PLOT
The events of the game take place in 1912. The player assumes the identity of Booker DeWitt, a disgraced former agent of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. He had witnessed events at the Battle of Wounded Knee that changed him, leading to excessive drinking and gambling; he was subsequently dismissed for behavior beyond the acceptable bounds of the Agency. He is hired by mysterious individuals, aware of Columbia's location, and tasked to infiltrate the air-city and rescue a young woman named Elizabeth, who has been held aboard the air-city for the last twelve years. Completing the task and returning Elizabeth to New York City would clear Booker of "old debts", but this would be his last chance to clear them.

Booker is taken by boat to an island lighthouse near Maine that houses a rocket silo, from which he is taken to Columbia. His arrival there is initially quiet; he is baptized by the population before allowed to explore the city. However, while at a carnival, one citizen notices a tattoo on Booker's wrist, with the letters "AD", a sign of a "false shephard" that will bring Comstock's downfall by taking away his "lamb", purportedly Elizabeth. Booker becomes a target of Comstock's forces from this discovery, and he is forced into the conflict of the city while still seeking Elizabeth. Though Booker finds Elizabeth easily enough, he quickly discovers that Elizabeth is central to the civil war raging in the city, her rescue being the start of the chain of events that ultimately lead to Columbia's down-fall. Elizabeth, when first rescued, is meek and timid, and only just coming to grasp her abilities with her powers, but as she is escorted by Booker, becomes bolder and more confident, shown through both physical appearance and her changes in outfit. Each faction seeks to use Elizabeth to turn the tide of the conflict in their favor; the Founders believe Elizabeth's powers can help end the conflict and place them back in control, while the Vox Populi would rather kill Elizabeth than allow the Founders to get their hands on her, believing a prophecy that if Elizabeth falls, so does Columbia. Booker and Elizabeth are forced to place their trust in one another in order to escape. Elizabeth also seeks to understand the powers that she has been given, believing Comstock to be responsible, and refuses to leave Columbia until she learns the truth. Booker comes to fear the power that Elizabeth possesses; a scene during one of the game's preview trailers shows Booker to be more afraid of Elizabeth than God. To complicate matters, the pair is chased by Songbird, a large, robotic bird-like creature who had been Elizabeth's friend and warden over the last twelve years of her imprisonment. Songbird was designed by its creator to feel betrayal should Elizabeth escape, comparable to an abusive spouse, according to Hilary Goldstein of IGN, and Elizabeth notes she "would rather be killed than be recaptured by Songbird."

In addition to the internal strife, Columbia is ravaged by tears in the fabric of space-time. The game begins with a quote from a fictional work Barriers to Trans-dimensional Travel purportly published in 1889. A strange shimmering effect as seen by Booker causes momentary changes to pictures, banners, and people, representing the nearby presence of a tear; in one example, Booker, while watching a Founder give a speech, experiences a brief shimmer where a patriotic button on the Founder's jacket briefly changes to that of the hammer and sickle associated with Communism. The tears have brought seemingly anachronistic elements into the Columbia of 1912; for example, an early gameplay demo footage features a record player in a bar plays a woman singing the lyrics to Tears for Fears' 1985 song "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"; a later press reveal included similar covers of 1933's "Goodnight, Irene" by Huddie Ledbetter, sung in chorus by a large group of Columbia's citizens, 1966's "God Only Knows" by The Beach Boys, sung by a barbershop quartet, and 1983's "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper. 1UP.com's preview of the 2011 E3 game demonstration denotes that at one point, Booker and Elizabeth find themselves in 1983, evident by a movie marquee showing Revenge of the Jedi (the original working name for Return of the Jedi), a result of a misfire of Elizabeth's powers involving tears in the fabric of space-time when she tries to help revive a horse. The scene was part in a media preview event in December 2012, though in this case, the events occurred within a test laboratory, with Elizabeth expressing an interest in going to Paris and opening a rift to see the marquee for the film in French (La Revanche du Jedi).

Levine has stated that the ending of Infinite is "like nothing you've experienced in a video game before"; the story purposely avoids a problem that arose from the original BioShock in which, after the death of Andrew Ryan in the middle of the game, "the story loses some of its steam".

Though the game takes place before the events of the previous two BioShock games (occurring in 1960 and 1968, respectively), Irrational Games has not confirmed if BioShock Infinite shares the same universe with these titles; Ken Levine left the question of the possibility unanswered in an interview stemming from the game's announcement.

