History YMMV / BioShockInfinite

* FranchiseOriginalSin: The game has been criticized by some for its "extremism is bad" message falling flat. Bioshock 1 and 2 had the same "extremism is bad" message but works much better mainly because it's hard to sympathize with the Founders compared to the previous two games' antagonist ideals of objectivism and enforced altruism. By contrast, it's hard to make xenophobic racists have a legitimate point or be sympathetic with today's audiences without straight-up promoting racism so they come off as pretty uninteresting and generically evil. The Vox has the opposite problem where is extremely easy to sympathize with them because it really hard to make downtrodden people fighting against racism unsympathetic in today's political climate to the point some people get insulted on how villainous the story tries to make them.

"No, I mean he ''doesn't ''X."\\
"Ah. I see what you mean."

"No, I mean he ''doesn't'' X."\\

--->''He doesn't X."\\
"He doesn't ''X?''"\\

* MagnificentBastard: [[BewareTheSillyOnes The Luteces]] are [[CreepyTwins two mysterious twins]] frequently encountered, before revealing [[GreaterScopeVillain themselves to have set the plot in motion.]] Encountered by Zachary Hale Comstock, Rosalind Lutece agreed to help him build his floating city, Colombia and in return Comstock would fund her research on alternate realities; with these resources she made a contraption that allowed her AlternateSelf Robert Lutece to come into her world. Together, the Luteces helped Comstock kidnap [[spoiler:Booker [=DeWitt's=] daughter]], though Robert regretted his part in the kidnapping as well as the state of Colombia and the BadFuture coming after so he decides to plot against Comstock, forcing Rosalind to help him on the threat that he'll leave her if she doesn't. Though seemingly killed by Comstock, they have in fact survived and involved Booker [=DeWitt=] in their plan, guiding him throughout Colombia, while also convincing Daisy Fitzroy to ignite her revolution and let Elizabeth kill her ensuring the downfall of Colombia and Comstock. After the death of Comstock and the destruction of his city, the Luteces collaborated with Elizabeth to kill off all the other Comstocks in different realities before leaving her after killing the last Comstock in Rapture completely satisfied with their end results.

* AnticlimaxBoss: When you run into [[BigBad Zachary Comstock]] himself near the end of the game, despite the fact that he's sent armies against you, tried subjecting you to DeathFromAbove, and even sent in [[TheJuggernaut Songbird]]. So naturally, he'll be quite the [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking difficult boss fight]], right? [[spoiler:Except Booker kills him by strangling him, slamming his head a few times on a stone pedestal, and then drowning him with said pedestal's holy water. Justified since several audiologs throughout the game state that Comstock has terminal cancer, meaning he was in no real state to pose a physical threat to Booker.]]

* BrokenBase: For the ending of ''Burial at Sea Episode 2'', there seem to be two camps. Those who feel it was a fulfilling ending that wrapped up the series as a whole, and those who are angered by [[spoiler:it suddenly making VideoGame/BioShock1's protagonist Jack the centre of the universe and reducing Elizabeth, one of the series' most powerful characters, to an accessory to his success, by the way of having her undergo a gratuitously violent and rather needless sacrifice.]] There's also another, tangential camp who view the Jack[=/=]Elizabeth interaction from a completely flipped viewpoint, but with equal dislike: [[spoiler:with her sacrifice Elizabeth effectively becomes the "true" saviour of Rapture and thus protagonist of the whole franchise; meaning that Jack's heroic efforts to break free of his conditioning and choose for himself in (determinantly) saving the Little Sisters was much less meaningful than it seemed in the first game, since it couldn't have happened without Elizabeth's intervention to begin with.]] Some in the latter camp(s) [[spoiler:even argue that the ending taints the original ''[=BioShock=]'''s theme of Utopias always turning rotten and corrupt before finally collapsing in on themselves due to fundamental human errors in their inhabitants, by making Elizabeth, a outside force, having a direct and significant hand in Rapture's fall. [[{{RightForTheWrongReasons}} Therefore making Andrew Ryan's argument absolutely right.]]]]
* SalvagedStory:
** Daisy Fitzroy [[spoiler:attempting to kill a child, but being killed by Elizabeth before she could]] was received poorly, but ''Burial at Sea'' revealed [[spoiler:she only did it at the behest of the Luteces, and initially refused to for the same reasons her fans claimed she wouldn't, that the child wasn't to blame for his father, Fink's, actions.]] It turns it into one big BatmanGambit, because the [[TheChessmaster Luteces]] knew what Elizabeth's reaction would be. [[spoiler:Of course, this still does absolutely nothing to absolve her of the vast majority of her crimes, namely responsibility for all the clearly-depicted massacres of civilians during the alternate universe uprising, including some who were tortured to death and had their body parts (e.g. scalps) strewn about the city as messages.]]
** Daisy Fitzroy [[spoiler:having no relevance to the multiverse plot in the base game]] also didn't go unnoticed, but ''Burial at Sea'' also revealed that [[spoiler:she did interact with the Luteces all along]].

