BioShock Infinite/Nightmare Fuel

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


You know BioShock Infinite is going to be quite frightening when its gets one of these pages started JUST FROM THE FIRST PREVIEW.

  • The Big Daddies have been replaced by the altogether creepier Handymen. Just to emphasise how much more f*cked up they are over the Big Daddies, you get a viewpoint with the subject's beating heart on full display. Just the SOUND of their hands moving should be enough to get anyone freaking out.
  • Songbird. A giant, black, screeching mechanical steampunk bird gargoyle creature whose sole purpose is to hunt you down and retrieve Elizabeth.
    • The thing has claws, smacks Dewitt around like he was nothing and tears through buildings like paper (Not to mention its from Dewitt point of view the whole time. Those claws an inch from you face, yeesh).
    • It has its share of Nothing Is Scarier and Hell Is That Noise moments. When it searches for Elizabeth, you hear a distorted, frightening cry, and a search spotlight very similar to The Scarecrow in Batman's nightmares in Batman: Arkham Asylum.
  • Possibly scarier than any monster is the political extremism that has torn the city apart: the Founders are racist, xenophobic and theocratic despots who openly endorse eugenics and can and have used their floating super weapon to impose their will on foreign countries in the name of imperialistic nationalism. The Vox Populi are a group that started with good intentions only to devolve into blood thirsty thugs who loot shop owners, publicly execute postmen for "spreading lies" and whose belief of "everything should belong to everyone" has turned into "everything should belong to us". In Rapture you fought against mutants whose insanity was explicitly caused by fantastical Psycho Serum. At first glance, in Columbia you fight against people turned into "monsters" by mere ideology.
    • In the E3 demo, you get a very good look at this. People getting mugged, live terrorism in open daylight, propaganda of film reels showing faces on those red curtains. It's total anarchy in the streets. Heck at one point you come across some people about to do a live execution to an innocent mailman and you're given the choice to let him die to preserve your cover or save him and have the radicals gunning for you.
  • What the heck was at the end of this demo trailer? What caused the green and red light anyway?
    • Look at how terrified Liz is. Now, listen to the sound effects. Notice how you hear the flapping of wings, and the source of the light sounds a bit like an enraged sparrow? You know, a Songbird? Yes, he can track you, and attack at any time, cover be damned!
  • It's said that Elizabeth's powers work on the principle of opening dimensional tears so you can-at certain points-bring things into existence or take them out [1] As a result, Columbia probably has very unstable dimensionality, [2] causing odd anachronisms like a theater playing something called Revenge of the Jedi, Saltonstall having a communist badge even though it shouldn't be invented for about a decade, the Rolston Reciprocating Repeater[3],and many more odd Steampunk things. Now, every fan of a game which prominently mentions other dimensions know that for every paradisaical dimension or dimension like ours but different, there will be one that is Nightmare Fuel or is just bloody horrible. It seems very likely that someone somewhere is going to tap into one of these in Columbia...
    • Or worse. this trailer shows that dimensionality can shift randomly (look at the painting in the bar. It just randomly turns from horses to someone that looks like Andrew Ryan) so who's to say you won't end up in a nightmare world randomly?
    • Also, a Vox Populi member runs behind a carriage after you tell him off... and then he just vanishes. He could be behind the cart, but it's still Paranoia Fuel and nightmare fuel when you consider what's written above.
      • Actually, you can see him a quick second away from the carriage before the player keeps on moving.
  • The fear of heights is strong with this one, especially when riding the sky rails. Leaping from one to the next, especially with people pursuing you. Not to mention you really have to pay attention where your riding lest you slam into cargo box and go for a fall.
    • The developers have said that you can't fall off the Skylines accidentally, since they want to encourage their use as much as possible. As such, you probably just stop if you hit the cargo containers, or drop to a lower rail.
  • The leader of Columbia, a gentleman named Comstock, is heralded in posters as being the 'Hero of the Battle of Wounded Knee.' Go ahead and look up exactly how that battle went.
    • Then again, this is alternate history, so it's anyone's guess how this version of Wounded Knee actually went.
  • Comstock's Vox Populi counterpart, Daisy Fitzroy, could possibly be just as disturbing, given the scene from the E3 demo in which she projects herself onto a curtain.
  • Perhaps the most disturbing element from Infinite is that many of the citizens of Columbia don't seem to realize that the city has fallen into ruin. In the trailers you can see a woman sweeping the porch of a building that is on fire, a man giving a speech to empty deck chairs, and another man on a bench who is covered with crows.
    • It's confirmed that something weird did happen to them-must have been that unstable dimensionality and them losing the ability to tell which reality was which.
  • Speaking of Charles (the guy on the bench), when you get Salonstall's attention, he orders Charles to attack - with the birds.
    • "Charles! ATTEND!"
  • Also you know beyond all this, giant city floating thousands of feet above the ground, poor acrophobics.
  • Thought Songbird and the basic enemies were bad enough? Meet the Motorized Patriot, an unholy cross between an animatronic George Washington from the depths of the Uncanny Valley with The Terminator. Complete with creepy malfunctioning voice, minigun and The Terminator's endurance and Determinator tendencies.