SETTING

The primary setting of BioShock Infinite is a city suspended in the air by giant blimps and balloons, called "Columbia", named in homage to the female personification of the United States. Unlike the secret development of the underwater city of Rapture used as the settings for BioShock and BioShock 2, Columbia was built and launched in 1901 by the American government under President William McKinley's directive, to much fanfare and publicity. The city was meant to symbolize the ideas of exceptionalism; the reveal trailer for the game alludes to the 1893 Worlds Fair which is historically considered to be a growth point of American exceptionalism. On the surface, Columbia appeared to be designed as a floating Worlds Fair that could travel across the globe; however, some time after its launch but before the game's events, the city was revealed to be a well-armed battleship, and became involved in an "international incident" by firing upon a group of Chinese civilians during the Boxer Rebellion. The city was disavowed by the United States government, and the location of the city was soon lost to everyone else. The city became, as described by Nick Cowen of The Guardian, "a kind of roaming boogieman moving from place to place and imposing its will on people below". Columbia has been compared to a cross between steampunk and the Star Wars Bespin cloud city, as well as the airships of Final Fantasy settings though Irrational's Ken Levine considers the weaponized city similar to the Death Star.

As a result of the city's isolation, a civil war eventually broke out on Columbia between different factions of citizens, each trying to seize control of the city from the powers-that-be. At the time of the game's events, only two main factions remain. One group are the Founders, the remnants of those retaining power over the city led by Zachary Hale Comstock. This is the city's ruling class, which seeks to keep Columbia purely for American citizens while denying foreigners the same privileges. The other is a group named Vox Populi (Latin for "voice of the people"), a rag-tag resistance group, led by Daisy Fitzroy, opposed to the ultranationalists. Vox Populi is formed from several factions with similar ideologies that fought to seize control and restore the rights of Columbia citizenship to all. However, years of war and struggle have driven Vox Populi to fight the powers-that-be solely out of blind hatred, resulting in more violent and brutal methods and leading to subfactions in the group.

Like Rapture, Columbia is considered a dystopia, but with signs present suggesting a theocratic government taking control at some point, and similar racial-purification concepts such as racial segregation, Nazism, jingoism, and xenophobia. One of the items in the press packages for the game included a tag that would purportedly be worn by immigrants aboard Columbia, requiring those of non-European descent, which includes Papists, Gypsies, Irish and Greeks, to list out numerous details, including religious affiliation and data relating to eugenics; another item was a Columbia propaganda poster that warned "We must all be vigilant to ensure the purity of our people." At a carnival within the early part of the game, Booker witnesses one game that involves throwing baseballs at a captive Irish man and his wife of African descent.

As with BioShock, the player will be able to locate audio logs, Voxophones, and film projectors, Kinetoscopes, that will expand on the history of Columbia beyond those events occurring within the game. Additional tie-in media released by Irrational explore the history of Columbia.

Like BioShock and BioShock 2, BioShock Infinite is a first-person shooter with role-playing elements similar to the previous two games. As Booker, the player moves about the various structures of Columbia using a grappling hook, a series of railways connecting the buildings called the Skyline, and other transport means to search for Elizabeth. The player will gain weapons which can be used in numerous ways within the environment, including on the Skyline, to defeat enemies; however the player is only able to carry two weapons at any time. Booker gains powers and abilities by using vigors and wearing gear that are found through Columbia, the equivalent of BioShock's plasmids and tonics respectively. Vigors grant activated powers such as telekinesis, electricity manipulation, or animal control (as seen by the manipulation of a flock of crows within the gameplay demo), while selected gear are passive abilities that can improve the player's strength or damage resistance. Vigors require Salt, the equivalent of magic points or BioShock's EVE for powering their abilities. Unlike BioShock in which the player was able to use special Gene Banks to alter the loadout of plasmids and tonics they had, the choice to imbibe a certain vigor is permanent and cannot be changed later in the game, placing emphasis on the consequences of the player's choices throughout the game. With gear, the player only has four available slots, and has to make decisions on which combination of offensive and defensive capabilities work for them. Both vigors and gear will have various upgrade paths; for example, Levine noted that vigors will have alternate-fire capabilities and have up to five different upgrade routes, providing a wider variance of customization options for the player.

