Elizabeth is a

fictional character In fiction, a character (or speaker, in poetry) is a person or other being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life person, ...

Irrational Games Irrational Games (known as 2K Boston between 2007 and 2009) was an American video game developer founded in 1997 by three former employees of Looking Glass Studios: Ken Levine, Jonathan Chey, and Robert Fermier. Take-Two Interactive acquired t ...

' ''

BioShock Infinite ''BioShock Infinite'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by Irrational Games and published by 2K Games. The third installment in the ''BioShock'' series, ''Infinite'' was released worldwide for the Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, ...

'', the third title in the ''

BioShock ''BioShock'' is a 2007 first-person shooter game developed by 2K Boston (later Irrational Games) and 2K Australia, and published by 2K Games. The first game in the ''BioShock'' series, it was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 pla ...

'' series. The game is set in 1912 on a floating

steampunk Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and aesthetics inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the Victorian era or ...

city named Columbia which was founded on the principles of

American exceptionalism American exceptionalism is the belief that the United States is inherently different from other nations.parallel universes. To prevent her from leaving Columbia, her captors employ a "siphon" which drains and limits her powers, and she is locked in a tower guarded by a giant mechanical bird called the Songbird. In exchange for his gambling debts being forgiven, the main protagonist of ''Infinite'',

Booker DeWitt The ''BioShock'' series is a collection of story-driven first-person shooters in which the player explores dystopian settings created by Ken Levine and his team at Irrational Games. The first two games, ''BioShock'' and its direct sequel, ''Bio ...

, enters Columbia in order to retrieve Elizabeth, unaware that she is his long lost daughter Anna DeWitt. Elizabeth also appears in ''

Burial at Sea Burial at sea is the disposal of human remains in the ocean, normally from a ship or boat. It is regularly performed by navies, and is done by private citizens in many countries. Burial-at-sea services are conducted at many different location ...

'', a film noir-inspired episodic

downloadable content Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enablin ...

story set in the underwater city of

Rapture The rapture is an Christian eschatology, eschatological position held by some Christians, particularly those of American evangelicalism, consisting of an Eschatology, end-time event when all Christian believers who are alive, along with resurre ...

, where she takes on a

femme fatale A ''femme fatale'' ( or ; ), sometimes called a maneater or vamp, is a stock character of a mysterious, beautiful, and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, deadly traps. She is an archetype of ...

role and serves as the player character in the second episode. The character is voiced by Courtnee Draper and her motion capture was provided by Heather Gordon. Irrational Games based Elizabeth's face on Anna Moleva, a Russian

cosplay Cosplay, a portmanteau of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character. Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture, ...

er, after the developers saw her accurate costume, and hired her to do live-action advertisements. Elizabeth's relationship with Songbird was partly based on Ken Levine's personal experiences. She is slightly naive after having lived most of her life in a tower. Developers repeatedly considered simply cutting her due to the hassle in making her "work". Great work was put into her

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

, with the developers believing there had been no real great A.I. companion in video games since ''

Half-Life 2 ''Half-Life 2'' is a 2004 first-person shooter game developed by Valve. It was published by Valve through its distribution service Steam. Like the original ''Half-Life'' (1998), ''Half-Life 2'' combines shooting, puzzles, and storytelling, and ...

''s

Alyx Vance Alyx Vance is a fictional character from Valve Corporation, Valve's ''Half-Life (series), Half-Life'' video game series. She is introduced as a non-playable, supporting character in ''Half-Life 2'' (2004), accompanying the player's character, Gor ...

. The character has hyper-realistic expressions to help players see her from across the battlefield, as well as a two-tone colour scheme and unique silhouette. Elizabeth was heavily featured in news and media prior to the release of the game, and plastic figures of her have been made. She has been positively received, and ''Infinite'' reviews particularly highlighted her role. Her A.I. was praised, as was her character and narrative role.

