#97: Bioshock Infinite: Mind in Revolt

BioShock Infinite: Mind in Revolt

Joe Fielder and Ken Levine
Initial release: February 13, 2013 (worldwide)

Here’s another one for the “Who Is This For?” file: BioShock Infinite: Mind in Revolt. It's a small ebook — really, an e-short story — written as a brief prequel for BioShock Infinite, ‘cuz stuff like that was all the rage for a while. Given that it’s not even a pre-order bonus like a lot of little digital “feelies,” I’m not sure of the point. I'm not even sure reviewing this was a good idea; I wrote this review originally in 2019, but looking at it from 2026, I'm wondering if I should have even bothered.

Mind in Revolt is an epistolary story consisting of transcribed interviews and journal entries, written from the perspective of Dr. Pinchot, and his interviews and examinations of  Daisy Fitzroy, the left-wing rebellious firebrand from BioShock Infinite, in which a central figure — the only interesting one, actually. In the world of Bioshock Infinite, things like rebellion (unless it’s against the United States government for not being racist enough), worker’s rights, anti-classism, etc. are all seen as mental illness, something to be cured (hm, maybe this is more prescient than I thought) and Daisy is considered to be quite the serious patient, a classic case study. Over the next few pages or so — really, it’ll take you all of fifteen minutes — Pinchot conducts interviews with Fitzroy in which she repeatedly tears down his preconceptions. She’s charming and smart, both of which have Pinchot off his guard. At the end, he decides to help her escape, though as fascinating as he finds her, she finds him contemptible in equal measure, and rewards his patronizing fawning with a bullet before leaving with the revolutionaries who busted in to rescue her. The end.

There, I just told you the whole story so you don’t have to read it. It touches on a lot of the themes the game does — classism, racism, oppression — but much like the game, it’s superficial, ham-fisted. In fact, there’s very little material here at all. I’d considered not even reviewing it because, well… other than its connection to the game, its only real reason to exist is to shed a little more light on Daisy Fitzroy’s character, which it sorely needs given how rudely she gets thrown under the bus midway through the game.

It was originally released as an ebook on Amazon; but if you were particularly freaky, you used to be able to buy a physical copy off the Irrational Games store. Irrational Games eventually rebranded as Ghost Story Games, and while they have a store too, Mind in Revolt isn't available. Probably for the best.

All in all, don’t bother reading it for its own sake. The most charitable take I can give you is that it’s supplementary material for a game that isn’t even very good. But if I were being strictly honest, reviewing it was definitely a mistake; it'd be like reviewing the story blurb at the beginning of a manual for a NES game.

-june❤