Please support Game Informer. Print magazine subscriptions are less than $2 per issue
Reflecting On BioShock Infinite's e-Book Prequel, Mind In Revolt
Irrational Games' offers an e-book tease in advance of BioShock Infinite's March 26 release. We gave it a read and return with a full report.
BioShock Infinite: Mind in Revolt (by Joe Fielder with Ken Levine) being classified as an e-book is a little shady. A more apt qualification would be e-short story. Retailer Amazon estimates that the text is just over 30 pages when e-readers are set to standard text display options. Not that this is necessarily a problem. The brief story only costs $2.99, around the price and time investment of a comic book.
It takes place over a few days on the floating city of Columbia in 1909 (the game will take place in 1912). It's a book-within-a-book concept with the inner title listed as The Psychology of Dissent Interviews with The Anarchist Daisy Fitzroy. It's essentially a mix of journal entries and interviews conducted by Dr. Francis Pinchot.
Pinchot hears of the capture of Vox Populi rebel group leader Daisy Fitzroy (seen above) and picks her up at the police station to transport her to the Comstock House Re-Education Center for evaluation and questioning. From here on out, the meat of the story consists of transcribed audio interviews between Fitzroy and Pinchot.
Pinchot exemplifies the philosophy of the Founder faction through his thoughts and actions. Extremely elitist and racist, some of this is difficult to read, but it effectively makes the Founders instantly repulsive -- a good quality for an enemy. I won't spoil what happens, but I do question whether some of the content was revised by Founder hands after the fact.
I enjoyed my very brief time with Mind in Revolt and it does a good job teasing the world of BioShock Infinite without spoiling it. Frankly, I'm much more willing to read a video game sidestory if it's brief rather than a full-length book. Some may scoff at having to pay for it in any fashion, but I thought it worthwhile.
I’d like to ask you to support Game Informer’s continued coverage of games with a subscription. For less than two dollars per issue, we mail you a full year of 10 print magazines, each with cover stories and preview features filled with exclusive details about the most exciting upcoming games. We profile and interview game creators. We look back on the rich history of gaming, and we celebrate what’s next.
Here on the website, we offer much of our content for free, including game reviews, daily news, videos, event coverage, and more – all with minimal ads.
We do so with a small editorial team, alongside contributing paid writers from around the world – over 65 individuals from 9 countries around the world, just in the last couple of years.
It’s not possible without support.
In a time when game makers and games coverage have faced hard struggles and layoffs, the future of this 30+ year magazine and community is at risk. Our new standalone magazine subscription is the number one way you can keep us alive – and we believe you’ll get a pretty fantastic gaming magazine in your mailbox every few weeks for your trouble.
Thank you.