Character

Elizabeth is introduced in ''Infinite'' as a young woman that has been held captive aboard Columbia since a baby. She is claimed to be the daughter of Father Comstock, the founder of Columbia, and heralded as the proverbial Lamb that will inherit the city. She has been kept under observation in a well-furnished cell within a large statue of the female personification of Columbia, using her time in captivity to become well-read and to learn practical skills like lock-picking and cryptography. She is aware of the existence of tears in the fabric of space-time within Columbia and has limited ability to manipulate them. Her captivity is maintained by Songbird, a mechanical robot-like bird creature. Elizabeth experiences a conflict in her feelings about Songbird, since he has been feeding, playing, etc. with her, while at the same time keeping her captive. This conflict was partly based on Ken Levine's personal experiences. Levine once knew and dated a girl that had been abused by a former partner; and she made excuses for him, and eventually went back to him. He highlighted the difference between the two, "Elizabeth is trying to get free", but still drew a connection between them. Elizabeth is "the most critical of the game's visual icons", being constantly a companion to the protagonist. No longer being recently out of the tower, Elizabeth's character is slightly different in ''Burial at Sea'', being "older, wiser and more confident". The DLC, taking place in

from the first ''BioShock'' games, is evocative of

film noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...

with Booker becoming the

private detective A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators of ...

and Elizabeth the client and

. Elizabeth's arc in the DLC continues on from her one in ''Infinite''. She is still aware of the events in the main game, and has an understanding of the various universes she can visit and the so mentioned "constants and variables" she is aware of.

Development

Creation

The idea for a character like Elizabeth came about due to both ''

System Shock 2 ''System Shock 2'' is a 1999 action role-playing survival horror video game designed by Ken Levine and co-developed by Irrational Games and Looking Glass Studios. Originally intended to be a standalone title, its story was changed during product ...

'' and ''

'' being "solitary experiences", due to other characters either being behind glass or dead. Having Elizabeth to bounce off the player helped reduce the sense of " ereading water". An A.I. character was decided on as the developers felt it had not been done well since ''

''s

. Ken Levine's, creative director and lead writer on ''BioShock Infinite'', described Elizabeth as the "emotional center" of ''Infinite''. ''BioShock''s Big Daddies and Little Sisters provided the groundwork for the A.I. Earlier versions of Elizabeth were mute, in part due to anxiety in making her "work", being more of a "

Gibson Girl The Gibson Girl was the personification of the feminine ideal of physical attractiveness as portrayed by the pen-and-ink illustrations of artist Charles Dana Gibson during a 20-year period that spanned the late 19th and early 20th centuries in th ...

". The player character,

, would also be mute, and so conversations between them would be non-existent. One of the reasons this was changed was to allow more freedom to the player (rather than having her grab Booker to point at things) and to allow her to have a presence even when off-screen, in addition to giving her more personality. Another change made was to ''Infinite''s beach scene, due to negative reactions to the character. Originally, she just left Booker after the crash, but this made her seem like a "flighty nutjob" and parts with Elizabeth trying to resuscitate Booker before getting permission to leave were added. Elizabeth was more scripted originally. The team tried to ensure she would almost always be on screen, while at the same time ensuring she didn't get in the way of the player. The developers made a "Liz Squad" group, in charge of the character and dedicated to populating the world with objects for Elizabeth to interact with, which was claimed to be led by either Amanda Jeffrey or John Abercrombie (who also did the AIs of the first ''BioShock''). In order to properly react to things, Elizabeth had to have emotions. Some of her scripted animations had to be cut, as they were coming off too similar to

Rapunzel "Rapunzel" ( , ) is a German fairy tale recorded by the Brothers Grimm and first published in 1812 as part of ''Children's and Household Tales'' (KHM 12). The Brothers Grimm's story developed from the French literary fairy tale of ''Persinette ...

from

Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios uni ...