Motorized Patriot: Red...is the price...of liberty! [dakka dakka dakka]

    • Well, the trailer showing the Motorized Patriot totally wasn't frightening. Now if you'd excuse me, I'm going to change my pants and try to avoid that mechanized bastard if I can when the game drops.
    • You forgot about the disturbingly fast, mechanical cranking motion it's arm makes to operate the aforementioned minigun. That alone looks just. plain. WRONG.
    • Oh, and in the trailer showcasing it, look closely at the scene where Elizabeth conjures a gun turret in order to distract it so you (Booker) can shoot it's weak point. As the Patriot turns to return fire back at it, it's head alone suddenly rotates back towards and stays fixated on you WHILE fighting the turret as if to say, "Don't worry. I have NOT forgotten about you. Once I've finished with this, you will die next."
  • Comstock House is the point in which the horror elements start to take over; ignoring the fact that the backdrop is nothing but rolling thunderclouds, the general atmosphere is incredibly unsettling. You also have a bunch of mooks everywhere, wearing creepy masks of former US presidents, watchmen type enemies (see below), and some empty corridors and rooms made even more eerie by the lighting effects. Just imagine spending even five minutes in a place like this in real life...
    • Speaking of the mooks, when they are alerted, your bullets are of little effect. You'll then get some bona fide nightmare fuel
    • As you traverse the asylum, you can hear Elizabeth screaming in agony, as if she is being tortured. It is as painful to listen to as it sounds.
    • At one point, you will enter a room. Seems like progress is being made, right? Then, out of nowhere, a wheelchair slowly squeaks into view from behind a support column, with a mask of either Ben Franklin or George Washington in the seat. And there is no one else in the room...it may be subtle, but that doesn't make it any less creepy!
    • When you manage to open a security door that allows you to reach Elizabeth, you can finally heave a sigh of relief. So you turn around an-HOLYMOTHEROFGOD!!!!! There is a Boy of Silence standing directly behind you, breathing down your neck! Speaking of...
    • ...The Boys of Silence, another enemy. They don't sound too creepy otherwise (they're meant to replace the cameras from the original Bioshock, except they'll consciously be looking for you), but then you see their heads. They wear a helmet that has no eyes and a gaping mouth. Their developer diary trailer ends with one of them making a really creepy noise from their mouths.
      • To makes things worse, take a closer look at their outfits: first their clothes heavily resemble those of a child, complete with bib and laces which raises an awful lot of uncomfortable questions. Second, consider that helmet design: you have two trumpets which redirect sound into a brass helmet which presumably reverberates. Does the sound they make derive from them screaming in pain?
  • The Siren, yet another enemy, is apparently a nod to late 19th century Spiritualism, which works a lot better in the game world, if this is anything to go by. The Siren, who very much may be the ghost of a vocalist, is able to bring dead enemies back to life after you've gone and killed them once. Resurrection! Always fun.
    • Oh yeah, almost forgot: popping the soldiers' heads with a headshot doesn't stop The Siren from resurrecting them! Doesn't make sense, but ignoring that, good luck trying to get some kind of breathing room when fighting this boss!
    • During the fight, there is no backing track playing. The most prominent sounds you'll hear all come from The Siren itself, be it in the form of eerie ghostly wailing, or that horrible scream she does when resurrecting the dead.
    • One last thing; you have to fight this thing 3 times! And each time, you don't have the best weapons, and the least optimal positions you can find. Have fun!
  • The first two BioShock titles were probably nightmare inducing for players who suffered from aquaphobia. Well, let's hope some of you playing Infinite for the first time don't suffer from acrophobia!
  • Just before Booker and Elizabeth catch a ride on the First Lady airship, they arrive at the Battleship Bay ticket hall. All seems normal so far, NPCs are just going about their business, including a lovely tune being played by a nearby violinist. But as you approach the ticket office, the music stops... and then...dead silence. On top of that, everyone in the ticket hall just...stares at you. At that point, you realise that shit ain't right. You feel like you've walked into an ambush, even if you didn't have prior knowledge of the story. Is it still rather unsettling despite being a tamer moment in the game.
  1. ↑ Like skylines or turrets. Before you call bullshit, in the first trailer Elizabeth's powers seemed to be Cast from Hit Points and/or have a great strain on her this probably won't make you a God Mode Sue.
  2. ↑ That last term was borrowed from Perdido Street Station
  3. ↑ The closest thing to a handheld machinegun like that wasn't invented until sometime in World War I, and... well, it sucked.
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