Skip to main content
GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+
US EditionUS CA EditionCanada UK EditionUK AU EditionAustralia
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Games
    • Game Insights
      • Games News
      • Games Features
      • Games Reviews
      • Games Guides
      • Big in 2026
      • The Big Preview
      • On The Radar
      • Indie Spotlight
      • Future Games Show
      • Golden Joystick Awards
    • Genres
      • Action Games
      • RPGs
      • Action RPGs
      • Adventure Games
      • Third Person Shooters
      • FPS Games
    • Platforms
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X
      • PC
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Nintendo Switch 2
      • Tabletop Gaming
    • Franchises
      • Grand Theft Auto
      • Pokemon
      • Assassin's Creed
      • Monster Hunter
      • Fortnite
      • Cyberpunk
      • Red Dead
      • The Elder Scrolls
      • The Sims
  • Entertainment
    • TV Shows
      • TV News
      • TV Reviews
      • Anime Shows
      • Sci-Fi Shows
      • Superhero Shows
      • Animated Shows
      • Marvel TV Shows
      • Star Wars TV Shows
      • DC TV Shows
    • Movies
      • Movie News
      • Movie Reviews
      • Big Screen Spotlight
      • Superhero Movies
      • Action Movies
      • Anime Movies
      • Sci-Fi Movies
      • Horror Movies
      • Marvel Movies
      • DC Movies
    • Streaming
      • Apple TV Plus
      • Disney Plus
      • Netflix
      • HBO
      • Amazon Prime Video
      • Hulu
    • Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • DC Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • Lego
    • Dungeons and Dragons
    • Merch
  • Hardware
    • Insights
      • Hardware News
      • Hardware Reviews
      • Hardware Features
    • Computing
      • Desktop PCs
      • Laptops
      • Handhelds
    • Peripherals
      • Headsets & Headphones
      • TVs & Monitors
      • Gaming Mice
      • Gaming Keyboards
      • Gaming Chairs
      • Speakers & Audio
    • Accessories & Tech
      • Gaming Controllers
      • Tech
      • SSDs & Hard Drives
      • VR
      • Accessories
      • Retro
  • Deals
    • Game Deals
    • Tech Deals
    • TV Deals
    • Buying Guides
  • Video
  • Newsletters
    • Quizzes
    • About Us
    • How to pitch to us
    • How we score
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Total Film
  • home
  • Games
    • View Games
      • Games News
      • Games Features
      • Games Reviews
      • Games Guides
      • Big in 2026
      • The Big Preview
      • On The Radar
      • Indie Spotlight
      • Future Games Show
      • Golden Joystick Awards
      • Action Games
      • RPGs
      • Action RPGs
      • Adventure Games
      • Third Person Shooters
      • FPS Games
    • Platforms
      • View Platforms
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X
      • PC
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Nintendo Switch 2
      • Tabletop Gaming
      • Grand Theft Auto
      • Pokemon
      • Assassin's Creed
      • Monster Hunter
      • Fortnite
      • Cyberpunk
      • Red Dead
      • The Elder Scrolls
      • The Sims
  • Entertainment
    • View Entertainment
    • TV Shows
      • View TV Shows
      • TV News
      • TV Reviews
      • Anime Shows
      • Sci-Fi Shows
      • Superhero Shows
      • Animated Shows
      • Marvel TV Shows
      • Star Wars TV Shows
      • DC TV Shows
    • Movies
      • View Movies
      • Movie News
      • Movie Reviews
      • Big Screen Spotlight
      • Superhero Movies
      • Action Movies
      • Anime Movies
      • Sci-Fi Movies
      • Horror Movies
      • Marvel Movies
      • DC Movies
    • Streaming
      • View Streaming
      • Apple TV Plus
      • Disney Plus
      • Netflix
      • HBO
      • Amazon Prime Video
      • Hulu
    • Comics
      • View Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • DC Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • Lego
    • Dungeons and Dragons
    • Merch
  • Hardware
    • View Hardware
      • Hardware News
      • Hardware Reviews
      • Hardware Features
      • Desktop PCs
      • Laptops
      • Handhelds
    • Peripherals
      • View Peripherals
      • Headsets & Headphones
      • TVs & Monitors
      • Gaming Mice
      • Gaming Keyboards
      • Gaming Chairs
      • Speakers & Audio
      • Gaming Controllers
      • Tech
      • SSDs & Hard Drives
      • VR
      • Accessories
      • Retro
  • Deals
    • View Deals
    • Game Deals
    • Tech Deals
    • TV Deals
    • Buying Guides
  • Video
  • Newsletters
    • Quizzes
    • About Us
    • How to pitch to us
    • How we score
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Total Film
Trending
  • Pokemon Winds and Waves
  • New Games for 2026
  • GamesRadar+ Replay
  • Mario Day deals
Don't miss these
James holds the Alice stuffie in concept art by Jean Walter
Adventure Games Alice Madness Returns creator American McGee is making a spiritual successor, and he's not worried about EA
Mass Effect 2 - Garrus
Adventure Games The 25 best video game stories of all-time
Leon Kennedy wears a serious expression as he looks out in Resident Evil Requiem. GamesRadar+'s On the Radar banner surrounds the image, with impact written in the top left-hand corner
Survival Horror Games Resident Evil Requiem is building two futures at once, and I have a couple guesses as to what the next remake might be
BioShock 4: a screenshot of a Big Daddy and a Little Sister.
Adventure Games BioShock 4: Everything you need to know about the next BioShock game
Pyramid Head stands ominously in the rain in Silent Hill 2 remake
Survival Horror Games All Silent Hill 2 Remake endings
Fallout 4
Fallout Fallout 4 was "missing something," but Todd Howard helped confirm "there should be this overriding sense of paranoia"
In Hitman World of Assassination, Agent 47 sits at the departure gate in an airport during the loading screen
Roguelike Games After weeks spent locked into Hitman's Freelancer mode, I realize there's one vital thing 007 First Light needs to learn
Subnautica deep sea
Adventure Games 10 Games like Subnautica that'll plunge you into mysterious worlds
Normal Reedus in Death Stranding
Action Games Death Stranding 1 ending explained and what it means
Dispatch screenshots
Adventure Games Dispatch season 2 isn't even confirmed, but I'm wondering how it could handle the battle of the best girl
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
RPGs Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 writer says picking an ending is like choosing a "favorite child" - "They are a pair"
Clockwork Revolution screenshot showing the player character in conversation with a mechanical NPC
FPS Games Clockwork Revolution: Everything we know so far
Walton Goggins as Cooper Howard in a suit of power armor in Fallout season 2 episode 5
Sci-Fi Shows Fallout season 2 Easter eggs and cameos: All the nods to New Vegas and the Fallout video games you might have missed
Exodus
RPGs More than Mass Effect's spiritual successor, Exodus wants to pull decades of player choice into a single story
GTA 6
Games Open world games are some of the most popular in 2025, but as GTA 6 looms, it's about to get competitive
  1. Gaming