' ''

Tangled ''Tangled'' is a 2010 American 3D computer-animated musical adventure fantasy comedy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Loosely based on the Grimms' Fairy Tales, German fairy tale ''Rapunzel'' ...

''. Designing Elizabeth proved very difficult, and repeatedly the team wanted to simply cut her. Troubles included expressing her childlike curiosity, making her act with a believable sense of horror to Booker's more violent actions, while keeping her out of the player's way. Similar issues were had with the Big Daddies, with the team being unsure what to do with them. Despite this, her role in ''Infinite'' "deepened" as development progressed, due to the team liking the character. This led to her becoming more of a partner, and she gained additional abilities such as being able to lockpick doors within gameplay (originally a one-time event). In the second episode of "Burial at Sea", Elizabeth becomes the player character. Being more of a thoughtful character than Booker, her gameplay focuses more on strategy and avoidance of direct combat, more like a

survival horror Survival horror is a subgenre of survival of the players as the game tries to frighten them with either horror graphics or scary ambience. Although combat can be part of the gameplay, the player is made to feel less in control than in typical ac ...

game. It was important that Elizabeth did not feel simply like Booker "in a dress". Jeffrey noted that Elizabeth was the main character of ''Infinite'' and Rapture the main character of the first game, and so "Burial" involved "our two leading ladies playing opposite each other". Lead animator Shawn Robertson felt that Elizabeth's presence helped tie Rapture with ''Infinite''. In a 2016 interview, Levine contrasted Elizabeth to most of the other characters he created for the ''BioShock'' series; many of these characters had been oppressed and subsequently once freed of that oppression, became oppressors themselves, but Elizabeth was written to break this cycle of oppression.

Design

Numerous concept art was made for the character. Early sketches tried different ways to portray her personality through posture and clothes, using the "clean, bright, and iconic" costumes of comic books as inspiration. Different art explored Elizabeth at all different ages, and varied her in demeanor, disposition, and look. Artists also experimented with the design for a "more aloof, princesslike" version of the character. Elizabeth has a "stylised and 'hyper-realistic appearance, meant to allow the player to see her body motions and expression easily from a distance. Elizabeth's original

appearance had a normal-looking face, having normal facial feature proportions and using

motion capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robo ...

for her expressions. This was changed to hand-keyed animations and a more exaggerated look when

playtester A playtest is the process by which a game designer tests a new game for bugs and design flaws before releasing it to market. Playtests can be run "open", "closed", "beta", or otherwise, and are very common with board games, collectible card games, ...

s ceased to notice her over other parts of ''Infinite''. In order to form an emotional connection with the character, players had to "see what she asthinking at all times". Hand-keyed animations also allowed them to change expressions to fit with changes or current ideas, rather than being stuck with motion captures shot months ago. For the exaggeration, inspiration again was taken from comic books as well as animated films, and

Irrational Irrationality is cognition, thinking, talking, or acting without inclusion of rationality. It is more specifically described as an action or opinion given through inadequate use of reason, or through emotional distress or cognitive deficiency. T ...

's artists studied classic animators' works to see how they portrayed emotion. Other elements that needed to change in order to stand out were her silhouette, and her colour scheme took on an almost two-tone look. Levine was disappointed in the online community's mainly focusing on her breast size and chest, believing people should be more interested in her as a person rather than her appearance, and considered the expressive eyes the most important part of her design. Artists such as Claire Hummel helped work on her dress, intended to look "age-appropriate" and fitting for 1912. Her

choker A choker is a close-fitting necklace worn around the neck, typically 14 inch to 16 inch in length. Chokers can be made of a variety of materials, including velvet, plastic, beads, latex, leather, metal, such as silver, gold, or platinum, etc. The ...

had many variations tried before they finalised it as a "more simple, elegant" one. Elizabeth's design was modified for ''Burial at Sea''. Prerelease materials showcased her new more mature design, with one shot having multiple angles to help any cosplayers who wished to dress up as the character. Elizabeth's ''femme fatale'' appearance was inspired by approximately seven different people of the era, including actresses

Rita Hayworth Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino; October 17, 1918May 14, 1987) was an American actress, dancer and producer. She achieved fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars, appearing in 61 films over 37 years. The press coined th ...

