The lights are on
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.
Email the author Bryan Vore, or follow on Twitter, and Game Informer.
Very nice.
I read it and thought it was really good. I was positive nothing could get me more excited for this game, and then I read Mind in Revolt. I think you get it free if you pre order the game at gamestop as well
I'll check it out, anything that provides a bit of insight into Columbia without spoilers is worth a look.
If i preordered on amazon, how do i get my free copy? I was never sent a d/l code or anything.
I hate how they do these things as separate media formats
This is an e-sentence, not an e-book. Mr. Vore has written more here in his review than was written in Mind in Revolt. I strongly advise Bioshock fans 'not' to purchase this thing. It alludes to nothing, explains nothing, and describes nothing. It is a complete waste of $2.99. I honestly feel like a complete sucker after purchasing this thing. Absolutely nothing in this paragraph of an e-book is a prelude to Infinite. It's an echo-recording, at best. I can almost guarantee that the little historical and cast background information in this thing (of which there is almost none) will be presented within your first hour or so in Infinite. Please.. spare yourself the frustration.
I also like the ”documentary” videos on Columbia as well. The floating city suppressed the Boxer Rebellion - an interesting alternate historical twist!
Pass.
Sounds like a good, quick read. I might buy it to set myself up for Bioshock Infinite.
Well considering tolerance was a non existent mindset until far after the civil rights movement, it is good to know they kept the content in the correct context.
I thought about buying it, but no. Personally, I think $2.99 is a little bit too much for just 30 pages? I'm pretty sure we'll get the full details about Daisy Fitzroy once the game releases late March.
Cool beans.
Where can I get this ebook?
Is it on iBooks as well as Kindle?
Is there a way to buy it if you don't have an e-reader?