BioShock Infinite

23 October 2023

There is always a lighthouse, there's always a man, there's always a city. And there's always the ideology that BioShock is trying to deconstruct. In Infinite, it was about a particularly sensitive issue: the American sense of uniqueness against the whole world.
"When ten years ago, we were approaching the release of Bioshock Infinite, many of us wondered whether after the decent, but derivative BioShock 2, the game would turn out another bag of disappointments – the bar that was set incredibly high by Irrational Games with the phenomenal original, which is still considered one of pinnacles of interactive entertainment. Not everyone seemed thrilled with the decision to ascent the setting from the grim and grimy depths of the ocean floor all the way into the candy-colored, floating balloon city. But there was another discussion going on, and it went far beyond questioning the design decisions. Ken Levine, BioShock Infinite's lead writer and creative director, was facing accusations of... anti-Americanism.You wouldn't tell by the game's first minutes:
Columbia seems a proof of American ingenuity and entrepreneurship.
The city is elevated miles above the surface, the streets are clean, houses are well-kept, it all looks like Disneyland with a vibe of some grand celebration.
Of course, we can sense that something is off; associations with religious cults soon pop up, and historical figures being officially declared saints seems an act of trumpery at best.
Other than that, Columbia seems to function flawlessly, and its inhabitants seem to feel as cozy as jelly in a peanut butter sandwich.
But then we get to a lottery, where the prize is literally triggering the lynching of an interracial couple, and the dirty truth becomes revealed like poop from underneath melting snow. . .
The myth itself, as any myth out there, has its justification. The United States is a phenomenon in several respects: a "nation 2.0," settled across the Atlantic, which in the fire of revolution forged the longest, uninterrupted, more or less democratic experiment in history. Of course, we fast-forward a few centuries and end up invading multiple nations across the world, acting as "global police" in the best case, and securing our profits and greedy influence with military might in the worst. The history of the USA, however unique and often inspiring, stands on ethical quicksand – just like the city floating in the clouds.
The belief in American exceptionalism was first expressed by the French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville in the first half of the 19th century.
In the modern definition, it consists of values such as freedom, egalitarianism, individualism, republicanism, democracy and a passion for laissez-faire economy. Interestingly, the term was popularized back in the 1920s by... the American communists (claiming that the history of the United States, due to the lack of a clear class division, allowed its society to escape the framework of Marx' theory of historical materialism). In the following decades, politicians from both sides of the aisle referenced it: from JFK, through Reagan, up to Obama.
BioShock Infinite tackled this idea by portraying a reality, where these principles were taken to the extreme.
The very concept of a floating metropolis shows that. In American politics, the United States is often referred to as the "City Upon a Hill."
Columbia was founded as the embodiment of this idea: it was intended to fly around the world and propagate these national values.
And all was dandy, until in 1902, without a permission from Capitol, Columbia intervened in China's Boxer Rebellion, razing Beijing to the ground in retaliation for taking American citizens hostage – and when condemned by the federal government, the city declared secession and vanished into the clouds.

The 10th Anniversary of BioShock Infinite, Game That Boldly Deconstructed American Exceptionalism