Lauren Bacall Lauren Bacall (; born Betty Joan Perske; September 16, 1924 – August 12, 2014) was an American actress. She was named the 20th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute and received an Academy Honorary Aw ...

, and

Veronica Lake Constance Frances Marie Ockelman (November 14, 1922 – July 7, 1973), known professionally as Veronica Lake, was an American film, stage, and television actress. Lake was best known for her femme fatale roles in film noirs with Alan Ladd ...

Portrayal

Courtnee Draper voices the character. Levine commented that Draper was able to both capture Elizabeth's enthusiasm and dark background. Levine, Draper, and Booker's voice actor

Troy Baker Troy Baker (born April 1, 1976) is an American voice actor and musician. Baker is known for his video game roles, including Joel Miller in ''The Last of Us'' (2013) and its sequel (2020), Booker DeWitt in ''BioShock Infinite'' (2013), Samuel ...

worked collaboratively, and would talk about scenes and improvise new lines. Though Baker was more experienced in game acting, Draper had appeared in very few, offering a perspective Levine considered an advantage. Draper has said she would be interested in playing Elizabeth again if a ''BioShock'' film were ever made, and had talked to Levine about it. Motion capture was done by Heather Gordon, who often had to rely on her imagination when performing, being in an almost empty room. Elizabeth had to do numerous physical acts that Gordon would not do in her everyday life. Russian cosplayer Anna Moleva was brought on to be the "official face" of Elizabeth for the box cover, key art and an advertisement, after developers saw her dress up as the character, citing her dedication and resemblance to the character. Moleva had been a fan of the ''BioShock'' franchise, but before seeing Elizabeth's final design hadn't found many cosplaying possibilities for it. Levine contacted her on Facebook with an offer, before telling her to get in touch through e-mail. Moleva was told to sit still and pull various faces, which were then scanned into a computer.

Appearances

''BioShock Infinite''

At the start of ''Infinite'', set in 1912,

is sent to Columbia by the

Lutece twins Robert Lutece and Rosalind Lutece, collectively known as the Lutece twins, are a duo of character (arts), characters from the BioShock (series), ''BioShock'' video game series created by Ken Levine (game developer), Ken Levine, published by 2K Ga ...

to recover Elizabeth, claiming that they will wipe away his debts with her return. Booker is quickly discovered as the "False Shepherd" that will take the Lamb away, and is set on by Comstock's troops. Booker frees Elizabeth, and both narrowly avoid an attack by Songbird that destroys part of the statue. As Elizabeth accompanies Booker, she discovers that her abilities to find and manipulate tears has become stronger, and uses that to help Booker fight through Comstock's troops. Elizabeth is initially doubtful to Booker's intentions, but comes to trust him over the other residents of Columbia. When trying to track down a man that reportedly holds a key to helping them escape, they find the man already dead; Elizabeth uses her powers to pull them into an alternate reality where the man is still alive, but this has unintended side effects that others around them suffer from nosebleeds and mental anquish, and Elizabeth becomes fearful of her abilities. They eventually board an airship to escape, but it is brought aground in Columbia by Songbird who kidnaps Elizabeth. Booker gives chase, but is pulled into the future of the 1980s by an elderly Elizabeth. She shows him that without his rescue, she will become like Comstock, inheriting the city and using it to lay waste to the surface world below. Before allowing Booker to return to his time, the future Elizabeth gives him a message to give to "his" Elizabeth to help her control Songbird and allow them to escape. Booker frees Elizabeth from an observation laboratory and the two make their way to confront Comstock. Along the way, they learn that Elizabeth has been kept under control of the Siphon, a machine built by the Luteces into the statue to nullify her tear powers; they also learn that Elizabeth is not Comstock's biological daughter, though oddly shares his genetics, and Comstock had attempted to kill his wife and the Lutece's to hide this conspiracy. They reach Comstock and Booker confronts him about Elizabeth's identity. Comstock says Booker already knows and the reason for why Elizabeth wears a

thimble A thimble is a small pitted cup worn on the finger that protects it from being pricked or poked by a needle while sewing. The Old English word , the ancestor of thimble, is derived from Old English , the ancestor of the English word ''thumb''. ...

