BioShock Infinite's Columbia: World Tour

 

Once in a blue moon, the setting of a video game is so incredibly crafted that it almost stands out more than the game itself. Even with a masterclass of a series like BioShock, which is known for being an absolute tour de force in storytelling and game design and for moving the medium forward in regards to what we think video games can be and do, I find myself mentally revisiting their worlds more than I do their stories or ideas. That's really saying something too, because this series deftly explores heady, meaty concepts like the philosophical questions posed by Randian Objectivism in the story of the original BioShock or the examination of class, Nativism, obsessive patriotism and American exceptionalism in BioShock Infinite. Not to mention, these games are also praised for being inventive, atmospheric, horror-tinged, first-person shooters as well, to add an additional wrinkle to their impressive legacy. Yet with all of these lauded features to appreciate across the series, my brain keeps returning to the incredible, otherworldly settings of Rapture from the first two BioShock titles, and the focus of this article: the floating city in the clouds from BioShock Infinite: Columbia.

 

This is the first in a series that I plan to do centered around iconic and standout settings, locales and universes from video games across the spectrum. This is the World Tour.

 

To explain Columbia, and its turn of the century Americana aesthetic, a bit of background has to be explained for BioShock Infinite’s historical fantasy-infused universe. Infinite shares continuity with the other two titles, but takes place a few decades prior to the events of Rapture. While the story starts in 1912, the founding of Columbia originates roughly a decade before; right at the beginning of the new century. The floating city was built as essentially a globe-traveling world’s fair and an icon of American exceptionalism, meant to fly around the world and show off what is capable with American ideals as your north star. The leader of Columbia was a self-proclaimed prophet named Zachary Hale Comstock and the entire project was funded by the American government. Everything went swimmingly up to the point of the Boxer Rebellion, a real historical and controversial event that took place in China between 1899 and 1901 that centered around Chinese religious zealots expelling Chinese Christians and foreign Christian missionaries out of their land by force or killing them, causing several Western nations, including much of Europe, the United States, as well as Russia and Japan to attack Chinese “Boxers,” which were a religious sect of martial artists who believed themselves impervious to foreign weaponry. There is a good deal of complex sociopolitical, historical and religious baggage to unpack surrounding the Boxer Rebellion, but as a history lover, it is a fascinating event to read about and I highly recommend looking into it if you are a history geek like myself.

 

Columbia flies over to China during the Boxer Rebellion, causing great consternation between Comstock, the leader of the flying city, and the president of the United States, William McKinley, where Comstock reveals that Columbia is a massive floating battleship and fires cannons on Peking. President McKinley demands Columbia to return home but Comstock secedes from the United States and disappears into the clouds where he radically transforms the city into a theocracy and a police state. The religion they follow is a syncretic blend of Christianity and a cult re-imagining the American Founding Fathers as deific figures. The society of Columbia is a snapshot of American social mores of the era with all of the charms, niceties and quaintness and the inherent negatives of the time, like minorities being treated as second-class citizens and labor rights being essentially non-existent and viewed as radical. Columbia also has a strong Nativist bent, holding a firm anti-immigration stance, framing minorities as antagonistic monsters that should be repelled.

 

Columbian propaganda made to show that is a religious duty to keep foreigners out of their “holy city.”

 Columbia sounds more or less like hell on Earth going off of their stringent policies, theocratic rule and societal stances, so why bother examining the city? Because of the sheer design of it. It is incredible looking. Both Rapture and Columbia are the products of a design team who know exactly what aesthetic they were creating and absolutely nailed it. Columbia has very specific inspirations behind its look, the most key of which was the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The Beaux-Arts approach to architecture, including neoclassical aspects like grand Greco-Roman pillars, symmetrical design and awe-inspiring splendor, were major influences. This event was a very successful world’s fair, shining a spotlight on America’s rising status as a world power. In BioShock Infinite, Columbia was originally designed to be a traveling world’s fair, soaring around the world to show off how far America had come, which explains the nearly ubiquitous designs and icons of Americana all over the city.

 

Columbia, nightmarish properties aside, is a majestic place. When I played BioShock Infinite, I explored every nook and cranny of every location. I could not get enough of the setting. For one thing, airships and floating cities in the clouds are very much my thing, but you combine that with American history, especially in this era, and you’re really speaking my language. From the moment that Booker DeWitt steps foot in Columbia, my jaw was on the floor. The first little while that you’re seeing the city, it seems wildly idyllic as you see a festival and people walking the cobblestone streets enjoying themselves. Then the facade starts to crack as you witness an interracial couple being mocked and publicly shamed, which is one of the first major indications that not is all as it seems in this city.

