontation with Slate through the Hall Of Heroes is to highlight this. Whoever has the power controls the narrative. [[spoiler: Is it any surprise, considering that section of the game, that TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized]]?
--> [[spoiler: Fitzroy]]: "You? You just complicate the narrative."
* {{Yandere}}[=/=]MurderTheHypotenuse: WordOfGod is that Songbird is programmed to be one, which is why he jealously seeks to murder anyone who tries to help Elizabeth escape her captivity. He's explicitly likened to an abusive partner by the devs.
* YellowPeril: The Boxer Rebellion exhibit at the Hall of Heroes.
-->'''Motorized Patriot''': T'was yellow skin and slanted eyes\
That betrayed us with their lies,\
Until they crossed the righteous path\
Of our Prophet's holy wrath!
* YouALLLookFamiliar: Columbia seems to be populated mainly by clones. This is especially obvious in the calm scenes where you can take your time and examine all the civilians strolling about.
* YouHaveFailedMe: Jeremiah Fink does ''not'' tolerate failure from his head of security, or someone better waltzing into his property. You get to find his former head of security murdered and nailed to the top of the local club with a sign reading "SACKED".
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Using the Possession vigor on a human enemy causes them to commit suicide when it starts to wear off.
** MyGodWhatHaveIDone: The description of the Vigor actually describes it as this, saying the subject commits suicide out of grief for what they did under your control. Even if they didn't kill any of their allies, the whole idea of being forced to side with the [[TheDreaded False Shepherd]] is probably enough to inspire such conclusions from the psychotically devout citizens of Columbia.
** Also, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnLfQPZBSC4 reversing the sounds emitted by the Possession Vigor ghosts]] reveal they're whispering Shakespeare...specifically, Romeo and Juliet. How does that end for those characters, again?
** In another note, this trope is also why Comstock [[spoiler:eventually had the Luteces killed in a staged "accident," in part to cover up the truth about Elizabeth.]] It didn't exactly work as planned.
* YoungerThanTheyLook: [[spoiler: Comstock is actually only 38 years old, even though he looks almost twice that age. His prolonged exposure to the tears has really done a number on his body]].
* YourHeadAsplode: Killing shocked {{Mooks}} makes their heads burst like fireworks before their bodies disintegrate.
** It also happens when you headshot an enemy with a sufficiently powerful weapon, like the shotgun or sniper rifle.
* WeirdnessCensor:
** Unlike the first {{Bioshock}} game, Columbia's population is still mostly alive,[[spoiler: at least, before the civil war]]. Which makes it weird that Booker can walk around holding machine guns and rocket launchers with no one batting an eye. Given the population's highly jingoistic nature, this may simply be the (il)logical extension of the Second Amendment. No one civilians seem to actually carry firearms, however.
** Similarly, the vigor effects (Booker's left hand turning to flames, for example) go completely unnoticed.
* {{Zeerust}}: Columbia manages to feature even more strange Zeerust than [[Franchise/BioShock Rapture]] while it also wallows in Victorian steampunk. What makes it especially bizarre is the patchworkiness of the Zeerust... one location combines somewhat accurate-to-period aesthetics with, of all things, a Fifties ice cream shop. Selling soft-serve. Justified in [[spoiler: Comstock's use of the siphon to control the tears, seeing into multiple futures and gleaning technology, music, and information from them]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:''Burial at Sea'']]
* AlternateUniverse: This isn't the Rapture of the first two ''Bioshock'' games, but evidently the one Fink was stealing his ideas from.
* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: Episode Two features Elizabeth as the player character [[spoiler: due to Comstock's death at the end of Episode One.]]
* AscendedMeme: If you eat too much food from the garbage, Elizabeth with comment on it. She will ether be impressed or revolted.
* AwesomeButImpractical: Shock Jockey and Old Man Winter use a prohibitively large amount of EVE, three shots each without EVE upgrades.
* AwesomeYetPractical: Possession is even more useful this time around, since it's cheap to bring down the EVE cost and there are less enemies around.
* AxeCrazy: Sander Cohen, as usual.
* CallBack: [[spoiler:Who remembers the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmw78t8NgIE very first Bioshock trailer]] and how it ends? Now how does this DLC end?]]
* CaptainObviousReveal: The fact that Sally [[spoiler:is a Little Sister]] should surprise exactly no one, given the setting. Virtually any other fate would have been more surprising.
* [[spoiler:CastAsAMask]]: In an inversion of this trope's use on the main campaign, [[spoiler:the fact that your character is actually Comstock and not really Booker is obfuscated by the fact the VA is Booker's, not Comstock's.]]
* CoolVsAwesome: [[spoiler:Big Daddy vs Motorized Patriot; turns out the Patriot isn't nearly as tough. Though it makes sense, since the Daddy is more advanced.]]
* CrapsaccharineWorld: As with the original ''Bioshock'', Rapture was a corrupt, poorly-run mess underneath the glitz, glamor, and promise of libertarianism.
-->'''Booker''': Even in a {{Utopia}}, someone needs to clean up the mess. And that's where I come in.
* DieselPunk: The Burial at Sea DLC brings our protagonists back to Rapture, and all its 1960s era "cyberpunk".
* FemmeFatale: Elizabeth this time around.
* FilmNoir: The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mv3FhE6_TK0 trailer]] makes this apparent.
* FingerSnapLighter: Booker lights Elizabeth's cigarette with this.
* FireIceLightning: The elemental Plasmids you have access to are Devil's Kiss, Old Man Winter, and Shock Jockey.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** [[spoiler: The fact that Elizabeth isn't familiar at all with Rapture.]]
