Given the opening scene, why doesn’t Booker know he’s been “hired” by the Luteces? He seems to know someone hired him.
When he goes into the alternate reality in which Columbia exists, the conflicting memories mean that his mind ends up writing a new, fake set of memories for himself to reconcile the events. The stuff about “give us the girl to wipe away the debt” is all a result of that. It didn’t really happen; it’s just the way his mind is interpreting the reality (which he cannot process) of the Luteces bringing him to Columbia to retrieve his daughter).
In the first (opening) lighthouse there’s a body that appears to have been tortured and a note to Booker to not “disappoint us”. Who’s responsible for that? The Luteces don’t seem the type.
I think the implication is that it’s the Luteces. There’s a scene somewhere else where they (I think it’s them anyway) talk about how there’s only one more obstacle, and the implication is that it’s something to do with the lighthouse.
Why the need to take Elizabeth to NY? If the whole point was to reunite Booker and Anna/Elizabeth they would have succeeded a lot sooner if he agreed to take her to Paris when they first commandeer the airship.
He’s still saddled with his own false memories, in which he believes that he has to return Elizabeth to NY to satisfy his debt.
Once they realize they can control Songbird, why does Elizabeth kill him?
You mean why do they kill Songbird? I have no answer for this one.[/spoiler]
I’m too tired to give it a lot of thought but #4 at least is an easy one:
The musical gizmo they were playing to control Songbird broke so they could no longer control him. He’s swooping in to kill you when Elizabeth opens the tear into Rapture.
Thanks for the answers MsWhatsit. #1 makes sense. Some follow-ups on #2 and #3.
2 - Robert Lutece is going through the exercise to wipe away his own guilt. Torturing/killing someone seems counterproductive. On the other hand, if part of his motivation is to prevent the destruction of NYC then it could be justifiable, although who could they possibly be interrogating?
3 - In the opening scene, Booker is handed the box. Inside it has the card that says to bring Elizabeth to NYC. I’m assuming that the opening scene is not part of a false memory.
2: Could be another Booker who has failed and who has been repurposed. Note how we can’t see his face.
Could be someone else though, it’s not like a place with an incipient civil war must be short of corpses.
3: Maybe that’s the Luteces going with the memories Booker has made up and confirming them. If he’s going to have false memories, he might as well really believe them because those who cross universes and start doubting have a habit of going all nose-bleedy and crazy.
I just beat the game on 1999 mode. Woo! It was pretty tricky in some parts. I think the most difficult part for me was actually the first Handyman that you have to fight (I think it’s the first one, anyway) outside the factory. I died a couple of times, and finally managed to take him out with a combination of Shock Jockey/sniper rifle/hand cannon and just kiting him around on the skylines while my shield recharged.
Later in the game, once you have upgraded Charge vigor, plus Burning Halo and Brittle Skinned gear, your Charge attack basically becomes godly and can destroy almost anything. Once I figured this out, the later boss battles became much less of a big deal.
PS: I got the Scavenger Hunt achievement, which is for completing 1999 Mode without using any Dollar Bill vending machines. I am feeling somewhat smug about this.
I’m about halfway through the game now, and I just have to ask this: is it only on the lowest graphics settings, or are there no destructible objects in the game? It feels so odd to have everything bulletproof. (I know Elizabeth is supposed to be indestructible) Also, do graphics settings affect facial expressions? The expressions, although nice, aren’t very convincing for a game that came out in 2013, certainly not 9 years ahead of Half Life 2.
Booker doesn’t have false memories. He just has very confused and mixed-up real ones. He’s crossing himself at least four times in the main game, and technically could be many more. He apparently can’t make sense of his own thoughts; whole memories and understanding of what’s going on is floating in and out of consciousness.
I do think the developers can, and should, have gone much farther in making sure we understood him. Unfortunately, the really important plot elements are only obliquely hinted at early on, and the big reveals happen in rapid-fire sequence fairly late in the game.
What were those things that attacked you while you were trying to get to Elizabeth? What was the thing with the bullhorns on its head? Was there any rationale for that place?
They’re robot-people like the Handymen, basically. No, there’s not really any sensible explanation as to why anyone would need them since presumably people don’t invade the nuthouse all that often and ther’re more effective guards around.
Where is it mentioned that they are robot-like people? I’m not doubting you, I just totally missed any mention of what those things were. I was too busy trying figure out the meanings behind “Here is where we sleep” stuff. Which I never did.
It’s not clearly explained, but it’s pretty similar in concept. There honestly wasn’t a lot of meaning in anything in that level - it was mostly for setting mood. And the mood was thought-control.
My understanding is the enemies you are referring to are known as “Boys of Silence”. They’re not robots, just blind, but with super-sensitive hearing and a dimension-crossing yell.
That whole section just reeked to me of trying to salvage something that had obviously had a lot of work put into it but was scaled back for one reason or another.
Do we need to continue spoilering things in this thread? The game’s been out for a while now and we’re onto about page 5, after all.
I finished the game on 1366x768 at very low quality, thinking, “wow, this game is really inefficient at graphics”. Then I saw the Razer Edge can play it at very high quality (my laptop uses the same 640M LE 2GB graphics card, but has quad-core i7) and thought I must be missing something. So I set it to use high performance all the time instead of auto switching, and there seems to be a difference. Maybe Nvidia’s software doesn’t recognize steam.exe.
I finished my third playthrough yesterday, on 1999 mode with the Scavenger achievement. I really had to plan out which weapons and vigors to upgrade. I stuck with the sniper rifle and shotgun for most of the game, only switching out in the rare instances when ammo ran low. These were the only two weapons I fully upgraded, and the money I saved let me upgrade more vigors. In terms of infusions, I maxed out salts first, then shields.
The “Blood for Salts” gear gives salts when killing enemies, which keeps you pretty well-stocked in salts. Similarly, the “Last Man Standing” gear gives health for killing enemies when low on health.
The Possession for Less upgrade, while pricey for the early game, is well worth the investment. It will let you more easily control mobs as enemies tend to attack a possessed character rather than you. Continually possess a turret or patriot and let your enemies do the hard work of destroying it for you.
Murder of Crows with the Crow Trap Aid upgrade causes enemies killed with crows to leave behind a crow trap. It’s the gift that keeps on giving!
The Undertow + Shock Jockey combo is pretty cool. Pull enemies towards you then shock them. The water from Undertow magnifies the electricity damage from Shock Jockey; weaker enemies will die on the spot. Even patriots don’t last very long.
For sheer awesomeness though, nothing beats the fully-upgraded Charge. Charge Aid recharges your shield on impact and Charge Boost causes an explosion. I was able to beat Lady Comstock all three times simply by charging her.