Once reunited with Elizabeth, who also has a set of such powers, the player must work together with her to escape Columbia. Elizabeth will sometimes stay out of battle, scavenging the area for ammo, Salt, and other items for the player and toss them to him as needed. Other times she will use her powers to aid the player; for example, Elizabeth can create a localized rainstorm on foes, which the player, as Booker, can then fire upon with an electricity-based attack, electrocuting the foes. The player will not be directly in control of Elizabeth, but instead she will react to the player and the current situation in a manner similar to the AI Director in Left 4 Dead, according to Levine. However, using Elizabeth's powers also harms her, an action compared to the choice of killing or saving the Little Sisters from the previous games. Elizabeth also has the ability to interact with the tears in the fabric of space-time, pulling objects from the other side to use within Columbia, escaping from battle through these, or repairing them. The player will need to protect Elizabeth, but will not need "to babysit and hand-hold" her through the game. Levine has stated about working with Elizabeth in the game that "in no way, shape, or form is this an escort mission", identifying that players reacted negatively to a late-game stage in the original BioShock in which they were tasked to protect a Little Sister.
The Motorized Patriot, one of the game's four Heavy Hitters, wearing a George Washington waxworks face while armed with a peppermill machine gun

Several different human forces are at work opposed to the player's progress within the city, includes forces representing the Founders and the Vox Populi.[1] Furthermore, the player and Elizabeth are chased by Songbird (sometimes simply referred to as "Him"), who is attempting to snatch Elizabeth from the player after being her guardian and companion for the last twelve years. Four types of larger mechanical enemies created by the Founders, dubbed "Heavy Hitters", act as mini-bosses through the game, demanding new tactics from the player. One type of these are the Handymen, so named for their large porcelain doll-like hands; they are robotic-like monsters housing a human heart and head, with the ability to jump large distances and easily throw the player- and non-player characters alike. A second class are the Motorized Patriots, once used as tour guides for the city, decorated in patriotic colors and wear a wax mask of George Washington, assaulting its foes with a "peppermill" automatic machine gun. The Boys of Silence are men in foppish outfits locked into a metal helmet with giant ears; the humans inside are blind but due to the helmet have super-human hearing, and act as Columbia's security system, requiring the player to choose carefully between stealth and a direct assault, whereupon the Boys can scream to call in back up. Finally, the Siren is a mysterious, completely enshrouded female figure, based on the Spiritualism movement near the end of the 19th century, that can revive defeated foes during combat, requiring the player to decide whether to concentrate attacks on the Siren or the newly-revived enemies.[42] The player will have several options of approaching the Heavy Hitters, such as by using stealth to bypass the encounter, or to hack into the machine and take control of the units.

The Skyline is a rail-based system (originally designed for moving cargo around Columbia but later used for personal transport) similar to the concept found in the Ratchet & Clank games and described by Levine as "a roller coaster, over another roller coaster, over another roller coaster"; players activate a wrist-mounted tool that Booker and enemies wear to jump and hang onto the self-powered tracks. Players can jump onto, off of, and between Skyline tracks at any time, and may face enemies that use the system to attack; the player can use weapons in Booker's free hand to defend the character. The freedom of movement along the Skyline allows for several varieties of combat, including flanking, cover, and area-of-effect attacks through creative uses of the system. Levine considered the Skyline to introduce new options in combat in the same manner that the use of jetpacks in Tribes or the vehicles in Halo had done, which in that case had helped made those games unique entries in the shooter fields.

Irrational Games has stated that the game's set pieces are not heavily scripted; this statement was made in response to reaction to a gameplay preview video released during the week of September 21, 2010, which, within ten minutes, demonstrated numerous elements of the game. The development team called the game's pacing "like BioShock 1", and that while there will be some scripted set pieces, the developers want the player to be able to explore Columbia at their own pace. Unlike Jack or Delta, the silent protagonists of BioShock and BioShock 2 respectively, and who are guided by radio commands from a third party, Booker will be a vocal character, with dialogue designed to aid the player in leading Booker to complete his mission. Players in Infinite will revisit areas from earlier in the game, in the same manner they did in BioShock. However, to create a better narrative, the Irrational team borrowed ideas from Batman: Arkham Asylum, a similar open-world game where players, on return to previous areas, would find new elements advancing the plot and gameplay.

