ABSTRACT
BioShock Infinite (Irrational Games 2013) is a first-person shooter (FPS) that situates the player at the center of a burgeoning civil war. Set in Columbia-a glorious airborne city whose ornate buildings float high above the earth-the game’s events unfold within an alternate reality that both incorporates and reimagines real episodes from world history. Taking place in the year 1912, the game explicitly references a number of violent military struggles that preceded this date, such as China’s Boxer Rebellion and America’s Wounded Knee massacre, while more recent conflicts are integrated more obliquely. America’s Civil War provides the clearest historical touchstone, as Columbia’s destruction is precipitated by tensions between the puritanical white supremacist rulers of the city, The Founders, and the revolutionary Vox Populi (“voice of the people” in Latin), an insurgent group consisting of oppressed minorities and their allies. As the conflict shifts from spotted outbreaks of fighting to open warfare and revolution, the player encounters increasing levels of social upheaval and destruction. Actively engaging in dynamic scenarios that trace and reformulate the progress of the Civil War, the player soon becomes a key figure in the dramatic fall of this deeply paranoid and racist society.