in place of a finger. Booker kills Comstock in anger, but Elizabeth calms him down and tells him they need to finish destroying the statue and the Siphon to fully realize her powers. They do so by controlling Songbird, but when Songbird turns on them, Elizabeth transports them to the underwater city of

, where Songbird is destroyed by the outside water pressure. Elizabeth guides Booker to the bathysphere lighthouse, revealing she can now see all possibilities based on choice as evidenced by an infinite number of lighthouses they can see. Elizabeth explains the nature of choice to Booker, revealing that Booker and Comstock are the same person: in one reality, Booker ran away from a baptism ceremony after his atrocities at the Battle of Wounded Knee, while in another, he accepted it and became the religious Comstock. Elizabeth reveals she is also Booker's daughter, Anna DeWitt, who Booker had sold to the Lutece twins to pay off gambling debts. They in turn were working for Comstock, who needed a blood heir for Columbia, having been rendered sterile by the twins' reality-warping experiments. Booker later had a change of heart and chased down the Luteces as they stepped through a Tear, severing the tip of Elizabeth's finger which gave her the awareness of multiple realities. Elizabeth asserts that there has been an endless cycle of Bookers and Comstocks, and the only way to end this is to destroy the creation of Comstock; she takes Booker to the site of the baptism and drown Booker with the aid of dozens of other Elizabeths from other timelines. The Elizabeths begin to wink out of existence, with the game fading to black on the one throughout the game.

''Burial at Sea''

In ''Burial at Sea'', Elizabeth approaches Booker – in this reality, a private detective in Rapture – to help them find a missing girl named Sally. They trace her whereabouts to a derelict department store, during which Booker suffers flashbacks to his baptism, but unable to explain them. When they finally find Sally, they find she has been changed into a Little Sister, and Booker suffers more flashbacks, recalling his daughter Anna, before becoming aware of his true nature: he had been one of the Bookers that became a Comstock, but in his attempt to get Anna from another Booker, she was killed. In his remorse, this Comstock reverted to his birth name of Booker DeWitt and had the Lutece twins transport him to Rapture, a reality where neither Anna nor Columbia existed. Elizabeth makes sure that Comstock is killed by a Big Daddy before she passes out. When she comes to, she finds Atlas has Sally and demands she help them escape the store to return to Rapture in exchange for her. As she sets out to do this, she is guided by visions of Booker, and later learns that she herself had died earlier in Rapture; she made a deal with the Lutece twins to combine all her quantum selves and memories of future time into one mortal body to return to this place at this time to rescue Sally, effectively leaving all alternate versions of herself in their own respective universes. She struggles with this, and further learns that Dr. Suchong of Rapture had worked with Jeremiah Fink from Columbia to collaborate on technology. Suchong forces her to briefly return to Columbia via a tear to obtain a Lutece particle that will raise the sunken Rapture building, where she further learns that the Luteces had convinced Daisy Fitzroy to threaten Fink's child to make Elizabeth kill her as to mature her. She returns and amid an attack by Andrew Ryan's men, completes the task. Atlas launches his war against Ryan and tortures Elizabeth in an attempt to extract the location of his "Ace in the Hole". In a flash of panic, she is able to remember the location, and Atlas makes her go retrieve it. The Ace is revealed to be a piece of paper with a coded message. She willing gives it over to Atlas knowing that he plans to kill her, but is privy to one last memory from before - that of seeing Jack on the plane that would crash near Rapture, and the note containing Jack's trigger phrase "Would you kindly". Atlas uses this to start his last attack and fatally strikes Elizabeth's head one last time. Elizabeth dies holding Sally's hand, smiling in knowing Jack will soon come to help the children of Rapture escape the violence.