In addition to the normal game mode, BioShock Infinite will include a "1999 Mode", so named for the release year of System Shock 2, a game worked on by Levine and several other Irrational Games developers. 1999 Mode is a more challenging version of the game, requiring the player to make mutually exclusive specialization choices, such as choosing which weapon type that Booker is proficient at, which may make later parts of the game difficult to complete, and may require the player to reload from earlier saved games to manage their resources better.

Booker will be voiced by veteran voice actor Troy Baker, while Elizabeth will be voiced by actress Courtnee Draper. Baker and Draper's participation in the development process was atypical for most video games; instead of just coming in to record their lines, Levine considered them as collaborators on the story development process. The three spent a significant amount of time in the recording studio, improvising scenes and working on repeated recordings to try to find the right tone to present scripted dialog; such changes were then reflected appropriately in the game's story and dialog. Levine favorably contrasted Baker and Draper as "the genius and the novice" respectively; Baker had several previous roles in video game voice-overs, while Draper had none; the different levels of experience between the two helped to tighten the performances, the combination a "potent mix" according to Levine. Levine explained one case where Draper was struggling to give a convincing tearful performance when Elizabeth is having difficulty using her powers. Both Draper and Levine believed it would be helpful to have Baker provide Booker's loud, berating dialog alongside Draper to help Draper find the right emotional response to deliver for the scene. Levine considered the input of both actors of critical importance to be able to deliver a lot of information, both in words and emotion, in only a few lines of dialog. Levine also worked with the actors directly to script out specific scenes once they had gotten to know their characters before recording their voices. Despite working closely with Baker and Draper on characterization and creating dialog on the fly, Levine did not provide the actors with full knowledge of their characters' backstory or the overarching plot of the game prior to recording; according to Levine, this helped the actors to create the in-game connection between Booker and Elizabeth in a much more natural manner than reading with full knowledge of the script. Similarly, Levine has not told the developers on his team the whole story of BioShock Infinite, using the reveals to gauge their reactions and adjust the story as needed; this had created some strife in the team, as they would prefer working with full knowledge of the script, but Levine noted "that's not the way we present stuff to the gamer".

In the early development of Infinite, Elizabeth was designed to be more of a useful companion than a partner within the game; she would be able to perform tasks like picking locks that the player could not, but otherwise lacked a significant emotional bond. However, after showcasing the game at the 2011 E3 Convention, the Irrational team saw players react favorably to Elizabeth, and started to make her the player's partner for the game, expanding her abilities to accommodate this. This approach to Elizabeth was inspired by the character of Alyx Vance from Half-Life 2, a central element and an "emotional driver" to the game's story. Irrational wanted to expand on that concept, demonstrating how such a character would interact with talkative player-character, compared to the silent Gordon Freeman, and creating further emotional ties between the two characters. Levine also considered the characterization of the player-character Monkey and his non-playable companion Trip in the game, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, as inspiration towards the story of Booker and Elizabeth. The plot revolves around changes that Elizabeth, Booker, and their relationship undergo as the player explores deeper into Columbia. Further, they wanted to avoid giving Elizabeth any of the same abilities that the player does; they rejected letting her use a gun, for example, as this would take away from the player's role in defeating the enemy. They gave Elizabeth additional abilities, such as being able to scrounge and toss supplies of ammunition and Salts to Booker, or to decode ciphers hidden around Columbia with codes found by Booker, that helped to connect her more emotionally to the player.

Elizabeth's character, particularly her relationship to her captor, the Songbird, is based on his experience with a former female companion that Levine had; she had told Levine that her previous relationship was abusive, but she would otherwise "make excuses for him [her former friend], all the time" and ultimately returned back to him.
Levine had altered this in Infinite, that while creating the abusive relation between Elizabeth and Songbird, Elizabeth desired to escape that, even if death was the only option; at one point in the game's preview material, Elizabeth is shown wrapping Booker's hands around her neck and convincing him to kill her while Songbird attempts to break into the building that have secured themselves into. In response to discussions on Internet forums regarding the size and exposed nature of Elizabeth's breasts, Levine noted that part of their design for Elizabeth and her costume was to be able to recognize her from a distance given the open-space nature of the game and limited resolution. Levine stated that her costume is inspired by that of superheroes, using a simple color scheme that would help her to stand out in the colorful and complex landscapes.