BioShock Infinite's interesting parallels to BioShock

Features
By Bo_Moore published 10 April 2013

So many lighthouses

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

  • Facebook
  • X
  • Pinterest
  • Flipboard
  • Email
Share this article
Join the conversation
Follow us
Add us as a preferred source on Google
Get the GamesRadar+ Newsletter

Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more


By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

You are now subscribed

Your newsletter sign-up was successful


Want to add more newsletters?

GamesRadar+

Every Friday

GamesRadar+

Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.

GTA 6 O'clock

Every Thursday

GTA 6 O'clock

Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.

Knowledge

Every Friday

Knowledge

From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.

The Setup

Every Thursday

The Setup

Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.

Switch 2 Spotlight

Every Wednesday

Switch 2 Spotlight

Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.

The Watchlist

Every Saturday

The Watchlist

Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.

SFX

Once a month

SFX

Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!


An account already exists for this email address, please log in.
Subscribe to our newsletter

Welcome to Columbia... is it someone new?

Not his very first interaction, but in order to enter the city of Columbia, Booker must submit himself to be baptized. As he enters the circle of religious devotees, the preacher begins his baptismal offering with a familiar question: "Is it someone new? Someone from the Sodom below?"

Branding: Chains

Jack has mysterious tattoos that we never were given a full understanding of. Most likely they represent that he is, essentially, a slave who obeys, whereas Andrew Ryan is a man who chooses.

Branding: AD

Booker has branding too, and it's this branding that gives him away to Comstock's people. This was a self-inflicted brand, though--one he gave himself as a way to repent for his mistakes.

You may like
  • BioShock 4: a screenshot of a Big Daddy and a Little Sister. BioShock 4: Everything you need to know about the next BioShock game
  • games like Resident Evil - Bioshock Gore Verbinski's BioShock movie would have somehow used both endings but no studio was "willing to go" there
  • Fallout 1 screenshots Almost 30 years later, Fallout 1's depth of choice, chance, and consequence is still an RPG gold standard

Fill your cravings at the Circus of Value!

Peppered throughout Rapture, the Circus of Value vending machines provided much-needed health and ammo restocking as well as a wholly obnoxious voice that will forever be burned into our brain. Of course, when youre running short on cash, that godforsaken clown was always sure to point it out: Come back when youve got some money, buddy!

Dollar Bill. Who needs competition when you have quality?

Just like the Circus of Value, Columbias Dollar Bill machines keep Booker stocked, locked, and loaded. But more than their contents, you probably recognized a familiar phrase, albeit slightly more antiquated: Return when you have some currency, fella!

The power of plasmids

With the worlds greatest scientists gathered together in Rapture (and the help of a DNA re-writing sea slug), medical, technological, and scientific advancements abounded in Rapture, chief among them: plasmids. This memorable shot shows Jack getting accustomed to his first fistful of lightning.

