In the start of it, we get to see Rapture as it was before it got completely taken over by homicidally insane 'Splicers'. You start off being contracted to find 'Sally'; a little girl who you suspect was indoctrinated into 'The little sister's' program.
Well, to best scrutinize this plot, lets put it on the table; lay it all out there. This is from the basic game:
First of all...this is about 'Different Realities'. There once was a guy named Booker DeWitt. One day he is at a Baptism. All realities branch out from this point in 2 distinct ways. The Booker that gets Baptized renames himself to 'Comstock' and goes on to travel through realities and becomes the leader of a big floating city. The Booker that doesn't get Baptized goes on to get a wife and a child...but the wife dies during child birth. Since Comstock has been travelling through all manner of different realities, he has wiped out the DNA encoding of his sperm rendering him sterile. Making a deal with a Booker who both HAS a child and needs money, Comstock, through the Lutesces arranges a trade. As he is leaving with the child, Booker changes his tune and wants to take the baby back. A struggle ensues at the portal between the 2 realities; Comstock and Booker. Comstock orders the Lutesces to 'Shut down the portal'. With a final Shove, Comstock pulls the baby over to his side and little Anna (Comstock renames her to Elizabeth) reaches for Booker as the portal closes and she loses half her pinky in the process. Since her pinky was part of Booker's reality and she moved into another one...she has the ability to 'Open tears' from anomalies that exist throughout Columbia.
In BaS#1, Anna doesn't lose her pinky...she loses her head. The grief stricken Comstock finds a different reality and uses some fancy memory replacement mumbo jumbo to try and forget about what he had done...settling down as a detective in Rapture and calling himself 'Booker' again.
Physical logic doesn't make sense. Even with the latitude of calling it 'Different realities' as opposed to 'Dimensions' and they still screw the pooch with the logic of the story.
At the end, a tortured BC protests about using heat to draw out 'Sally'. He is bitter about the use of plasmids that ruin people. He clearly shows signs of a conscience. Trying to pull Sally out of the hole to save her life, he remembers what his tortured soul was trying to forget: An accident where the baby that would have been Elizabeth in that reality was killed. In his grief, He left his life as 'The Prophet' for the 'Reality' of Rapture and hoped to forget everything and focus on a day to day living. This 'Elizabeth' - lets call her 'Queen Bitch' for short - found 'BC', reminded him of his crime, and shoved a dagger into his heart. Well FUCK! This broken down investigator wasn't going to go back to Columbia and preside over it like he pretends to know redemption. The accident changed him. It brought him back to 'Booker'.
You have to understand; in the main game, the main protagonist had a vision of zeppelins destroying the world in 1994 by shooting down fireballs. 1994!!! Maybe 1694 that might work. I'll see your fireball throwing Zeppelins and raise you 10000 F18's, Migs, F14's, F15's, F16's, cruise missiles, airblast, Phoenix and sidewinders etc etc etc. FUCK!!! The really scary part about this series is how something so apparent was just missed...and a whole lot of money was piled over it! The ideas didn't need to be 'Cool' AND 'Logical'.
Where 'Cool' > 'Logical' let Story #Suckcock.
You ever have a dream that is totally fascinating but none of the logic holds water? Well that is this story - in a nutshell.
BaS#1 has a pretty good combat system. Although I usually expect to get a value for my gaming $$$ when I see something priced at $15, the brevity of the game makes it rather expensive for the time you will actually end up playing this and the lack of replay value. In some way it is more like watching a movie than playing a game since the value is more about what it reveals than the physical combat.
You think the first area that you go into is "The tutorial" mission area. You get past that and you are into the main game. Well...you get past what you think is the 'Tutorial area' and the game ends.
Blinded by her own rage over what the later Comstock did to her, Elizabeth reminded Comstock that he was actually the one that received 'The baby' and shoved a dagger into his heart. If she was thinking clearly, she would have realized that this person that she had killed was presently more Booker than Comstock.
"WHAT!?"
This is what you are going to be saying! "Thanks for doing all that...here's your reward!" It's Skyrim levels of 'Self Face Pissing'. The writers are so far up their own asses, you would think THEY would disappear all together!!! Hell...I can't even explain it without doing some serious yoga and sphincter stretching of my own!!!
Get ready to shell out more $$$ for part 2.
There is only one physical problem with the game. The 'USE' button is mixed up with the 'Switch weapon' button...a SECOND ONE! So if you are hustling through a combat and want to 'USE' something as you race over at high speed. You miss but also switch weapons to something you don't want to use...or is out of ammo...it's just a hassle.
There is much in the way of voice acting. Much detail has been used to provide a version of rapture that is quite beautiful. Unfortunately, it does seem that the warm-up turns out to be the full game and you can't help but to feel just a little ripped off.
-1.5 for a disjointed and illogical story. But...
+1 for imagination (though unrestrained)
-1.5 for being shorter than Santa's elves in cold water.
-1 for a 'Use' key that doubles as a 'change weapon' button (even though that button is something else as well!)
-1 for targeting the economically minded gamers who try to buy their games in a certain price range.
6 - Worth a look-see. If you are a fan of the series and can spare the money...go for it. It's not a really good value product. This game is 90 minutes with no replay value to speak of. The voice acting is outstanding, however.
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