The programming of the artificial intelligence for Elizabeth was considered a major technical challenge for Irrational, as they desired to give her as much near-human behavior in contrast to most other games where such companions are either highly scripted or given relatively simplistic pragmas to follow, and had little previous examples from other games to build on; Levine cited Half-Life 2' Alyx as the last "great AI companion". Irrational had previously developed AI routines for the Big Daddies and Little Sisters in BioShock that would allow them to roam and interact with the environment if otherwise left alone by the player; these routines were the basis of building out improved behavior for Elizabeth. The developers had spent much time improving these routines to give Elizabeth her own tendencies to look and move around as a real actor instead of a robotic non-player character, as to re-enforce her central role to the player. To this, Levine explained that they looked to the banter between the main characters in the Uncharted series by Naughty Dog. Levine praised the work that Naughty Dog had done, and felt he would be able to create the same with a more somber period piece. Some of Elizabeth's responses will be driven by a player's action (such as the aforementioned horse recovery scene), but other times, Elizabeth's actions will be on her own in response to the environment. Much of Columbia was seeded "room by room" with elements that Elizabeth will be interested in, comment on, and react to. However, as for the player not miss these elements, such actions would only be performed based on a number of factors, including whether the player was near and looking at Elizabeth, and the current tension of the game. This apparent curiosity serendipitously worked with Elizabeth's story, who after having been locked up for twelve years would be eager to see new things. Elizabeth's AI also monitors and tracks the player's behavior over time, such that the AI will attempt to predict when the player is moving and keep Elizabeth out of the line of fire. Programming Elizabeth's AI was a significant challenge to the Irrational team, and at several points during development, the suggestion of cutting her from the game were brought up. Levine countered these, insisting to keep her in the game. To manage this, a multidisciplinary subgroup called the "Liz Squad" reviewed the levels designed by others to assure that the presence of Elizabeth was accounted for across the game and avoid situations where the level would delegate the character to simply hiding in a closet. On March 15th, 2013, the full voice cast was announced by Irrational Games.

Vox Populi

The Vox Populi (latin "voice of the people"), or "The Anarchists," are a diverse and underground Far-Left Anarcho-Communist resistance faction in Columbia that opposes The Founders' nationalist and xenophobic ideals. After the city-wide incident years before, the citizens of Columbia began to split into two factions: the Founders, and the Vox Populi.

Led by Daisy Fitzroy, the Vox Populi first began as a protest group and a confederation of like-minded citizens and foreign immigrants, but as it became more organized its members grew more militant. The movement eventually abandoned its initial peaceful message in favor of retaliatory violence against the ultra-nationalist faction. They believe in the communist ideal that private property belongs to the working class, which eventually comes to mean that everything that is not already theres should and does belong to them. A member is heard shouting, "Your homes are ours! Your lives are ours! Your wives are ours! It all belongs to the Vox!" They appear to use crimson red on their warpaint, sashes, devil masks and clothing, and even use the color during their vandalism of destroying anything and anyone related to the Founders, especially going as far as attacking employed citizens, such as dentists and postmen. It is also notable to state that the Vox Populi controled areas look remarkably similar to the novel 1984 with screens show casing propaganda and "enemies of the Vox" say what they did and that they are sorry for it.

Both the Vox Populi and its opponents are in conflict with each other for control of Columbia, which is literally tearing the city apart from the sky. Much like the Founders, the Vox Populi want Elizabeth for themselves, either for her gifted abilities for their own agenda, or to possibly kill her. Like many groups throughout history, "Vox Populi" soon fragmented into several splinter groups over various internal ideological differences. Ironically, these internal factions are often more devoted to destroying each other than uniting against their common enemy.

Founders

The Founders are a major citizen faction and political party in the city of Columbia. Their name arises from the fact that they see themselves as the true founders of the city, and they attempt to model their ideals after the founding fathers of the United States. The party promotes ultra-nationalism, religious fanaticism, jingoism, fascism and extreme xenophobia, and is currently engaged at war with the anarcho-communist resistance group known as the Vox Populi. So far, the only known members of this faction are its leader, Zachary Hale Comstock, and another politician named Saltonstall. The Columbia Police and Military both appear to be aligned with them.

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Three separate pieces of story-driven downloadable content are expected to be made available following BioShock Infinite's release. Additionally, new weapons, gear, costumes, and vigors will also be made available as extra content; for example, part of the reward for completing the Industrial Revolution puzzle game included such weapons and gear. A season pass will be available to pre-purchase all planned downloadable content at a reduced price.