Bioshock Research Summary

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       Bioshock, as a series, utilizes a great many psychological "tricks". Such as the player's illusion of free will, or in this case total influence over the avatar's actions, so brilliantly employed in the first game. This seemingly complex task was achieved rather simplistically  your guiding voice, the one man who isn't trying to kill you, sends you places and asks you to do things, using the phrase -later revealed to be a classically conditioned aural trigger for the avatar- "would you kindly?".
  Then there's also the fact that when confronted with the moral choices these games are fraught with, quite often choosing the "good" path will land you the same consequences as if you had embarked upon the road of evil. This is fully realized in the second game, where after protecting the creatures known as "little sisters" you may choose to harvest them, or escort them to safety. Upon harvesting the poor girls, a fearsome entity known as a "big sister" will spawn and attempt to disembowel you. Naturally, one would assume that bringing the poor girls to safety would subvert this terrible danger; one would be wrong, the "big sister" still has a good chance of showing up and slaughtering you, all the same.
The developers also managed to get players /personally/ invested in the many characters of the franchise. First was your guiding voice "Atlas", he said his wife and child had been taken and when he asked you for help, you accepted because it was on the way to your objective. Next is all of those little sisters if you chose to help them, because they help you later; once out of rapture, you adopt them, raise them, send them to school, and they come back for you on your deathbed. Then in the second game, the protagonist is the object of adoration, as he is a former "big daddy" (a monstrous, brainless mutant, charged with safeguarding little sisters), and capable of so much more. Finally, in Infinite you turn your focus upon Elizabeth  whom does not merely earn your pity and treat you with much kindness, she also helps you; she tosses ammo your way when you're low, she helps guide you along, and she's always /there/ for you.
In practically every action game existing today: enemies exist everywhere, they know exactly where you are regardless of line of sight, they always attack on sight and in unison, and even if your avatar is not alone they all attack /you/. In Bioshock Infinite, this constant is not the same reliable crutch of which gamers are so accustomed. Instead, while hostile characters maintain their numerousness, they do not all attack at the same time as one another, nor is there a constant distance you must maintain to remain undetected. As a bonus, too, hostile "mobs" are not so easily, at least immediately, distinguished from the occasional neutral or even friendly individuals; so you may never be /sure/ whether a preemptive strike would be in cold blood, or eventual self-defense.
All three games take place in outlandish, complex, vast, beautiful, and -most importantly- straight up impossible cities. Bioshocks One and Two both took place in the underwater city of Rapture; a city based upon Ayn Rand's Objectivist ideals, where by the sweat of one's own brow greatness may be achieved. All of this free from the societal strictures imposed upon the sciences, on the wanting grounds of morality, or flimsy apportionment edicts asserted by Communism and Capitalism alike. Rapture was the dream city for artists and scientists alike, but not as much so for the workers and common-folk  innovation and discovery were highly valued, celebrated even, whereas construction and maintenance were seen as simple and ordinary, merely a stepping-stool for the great. This differentiation between the ascribed values of various forms of work fueled a growing resentment in the lower class, and ignorant snobbery in the upper class, plunging the city into chaos. Now, Bioshock Infinite takes place in the floating city of Columbia. The city itself is a large conglomeration of individual buildings and complexes, held aloft by giant propellers, within a close enough proximity to one-another to be tethered. All is well in Columbia -in stark contrast to Rapture-, just a bustling metropolitan sky kingdom. Until /you/ show up. Shortly after entering the city you meet Elizabeth, whom you agree to assist, and the pair of you are painted as targets; only now does all hell break loose within the city.
In summation, the false feeling of control, when exposed, makes you question everything leading up to that point, compounding upon the likely pre-existing feeling of unease/worry. Being punished for being "good" really makes you wonder if you truly were acting on the side of righteousness, and will probably cause you to weigh any choices much more carefully from then on. When you become invested with a character, you tend to want them to stay alive and well, so you probably won't take as great or as many risks, slowing you down and making you ultimately more vulnerable. Breaking the norm on enemy placement and behaviour can really confuse, and thus demoralize, you, especially with the uncertainty of who is/will be shooting at you. Finally, exposure to, and having limited exploration of, these fantastical cities -since we know they're impossible in our reality- can really get you pondering the true nature of reality, exercising your imagination, and further endearing you to the game.

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