Promotion and merchandise

Prior to the release of the game, Elizabeth was widely publicised and reported in media, and Elizabeth (along with one of the "Boys of Silence" enemies) plastic figures were created, produced by NECA. The second of ''Infinite''s "Truth from Legend" trailers – both designed to look like old documentaries – details both Songbird and "the Lamb of Columbia", showcasing more of the character and her past. A lithograph of one promotional artwork, featuring Elizabeth and Songbird, was also released, alongside other lithographs.

Reception

Before the game was released, Nicole Tanner of ''

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

'', although initially offput by her large cleavage, praised her realistic personality and the idea of bringing more realistic female characters into games. She also felt the relationship between her and Songbird was "one of the most complex he'dseen explored" in gaming. In a comparison between ''

Dishonored ''Dishonored'' is a 2012 action-adventure game developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. Set in the fictional, plague-ridden industrial city of Dunwall, ''Dishonored'' follows the story of Corvo Attano, bodyguard to th ...

'' and ''Infinite'', ''

Kotaku ''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier. History ...

''s Kirk Hamilton compared Elizabeth and Emily in "The Girl" category, preferring Elizabeth, saying she "moreorless WAS ''BioShock Infinite''" and praising her believability. ''IGN''s Beyond! podcast compared the character to ''

The Last of Us ''The Last of Us'' is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Players control Joel, a smuggler tasked with escorting a teenage girl, Ellie, across a post-apocalyptic United States. ' ...

''s

Ellie Ellie, or Elly, is a given name, usually feminine. The name stands on its own or can be a shortened form of any of the numerous female names beginning with the syllable El-, in particular Eleanor or Elizabeth and Elvira. It can also be a short fo ...

, noting their similar roles but markedly different personalities. Courtnee Draper was nominated for "Best Voice Actress" for her role as Elizabeth in the Spike VGX 2013 awards, and was nominated for "Best Performer" in the

10th British Academy Video Games Awards The 10th British Academy Video Game Awards awarded by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, is an award ceremony that was held on 12 March 2014 at Tobacco Dock. The ceremony honoured achievement in video gaming in 2013 and was hosted b ...

, but lost to Ashley Johnson as Ellie in both cases. Draper and Baker together both won the "Best Song in a Game" award, for the moment in ''Infinite'' where Booker begins playing the guitar and Elizabeth sings "

Will the Circle Be Unbroken? "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" is a popular Christian hymn written in 1907 by Ada R. Habershon with music by Charles H. Gabriel. The song is often recorded unattributed and, because of its age, has lapsed into the public domain. Most of the cho ...

". Elizabeth was nominated for "Best New Character" in Hardcore Gamer's Game of the Year Awards 2013, though again lost to Ellie. In addition, she was nominated by ''

Destructoid ''Destructoid'' is a website that was founded as a video game-focused blog in March 2006 by Yanier Gonzalez, a Cuban-American cartoonist and author. Enthusiast Gaming acquired the website in 2017, and sold it to Gamurs Group in 2022. History ' ...

'' as "Best Character", losing to fellow ''Infinite'' characters the

Lutece Twins Robert Lutece and Rosalind Lutece, collectively known as the Lutece twins, are a duo of character (arts), characters from the BioShock (series), ''BioShock'' video game series created by Ken Levine (game developer), Ken Levine, published by 2K Ga ...

. Her implementation as an AI partner for the player-controlled Booker was described by ''

GamesRadar ''GamesRadar+'' (formerly ''GamesRadar'') is an entertainment website for video game-related news, previews, and reviews. It is owned by Future plc. In late 2014, Future Publishing-owned sites ''Total Film'', '' SFX'', ''Edge'' and '' Computer ...

