If you knew anything about Ken Levine and Irrational Studios' Bioshock: Infinite before you even played it, it's that the story would be top-notch. The game didn't disappoint, with an ending that's one of the most convoluted, multi-layered, head-scratching slow-burner conclusions to a story in recent memory, game or not. It was sophisticated, emotional, smart, brilliant, and most importantly, made you want to play through the game again the moment it ended.
That said: Some people have gone the distance to dig deep not just into the facts of Infinite's story to piece together the truth about some characters, but to find the easter eggs, clues, and mind-blowing moments that went right by us (and were right under us), not just on the first play-through, but on the second and third times, too.
As such, we've dug deep into the layers and corners of Bioshock Infinite obsessives to help you not just piece together its complex storylines, but some of its greatest secrets, too.
These are The 25 Mindblowing Things You Need to See After Beating Bioshock Infinite.
[And, not that we need to tell you, but SPOILER ALERT, SPOILER ALERT, SPOILER ALERT.]
RELATED: The 25 Best Weapons and Powers in Bioshock Infinite
The Ending After The Ending
Just making sure, here: If you didn't stick around through the entire set of credits, you should have. Because the story doesn't end where Elizabeth leaves Booker. There's this one crucial scene left to play out...
[You'd be surprised, Bioshock obsessives. There are people who still have yet to see this.]
The Most Clear Explination of The Ending We've Seen
The Hidden Music
Okay, so are you ready
to
have
your
mind
blown?
For those of you who didn't pick up on this—and we definitely didn't—there was a weird, brooding sound under the entire game's soundtrack. Somebody took the time to slow it down. And what did they find? A secret message playing throughout the entire game, right under your ears, a la Inception.
There are different explanations and ideas about what the music "means," but this is as good as those ideas get.
A Chart of the Bioshock Infinite Ending
Another Chart of the Bioshock Infinite Ending
A Third Chart of the Bioshock Infinite Ending
Great Moments in Foreshadowing, Part 1
Is It Someone New?
Fans of the game that started all of this, Bioshock, remember the first words another character spoke to them: A splicer, jumping in front of the submersible, asking: "Is it someone new?" Kinda set the insane tone for the entire thing. Well, guess who got a callback in Infinite? Take a look at the video above.
Rapture Records
The Wrench Returns
The Inside Joke
Great Moments in Foreshadowing, Pt. 2: Elizabeth's 'Anna' Problem
You Are Booker Number 123
The Visual Comparison
The Passover Connection
The Music of Columbia Was Stolen From The Future
The Psychology Behind Booker's Bloody Past
The Andrew Ryan Connection
The Door in Booker's Apartment
The Guitar Scene You Missed, and The Secret of the Song
This scene-one of the most crucial in the game, in terms of sheer storytelling power-was one a lot of people missed. Did you?
Also, if you haven't figured it out yet, the theme of "Will The Circle Be Unbroken?"—one of the first songs you hear in the game—is, in hindsight, a dead giveaway to the game's story. The "circle" is the endless loop of Bookers trying to take down Comstock and reverse the process of him giving away Anna. And—as we all know by now—no, the circle would not go unbroken. And realize, this brings us to the biggest giveaway of the game, its title: The 'Infinite' in 'Bioshock Infinite' refers to the infinite loop of time that Booker and the Luteces are attempting to break. Yes: The game's title is its biggest dead giveaway.
Rosencrantz and Guilderstern Are Dead: The Lutece Connection
If you've played through all of Bioshock: Infinite, you can now recognize the coin-flipping scene at the beginning as one of the game's most compelling and crucial moments. But do you know where the inspiration came from? Look no further than a scene from Tom Stoppard's play, the classic existential comedy Rosencrantz and Guilderstern Are Dead. In Stoppard's play, the two titular characters basically amount to goons who are unknowingly crucial to the plot of Shakespear's Macbeth. Obviously, in Infinite, the Luteces have more involvement in their own fates (and the fate of their world). But they share a thread as two pairs of funny characters who operate in a weird vaccum of involvement (or uninvolvement) from a central plot, who have an implied central plot of their own. And it looks like Ken Levine might've taken some inspiration from them in building out the Lutece Twins. Check out the opening scene above from Stoppard's 1990 film adaptation of his own play for the comparison.
The Hidden Sounds
Ready to have your mind blown again? There isn't just hidden music in Bioshock: Infinite, but hidden sounds.
Falling Out of Columbia
The Best Bioshock Infinite Review Out There
...only takes five minutes to watch, and is hilarious. If you haven't seen the Zero Puncuation review of the game, yet, stop what your'e doing, and watch it now.