* AuthorsSavingThrow: After fans complained about boxart featuring a [[PistolPose gun-wielding Booker]] aiming for the generic FPS audience, Ken Levine revealed a more artsy reverse cover featuring Songbird.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: As stated above, Daisy Fitzroy and the rest of the Vox Populi. While the story certainly ''tries'' to make her out as just as bad as Comstock and the other Founders, a lot of players find this an incredibly difficult-to-swallow false equivalence considering that a) her own sympathetic backstory and the plight of the lower classes in Columbia's deeply racist and reactionary society are both firmly established while the Founders have next to no redeeming qualities, b) her crossing of the MoralEventHorizon ([[spoiler:wanting to shoot an industrialist's prepubescent son in the head]]) is rather ham-fisted and has [[{{Anvilicious}} the subtlety of a speeding big rig]], and c) her end-goal (killing the Founders) isn't really much different from what the player/Booker ends up shooting for anyway.
** The ''Burial at Sea'' {{DLC}} [[AuthorsSavingThrow goes a way towards rectifying it]] by [[spoiler:revealing that Daisy was [[GoodAllAlong all along]] an agent of the Lucetes and deliberately engineered her own MoralEventHorizon crossing and subsequent death at Elizabeth's hands to harden the sheltered girl's personality]].

* CondemnedByHistory: At the time of its release, ''Infinite'' was awash in praise by players and critics, with many considering it an EvenBetterSequel than the first ''[=BioShock=]'' was, and it won several Game of the Year awards to reflect people's love of the game. Over time however, the positive word-of-mouth regarding the game deteriorated exponentially, with many viewers complaining about the game's overly pretentious narrative rife with unfortunate implications, and generally unmemorable gameplay that does little to innovate the genre it's set in. As a result, most ''[=BioShock=]'' fans now consider ''Infinite'' to be the weakest game in the franchise.

*** Everything seems far too perfect, even bordering on the surreal (two lovers in the marketplace are named [[Theatre/CyranoDeBergerac Christian and Roxanne]], Georges-Pierre Seurat is painting the view of the Seine, and a bluebird even alights on her finger and sings "La Vie en Rose" in harmony with the crowd). The incongruities are even lampshaded in some of the dialogue.

*** The above is suitably anachronistic to fit a Columbia dweller's dream, as is the Wharton reference, but more telling is Seurat. His paintings and their price were remarked on by Jeremiah Fink in his prerecorded broadcasts when playing through Finkton in the original game.

* ContestedSequel: Most critics consider the game to be an EvenBetterSequel by all means, but the fans are much more divided on what to think of the game. There's a camp that thought the game was an improvement over the original in every way possible, a camp that dislikes the game due to the simplified mechanics, and a camp that thinks the game is fine, but doesn't necessarily care about the original.

** Episode 2 promised us the chance to play as Elizabeth...but rather than the Elizabeth of the main game, a quantum powered PhysicalGod who can shuffle reality around her and so provide interesting unique gameplay, we have [[spoiler:an Elizabeth BroughtDownToNormal with some stealth options but nothing very different from Booker or Jack]].