''s Lucas Sullivan to be "downright ingenious", and was stated by Fitch and McCaffrey to be the main aspect that separated ''Infinite'' from its predecessors. Also from Kotaku, Patricia Hernandez commented that Elizabeth felt more human than the player themselves, and her liveliness made other characters seem "dead by comparison". Special praise was given not only to Elizabeth's ability to take care of herself in combat, but also for actively assisting the player by finding ammo and health, and opening tears. Not all commentary was positive, however. Matt Bradford, again from ''GamesRadar'', listed the lockpicking on a list of "biggest nitpicks" with ''Infinite'', criticising the inconsistency between her always cheerful or cocky lockpicking lines and current mood. '' bit-tech''s Edward Chester criticised Elizabeth's interrupting, pointing out how she never mentioned she was picking ammo up, would throw coins during voxaphone listenings and mid-fight, and how she would only start talking after big moments rather than regularly. Chester also criticised the inconsistency about whether the tears were a "strain" on Elizabeth or not. Praise was given to the character's ability to invoke emotions. Sullivan stated that Elizabeth felt like "a friend," with McCaffrey adding that she "provides motivation and moves the story forward," and felt that her presence in the story added "emotional depth", something he believed the first ''BioShock'' lacked. Several reviewers praised Elizabeth's relationship and interactions with Booker, believing that they formed the core of ''Infinite'' s story, with Mikel Reparaz of ''

Official Xbox Magazine ''Official Xbox Magazine'' (or OXM for short) was a British monthly video game magazine which started in November 2001 around the launch of the original Xbox. A preview issue was released at E3 2001, with another preview issue in November 2001. Th ...

'' explaining "the evolving interplay between her and Booker is the heart and soul of what makes BioShock Infinite such an involving, memorable experience." ''

Rock, Paper, Shotgun ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' (also rendered ''Rock, Paper, Shotgun''; short ''RPS'') is a UK-based website for reporting on video games, primarily for PC. Originally launched on 13 July 2007 as an independent site, ''Rock Paper Shotgun'' was acquir ...

''s Alec Meer listed the relationship between Elizabeth and Booker as one of ten "intrigues" he was unable to fit into his main review of the game, noting how despite needing to be rescued in the game a few times, "ultimately she is the one with power, both emotionally and science-fictionally." ''

Game Informer ''Game Informer'' (''GI'', most often stylized ''gameinformer'' from the 2010s onward) is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 w ...

''s Kimberley Wallace listed Booker and Elizabeth as one of 2013's best gaming "duos", crediting Elizabeth's ability to make Booker question things. In 2016, ''Glixel'' staff ranked Elizabeth the 40th most iconic video game character of the 21st century, and the backstory behind her missing

little finger The little finger, or pinkie, also known as the baby finger, fifth digit, or pinky finger, is the most ulnar and smallest digit of the human hand, and next to the ring finger. Etymology The word "pinkie" is derived from the Dutch word ''pink ...

her most "iconic moment".

Legacy

Jonathan Nolan Jonathan Nolan (born 6 June 1976) is a British-American screenwriter, producer, director and author. He is the creator of the CBS science fiction series ''Person of Interest'' (2011–2016) and co-creator of the HBO science fiction western seri ...

, co-creator of the ''

Westworld ''Westworld'' is an American science fiction- thriller media franchise that began with the 1973 film ''Westworld'', written and directed by Michael Crichton. The film depicts a technologically advanced Wild-West-themed amusement park populat ...

'' television series, said that ''BioShock Infinite'' was a major influence on ''Westworld'', in particular with Elizabeth as the basis for the lead character

Dolores Abernathy Dolores Abernathy is a fictional character in the science fiction television series ''Westworld'', in which she is primarily portrayed by American actresses Evan Rachel Wood and Tessa Thompson. She is considered to be the lead character of the sho ...