Electric Nightmares

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Necrofancy: BioShock Infinite's Siren


I'd hate to have supernatural powers. What if there's a supernatural equivalent of a sneeze? You're driving along in your Crueltymobile, or whatever it is evil people do when they're not battling others, then: "Ahhh-Ahhh-AHHHH-CHOO" and all of a sudden every kitten in three blocks is now a giant, man-eating snarg. No, I'd rather remain mundane and in control of my surroundings, lest I suddenly develop hay fever. I'll bet the Siren, the final Heavy Hitter in BioShock Infinite's series of boss reveals, can't go anywhere near a graveyard, in case she burps and an army of undead are suddenly awoken and grumpy. The floating, ethereal, shrieking monster can raise the dead to fight Booker.

EDIT: The video of the Siren in action is now in the post.

But it being BioShock it's not just a creepy power. It's a commentary: “Siren is a nod to a major social movement at the turn of the century." Ken Levine told G4. There was a sense of the spiritual world, and I don’t mean like when you ask people, ‘Oh, are you religious?’ and they say, ‘No. I’m spiritual.’ No, I mean, people were actually talking about contacting the dead and speaking to the dead.”

I wonder if they were also worried about the tactical implications of meeting someone with that power in battle? The Siren can raise the dead, turning a room full of vanquished jerks into a room full of undead reanimated vanquished jerks. With guns. The choice it offers the player: fight the guys shooting at you, or kill her and take them all out at once. It doesn't seem like much of an option to me. Given how interesting the rest of the characters they've revealed so far, it seems very out of place. The concept and design doesn't really amaze and excite me like the rest of the Hitters. I've collected the videos of the revealed bads thusfar. Expect the Siren's to screech in sometime tonight.

EDIT: First, the Siren.

Cover image for YouTube video

Motorised Patriot.

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Handyman.

Cover image for YouTube video

The Boys of Silence.

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In this article

BioShock Infinite

PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Mac

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Craig Pearson avatar

Craig Pearson

Contributor

I love square sausage, cats, and climbing pretend rocks.

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