WARNING: This post will be somewhat spoilery, if you haven’t finished Bioshock Infinite and don’t want to ruin the ending, stop reading!
Today Irrational Games spiced up the release of the first DLC for Infinite, Clash in the Clouds, by showing players a teaser trailer for the first of a two part DLC set to come out soon: “Burial at Sea.”
Irrational also made it very clear that in Burial at Sea the player will play as Booker DeWitt and Elizabeth in a pre-fall Rapture. Upon reading this news this morning as the trailer made it’s round on the social media sites I immediately started to imagine all of the potential for Elizabeth as a playable character. Will they portray her as the older and Comstock-esque Elizabeth? Or will she be an entirely different version that we didn’t get to see through our multi-universe glimpse at the end of the game? Since I’m pulling for a strong and viable female protagonist in any game at this point, I think Irrational has a fantastic opportunity to show us that they know what it takes to not only make a great companion character, but a formidable female lead.
If you remember my post about Elizabeth’s unwarranted rise as a female video game protagonist superstar then you know how picky I have been with her character thus far. Elizabeth offered what was one of the best experiences many gamers have had with a companion in a video game in a long time, but this caused people to interpret that experience as Elizabeth being the best female character in a video game ever. Which becomes problematic for a lot of reasons, but the main one being that Elizabeth’s contribution is solely as a tool for the player to use throughout the game rather than an exemplary female character who breaks down barriers of what a female character can/should be. Really you should just go read that article and the comments to get the full gist. What I won’t deny is Elizabeth’s potential to be a great female character and I was really hoping Irrational didn’t screw it up with this DLC.
Unfortunately it looks as though I may have to wait a little longer. In an article at the Examiner, Bioshock creator Ken Levine is quoted as saying “that Elizabeth’s gameplay will differ from Booker’s, and is ‘almost survival horror.’ Elizabeth will be more “fragile” than Booker and she will have to focus more on setting traps than going off guns a’blazing.” Excuse me, what? Why will Elizabeth be more fragile than Booker? Throughout all of the gameplay in Bioshock Infinite Elizabeth holds her own and powers through some really terrible situations. Part of what makes her a great companion is the lack of protection that she requires during battle. Why on Earth would you take that portrayal of Elizabeth and turn her into a “fragile” character? And at what point did Irrational sit back and decide that all of the praise of Elizabeth being an awesome female character translates to, “Well let’s make her fragile?”
Burial at Sea is a perfect example of how women are so poorly represented in video games; female characters are stuck playing the role of the weakling, the character that can’t hold their own. While Booker gets the part of warrior and what sounds like interactive gun battles, Elizabeth will take on the more narrative element of the game, a more suitable role for a female character. We are producing games that are being hailed as the “Citizen Kane” of gaming because of their ability to do things better and push the genre forward (though Alisha has something else to say about that), yet we are still somehow stuck with female characters that can’t break out of the mold of being fragile, weak, and lesser characters. While Bioshock Infinite was a step in the right direction, this new DLC is coming off as two steps in the wrong. I hope that they can prove me wrong, I am still ridiculously excited to see our characters’ interactions with Rapture prior to its fall. The DLC doesn’t have a release date yet, but is priced at $15 per piece, or all three DLC packs for $19.99 with the Season Pass.
