All I have to say is, what a game.

The gameplay leading up to the finale was definitely excruciating but in the end, I think it was all worth it. The plot gets increasingly more interesting as we near the big reveal, which, by itself was pretty mind blowing as well. That said, the battles with the sons of silence and their crazed lunatics were super annoying. Elizabeth wasn’t around to give any supplies and those things were durable as hell. In the end I just ended up running through all of them and hoping to God that I lose them. The final battle on the airship was beyond annoying as automatons kept landing down along with those rocket men. To make it all worse, rocket airships and freaking zeppelins were raining hell upon you and songbird took its sweet time to recharge between attacks. Also, am I the only one that started liking songbirb near the end? Poor thing only ever wanted to protect Elizabeth from all evil…and then she gets drowned by her in the end. Like someone putting down their own puppy, terrible. But I guess this is what Fink’s creations deserve.

Now, the plot. The good part is that the game addresses all the questions it gave birth to throughout the story. Who is Elizabeth, why the cut-off finger, why does she have tear powers (because she exists across two worlds, the finger part), what the AD on Booker’s arm meant and why Elizabeth was misidentified as Annabelle back in the story, who is Comstock, etc. All of these questions are answered in a most fantastic video game ending. I personally really liked the lighthouse to represent doors to multiple worlds part. Gave a Life is Strange kind of vibe. Also really liked the concept of constants and variable, something that the Luteces had been talking about throughout the game. Every time the whole Booker thing had happened, there were constants and variables. Constants were the things that would never change: Booker not rowing, always rolling heads on the coinflip, etc. The variables are the important choices we make, which Brooch she wears, whether Slate is murdered at the theater place, etc. It also relates to the thought experiment the Luteces mentioned. They had tried conducting it a lot of times, as Rosalind mentions ‘one does not go into an experiment knowing one has failed.’ Yet, Robert would ask whether he rowed every time. This was to confirm whether the dimension they were in still held his rowing as a constant or not, this would also help them determine whether that dimension is different. Whether that Booker would be able to succeed in his mission or not. For clarification, we are the 123rd Booker. They had tried it with 122 Bookers before us and all had failed, one way or the other.

Not sure if this is an unpopular opinion but the ending mostly made sense to me. The only ‘plot hole’ I noticed was that they assume killing Booker at that specific point where his subsequent choice births either Comstock or depressed-I’ll-sell-my-child-Booker would end everything. Who is to say there is a world where the Elizabeths never made it here, where they never managed to kill him before the whole mess started. Where Comstock still reigns supreme. Isn’t that the exact opposite of what she set out to do? To kill every Comstock there ever was? Otherwise, it was pretty well concluded.

Sidenote:

Anyone figure out how he immediately realizes that it’s not the Elizabeth he knows, near the end? It’s because she wasn’t wearing the brooch we selected for her. None of the ones that drowned us were. This also means that the Elizabeth we spent the whole game with never had it in her to kill us herself. She sends the alternate versions instead.