Vigors--power from another world

Columbias version of Plasmids, Vigors provide similar extraordinary powers to the user, such as lightning, fire, or control of animals. The obvious similarities between vigors and plasmids are explained by a voxophone recording in which Jeremiah Fink mentions observing a brilliant biologist, possibly Brigid Tenenbaum, through a tear, implying that he likely drew inspiration from Raptures plasmids themselves when developing Columbias vigors.

Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter

Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more

By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

Messages from the past--Audio Diaries

One of the most compelling bits of storytelling in the original BioShock was the usage of recorded Audio Diaries to give context to the catastrophic state of Rapture.

Voxophone--personal, portable audio

Infinite uses the exact same technique, though its position earlier on the timeline meant that recordings were made on the relatively newly invented voxophone, a sort of miniature, personal phonograph recorder.

Raptures lumbering guardians

Adorning the box art, the Big Daddys hulking man-machine hybrid form is an image of mechanical and biological advancement we are not soon to forget.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3

Current page: Page 2

Prev Page Page 1 Next Page Page 3
Bo_Moore
Read more
BioShock 4: a screenshot of a Big Daddy and a Little Sister.
BioShock 4: Everything you need to know about the next BioShock game
 
 
games like Resident Evil - Bioshock
Gore Verbinski's BioShock movie would have somehow used both endings but no studio was "willing to go" there
 
 
Fallout 1 screenshots
Almost 30 years later, Fallout 1's depth of choice, chance, and consequence is still an RPG gold standard
 
 
UFO 50
"There's always a loose end, trailing off into the distance": Inside the mind of a Metroidvania creator
 
 
A character in Ontos' key art sits in a chair that merges purple, floral, biological design with high-tech cables - their face is blurred with multiple expressions showing inner turmoil while their eyes are closed - with the GamesRadar+ Big in 2026 frame
Soma successor Ontos is "like Shadow of the Colossus" says its creative director: The moon-set horror is "built around the looming excitement and dread of what the next big Experiment will be like"
 
 
Dead Space
"We want you to feel like it's the game you remember playing": System Shock and Dead Space devs on the art of the remake
 
 
Latest in Gaming
The latest cover of Edge, which features Star Wars: Outlaws
Star Wars: Outlaws will be all about “what ‘open world’ means to the player”
 
 
Visceral's Star Wars game: What we knew before it was canceled
 
 
Atomic Heart
Atomic Heart review: "A messy game with big ideas that are in desperate need of refinement"
 
 
Forspoken screenshot
Forspoken review: "An exceptionally middling experience"
 
 
Thrustmaster T128 racing wheel
Thrustmaster T128 review: "A decent option for younger or beginner sim racers"
 
 
Luis Sinisterra and Dominic Solanke ahead of the Leeds vs Bournemouth live stream
Leeds vs Bournemouth live stream: how to watch the Premier League online today, team news
 
 
Latest in Features
A still from Kiki's Delivery Service featuring Kiki and her feline familiar Jiji flying on a broom with some seagulls, with a Big Screen Spotlight logo ini the corner
Kiki's Delivery Service's return to theaters proves we need hand-drawn animation now more than ever
 
 
In Collector's Cove, the collector protagonist who has short brown hair and wears a jumper with cherries on it hugs the Fable Fin companion who wears a witch hat. GamesRadar+'s Indie Spotlight series logo can be seen in the top right-hand corner
If you're feeling Pokemon Pokopia FOMO, this farming adventure lets you explore on the back of a Lapras-like companion
 
 
Curse of Strahd bust and crest lying on a leather notebook
Running the Curse of Strahd D&D campaign? I highly recommend these additions
 
 
A human ditto taking a picture with a Ivysaur and  Venusaur in Pokemon Pokopia.
After 48 hours, I've realized Pokopia is my ideal Pokemon game and humans were the problem all along
 
 
Super Meat Boy 3D gameplay on Switch 2 showing the protagonist, a red cube of meat, running between lasers and blades
Super Meat Boy 3D frustrates me just as much as the original – in a good way
 
 
A screenshot of a man holding red fire in his palm in Elden Ring Tarnished Edition on Nintendo Switch 2
I played Elden Ring Tarnished Edition on Nintendo Switch 2 and rolled through the Lands Between as the new Knight class
 
 
LATEST ARTICLES
  1. DK and Pauline stare at an explosion of gold in Donkey Kong Bananza
    1
    "Some ideas from Donkey Kong Bananza" may inform Nintendo's next big project, producer says
  2. 2
    Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man villain Tim Roth starred in The Incredible Hulk to "embarrass" his kids
  3. 3
    Dragon Age 2 lead says "if some people are ambivalent" about the RPG's characters, "I guess I didn't really do my job"
  4. 4
    A Fallout 4 QA tester nuked the RPG so hard that Zenimax executives got emails about it
  5. 5
    Marvel Rivals devs are careful with balancing because "you have a vocal minority screaming the loudest"

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

Add as a preferred source on Google Add as a preferred source on Google
  • Terms and conditions
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Accessibility statement
  • Careers
  • About us
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...