** [[spoiler: Elizabeth calls the Air Grabber a Sky Hook, and Booker gets a tear nosebleed.]]
** [[spoiler: The reason Booker adapts instantly to the use of tears is that he is already subconsciously familiar with them from his time as Comstock.]]
** [[spoiler: Elizabeth's new found coldness towards Booker surprised people given the ending of the main game, but this is due to him being a version of Comstock who got an equivalent version of her killed, rather than the Booker she and the player knew.]]
* GenreShift: The survival horror elements of Bioshock 1 are back in force. Due to the splicers tearing apart, or already using everything in the department store, resource conservation is a must as ammo and health are scarce.
** The aformentioned shift to FilmNoir.
* HardboiledDetective: Booker.
* HyperspaceArsenal: The Weapon Wheel used in previous games has returned.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:Comstock gets this thanks to the Big Daddy's drill.]]
* IncestSubtext: [[spoiler:Elizabeth asking Booker to light her cigarette and sashaying her hips in her introduction to him comes off this way to the player at first, but this is subverted when it's revealed that 'Booker' is Comstock.]]
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: After Fontaine's empire collapsed, Cohen took stewardship of the orphans in Rapture. Then it's revealed he only took the orphans in the first place because was because he was paid, and to make a profit on selling them. The ones he couldn't, he had sent to Fontaine's Department Store where all the renegade splicers were held. True to form, he is actually offended that anyone would criticize this "act of charity."
* JustBeforeTheEnd: The DLC is set in Rapture before things went from idyllic to nightmarish. To drive it home further, [[spoiler: it's set on New Year's Eve, the day when "Atlas" and his army performed their raid and kickstarted the civil war in the city.]]
* MadArtist: Cohen shocks two people dancing because they're not giving him the artistic vibe he wants.
* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: If you look closely in the background just after leaving the office, you'll see a Big Daddy shooting his drill to the top of a building like a grappling hook and swinging away like Spider Man. That same Big Daddy is later seen repairing a billboard advertising Fontaine's Little Sister orphanage, which appears to be closed by the Council. And Elizabeth says this when the elevator passes the billboard:
-->"This nation values ''children'', not ''childhood''. There's a profit to be made, and men who make it."
* MythologyGag: [[spoiler: In the end Booker(really Comstock) tries to pull Sally out of her hole and gets drilled by the Big Daddy in the same manner as the man in the first BioShock1 trailer]].
* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler:The Big Daddy.]]
* OffWithHisHead: [[spoiler:This iteration of Booker pulled a little bit harder than the main one, managing to drag his daughter back as the Tear closed. Unfortunately, it closed just a bit too soon.]]
* OlderAndWiser: Elizabeth.
* PortalCut: The nasty problems that can occur when messing with portals comes up again. And this time with a GoryDiscretionShot when [[spoiler: instead of a finger, the fight over baby Anna in this universe resulted in all by the top of her head staying on Booker's side. Which is the death that causes Comstock's breakdown]].
* [[spoiler: {{Revenge}}: Anna's motivation this go around. Wanting Comstock to pay for what he did to an alternate version of her.]]
* RocketTagGameplay: Even more than the main campaign, due to the fact that fights tend to be against smaller groups, Booker can't hold much ammo, and he can't take as many hits.
* SequelDifficultySpike: Ammo and money is more scarce, upgrades are fewer, and the shield is much less effective than in the main campaign. However, with less enemies who are now stronger, Possession is a whole lot more useful.
* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: During some fights, via tears, it's possible to bring an actual samurai in to fight for you.
* SuperPrototype: The plasmids used by the splicers are the original versions, not the derivative versions produced and sold by Ryan Industries. As a result the splicers are considerably stronger, and tougher than in Bioshock 1 & 2.
* TookALevelInJerkass: Elizabeth is much ruder to this version of Booker than she was in the main campaign. [[spoiler: Turns out it's because this Booker is actually an alternate version of Comstock, who had the Luteces send him to Rapture rather than face the guilt of causing the death of Anna in his reality.]]
* TranquilFury: Elizabeth, as she stands covered in [[spoiler: Comstock's blood. A far cry from her previous instance of BloodSplatteredInnocents.]]
* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: In-universe, Sander Cohen's arthouse film ''The Black Dream'' - after being alluded to throughout the first two games, it can finally be viewed on a Kinetoscope in Fontaine's Department Store. [[MindScrew The movie itself consists largely of statues and people standing under a spotlight in a black void, intercut with strange gibbering chants]], [[RuleOfSymbolism until it ends on a long shot of an empty bird's nest]].
** Another project of his, ''The March Hare'', is largely composed of [[AliceAllusion abstract Wonderland imagery involving rabbits, checkerboards, and blood]].
* UnexpectedCharacter: [[spoiler: The Luteces appear at the end of part 1 with no foreshadowing or appearance in trailers.]]
* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler:Everything after the Big Daddy fight. This incarnation of Booker is revealed to be a Comstock who, after the attempt to get his Booker's Anna went [[PortalCut horribly wrong]], had the Luteces send him to Rapture so that he could forget.]]
* WhatIf: The primary selling point of ''Burial at Sea'' is that, instead of the flying city of Columbia, it's set in ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock}}'s'' Rapture.
* YouWillNotEvadeMe: The Bouncer Bid Daddy can now fire his drill as a GrapplingHookPistol. He can use this to either bring himself to you or, if you've been caught by his stun attack, drag you to him.
[[/folder]]
----

