(CNN) -- When the highly anticipated "BioShock: Infinite" hits stores on Tuesday, a naive 19-year-old with special powers and book smarts -- but little true grasp of the complexities of the world around her -- will meet a gaming public that's been awaiting her debut for years. Elizabeth may be the most talked-about video game character who's not controlled by the player since "Portal's" wry, sarcastic killing machine, GlaDOS. Her creators were so concerned about getting her just right that she almost never happened. "When I first started working on her, she was horribly broken. There was a lot of internal opposition to her," said Amanda Jeffrey, a designer with Irrational Games, the publisher behind the wildly inventive "Bioshock" franchise. "Almost everyone in the office was saying out loud, 'We should just cut her.' How on Earth do you begin to deal with this (type of) character who nobody has had any experience with?"
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Elizabeth, a troubled 19-year-old, is the emotional centerpiece of "BioShock Infinite"
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Creators wanted a unique companion character to increase emotional investment
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The game was delayed more than a year to get Elizabeth right
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"BioShock Infinite" will be released Tuesday worldwide
So devoted was Irrational to creating a companion character like none other that they built an entire team of developers from different areas of the company with the sole purpose of making @placeholder "real."