* FanficFuel: The three constants are "A [[HiddenElfVillage City,]] a Lighthouse, and a Man," and apparently Plasmids. What else would constitute a Bioshock setting under those criteria

[[folder:[=BioShock=] Infinite]]

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** Daisy Fitzroy [[spoiler:attempting to kill a child, but being killed by Elizabeth before she could]] was received poorly, but ''Burial at Sea'' revealed [[spoiler:she only did it at the behest of the Luteces, and initially refused to for the same reasons her fans claimed she wouldn't, that the child wasn't to blame for his father, Fink's, actions.]] It turns it into one big BatmanGambit, because the [[TheChessmaster Luteces]] knew what Elizabeth's reaction would be. [[spoiler:Of course, this still does absolutely nothing to absolve her of the vast majority of her crimes, namely responsibility for all the clearly-depicted massacres of civilians during the alternate universe uprising, including some who were tortured to death and had their body parts (e.g. scalps) strewn about the city as messages.]]
** Daisy Fitzroy [[spoiler:having no relevance to the multiverse plot in the base game]] also didn't go unnoticed, but ''Burial at Sea'' also revealed that [[spoiler:she did interact with the Luteces all along]].
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5ATZq9vb6U Why Can't I Have a Slice of That Pie?]], a blues song sung by one of Atlas' {{Mooks}}.

---> "Some people just hate musicals because nobody goes and bursts into song. But that's not a problem with musicals."

* CompleteMonster: [[spoiler:[[Characters/BioShockInfiniteZacharyHaleComstock "Father" Zachary Hale Comstock]] is the alternate version of [[Characters/BioShockInfiniteProtagonists Booker DeWitt]] who accepted baptism and took pride in being "The Hero of Wounded Knee", where he massacred several innocent Native Americans, children included. Creating Columbia, Comstock made himself its "[[DarkMessiah Prophet]]", where he had his citizens worship him, [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain while oppressing all people of non-white races]]. Comstock also conspired with the Luteces to steal the daughter of Booker and imprison her in a tower which drains her powers, having the Songbird serve as her warden. When Comstock learns of Booker's arrival, he has his followers hunt him down, having one immolate herself and later raising the wife that Comstock himself murdered, from the dead, to kill him. Upon retrieving Elizabeth, Comstock has her repeatedly tortured, molding her into his successor and carrying out his [[FinalSolution final plan to destroy the world below]].]]

* IdiotPlot: ''Burial at Sea 2'' requires Elizabeth to be suicidally loyal to Fontaine to work at all, which she claims not to be. If she stopped at any point and considered any other option - which she was outright offered numerous times by powerful people capable of actually fulfilling those offers - the plot would've changed drastically.

** [[spoiler:Rapture Elizabeth.]]

* EightPointEight: [[http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/bioshock-infinite-a-fan-scorned/1900-6415464/ GameSpot's negative "re-review"]] six months later has received divided responses. Many readers are accusing the review of being click bait to draw attention to the site's relaunch.

* CompleteMonster: [[Characters/BioShockInfiniteZacharyHaleComstock "Father" Zachary Hale Comstock]] is the alternate version of [[Characters/BioShockInfiniteProtagonists Booker DeWitt]] who accepted baptism and took pride in being "The Hero of Wounded Knee", where he massacred several innocent Native Americans, children included. Creating Columbia, Comstock made himself its "[[DarkMessiah Prophet]]", where he had his citizens worship him, [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain while oppressing all people of non-white races]]. Comstock also conspired with the Luteces to steal the daughter of Booker and imprison her in a tower which drains her powers, having the Songbird serve as her warden. When Comstock learns of Booker's arrival, he has his followers hunt him down, having one immolate herself and later raising the wife that Comstock himself murdered, from the dead, to kill him. Upon retrieving Elizabeth, Comstock has her repeatedly tortured, molding her into his successor and carrying out his [[FinalSolution final plan to destroy the world below]].

* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad Father Zachary Hale Comstock]] is the alternate version of [[spoiler:Booker [=DeWitt=]]] who accepted baptism and took pride in being "The Hero of Wounded Knee", where he massacred several innocent Native Americans, children included. Creating Columbia, Comstock made himself its "[[DarkMessiah Prophet]]", where he had his citizens worship him, [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain while oppressing anyone who isn't white and Protestant]]. Comstock also conspired with the Luteces to steal the daughter of [[spoiler:Booker]] and imprison her in a tower which drains her powers, having the Songbird serve as her warden. When Comstock learns of Booker's arrival, he has his followers hunt him down, having one immolate herself and later raising the wife that Comstock himself murdered, from the dead, to kill him. Upon retrieving Elizabeth, Comstock has her repeatedly tortured, molding her into his successor and carrying out his [[FinalSolution final plan to destroy the world below]].

* UncannyValley:

** The vast majority of NPC's don't have any facial animation, so whether they're angry, frightened, or heartbroken, they'll all still have the same neutral face. This is especially notable with the AlternateUniverse version of Chen Lin's wife--despite sobbing her heart out for her husband, her face is completely expressionless.
** There are some wall-eyed dolls in several places that have a high creepitude coefficient, as well as two people in over-sized human mascot heads that even the characters in game think are creepy. In a similar vein, the eight-foot tall George Washington animatronic puppet that you first see in the Battleship Bay arcade has bulging eyes and stiff movements... then you start encountering them in the Hall of Heroes and then on as Motorized Patriots, which spout slogans while trying to give you an acute case of lead poisoning.
** Also, there are the people that [[spoiler:CameBackWrong whenever Booker and Elizabeth open a tear into another universe. Their animation is very twitchy, as if two people were trying to co-exist in the same space, one digitally and haphazardly superimposed over the other]]. It's creepy as hell. This gets ramped UpToEleven with the later part of the game, where there are [[spoiler:inmates at an asylum who are like this but now have oversized puppet heads too. Which gets worse if you've seen the concept art and consider that under their masks, they could look something like [[http://static3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131109011430/bioshock/images/b/b9/Merged.jpg THIS.]]]].

* UncannyValley:
** [[spoiler: When Elizabeth comes across her own dead body]] at the beginning of Episode Two, [[spoiler: the valley effect is made worse by the fact the body, with its eyes open in death, looks no different than Elizabeth does while "alive". At one point Elizabeth reaches over and closes the corpse's eyes, which actually makes things creepier.]]
** When Elizabeth sees herself in a mirror near the end of Episode Two, saying "This world values children, not childhood", her mouth moves realistically, most likely due to Motion Capture. The rest of her is immobile, which is just disturbing.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: The Lutece twins are rather endearing with their [[CloudCuckoolander odd behavior]] and speech mannerisms. They even ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQERpgTr2jM won]]'' the 2013 VGX award for "Best Character of the Year."

* BrokenBase: For the ending of ''Burial at Sea Episode 2'', there seem to be two camps. Those who feel it was a fulfilling ending that wrapped up the series as a whole, and those who are angered by [[spoiler:it suddenly making VideoGame/BioShock1's protagonist Jack the centre of the universe and reducing Elizabeth, one of the series' most powerful characters, to an accessory to his success, by the way of having her undergo a gratuitously violent and rather needless sacrifice.]] There's also another, tangential camp who view the Jack[=/=]Elizabeth interaction from a completely flipped viewpoint, but with equal dislike: [[spoiler:with her sacrifice Elizabeth effectively becomes the "true" saviour of Rapture and thus protagonist of the whole franchise; meaning that Jack's heroic efforts to break free of his conditioning and choose for himself in (determinantly) saving the Little Sisters was much less meaningful than it seemed in the first game, since it wouldn't have worked out without Elizabeth's intervention to begin with.]] Some in the latter camp(s) [[spoiler:even argue that the ending taints the original ''[=BioShock=]'''s theme of Utopias always turning rotten and corrupt before finally collapsing in on themselves due to fundamental human errors in their inhabitants, by making Elizabeth, a outside force, having a direct and significant hand in Rapture's fall. [[{{RightForTheWrongReasons}} Therefore making Andrew Ryan's argument absolutely right.]]]]