Review - BioShock Infinite

BioShock Infinite

Irrational Games

Unreal Engine 3

Windows, OS X, XBOX 360, PS3

FPS, RPG

March 26, 2013

The Preamble

We’ve been waiting (not so patiently) for this game since Irrational Games officially announced it back in August 2010. After numerous heartbreaking release day push-backs, the day has finally arrived that we can feast our eyes on the beautiful vision from Ken Levine that is BioShock Infinite.

In the line of System Shock and BioShock games, I’ve only played one, and that is the original BioShock. Ken Levine was involved with the development of the System Shock and the BioShock games are supposedly heavily influenced by these games. BioShock 2 wasn’t developed by Irrational so I was ultimately too skeptical to give it a go.

I absolutely adored BioShock; I would say it’s one of my favorite FPS/RPG games of all time and therefore I've had high hopes for BioShock Infinite since the moment I heard of its development. I'm pleased to announce that it does not dissapoint!

The Overview

BioShock Infinite is the third installment in the BioShock series. You play as Booker DeWitt, a former Pinkerton agent who is trying to find a young woman, Elizabeth, in a floating city called Columbia. Similar to Rapture (from BioShock), Columbia is a dystopia, rife with racism, jingoism, and xenophobia. As you make your way through the city to find Elizabeth, you unravel the mystery of how the city came to be, what the ultimate plan of the main antagonist and leader of Columbia, Father Zachary Hale Comstock is up to, and ultimately, how you fit into the puzzle.

Like the original BioShock, BioShock Infinite focuses strongly on story and world building while keeping solid first person shooter based gameplay mechanics with a nice mix of RPG elements.

The Good

• The world is incredibly rich, with loads of detail and polish. You can tell that the extra time we waited for this game was put to good use. Massive set pieces, building exteriors, building interiors, skylines, sound, color palette; all of these work together perfectly to deliver a living, breathing world to your eyeballs and ear holes.
  
  
  

  

  
  
• One of the most creative and original storys I’ve seen in a video game. The original Bioshock stood out for it’s unique, creepy, and immersive story and Infinite does a great job of carrying the torch. There are tons of audio logs to find that illuminate the world and characters beyond the main storyline, in addition to random easter eggs throughout the game that are truly magical to discover.
  

  
  

  

  
  
• Characters that you care about. Booker, Elizabeth, Comstock, the Luteces; everyone is wonderfully voiced and written. You start out knowing nothing about Booker and his back-story, and throughout the game grow to really relate to him and understand him. Elizabeth has a great progression throughout the game, and the co-op interaction you have with her is nothing but positive.
  
  
  

  

  
  
• Enemies are incredibly creative and badass. This was much the case in BioShock as well, but Infinite is even better. The Handymen and Motorized Patriots, in particular, have great character models and are extremely intense to fight.
  
  
  

  

  
  
• It’s rare for games with a strong story to also have great gameplay mechanics, but Infinite pulls it off. With the addition of roller-coaster-like skylines to hop around, and “tears” that can be opened to bring in interactive items via Elizabeth, Infinite is far from being a cookie cutter FPS experience.
  

  
  

  

  
  
• Like the first BioShock, Infinite melds a number of RPG elements into it’s shooter mechanics. There are a variety of guns to play with, and if you thoroughly explore each area, there's a ton of gear that you can find to give you perks in various areas of combat and maneuverability. Vigors (the new Plasmids) can also be upgraded to give enhanced effects. These elements give the player a significant choice in how they play the game as well as provide a nice degree of replayability.
  
  
  

  

  
  
• While I haven’t tried 1999 mode, Infinite still provides a significant challenge in Hard mode. I’m not a huge fan of the ‘checkpoint’ system (see below), but the no-quicksave makes for a more intense, and ultimately more challenging experience.

The Bad

• Checkpoints vs. Save anywhere. It makes sense for some games, and while they made it fit pretty well in BioShock Infinite, I still would have much preferred a ‘save anywhere’ system, like in the original BioShock.
• While there is exploration in the game, it still feels sort of linear. This is coming from someone who's been obsessed with open world games lately, but I couldn’t help but feel a bit confined while playing Infinite.
  
  

The Verdict

If you enjoy video games as an entertainment medium, and are interested in seeing a divine example of how video games can be art, as well as entertainment, this is maybe the best game you could choose to play. I can’t recommend this enough!

The Extras

This is very early in the game, so don't worry about spoilers. This is just the first 6 minutes of my time in Columbia. You can tell I was in awe when I first started looking around... (sorry for the shabby sound, I'm working on it)