* MythologyGag: [[spoiler: In the end Booker(really Comstock) gets drilled by the Big Daddy in the same manner as the man in the first BioShock1 trailer]].

* * MythologyGag:: [[spoiler: In the end Booker(Comstock) is gets drilled by the Big Daddy in the same manner as the man in the first BioShock1 trailer]].

* {{Foreshadowing}}: [[spoiler: Elizabeth calls the Air Grabber a Sky Hook, and Booker gets a tear nosebleed.]]

* CoolVsAwesome: [[spoiler:Big Daddy vs Motorized Patriot; turns out the Patriot isn't nearly as tough.]]

* DieselPunk: The Burial at Sea DLC brings our protagonists back to rapture, and all its 1960s era "cyberpunk".

* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: After Fontaine's empire collapsed Cohen took stewardship of the orphans in Rapture. Then it's revealed he only took the orphans in the first place because was because he was paid, and to make a profit on selling them. The ones he couldn't, he had sent to Fontaine's Department Store where all the renegade splicers were held. True to form, he is actually offended that anyone would criticize this "act of charity."
* JustBeforeTheEnd: The DLC is set in Rapture before things went from idyllic to nightmarish. To drive it home further [[spoiler: it set on New Year's Eve, the day when "Atlas" army preformed their raid and kickstarted the civil war in the city.]]
* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: If you look closely in the background of the [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8cLOuLBH3E gameplay trailer]], you'll see a Big Daddy shooting his drill to the top of a building like a grappling hook and swinging away like Spider Man. That same Big Daddy is seen repairing a billboard-a billboard advertising Fontaine's Little Sister orphanage, which appears to be closed by the Council. And Elizabeth says this when the elevator passes the billboard:

* AscendedMeme: If you eat to much food from the garbage, Elizabeth with comment on it. She will ether be impressed or revolted.

* CoolVsAwesome: [[spoiler:Big Daddy vs Motorized Patriot.]]

* FingerSnapLighter: Booker lights Elizabeth's cigarette with this in the trailer.

** [[spoiler: Elizabeth's new found coldness towards Booker surprised people given the ending of the main game, but this is due to him being a version of Comstock who got an equivalent version of her killed; rather than the Booker she and the player knew.]]

* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: After Fontaine's empire collapsed Cohen took stewardship of the orphans in Rapture. Then it's revealed he only did took the Orphans in the first place because was because he was paid, and good make a profit on selling them. The ones he couldn't, he had sent to Fontaines Department Store where all the renegade splicers were held. True to form he is actually offended that anyone would criticize this "act of charity."

--->"This nation values ''children'', not ''childhood''. There's a profit to be made, and men who make it."

* SequelDifficultySpike: Ammo and money is more scarce, upgrades are fewer, and the shield is much less effective than in the main campaign.

* UnexpectedCharacter:[[spoiler: The Luteces appear at the end of part 1 with no foreshadowing or appearance in trailers.]]

* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: After Fontaine's empire collapsed Cohen took stewardship of the orphans in Rapture, and sending them to Fontaines Department Store where all the renegade splicers were held. True to form he is actually offended that anyone would question this decision.