1) Ken Levine is known for being a perfectionist. Ever since the beginning, the game was probably going to be same length, but in various interviews I remember that he said (or were probably rumors) he wasn't satisfied with the game, he want this game to be "perfect" and short rather than extremely long with a lot of flaws (not neccesarily in story but in technical aspect as well)
2) Why you call this a Call of Duty? There's not an action sequence every 5 minutes. There's a lot of parts where you simple are in an area with no enemies and either exploring the world (an how it works by seeing propaganda posters) or showing character development, examples like this are the beginning of the game, the tower where Elizabeth is, Battleship bay (the beach part), the arcade, the beginning of Soldier's field, Fintztown (when you see people dying of hunger) some few parts like the elevator scene when you see Elizabeth's powers, and that's just some of the few parts that come to mind atm. The game is NOT an every 5 minutes action sequence.
The game is more linear yes, but that's your personal preference, nothing more. Besides there is exploration to some degree. You have to find lockpics for Elizabeth to open doors, find clues to decipher a Vox Populli message (all of which are useful because they give you infusions). There is exploration, there's just no backtracking.
3) Why wouldn't it made sense? You are in a floating city with drinks that give you powers, and with interdimensional travel, a ghost is probably one of the most "normal" things in the game. The rest if because you are bad at the game, I only died once during the fight (was playing in medium btw).
4) Plasmids (Vigors in Columbia) do have some purposes. The Shock Jockey is use for electrical purposes, there's no power company so they used that vigor. The murder of crows is used by the Crow Man (not sure if that's his official name) for there ritual and killing purposes. The rest are used for entertainment purposes of the people or military purposes (remember that Comstock prophecy was to attack the Sodom Below)
(Spoilers part)
1) During the baptism there were only 2 choices, you accept it or you decline it. Those choices are where everything begun, after that, there are millions of universes that were created by the actions of millions of Comstocks and Bookers. The world where he doesn't even go to a baptism is of no interest to us the player, we know it exist, but doesn't give us any information. You can make one universe happy, but there are other millions of Elizabeths and Bookers who are suffering, there's no redemption in that.
2) Two reasons: 1- The Lutece wanted to take revenge for murdering them, they wanted him gone from every universe and the only possible way to that is killing him from the source (the baptism). 2- Like I said before, if they found a world where Booker and Anna are happy (which is probably the after credits sequence) it doesn't mean the millions of other Elizabeths and Bookers are happy, in fact, they are suffering. The Lutece wanted to make things right again for their actions, and the only way was to every Booker and Anna being happy (in all universes).
3) Why would they tell him? First off, this is a game, if we knew everything from the beginning then the game wouldn't have made sense, the whole game would have been the ending sequence, nothing more. Second, this a ending that is very open for discussion, just because you don't like making your own theories and you want the answer to every question it doesn't make it a bad ending or story. This part is simple a matter of opinions, I love thinking and reflecting about a game, heck even going to wikipedia to find out real facts that the game shows (like the Wounded Knee and the Boxer's Rebellion). The story is very open for debate and that's what makes it so good and interesting.
Nintendo and PC gamer