 

 As you travel through Columbia, the various districts of the city that you visit and battle through weave an image of a living, breathing culture. You see the town square and beautiful neighborhoods of neoclassical-styled multi-story homes that the citizens of the city live in. There is a gorgeous, gardened tourist location called Monument Island that can be visited via gondola. One of the most iconic regions of Columbia that lives in my head rent free is called Battleship Bay. It is a picturesque boardwalk with an arcade and an amazing artificial beach where you can see Columbians relaxing seaside. Just the concept of a fake beach, thousands and thousands of feet above the real ocean, with beachgoers visiting and enjoying the “sea,” is incredible and something I’ve never seen before. But, it reiterates how serene life can be in Columbia.

 

Fraternal Order of the Raven Lodge

 One of the more horrific locales that you visit is the Lodge of the Fraternal Order of the Raven, which is another aspect of BioShock Infinite that re-enters my head regularly. The Order of the Raven is a secret society and/or cult that seems like Freemasonry combined with the Ku Klux Klan. The main ideological tenet that the Order clings to is racism. The cultists worship Comstock’s deceased wife and utilize symbology involving the sword, the coffin and the raven, an inversion of Columbia’s own crest with a key, a sword and a scroll. They think of John Wilkes Booth as a saint and Abraham Lincoln as a demon and an apostate. It is one of the most creative and unsettling ideas I’ve ever seen in a video game and adds so much additional flavor to the culture of Columbia.

 

Order of the Raven cultists meeting in the Lodge. The zealot in the front has a coffin slung on his back featuring the likeness of Lady Comstock.

 

Another amazing location in BioShock Infinite is the Hall of Heroes, a war museum that functions as propaganda to frame Comstock as a war hero and decorated veteran, as well as showing racist caricatures of Chinese people and Native Americans. There are exhibits showing the Battle of Wounded Knee, another real, historical event that is important to the background lore of BioShock Infinite. This entire museum has been seized by rogue soldiers, including Captain Cornelius Slate. They are disaffected by Comstock and his lies and stolen valor, as Captain Slate was actually responsible for many of the combat deeds that Comstock claims for himself. The exhibits and scenery of the Hall of Heroes are some of the most interesting in the story.

 

The industrial district of Columbia, known as Finkton

 After seeing many of the parts of the city that Columbians are proud of, you find yourself in the rougher parts of the city. The industrial district, dubbed Finkton, after the extremely wealthy industrialist and inventor, Jeremiah Fink, is where many of the high-flying, gut-wrenching battles occur, as skyrails and airships course through the region. Booker fights through warehouses and airship docking bays, cruises on rails, dives on to airships and fights enemies, as this region opens up the verticality and opportunities for diverse shootouts.

 

Factory smoke and steam blot out the beautiful sky and add to the sense of despair that the Shantytown residents deal with.

 

This side of Columbia also contains the Shantytown where the Vox Populi, Columbia’s mistreated underclass, have organized themselves and are planning their revolution. The Shantytown is the most obvious depiction of the absolute gulf that exists between Columbia’s affluent population and the city’s minorities and laborers. This region feels run-down, gloomy and claustrophobic compared to the bright, airy locations that you have seen up to this point.

 

As you can see, Columbia has quite a few distinct set-pieces that reflect the various regions of the floating city. Columbia is nothing if not grand and majestic, squalor and gloom aside. But, the rotten foundation of the city runs through the whole span of it. Whether you're in the beautiful gardens, at the fake beach, visiting the hero's museum or ducking down an alley in the grimy Shantytown, there's no escaping Columbia's dark shadow, and the plague of hate that hangs over the city.

 

 

If you have never played BioShock Infinite, I really cannot recommend it enough. If you are a fan of historical period settings, steampunk aesthetics, inventive, creative first-person shooter mechanics, stories unlike anything you’ve ever seen before, or just a fan of video games in general, please do not miss this game. I have seen some very bizarre revisionism about this game over the past decade since its release, all while I have only become more endeared to it over the years. Columbia, with all of its myriad blemishes and horrors and sins, is a place like no other.