SPOILERS The choices you make in game

"It's a feature - not a bug" .. ;)


Seriously though: This whole aspect of the game comes off as rather pointless and undeveloped. Like something that was meant to be a feature but was abandoned during production and left in "as is".

I know the game explains it away by making the whole futility-of-choice-thing the central point of the story. Choice is irrelevant since we're dealing with a multiverse where every possible choice (and combination/chain of choices) happen(s) ... somewhere.

While that may all be fine from a story-telling POV, personally it disappointed me quite a bit. We're talking about a game here, not a movie. Being able to influence the narrative or the game-world is one of the major attractions of any computer-game IMO. Lack of said influence doesn't automatically make a game bad in my book, and having it in a game doesn't automatically make it good. I for one didn't care all that much for the way the original Bioshock handled choice (harvesting/saving little sisters). Didn't seem like an integral part but more like it was thrown in as an afterthought - which, AFAIK, it was.

But "Infinite" takes a different route: It kind of teases you with the early choice moments (throwing the baseball, choice of pendant), so you *expect* there'll be a point to these. But in the end the game more of less says: "Hah! Thought you could influence the game-world or even the story? Well, think again!" Almost as if the game was trolling us.. ;)




S.

It didn't really bother me that much I didn't expect anything and to be honest wouldn't have wanted something profound from a choice of a pendant. I was more let down by how hyped Elizabeth was, when she seemed not so much.

To be honest, the static ending doesn't bother me that much.

What DOES bother me, is that your chosen actions don't sway the opinions of 'The best video game sidekick EVARRR' towards you one single iota.

What's interesting is that besides the fact that the player can choose which pendant Elizabeth wears, the bird and cage both symbolize imprisonment. The cage is self-explanatory, but the bird is actually quite the opposite of what it appears to be. The bird represents Songbird, whose main purpose is too keep Elizabeth in captivity. So no matter what you choose or do, Elizabeth will be captured by Songbird at some point, and will be placed back into her "cage" while being brainwashed and tortured.

The game only gives us the illusion of choice, but in reality, it all goes back to the whole constants and variables thing. You can choose the bird or cage, but just because you chose one over the other doesn't mean you're going to receive a different result, for they both symbolize and yield the same outcome.

Personally, I liked this aspect of the game; however, I can definitely understand why this might bother some. Plus, I like how these little moments foreshadow certain events in a subtle way.

My movie review channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/drumking1006?feature=mhee